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Student Q & A

Background

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Ronald T. Hewitt is a recent recipient of a Master's Certificate in Information Technology Project Management. Hewitt is putting his IT project management knowledge to work on an ambitious project called the National Distress and Response System (NDRS) Modernization Project, which is a $477-million command, control and communication systems acquisition initiative for improving the Coast Guard's coastal search and rescue capabilities.

NDRS is the United States' "Maritime 911" system for all coastal regions and updating the communication systems is vital. As project manager, Hewitt is responsible for the cost, schedule and performance of the project to replace old communication systems. The majority of his time is spent on relationship management with a project staff of 40, all project stakeholders and project contractors.

ESI touched base with Hewitt to ask him about his latest project and how his project management training is helping him on the job.

1. What's one of your biggest project successes to date?

"My biggest project success to date is completing the critical functions demonstration for senior management that showed the significant benefits the new NDRS system will provide over the existing system. This process occurred 15 months into the project planning and entailed narrowing down three contractors to compete for the system design and a week of cross-country meetings with stakeholders. It was hard for stakeholders to visualize what the system could do. The vendor demonstrations really showed the benefits of the update."

2. What are some of your lessons learned while working on projects?

"One of the most important project lessons I've learned is the importance of constant, accurate communications with all stakeholders. Likewise, it's important to know the individual concerns of each of the stakeholders, so that they can each be addressed and resolved in a favorable manner."

3. What's your biggest challenge on the job?

"Requirements management! With the constantly changing environment (such as 9/11/2001), there is constant pressure to revalidate and modify project requirements. We focus on delivering incremental, usable segments. It is important to identify the most important needs and deliver products and services that support them first, while ensuring that the system is scalable and open so that follow-on requirements can be easily added."

4. Why did you pursue a master's certificate with ESI?

"Being in the IT project management field, I wanted to ensure that I had the skills and knowledge required to do the job efficiently and effectively. The Master's Certificate was a stepping-stone for taking the PMP exam, which I passed on November 16, 2001, the first time."

5. How will the material covered in the master's certificate help you on the job?

I apply the material from the Master's Certificate daily. Since about 85% of my time is spent on relationship management, I frequently use the material from the Project Leadership, Management and Communications course. I value all the courses I have taken since they provided me the skills and knowledge required to be successful in the project management field. They may not guarantee success, but it would be difficult to be successful without these skills and knowledge. They have improved not only my hard (technical) skills but I believe, more importantly, my soft (people) skills.

6. What did you like best about your ESI courses?

"I liked the fact that the classes were three to five days long. Any longer and training would have been difficult to schedule. For the most part, they were focused on a single knowledge area. And most importantly, the instructors were very knowledgeable on the subject area and had a lot of applied experience."

7. What advice would you give to other IT project managers?

"I'd advise other project managers to not only improve their hard skills but also their soft skills. Project managers spend most of their time with relationship management. It is important to make the most use of that time to ensure the desired results occur. But since you only have about 15% of your time to spend on technical issues, it is important to have the project management technical skills down cold. ESI courses provide a very good source for all the skills needed, and then it is up to you to constantly apply them to improve your proficiency as a project manager."

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