Project managers usually tend to focus on the methodology for executing the technical part of the project. However, a good understanding of a practical SOA landscape and its associated challenges can help a technical PM make the SOA adoption on technology projects run even smoother.
Common problems afflict every e-learning implementation project. This template lists the problems and assists with avoiding the problems by planning appropriately.
Use this questionnaire to learn all about the client's motives for establishing an intranet and the current technical/organizational environment in which it will be set up.
Managing change can be chaotic unless your effort clearly manages the details, and who needs more chaos?
This risk assessment matrix is especially for IT projects. Make it your own.
This document details the impact a proposed IT project or major service change will have on the current and planned infrastructure of an enterprise.
This Database Information Gathering tool is a vital component of hardware and software deployment. Use this questionnaire as primary guidance. Then include any other requirements that suit your particular business specifications.
Effective project activation is more than just hard work and good luck. It's an important focus on the work required to bring the project up to speed, and this article explores some ways to get from zero to 60 as quickly as possible.
While the promises of increased cloud activity are great, so too are the chances for stormy situations. While many organizations will rapidly seek cloud computing to help combat struggles with their economic circumstances, they will do so at their own peril. Be very afraid...the cloud craze is entering its teenage years.
The most important contributor to successful risk management isn’t processes or tools, which are important, but an organizational culture that is risk-aware and encourages people to take the right risks. This can be achieved by addressing cultural aspects up front or allowing it to emerge naturally by putting a supportive infrastructure in place first.
Do you need to comprehend your project's implications on legacy software and hardware? It's time to get concerned with the nuts and bolts of the infrastructure--and to look at this presentation.
It's easy to get lost in the Cloud if you are unsure who the major players are out there. This overview will examine several Cloud frameworks and identify the who's who of the big-league Cloud riders.
From Gartner PPM Summit
Presented by Gartner Research Director Matt Light, this presentation gives guidance in how to consistently get, and keep, your portfolio balance. Technical Infrastructure and commodity applications are certainly important to running the business, but such IT spending should be balanced with opportunities to advance business goals via innovative and enhanced IT services and systems.
Have you finalized your infrastructure questionnaire? What about perform integrated user acceptance testing, or perform data extracts and transformation? Get your SAP project off and running using this project plan.
This extensive project plan will help ensure that your next large-scale software implementation is a timely success.
Need help implementing your Web Services initiatives? Look no further.
How risky is your project schedule? This assessment template will help you catch scheduling risks and address them before they become problems.
Are you intending to develop a project? You need a project notification sheet.
You're about to develop a project. How do you announce what you are about to undertake so your bosses and potential project stakeholders know what you're up to? Skywriting is expensive these days, and singing telegrams are so passe. We suggest this form.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning are no longer optional. Protecting infrastructure and information assets of an organization is one of management's primary duties. Here are some ideas and options for making sure you don't fall down on the job.
Infrastructure plays an important part in the execution of any work, and an IT project is no exception. How will the project be organized? What structure is most suitable? What assumptions are made? How will the documentation be maintained? These are some important questions that need to be asked in the planning stage. But how do you go about collecting the information and analyzing it to create a good infrastructure environment for you project? The following guidelines will help.
The best project management plans will be thoroughly derailed if there is no place to work or no money to pay for basics. This presentation covers the boring but very necessary aspects of infrastructure that all project managers must keep in mind.
ITIL appears ready for prime time. So why isn’t it being implemented with great success across the board in IT organizations? This two-part series will set forth some observations and insights on how you can successfully evolve ITIL standards into your organization.
In the years ahead, the job of project manager will only become more complex. That’s largely because the profession has finally gotten the recognition it deserves, taking its much-deserved place alongside other essential organizational functions. In this installment, we find out more about the value of PMI certification, industry-specific requirements and what industries will be aggressively hiring PMs next year.
Economic challenges have made the idea of Cloud Computing almost irresistable to cash-strapped CIOs, but what is the real cost of doing business in the Cloud, and what does that mean for IT Governance and standards?
This cloud thing’s just not working...the silver bullet seems to have misfired. So what went wrong? A tool won't solve all of your problems; in reality, it's a combination of the tool, training, process re-engineering and integration with other corporate functions that will keep you up to speed.
Great CIOs are not necessarily great technologists. They don’t even need to have had hands-on experience in programming, networking or infrastructure. But what they must have is the ability to understand enough about those disciplines to know fact from fiction--and the ability to surround themselves with an appropriate team of IT subject matter experts. For many, this will sound like heresy; for others, a refreshing change from stereotypical norms.
ITIL appears ready for prime time. So why isn't it being implemented with great success across the board in IT organizations? As we continue to look at how you can successfully evolve ITIL standards into your organization, we present the remainder of ITIL’s modules along with implementation recommendations.
Decisions on IT Governance are easy when your company has ample resources and infrastructure to implement and support it. As companies get smaller, however, those decisions get much more difficult. Here are some guidelines to help you evaluate and prioritize your needs to build a strategy for getting the maximum benefit while staying within your means.
Call us optimistic, but we want you to be prepared for the economic comeback that we're sure is just around the corner, or at least somewhere on the horizon. Sooner or later (we hope sooner), this recession is going to recede, and by planning for that now, you can be first in line when management starts handing out all that new funding.
What you do during your first 30 days as CIO will most likely determine your future success. The strategy you deploy is critical and will vary greatly with the circumstances you are inheriting. Here's part two of our examination of possible success strategies, which involves assessing various aspects of the IT organization.
Use this project assessment plan to assess the health of a project and identify any symptoms that may indicate it is heading toward trouble.
To outsource various types of functions (including software development/maintenance, data center and network operations, backup/recovery services, data storage management services, system administration services, etc.), you need to conduct a broad assessment of the capabilities of an outsourcing services provider. Use this outline as your guide.
There is a lot riding on your project's work breakdown structure. Use this worksheet to help you plan the WBS smarter and better.
Developing a phased approach that brings continuous and measurable improvements is key to implementing an effective SLM capability. SLM isn’t about service level agreements, layers of complex processes and such. SLM is about aligning the services and capabilities IT provides to the organization with its fundamental operational and competitive sustainability needs.
For global organizations with diverse workforces and clients, maintaining a consistent level of project management excellence requires a permanent commitment to training. IT infrastructure provider EMC teamed with PMI to launch a talent development program for its project managers.
Since the economic crash of 2008, IT leaders have been faced with an almost overwhelming uncertainty about where their organizations and departments are headed. As always, the key to successful IT Strategy is thinking ahead and preparing for any possible scenarios. Our annual guide to gearing up for next year will get you in the right frame of mind to face the uncertainty with confidence.
Setting up safety measures that support your IT framework is a necessity in today’s hostile, connected world. By establishing a secure infrastructure, you can help reduce your organization’s exposure to loss of earnings, loss of status and loss of assets. If you are part of a middle-size company and share these concerns, here are some ideas on how to improve your risk.
It could have been a fad, but it looks like virtualization is here to stay, so now is a great time to get up to speed on what this term actually means--and what this technology means for you. Welcome to the world of virtualization. The tour starts here.
An IT transformation program at Allianz sought simpler creation and review of project information to let stakeholders resolve project issues more quickly, with more timely and detailed data. Allianz implemented BrightWork's pmPoint solution, leveraging its use of Microsoft Project and SharePoint.
When the economy demands that you trim your IT organization, the bulky, overstaffed groups are to be envied. They have plenty of room to cut and look like heroes of sacrifice. For those of us who are already running lean, there seems to be nowhere to go. Here are some ideas on how you can still tighten up, even when you're already running lean and mean.
Here are some tips on managing a virtual team or project when your customer is in a different time zone and your project environment is dispersed or distributed.
This basic set of checklists will help your ITIL implementation by getting your organization's IT service management in line. A good first step is following these guidelines for ITIL-compliant service support.
This basic set of checklists will help your ITIL implementation by getting your organization's IT service management in line. One major component of ITSM is service delivery apart from service support, and this checklist focuses on areas that contribute to an ITIL-compliant service delivery arm.
If you have to put together a business case, use this sample presentation to help you organize your thoughts and pitch the idea to management.
From Gartner PPM Summit 2007
Gartner Research Director Matt Light discusses how to consistently get--and keep--your project portfolio in balance for outstanding business results.
The next year promises to be an exciting and busy time in healthcare projects. It's is one of the few industries in the United States that has grown during the recession. The trend shows no sign of stopping, and project work is plentiful throughout the industry--especially with new initiatives and new requirements from the government that will have to be implemented.
Ask outsourcing consultants and vendors what outsourcing solutions are viable now and for the future, and you’ll get a battery of answers. Who is right, who is wrong?
Project management in practice struggles to evolve, and we consistently fail to take the actions we know we should. Human inertia is too strong an influence to ignore if we want the future of PM to be that much different than it is today. If it were to be different, however, where might it go? There are two overall directions that appear to be emerging, and each has advocates and detractors. Whether (or indeed if) one attains dominance will depend upon the intersection of many forces.
Organizations are taking a hard look at their outsourcing strategies, looking at what worked in the past and, more importantly, what’s needed in this current cost-cutting environment and for the future as well. Practically speaking, the most prudent strategies are elastic, short-term remedies that can be changed on a dime when the economy improves and shifts into overdrive.
