During a software project what is typically the role of IT in your experience?
Jonathan DoylePM Consultant| Adduco Consultancy LtdLondon, United Kingdom
There have been a few projects that I have worked on that have used developers who sit within the IT department and who dedicate a percentage of their time to a series of projects but are not exclusive to just one project. There are other IT departments that exist just to provide support on infrastructure like database servers, implementation of the new functionality or telephony support. In effect the developers sit within a business unit outside of the control of IT. I find the latter more effective even though some IT staff think it is a bad idea to have developers not based in the IT arm of a company and therefore out of the department''s sphere of control. Saving Changes...
Howard LaiPMP, CEng, CPEng, NER, IntPE(Aust), RPEQ, MIET, CSSBB, CISA, ISO9001 LA| QHBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
I also see some effective approach by allocating developers in business unit (not as a business analysis). Most of this scenario is because the business units need support for some business critical programs.
However, I observed many companies like to have developers centralized in their IT department for the consideration of knowledge management, change control, team spirit, ...etc.
Both approaches are not bad idea, I guess it really depends on the nature of business, the downtime tolerance of the system, and the availability of human resource on developers. Saving Changes...
Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMPExpert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business ServicesCuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
I agree with @Howard. It really depends on a number of things (especially the size and PM sophistication of the enterprise. SMB''s (small and medium sized businesses) tend to deploy IT assets full-time or part-time to a project depending on it''s scope and importance. Saving Changes...
Organization have such structures to optimize the cost, you may not need IT forever in project so you keep common team across projects. Saving Changes...
Myles MillerCEO & Founder| Success HQHarrisburg, Pa, United States
Depends on impact to IT before, during and after project efforts. If you need them to be implementers of the project outcomes, then have them be part of the planning, creation and outcome efforts of the project. Acceptance and support will be easier to garner if you partner with IT earlier in a project rather than as an after thought at the project conclusion. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
From my experience, the worst thing you can do mainly with developers is to move them from their original site. They usually are confortable in the place they belong to. The exception I have lived is in those case where developers are not originally located in a confortable (at list as for their perception) place. You have to attack the problem but not the causes. If your problem is the environment you have to demostrate it to modify the environment. You will not fix that moving the developers to other office. They will be reach to that new location for people who will request to do those tasks to them. Saving Changes...
I''m with Sergio on this one. Developers have their cubicle and workstation set up to maximize their productivity. Moving them from project to project would be detrimental to that productivity. Saving Changes...
Jonathan DoylePM Consultant| Adduco Consultancy LtdLondon, United Kingdom
Hi all, some great comments being provided on this topic. Thanks for your thoughts on this one. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
My depth of experience can add this: "It varies across companies, within companies, and across time". I know one company that has swung from centralized IT to departmental IT and then back to central IT over a 12-15 year period. As PMs, we need to be able to handle matrix organizations. Saving Changes...
Rubaiyyaat AakbarHead of IT and Cybersecurity| DocDocSingapore, Singapore
Often the interaction between development team and business user fails to confirm all on same page and since non-IT users have no visibility what are being built, rework can be really expensive costing time and money!
I think it''s very important some one outside developer is PM so he can understand business requirement ( in their language) and translate into technical requirement to work with developers. Saving Changes...
