Project Management

Nowadays, the complexity of IT projects has grown to such an extent that professional management has become essential.

Planning, controlling, and implementing complex IT projects requires organizational and coordination skills in addition to IT technical expertise. Good IT project management therefore combines solid IT know-how with the elements of project management control.

IT project management consulting and project management by Ailanto AG

Our expertise in IT project management consulting allows us to build complex IT projects by adopting a global approach: we play the role of IT project manager and support you throughout the duration of the project. By combining management and advice, your project is in good hands and its success is guaranteed.

Our services – your added value:

• Individualized advice on IT processes in all phases of the IT project.
• Planning, organization and control of complex IT projects
• Coordination of relevant employees, specialist departments and external service providers.
• Quality assurance through external control
• Implementation of IT projects on time and on budget.
• Professional documentation

What is project management?

In a nutshell, project management is the art of managing one or more projects. The Macmillan dictionary defines it like this: Project management involves planning and organizing the work that a project entails, including deciding how much money, time and people will be needed.

Usually, the one who does all this is the project manager. In general, the responsibility of this professional figure is to combine strategy (planning) with operations (execution) to carry out the project properly. First, you need to plan the progress of a project and decide on strategic goals with stakeholders. The plan is then executed, managing resources (materials, people, etc.) and constraints (scope, time and costs) along the way.

The benefits of effective project management

Of course, be more effective in managing projects involves not just a few advantages:

1. Meet the expectations of all stakeholders
2. Make order and clarity
3. Maintain a clear focus on goals
4. Maximize resources
5. Set up a schedule realistic project
6. Ensure quality control
7. Managing risks
8. Maintain surveillance continuous
9. Reduce the likelihood of failure
10. Handling success and failure (and learning!)

In turn, achieving these goals will greatly help you motivate your team. Which needless to say, once again leads to better projects. A situation where everyone really wins.

The 5 phases of project management

1. Project start-up

In the first phase of a project, the project manager evaluates the project idea: is it part of your company’s core business? Is it feasible? Will it benefit the organization? If the answer is three times yes, you can start defining the desired scope or outcomes of the project and identifying potential partners or stakeholders. If the project requires a feasibility study, now is the time to do it.

At the end of the start-up phase, a is generally obtained project plan clear, which must be approved by all parties. In this way misunderstandings are avoided, and expectations can be managed throughout the entire development of the project.

2. Project planning

The planning phase is one where you put up the chart of march for the entire project. This includes:

• Defining objectives
• Estimate Cost
• Define the field of application and the results key

Your project plan (from phase 1) contains information on recruiting resources and how to do it:

• produce quality results
• manage risks and unforeseen circumstances
• communicate within the team and with external stakeholders.

Ideally, you should also have a clear timeline indicating when each action needs to be done. A great way to do this is to create “milestones”: high-level goals with clear achievement dates.

3. Project execution

The project execution phase is the one in which the project becomes visible to the outside world. It begins with a team kickoff meeting, where each member is briefed about their duties and project details. This phase is about creating quality products.  As a project manager, your job is to distribute resources, keep your team members focused on their tasks, and ensure that everything goes according to the plan you have established.

4. Monitoring and control of the project

The fourth phase of a project often overlaps with the executive phase. Throughout the duration of the project, you will closely monitor the status of all deliverables and schedule regular team meetings to ensure you stay on track. It will also be necessary not to let your guard down to avoid possible deviations from the project objectives.

Do you want to minimize the number of update meetings? Cloud-based project management software allows your team to update the status of activities in real time.

5. Conclusion of the project

Projects are defined as closed or concluded when the final product is officially delivered, and all interested parties have been informed. Before this happens, you need to get the team together and evaluate:

1. What went well?
2. What could have been better?
3. What actions do you intend to take to ensure that future projects go better?

This not only helps avoid making the same mistakes twice, but allows you to build stronger processes and create a more efficient project team.

Project management methologies

Over the years, people have come up with and tested various ways to accomplish project management. Here you will find the most common ones, in order of appearance:

Waterfall

The Waterfall methodology is a methodology sequential. This means that each phase (or task) of a project follows the previous one seamlessly. First, the requirements of a project are defined, then the project is put together, the solution is built, tested and implemented, then a maintenance phase is passed. There are no overlaps.

Good for: projects with clear requirements or unanticipated changes (scope creep)

Avoid if: you don’t really know where the project will go, and if the requirements are not very clear in advance.

Agile

The Agile methodology helps you to be flexible and adapt to ever-changing needs . It is an iterative work in short and sustainable bursts of activity, called “sprints”. The work is timed: the team tries to do as much as possible in a given amount of time before moving on to the next phase of the project.

Good For: Projects where you want to achieve quick milestones and build iteratively.

Avoid if: you work in a traditional environment or are struggling with large projects (as it becomes more difficult to estimate the time needed with the Agile approach).

Scrum

The Scrum methodology is based on the Agile approach but aims at eliminating the complexity from the project management activity. The tasks can overlap, and it is assumed that there will be changes during the process. The Scrum method is basically a sequence of sprints. Before each sprint, you will check if stakeholder requests have changed.

Good for: iterative improvement projects, such as product development.

Avoid if: Requirements changes are not allowed or your organization is unwilling to adapt and fully commit to this methodology.