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12 Key Elements Of Successful IT Project Management

Forbes Technology Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Expert Panel, Forbes Technology Council

The technology market has been bombarded with tools and applications that are designed to help with project management. Even so, software only offers helpful utilities—management style and final decisions come back to the project managers themselves.

Experienced managers can blend the functionality of new tools with the management tactics they’ve already proven. Newer companies and project managers, however, have to discover their own style and strategies. For helpful insight, we asked 12 experts from Forbes Technology Council to share some of the critical elements of successful IT project management, and why they work.

1. The Right Manager

The management part of it is the key. You must find the right manager for the project! Tools will help with simplification and strategy and making sure that things are on time, but what really brings it all together is the right person who will pull up the bootstraps, follow through and make sure that individuals are held accountable—no tool can make an individual accountable for their actions. - Christopher Carter, Approyo

2. A Carefully Constructed Culture

It’s the team’s culture that will either make or break a project. Successful managers invest a lot in understanding team dynamics. They bring the team together and always look for the weakest link in the chain and support that person/team. It is also about creating visibility all across so that the ball doesn’t get dropped. - Raghu Konka, Pareteum Corporation

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3. Clear KPIs

It’s important to define success at the outset of the project and clarify the key performance indicators that will be used to determine whether the project is successful. Success should be defined in terms of the agreed problem that the project or solution is addressing. - Tarek Alaruri, Fairmarkit

4. Communication

Communication is vital to ensure successful project management. A project can derail when team members and stakeholders aren’t kept up to date and informed of key decisions, risks and actions. Communication is also key to ensuring resources are aligned when working in a matrixed environment. Nothing roadblocks a project more than when you assign hours to a project resource that has no capacity. - Stephanie Roberts, Archer Daniels Midland

5. A Living Requirements Document

Project requirements often change midstream based on new discoveries, technical hurdles or changing business needs. These changes are often difficult for different stakeholders to keep track of, and miscommunication often derails trade-off decisions made midstream. Keep a living requirements document and aggressively communicate the changes to keep projects on track for success. - Steve Pao, Hillwork, LLC

6. Workflow Integration

One of the big keys to the adoption of emerging software tools is operationalizing these tools across the organization. In other words, the technology must become a standard part of day-to-day workflows. Any piece of software is only useful if you use it regularly. The integration of software tools into workflows is one very important key to organizational success. - Abe Ankumah, Nyansa

7. Solid Relationships

Never underestimate the value of relationships and the role they play in the success of a project. The stronger the relationships a project manager has across the team, the better overall communication and collaboration will be. It’s a difficult task to balance so many unique talents and diverse personalities, but investing time in developing relationships with key resources goes a long way. - Don Schlising, Landmark Services Cooperative

8. A Strong Operational Framework

Project management tools have the potential to make complex processes more efficient, collaborative and successful. While it is easy to find and implement new and exciting platforms, if teams do not develop a strong operational framework, this potential can be quickly lost. Such a framework defines how teams will organize and manage themselves during projects in accordance with tools. - Kison Patel, DealRoom

9. A Definition Of Success

Project management is all about reducing uncertainty to increase the likelihood of reaching desired outcomes, a.k.a. “success.” But if success isn’t clearly defined at the start, you’re bound to have issues. While quantitative measures are often best (e.g., “Decrease page load time from Z to Y”), qualitative measures are okay too! Get your team aligned on the definition of success from the start! - Ayo Jimoh, Visibly

10. Results Tied To Activities

All too often we’re distracted by the pretty charts and graphs displayed by business intelligence tools and other dashboard software. Successful IT project management is made or broken when analyzing that data to determine the “why” and context behind the metrics. If you can’t connect the dots from low-level tasks through every level to final results, you’ve lost your treasure map and can’t retrace your steps. - Christy Johnson, AchieveIt

11. Well-Defined Requirements

Regardless of how project-management software tools evolve, the Achilles’ heel for project management for decades has been poor definition of requirements at the beginning of the effort. No technology improvements can overcome bad or poorly defined requirements. Poor requirements are still the root cause of the vast majority of project failures, whether they are related to cost, quality or time. - Richard Bird, Ping Identity

12. Good Testing And Backup Systems

IT project management is some of the most challenging in business. IT is often “changing the tires on the car while it travels 75 mph down the highway.” The need to keep systems in production while changing them creates tight time constraints for IT staff and for the end-users who must support the projects. Investment in testing environments and parallel systems helps alleviate project concerns. — Micheal Goodwin, Server@Work