Information Technology Project Management
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Information Technology Project Management
A.True/False/Fill-in-the-blanks
1). The answer is True.
2). The answer is True.
3). The answer is False.
4). The answer is True.
- Multiple Choices
- The answer is c) … to be team players and facilitators instead of “bosses.”
- The answer is a) Storming from Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing
- The answer is: b) Management
4.The answer is d) All of the above
- Short and Concise Questions.
1.
The main theme of the thread is on project stakeholders and their roles. From the study, one identified two main articles that can help understand project stakeholders and their roles within a project. The article “A commentary on Program/project stakeholders” by Stretton explains more about stakeholders and their project management roles. The article offers more insight into stakeholders’ various communities, language, and interactions (Stretton, 2018). It identifies the four communities of stakeholders within a project as providers, investors, influencers, and purchasers. The division of the project management process into the four stakeholders reduces the complexity of the management process.
The stakeholders have their specific language, making it hard for the project managers to communicate effectively with the stakeholders with totally different terminologies. The importance of different languages is normally seen during stakeholder interactions (Stretton, 2018). The article explains that the stakeholders’ community interact by developing relationships through communications and exchanging continents. The community of stakeholders can further be divided accordingly. The providers act as project teams and project managers. Investors revolve around the project sponsors, funders, and shareholders at the top management of an organization (Stretton, 2018). The other group of communities is the influencer. This group has several members, like authorities, community, and media. The last group is the purchases and includes the customers, users, and contracting parties. This article is very significant to the thread; it gives a deeper understanding of stakeholders and helps divide them and group them.
The article “project governance and stakeholders” by Derakhshanet al. also provides an insight into the thread’s main theme. The article recognizes the importance of stakeholders in project governance. It also acknowledges the importance of having project management literature since it defines the relationship, roles, and positions of external and internal’ stakeholders. The articles provide an insight into the project literature and concentrate on the area where the stakeholders are positioned (Derakhshan et al., 2019). This process helps to identify each stakeholder’s role and relationship in and outside an institution. The paper identifies that there are around three scenarios that impact an institution’s approaches towards stakeholders. These three critical elements include ethics, megaproject, and success. The paper also helps to map internal stakeholders at different levels of an organization.
2.
As a new project manager who is supposed to take over a project that had been ongoing, one needs to understand several action plans before they begin to help them in ensuring that the project becomes a success despite the problems that might have occurred (Marchewka, 2016). Foremost, one needs to understand what had been planned and achieved to have a fair shot at steering the project in the right direction. It’s important to first as the question “why”: as a project manager, one needs to ask why the management wants to continue with the project and why not to abort it. Another question that one should ask is why the project is at the current state another; the previous project manager might not have given a reason he/she was dropping the project (Marchewka, 2016). Other stakeholders can help answer the question and will provide adequate insight into the project.
The second action plan will be to read the project charter and plan. Reviewing the project charter will provide more insight into where the project is heading, both in goals and objectives (Marchewka, 2016). One also needs to analyze all the available documentation and metrics like schedule, budget, stakeholders, and avoidable elements. This action will help in doing a checkup for the project progress, delayed deadlines, the available resources, and those that have been spent. With the documents, one will know whether they can set up the project on track on not. Next, it’s important to meet the project sponsors as it will help determine their perspective about the project and their expectations both in terms of involvement and communication (Newton, 2016). The other action plan is to meet the team to earn their trust as their new leader. Communicate with the team to help identify the obstacle that could be removed and what challenges they might have previously experienced.
After completing this task, it’s important to ask oneself the “what” question. This question looks at what elements need to be changed that will make the project a success. what needs to be done differently? And what also needs to continue for the project? And what needs to be drooped. Additionally, it also important to look at when everything needs to be done. At this stage, one needs to agree on the timelines provided in the revised project charter. The project manager should provide clear plans with dependencies and milestones. In the new action plan, one should define how the project is goner be funded, how it will be governed, and what metrics would be sued to track and measure progress and success (Blaskovics, 2016). After due diligence is over, it’s important to re-plan and create a transition plan as one executes the project; it’s important to look for the missing parts that are likely to derail the project. A person should also focus on the small wins while taking with sponsors to readjust the project charter (Blaskovics, 2016). Lastly, is to identify who and where the project teams will be located. This new action plan will ensure that there is a successful takeover of the project and will also guarantee the project’s success.
References
Blaskovics, B. (2016). The impact of project manager on project success—The case of the ICT sector. Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe, 38(2), 261-281.
Derakhshan, R., Turner, R., & Mancini, M. (2019). Project governance and stakeholders: a literature review. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), 98-116.
Marchewka, J. T. (2016). Information technology project management: Providing measurable organizational value. John Wiley & Sons.
Newton, R. (2016). Project management step by step: how to plan and manage a highly successful project. Pearson UK.
Stretton, A. (2018). A commentary on program/project stakeholders. PM World Journal, 7.