Non-IT Managers managing IT Projects - Case Study Example

Non IT Managers managing IT Projects Project Management is an approach of planning, organizaing & managing resources to achieve flourishing goals & objectives of specific project. IT underpins economic activity in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, software & aerospace. Having the necessary tools in terms of skills & resources are essential for successful completion of a project. Mismatch between resources and skills can be a major reason for a project collapse. Improper allocation of resources can lead to the erroneous utilization of skills. This paper discusses the perils of having a Non-IT manager micromanaging an IT project and enlists industry best-practices & workarounds that supplement managers to achieve desired objectives. IT as a Business Enabler: In today’s increasingly flat world, where Bangalore, Beijing are competing with Brooklyn, IT is no more, a mere support function. Companies have realized IT is a strategic asset & if resources are invested appropriately it can be a game-changer. Wal-Mart, largest retailer in the world has been the first mover in embracing state-of-the-art SCM Systems to its entire food chain from retailers, distributors, and headquarters also included are its suppliers. Thus, in the process Wal-Mart has set industry best practices for others to follow (ICMR - Center for Management Research, 2004). The fact that IT can radically transform businesses more effectively is undisputed. Corporate information strategy and management focuses on how this transformation can be achieved. Considering the fact that the path is sprinkled with ambitious implementation failures, the thorough enablement of business using IT is an uphill task. And this is especially true, taking into account of fast pace and increasing complexity of technology growth. Project Management: While the focus of IT in recent years has been towards intuitive, ease-of-use, end user friendly technology, underlying systems are getting extremely complicated more so its development & management. Project Management constitutes of Professional & Social Responblity, knowledge areas & process groups (Mulcahy, 2005). Project Managers have to extremely efficient in planning, organizing & managing of resources for successful completion of the projects. Typical Development Phases of a Project Having a Non IT Manager – In many organizations, End Users or Business as it is called are at loggerheads with IT establishment, neither of them accept advantages of each other. End users need applications to be developed fast that meet the current needs, while IT departments work on applications that are scalable there by increasing the duration software development life cycle. As there is very less talking between them, they do not understand each other’s capability. This works adversely for the user as this creates hard feelings & inefficiencies (Montgomery Mike, 2009). Organizations often have relationship managers, working as advisories to both these ends, talking technology in plain English to the business & concurrently explaining the business requirements to IT in technical terminology, coordinating efforts & managing major business practices. (Davis & Pharro) However to ensure policies, practices or projects are consistent with business visions & values organization may augment manager of IT project by a Non-IT Manager. There could also be practical constraints e.g. budget, schedule, resourcing or less than obvious reasons i.e. politics that may result in a Non-IT Manager leading a project. Micromanagement: By definition, managing with great or excessive control or attention to details, looking constantly over someone’s shoulder, minute-to-minute every hour is called Micromanagement (Merriam-Webster, 1976). There could be various reasons a manager could act as the way he is, managing every aspect of the project with minute details. Not ruling the credibility factor & managers urge to prove caliber, control-freak obsessive impulses would always like to monitor & manage pieces of jigsaw puzzle closely, while completely disregarding its perils that include severely damaging creativity & demotivating the IT staff. In following pages we shall underline challenges that may lead to micromanagement & plausible solutions to minimize the risk if it cannot be eliminated. Challenges: 1) Characteristics: Management of IT Projects requires understanding of its intrinsic characteristics, more importantly its differences from NON-IT Projects. IT projects interact with their surroundings much more than other industries. IT projects are defined carefully; work breakdown structure is used as projects are highly complex. These projects are implemented in phases & require end user testing & approval prior to changes or releases. (Morris) IT projects are based more on task culture while a Non-IT project is role based & decisions are made by the person who has the most knowledge & expertise in problem area. (Andersen, 2001) Non IT-Manager, though knowledgeable & experienced may not be able to make sound decisions due to lack of expertise and would like to be in command of every detail. Solution: Conducting IT Orientation sessions for Non-IT managers by Senior IT Directors & support staff can help a manager cope with the differences & demands of an IT project better. Self-Serve walkthroughs containing step-by-step documentation & video presentations can be immense help for a new & non-IT manager working with an IT team on a complex project. 2) Communication: Key to any successful project management is communication. Irrespective how much project resources discuss with each other, especially if they are working from different geographical locations, communication is never too much. IT projects use Scrum calls on an ongoing basis to frequently discuss & status review with the development team. Scrum separates the roles of the product owner/manager who is accountable for achieving business objectives while the development team for its technical execution. (Judy, 2008) If the team is unable to communicate the status to the manager convincingly or Manager’s inability to understand the technical language can cause hindrances to the project development. Manager would always prefer to keep self informed with the status & this can lead to micromanagement, creating confusion within the team & the manager. Solution: Organizations should involve individuals, in the role of Scrum master, those facilitating free flow communications within the team including the manager. Scrum masters job is to facilitate productivity & remove impediments that obstruct team’s pursuit of its goals. (The ScrumMaster Role) Scrum Master acts as a buffer between the team & any distracting influences, though individual in this role is not leader of the team. 3) Knowledge Areas: Every project involves knowledge areas. Program management book or the PMBOK classifies nine knowledge areas; of these we shall discuss Scope Management, Time management, Cost Management& Risk Management in detail. Each of this knowledge area is significant in itself; we shall discuss few of them that could compel a manager, more-so a Non-IT manager to micromanage details. i) Scope Management: Scope Management deals with defining the goals & objectives of the project. Scope is the description of the project & it defines what the project will deliver. It is essential that project scope is clearly defined beforehand & team working on it has clear set of instructions of goals business intends to achieve with the project. Project scope statement is used to develop & confirm a common understanding among all the stakeholders. Inability to define or gather requirements causes aberrations for the Project Manager & can be an evident pitfall for a manager not having experience working on IT Project. One of the leading causes for project failures is poor management of scope, either because the project manager did not spend enough time defining the work, there was no agreement on the scope by stakeholders or there was a lack of scope management. (PM4DEV, 2008) Solution: Typically organizations hire Business Analysts responsible for analyzing business issues. Business Analyst performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the providers of services to the enterprise. Business Analyst During development of the project, all changes to the project scope must be approved by management & the sponsor. ii) Time Management: Development of processes & tools that increase efficiency & production is referred as Time Management. Being busy does not mean that one is productive. It is essential to differentiate between effectiveness & efficiency i.e. doing the right things & doing right things correctly. In business, time management has morphed into everything from methodologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning through consultant services such as Professional Organizers. When faced with a task Non-IT Manager’s usual predicament is to decide how to deal with the job. Indecision or delay to decide whom to delegate can be a major roadblock. This could lead to people being overloaded with work and can have psychological & physiological effects. On the contrary there can be members with less or no work. Also the inability to differentiate between urgent tasks & important tasks leads to crisis if priorities are not scheduled properly by the Project Manager. Solution: Building an efficient plan or a road map set in real time to achieve objectives with the use of defined resources. A time management system can be of help to keep the project in organized fashion. Time Management System should be able applied to achieve Strategic, tactical & operational goals. Also maintaining a time-log can be effective way to analyze time required for different tasks & for effective management. (Kerzner, 2009) iii) Cost Management: One of the most obvious reasons for a manager to scrutiny work of a team member due to budget constraints. Following items are factored in project costing; i) People ii) Equipments & Materials needed iii) Project Schedule iv) Quantity of required resources Planning, estimating budgeting & controlling costs so that project can be completed within the approved budget is known as Project Cost Management. Approximation of costs of the resources needed to complete activities scheduled, performing subsequent iterations of cost estimations & the end of the phases in the project life cycle to achieve more accurate estimates. Cost estimation requires inputs of Project scope, staffing, organizational processes & enterprise environmental factors.(Presentation on Project Cost Management, 2006) Solution: Developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), associating a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) s & allocating budgets to each task within project can be instrumental in assisting a Manager to take a stock of available budget instead of micromanaging expenditure in delivering a project. (F.Rad, 2002) Project Management Software such as Microsoft Project, Clarity etc simplify some of cost estimating techniques. iv) Risk management: Managing IT Projects is a risky business.Companies like eBay loses millions of dollars if systems are unavailable for few hours. IT majors like Microsoft & Oracle lose millions of dollars if the product releases miss deadlines or are late. Even small to medium size projects suffer costs from delays. The cure is often worse than the disease. Senior Management becomes aware when team miss milestones or customer report problems. Project teams scramble to fix these problems, replacing project managers, hiring expensive consultants or taking resources from other projects. Non-IT Manager may not able to manage risks, as to manage, risks have to be identified in advance and not understanding the technology can be a handicap. There are also external risks that can derail a project like politics, changing business requirements, platform deficiencies etc. Solution: A better approach is preventive risk management based on more flexible development practices. The idea is to identify potential steps in development & deployment that can delay the project of cause it to fail & devise strategies that mitigate risk. Preventive risk management involves proactive management of people, process & control systems. (Murthy, 2002) 4) Team Work & Collaboration: Organizations well realize the evolution from individual to team management approach is a priority in current time. Team work increases effectiveness & efficiency. Working in a team at workplace can be a boon if there is enough understanding. It could also turn out to be a nightmare if the people working on the project are incompatible. Emphasis on team work is essential as it drives innovations as organizations continuously strive to deliver new products, services & technologies for the customers. H.E.Luccok famously quoted”No one can whistle a symphony; it takes an orchestra to play it”. It is essential for a manager to be able to resolve conflict as conflicts can be prove disastrous to the final goal if not managed well at its early states. Especially if a manager is new is coming from different department working within the organization or from outside. Since change is a very rapidly buzzing around organizations, managers cannot afford to micromanage, rather have to take up roles of “mediators or negotiators”. Solution: Using agile models of developments that promote development iterations, open collaboration & adaptability throughout the life-cycle of the project. Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication over written documents. Team composition in an agile project is usually cross-functional & self-organizing without consideration of corporate hierarchy. Agile team also contain a customer representative appointed by stakeholders (Lan Cao, 2004) An important concern of managers is information sharing. Open sharing of information is useful as there is little risk of micromanagement. Using collaborative tools like chat, whiteboards leads to constant interaction. (Grudin, 2004) Establishing communication mechanisms that are consistent, timely & accurate. Everyone should be included in direct communication. The methods for its delivery must be dependable & not at micromanager’s whim. Conclusion: It is important of making a manager aware of micromanagement behavior. Lack of awareness due to void of knowledge has to be acknowledged & the manager should be willing and committed to change. Willingness occurs in ranges or degrees. Something’s we are willing to change, others we are not. Efforts should be made in developing a comfort level working with others collaboratively. For manager to lead effectively, senior management & stakeholders must clear confusion, identifying expectations, decision-making criteria and explanations of requests, tasks & responsibilities reduces confusion. Confusion & fear are the conditions that invite & rationalize micromanagement. (Chambers, 2004) Works Cited Andersen, E. S. (2001). Understanding Your IT Project Organization’s Character:Exploring the Differences Between the Cultures of an IT Project and its Base. Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001. IEEE. Chambers, H. E. (2004). My Way or the Highway. San Fransico: Berret-Koehler Publications. Davis, T., & Pharro, R. The Relationship Manager: The Next Generation of Project Management. F.Rad, P. (2002). Project Estimating & Cost Management. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts. Grudin, J. (2004). Managerial Use and Emerging Norms: Effects of Activity Patterns on Software Desing & Development. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004 (p. 10). IEEE. ICMR - Center for Management Research. (2004). Wal-Marts Supply Chain Management Practices (B): Using IT/Internet to Manage the Supply Chain. Retrieved from http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Operations/Wal-Mart-Supply%20Chain%20Management-IT-Internet-Operations%20Case%20Study.htm Judy, K. H.-B. (2008). Great Scrums Need Great Product Owners: Unbounded Collaboration & Collective Product Ownership. Proceedings of the 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2008. IEEE. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A systems Approach to Planning Scheduling & Controlling. Wiley. Lan Cao, K. M. (2004). How Extreme does Extreme Programming Have to be? (p. 10). IEEE. Merriam-Webster. (1976). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/micromanagement Montgomery Mike, D. D. (2009). End User Developer Friend or Foe? Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges. ACM Digital Library. Morris, P. W. (n.d.). Lessons From IT & Non-IT Projects. Retrieved from Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/hazman/lessons-from-it-and-nonit-projects-by-peter-w-g-morris Mulcahy, R. (2005). PMP Exam Prep. RMC Publications Inc. Murthy, S. (2002, October). Preventive Risk Management for Software Project. IT Pro . PM4DEV. (2008). Project Scope Management. Retrieved from www.pm4dev.com: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16172487/PM4DEV-Project-Scope-Management Presentation on Project Cost Management. (2006). Retrieved from www.scribd.com: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17828187/Presentation-on-Project-Cost-Management-Final The ScrumMaster Role. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://scrummethodology.com/the-scrummaster-role/ Read More