Comments on: Effective IT Project Management: I Know It When I See It

By: Wade Van House

Wade Van House — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:52:41 +0000

Great post Scott (and one that is close to my heart). I especially thought your last set of bullets was right on, however looking at the very last one, it’s been my experience that sometimes organizations do not empower PMs to solve their issues.
Also, on Chris’ comment above. Having domain knowledge is always a plus, but you don’t *need* to have that knowledge to be a great PM; but you do the need the ability to be a quick study and learn what you need to know to manage effectively.

By: Ed Humphrey

Ed Humphrey — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:00:16 +0000

I agree with Arnold's comment, except that you may know these things when you start, or at any one point in time, but you need to have a process, support and discipline to manage the change in business objectives, the business champion, the stakeholders and decision makers, project staff and other resources, budget, schedules, dependencies, quality and communications. None of that seems static on any project I've worked on over the years... not even the relatively short and simple ones.

This comment was originally posted on LinkedIn

By: Arnold Testa

Arnold Testa — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:00:34 +0000

It's simple, really. Do you know the business reason for which the project has been approved? Do you know the business champion responsible for the project, and his/her goals? Do you know your resources, staff, budget, time, support environment? If you answer yes to all of these plan your work, execute your plan and communicate in a manner understandable to all involved.

This comment was originally posted on LinkedIn

By: Scott Booher

Scott Booher — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:21:36 +0000

Great point Steve, the PM can be the primary interface/liaison to the business in a lot of cases. How that relationship goes, so goes the partnership and the customer’s perception of your IT shop…

By: Steve Berg

Steve Berg — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:12:45 +0000

Great post Scott. I believe the success of the IT Department is largely influenced by the quality of the IT Project Managers. In my experience, these are the people that work most closely with the rest of the business and set the stage for how the business works with IT. I’ve had experiences with poor Project Managers (either poor communicators or not able to understand the business) that have actually pushed the business away from wanting to deal with IT! Conversely, I have also had excellent PMs working for me and the feedback on them from the Business is incredibly positive and I believe it’s because the Business believes finally IT understands them and will create a solution for them that actually fits their needs!

I’m going to forward this post out to my PM team to make sure they understand what it takes!!

By: Jeremy Lutz

Jeremy Lutz — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:37:12 +0000

Great post! I am getting ready to undertake my first project as a manager. Your post provides great counsel. I especially like the thoughts on pushing through challenges, not just being a coordinator. I think this will be the hardest part as a first time project manager. Thank goodness I have some great examples to follow.

I will also be following you on twitter.

Thanks for the book Art. Going to download it now.

By: CheyennePeddle

CheyennePeddle — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:01:01 +0000

How do we identify effective Project Management? http://bit.ly/dhuQz #CIO #IT #CEO

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

By: Scott Booher

Scott Booher — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:16:45 +0000

Chris,

Thanks for the comment, and this is a good add to the list. I think I have seen this behavior the most in organizations where the culture is one of “only good news flows up” but it happens everywhere. My experience has been that, if the leader/exec treats all issues with a “can-do, let’s solve this together” attitude, the PM team begins to learn over time that solving the issues is really their primary value-add, and not something to be avoided…

By: Scott Booher

Scott Booher — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:02:49 +0000

Peter,

Thanks for the comment and I agree, this is a situation I have seen as well. Another “growth opportunity” for the PM to negotiate through the four-out-of-five in order to get to the nugget of value…

By: Chris Curran

Chris Curran — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:23:24 +0000

Nice post Scott. I think to be a great project manager, you must also have domain knowledge so that you can truly manage – prioritize, make trade-offs, know when to ask for help, etc.

Another item I would add to your “traits” list is that a great PM seeks out issues versus being afraid of bad news. One mentor of mine used to offer $20 in team meetings for the “best” issue. Focusing on the good news to try to look good or because you are afraid to tell the project sponsors is a death sentence.

-Chris