IT Project Management

IT Project Management

OBJECTIVES:

In this programme you will learn:

1. The tools and techniques that will help you optimize the Systems Development Life-Cycle processes so that you can bring your projects online more effectively, more quickly and on budget.
2. Learn how to accelerate development and compress design time—and how to use capability and maturity models so that you can assess where your IT processes currently are.
3. Maintain control of your projects with proven-in-action scheduling techniques
4. Deliver quality systems on time
5. Achieve leadership skills that really work
6. Successfully plan for the unexpected
7. Budget more effectively
8. Stay on top of schedules and workloads
9. Get organizational support
10. Keep conflict at a minimum
11. Master the do’s and don’ts practiced by successful managers
12. Identify the capabilities and limitations of a variety of project management software tools

Course Outline:

• Characteristics and Success Criteria of a Well-defined IT Project Defining Scope
• Current (“as is”) vs. the future (“to be” situation)
• Using “gap analysis” to prioritize requirements
• Time-cost-scope tradeoffs
• Project Leadership
• The project manager as an effective communicator, motivator and problem solver
• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• WBS: from high-level strategy to detailed work packages
• Matching project objectives and methodology
• Project Scheduling: Network Logic and Dependency Analysis
• Network diagram…precedence diagramming…arrow diagramming
• Dependency relationships
• Defining the project’s critical path, free float and total float
• Estimating Uncertainty in IT Projects
• Creating realistic estimates for each work package
• The Integrated Project Plan
• Gantt Chart, network diagram or spreadsheet?
• Project cost or budget plan?
• Project management software examples
• Project Control and Reporting
• Five sources of change to project scope
• How to conduct a net impact assessment
• Reporting project status and formats
• Establishing Project Closure
• Securing final approvals and buy-ins
• Organizational, contractual and financial closures
• Includes IT-focused Case Studies.