IT Project Management Essentials: A Practical Guide (Optimise Book 2)

IT products and services play an essential part in most businesses. Companies require reliable Internet and network connections to communicate with their employees and customers. They use software applications to monitor their projects, and computerized equipment to build their products and supply their services.
An IT project is essentially a project that delivers a new or improved IT product or service. Like all projects, it has a definite beginning and end, and it results in a noticeable change. To succeed, the IT project has to be managed through all its phases.
Because companies rely on IT so much, it's vital that IT projects succeed. A failure, such as the breakdown of an internal IT system, or the release of a faulty software application, is often a highly visible failure. This can negatively affect a company's reputation in the market and lead to lost sales and customer dissatisfaction. A successful IT infrastructure is essential to business success. And IT project management helps ensure the success of all IT processes and products.
Traditional project management processes and techniques can be applied to any IT environment. However, the project manager must have a good grasp of the unique challenges of IT projects.
To succeed, IT projects have to be carefully managed through all phases, from Initiation to Closure.
In this course, you'll learn about how IT project managers can use project management tools, such as the work breakdown structure and Gantt charts, to plan and monitor their IT projects. These tools enable project managers to deliver an effective IT infrastructure to their organization.
Good managers are usually familiar with the saying that a good start is half the job done. This applies to every project, and to IT projects in particular. If you want your IT projects to succeed, don't underestimate the early stages of the process – the initiation and planning phases. The initiation phase is about clarifying the project goals and requirements. The planning phase is about working out what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how much it's likely to cost.
There are two key reasons why you need to pay attention to these phases. First, if you don't know what you're aiming for, you're unlikely to hit the target. And second, if you haven't carefully considered the work to be done and the resources needed, you're likely to run into trouble sooner or later. It can be tempting to ignore the initiation and planning phases because they seem to delay the project, but they'll save you time and money in the end.
This course describes the basics of initiating and planning an IT project:
• you'll learn about some methods for defining the nature and scope of your project from the start
• you'll be introduced to the work breakdown structure, which breaks down the project deliverables into all the tasks that must be done to complete a project
A project to install upgrades at two sites breaks down into installation of upgrades and user training. The installation further breaks down into installing at Sites A and B. The training breaks down into two components: develop training and deliver training. The latter breaks down into deliver training at Site A, and deliver training at Site B.
• you'll learn about the techniques for sequencing tasks and scheduling for maximum efficiency in completing the project, and
• you'll find out about different techniques for estimating project costs
This course will provide you with important foundational knowledge about initiating and planning IT projects. This will make you more effective as an IT project manager and make it more likely that your projects will succeed and benefit your organisation.