IT Project Management

Question 1

Project Management – 947,000,000 hits

Project Management Careers – 235,000,000 hits

Project Portfolio Management – 40,200,000 hits

IT Project Management – 543,000,000 hits

Managementhelp.org is a website that provides information on all the matters within the scope of management. This website particularly centers on giving managers the required insight through blogs and discussions as well as questions and answer presentations on a number of subjects. With respect to the project management, the site has not only tips on how to effectively conduct project management but also on how to implement the project successfully without the anticipated mishaps that often cause delays in the set schedule. The website provides a lot of links that would lead an interested party to the templates, guidelines, glossaries, and discussions on various project management topics as per their choice.

Projectinsight.net is, on the other hand, a website that provides numerous resources to guide a project management professional with the concepts involved in their day-to-day work. These include webinars, blogs, videos, and discussions that are all aimed at demystifying the concept of project management in a practical way that can be understood even by the simplest of minds. This website is also considerably useful for the project management exercise seeing as the steps are well explained for the reader’s benefit.

Projectmanagement.com is, on the other hand, a forum, in which all project management personnel are expected to converge and discuss their challenges at work in order to find solutions. This website not only offers guidance to the process of project management but also allows the professionals in this field to interact freely and share their extensive knowledge without inhibitions. It is considerably a great place to find relevant information on the subject.

Pmi.org is, on the other hand, an online community, where project managers are expected to exist in solidarity, helping each other through the topic discussions and finding solutions to their day-to-day challenges. This website has external links to the resources that can be very helpful to the project management professional thus making it a valuable community to belong to. It is founded on the basis of membership and thus it creates the sense of belonging for the project management professional in the field.     

Question 2

BBC’s Digital Media Initiative was an IT project that saw the company spending close to £100M for its creation and implementation within the organization. For so many years the company had dominated the global media scene and with the advancement in technology and rise of significant competition in the global media arena, the company needed an innovation that would set them apart. The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was a project aimed at improving the company’s efficiency with respect to the content generation and processing from the raw input all the way to the final product in their broadcast and print media alike. They thus came up with the idea of a system tool that would integrate the organization’s vast database and archives to provide reliable sources for the process of making news. It can be respected that the company only sought to have the best archives for their more than 90 years of remarkable content and they only wanted a way to store this information in a way that will enable the staff to incorporate it into their daily productions.

The key stakeholders in this project would include the organization’s management and directorship, the IT Company charged with this project, and the company’s general staff members who knew about the project and needed to keep their superiors up to speed consistently. BBC’s management is important in this case because they not only authorized the implementation of this project but also agreed to the way the IT Company decided to carry out the project. Rather than taking on the burden of project management within the company, they left it to the outsourced outsiders, who in this case were Siemens. The managers also signed a fixed contract, which put all the unforeseen expenses within the project on Siemens thus limiting their own involvement, especially with respect to the risk bearing. The effects of these actions are quite a number. First, by agreeing to the terms and conditions laid down by Siemens, the company implies a submissiveness, where they would be satisfied with whatever they were offered. It should be noted that this is a risky concept, especially when the company in question is so big and with a vast extent of information and informants. The fixed contract also limits the level of indulgence that can be accommodated within the project, given that it is often up to the contracted project management team to pay for any incurred costs that could be beyond the one agreed upon. It should be noted at this point that a fixed contract opens the contractor up for extra costs that may or may not be considered by the authorities.

The IT Company that was given this responsibility failed to focus on the unique needs of the company. They paid too much attention to their own needs thus failing to live up to the expectations of the BBC with respect to the set deadline, the implementation of the project, and the expected outcomes with respect to the phases of project execution. The company not only failed to deliver within the stipulated time frame but also failed to show that they could handle the contract by peddling lies about how far they had gone with the project. The largest challenge that faces any project would be the fixed contract, which limits the executioners among other things. A fixed contract ensures that any additional costs being incurred during the project would be shouldered by the company in charge, and in this case that would be Siemens, and even the additional expenses that could come from an extended deadline are catered for by the implementing company. Thus, it is not surprising that Siemens tried to cover their tracks and avoid looking suspicious in the eyes of the law. This had a negative impact on the establishment, as Siemens was proven liable for the damages caused during the implementation and prolonged schedule.           

The general staff members in this establishment would include all the people within the company including even the lowest ranking members. With respect to the project management, staff members are a significant part of the organization and thus must be able to work towards the same goals and objectives as the project being implemented and as the organization as a whole. At BBC, the staff members brought this failure to the attention of the chairing team seeing as they were expected to be the first ones to use the finished product. Among other things, these individuals are responsible for the delay in the completion of this project and its subsequent cancellation. The staff members are expected to support their managers, especially in situations that could cost the organization millions of revenue that could be channeled otherwise for better use. As such, the fact that the BBC individuals kept deficiencies of the company a secret until they could not take it any more implies that these employees were unable to communicate effectively thus costing the company a fortune. The staff should have been playing the role of evaluating the project at every step of the way so as to ensure that everything was going according to the plan rather than waiting for the project to fail completely before seeking help.