Managing Information Technology

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Chapter 11 • IT Project Management 413

well as initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and
closing a project. Some projects involve managing not
only in-house IT professionals assigned to the project but
also external IT personnel who work for vendors associ-
ated with the project.
In some situations, a business manager could also be
selected as a project manager or comanager. The choice of
the project manager depends not only on the degree to
which the application project will impact a specific business
unit or division but also on the degree to which the project
requires technical expertise, both internal and external.
The project manager’s responsibilities in general are
to plan and execute the project, including controlling for
project risks and ensuring that necessary business changes
have been implemented. This requires several different
types of skills, including team management skills (see
Figure 11.3). A major characteristic of any project is
“uniqueness” (Meredith and Mantel, 1989), and because
the typical IT project involves new technologies, essen-
tially all IT projects are learning experiences for the proj-
ect manager. In other words, no amount of planning can
take into account the variety of unexpected situations that
occur during the course of the project. Effective project
managers are also good leaders. Sometimes this entails
being politically savvy—aware of what not to do as well
as what to do in a given organizational context. Riskier
projects, such as when new, unproven technologies are
involved, also require coping skills and a high tolerance
for ambiguity (Frame, 1994).
A summary of the key tasks for each of the PMI
processes, which will be described in some detail in this
chapter, is provided in Figure 11.4.


Project Sponsor and Champion Roles

Most IT projects have multiple business stakeholders:
managers and users with vested interests in the outcome of


the project. Two business stakeholder roles have been asso-
ciated with successfully managed systems projects: the
project sponsor and the project champion.
Theproject sponsorrole is typically played by a
business manager who financially “owns” the project (i.e.,
the person who “writes the check” for the project). The
sponsor oversees in the development of the initial project
proposal, including an assessment of the feasibility of the
project. The sponsor also argues for the approval of the
systems project before the committee members responsi-
ble for new system project approvals. For systems projects
that will be implemented in multiple business functions or
business units, the sponsor is likely to be an officer of the
company (e.g., a CFO or COO) or the designated owner of
a major business process (e.g., a supply chain manager).
The exception here is projects that are major hardware or
network infrastructure investments only, in which case the
CIO is likely to be the designated project sponsor.
Once the systems project has been initiated, the
project sponsor provides the funds for the project and
continues to play an oversight role during the life of the
project. The sponsor also typically takes responsibility
for ensuring that the most appropriate (“best”) business
managers and other users are assigned to the project
team and that these project team members are empow-
ered to make decisions for the business units they repre-
sent. In addition, the sponsor is often relied on to ensure
business personnel who are not formal team members
are made available as needed at certain points in the
project—such as providing information about current
work processes or procedures in the Definition phase,
evaluating screen designs from a user perspective early
in a Construction phase, performing system tests at the
end of a Construction phase, or training other users
during an Implementation phase.
Because the business unit often cannot easily spare
the most capable business managers and users for part- or
full-time IT project work, managers in the business
sponsor role are also relied on for making financial and
work arrangements to “free up” employees from their nor-
mal tasks and responsibilities, so that they can put forth the
level of effort that is needed for the project to succeed.
Once the system project has been completed, the sponsor
should also be held accountable for ensuring that the
projected system benefits are achieved after the system is
installed.
It is therefore critical for the project manager to have
a strong relationship with the project sponsor from the very
beginning of the project. Suggestions for how a project
manager can keep a typically busy executive engaged in an
IT project are provided in the box entitled “Tasks to Engage
and Maintain Project Sponsors.” The project champion

Leadership Skills:Sets example, energetic, vision
(big picture), delegates, positive attitude

Organizational Skills:Planning, goal-setting, analyzing

Communication Skills:Listening, persuading

Team-Building Skills:Empathy, motivation, esprit de corps

Coping Skills:Flexibility, creativity, patience, persistence

FIGURE 11.3 Non-Technical Skills for Effective Project
Management

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