Sunday, June 29, 2008

Information Technology Project Management: Specialized Management

By George Purdy

Information technology project management specialists holds an important and growing need in the modern IT filed. Most business' have a project manger, and like a construction site, in order to have a successful IT project, a project management professional must be found or hired. Project risk management is also an important aspect of making a business plan for information technology.

A risk does not always mean a physical hazard, as is commonly thought. A risk can be defined as any event with a negative impact that will significantly affect the project and its profits. Information technology project management must follow the same risk assessment procedures as other businesses. No ambitious project, whether in the IT field or any other field, is without risk. The success of any project depends on recognizing risks, reducing them and ensuring the gains exceed the losses.

Experts in information technology project management outline the risks involved at the beginning of their risk management assessment. First, they spend a great deal of time identifying all possible sources of risk, so that they can find some risks that can be reduced or eliminated before the project begins. Technology speeds up this process.

The next step is determining the magnitude of the risk. One needs to look at the probability of an event and its impact potential as both are important to analyze carefully. A risk that is inevitable but that would have minimal impact might not be a major concern. Conversely, a risk that is rather unlikely but that would result in a catastrophe would be a big deal.

Next, you'll need to respond to the concept of risk by eliminating or reducing their cause. For example, an issue with an outside contractor being identified can lead to changing that contractor, which eliminates the problem. Employee inexperience can naturally lead to training, as another example.

The final stage includes effectively controlling and monitoring the processes and will continue throughout the project. Project management software can serve as an excellent monitoring device and even predict problems before they occur. Information technology project management professionals are able to comprehend the specific issues familiar to IT and can respond more appropriately than a project management generalist.

There is a great role for the information technology project management specialist today with the IT industry continuing to grow in scope and importance. Like every other business, IT must find the appropriate project management professional in house or hire one for project success in sales, software or hardware design or any other task, and project risk management is as important for IT business planning as it is in construction projects. A risk does not always mean a physical hazard, as is commonly thought. A risk can be defined as any event with a negative impact that will significantly affect the project and its profits.

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