Use of PPMS in IT & Organization

 

IT is becoming increasingly complex: managers need more support for their business decisions on technology investments.

 

With its portfolio planning and execution, PPMS provides the information needed for these decisions.

 

With PPMS, companies can optimize their IT investments and align these with their business objectives. Costs and resources used are made visible and controllable.

 

The objective of project management for IT and software development initiatives is to control the complete progress of the project, from the project idea through to completion and the maintenance phase.

 

Project characteristics

 

IT and software development projects exhibit similar special features to R&D projects. In addition however, they have an effect on the sequences of activities, and in some cases also on the organizational structure. IT and software development projects can be characterized as follows:

·         The need for good and clear structuring

·         Standards are certainly possible

·         Plan using internal and external resources

·         Often run over a number of years

·         Limited budgets in each financial year

·         Resource planning at employee level, giving precise control over resource availability (vacations etc.)

·         Coordination effort is high if many individuals are working on the project

 

Typical progress of a project

 

 

 

Practical challenges

 

One of the typical weaknesses in IT and software development projects is the lack of an overall strategic concept, because projects often arise unnoticed and 'of their own accord' from the initiatives of different areas of the business.

 

A critical feature is the commitment to completion due-dates in the system design and detailed specification phases: too little information about the capacity situation can lead to unreliable due-date commitments.

 

Organizational changes or working with a new system imply major reorientation in daily work. The time planned for system introduction and familiarization is often insufficient.

 

Another weakness is imprecise definition of the detailed specification, and inadequate documentation. During implementation this produces difficulties of a technical, timing, and financial nature. Agreements between those involved in the project are inadequately documented.

 

PPMS features for IT projects

 

Control of different areas

With PPMS it is possible to separate the planning and controlling tasks organizationally from the development tasks. In practice this is particularly logical if insufficient planning discipline is exercised in development.

 

As a basis for detailed planning, milestones and key dates are issued to individual areas, such as system development and programming, to ensure efficient planning and control.

 

By refining the project network, the outline plan is split, for example into design and detailing work on individual software modules, and assigned to individual groups or employees.