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To succeed in this environment, IT groups need to:

• change the skill mix within the organization, placing greater emphasis on business skills
• take a life-cycle approach in developing products, ensuring participation by all business groups
• reduce development costs by ensuring the products have clear success criteria, realistic budgets and adequate resources assigned

Changing the Skill Mix

Five years ago, IT project managers rarely had to worry about budgets, profitability or company business processes. In order to succeed, these managers had to master the technology and, at most, be able to develop a schedule. Today, IT project managers need to manage a multidisciplinary team or subcontractors, understand product profitability models and realize how IT products will impact the company's business processes.

The skills needed to be successful in this environment are clearly more than technical. In fact, the Gartner Group projects that by 2003 the skill mix of a typical IT organization needs to be 65% business and 35% technical versus the inverse only two years ago. Today's IT project managers need to master leadership, risk, quality, cost, schedule and vendor management ¾ all core concepts of project management.

Project Overruns

Numerous recent surveys quote typical overruns on IT projects to be anywhere from 40% to 150%. These surveys also cite the major problem areas as unclear project success criteria, inadequate executive sponsorship, changing requirements, poor planning and little to no risk management. In short, poor project management.

In addition, too many IT groups are pursuing projects that will generate limited return, and the opportunity costs in those environments are staggering. Projects that have been staffed for months are being terminated or put on hold. Companies are wasting significant time and money on projects that have a low probability of completion. This investment of key resources can be applied to other projects that may generate significant returns.

Expert project management techniques can help. Companies that have implemented strong project management methods have been very successful at lowering operating costs, increasing closure rate on projects and decreasing the frustration level, and subsequent turnover rates, among employees. Companies succeed when they define criteria for project selection, adhere to established, clear budgets and implement strong scope management processes.

Partnership Between Business Groups and IT Departments

Yesterday's product development efforts received little input from users or other business groups. Many of today's IT products will be owned and maintained by a business group attempting to generate revenue. Therefore, these business groups need to be involved continuously in the development effort. The marketing group needs to know the product's capabilities and delivery date for a powerful product roll-out plan. The sales team must understand the new product's role in relationship to existing products or services in order to maximize sales. The finance team must learn to bill or capture the additional revenue accurately.

Learn Proven Techniques from the Leader in Project Management

ESI International understands the unique needs of IT project managers. With more than 20 years of training experience and a world-class IT project management curriculum, we can help you improve your competitive edge. We have worked with many IT departments to help them increase their organization's profit margins by reducing project overruns and controlling operating costs.

ESI has the largest and most comprehensive repertoire of project management and contract management solutions needed to transition a company's culture to one that is driven by project profitability. We will help your company identify the issues affecting financial performance and develop a means for tracking how project management improvement can impact your bottom line. From there we will develop a unique solution for your company that may include classroom training, e-training , executive workshops, mentoring and professional services.

ESI is a global company, working for a wide variety of clients around the world. We can support your company no matter where your offices are located, bringing our instructors and consultants to your site. Our experience with companies of all sizes gives us a unique insight into how organizations can benefit from effective project management processes.

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