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Project Management
The business world has changed and with it, the measurement of time has
changed. In order for projects
to compete and be completed
successfully, Infotech
recognises the management of
scope must adapt to the world
and include flexibility, agility
and “Internet Time.”
The pace of business
and technological change is
rapid. The Internet, N-tier
architectures, object-oriented
development environments and
relational databases free us
from the shackles of the past.
We
recognise effective "Internet
Time" projects are managed as a
series of mini-releases that
support an overall business
objective. These objectives are
broad visions that adapt to the
changing business environment.
They cannot be reduced to a
rigid requirements document.
The
"Infotech"
approach to Project Management:
Release
Projects in Phases
Each mini-release contains
enough functionality to provide
sufficient business value.
However, the duration is short
enough to react to any changing
business conditions reducing
risk and keeping costs are bay.
Congruently, we schedule our
mini-releases so that they flow
almost seamlessly from one phase
to another.
Include time constraints
In addition we explicitly
include time constraints when
defining the mini-release scope.
In other words, we set the
duration of the mini-release,
and then determine scope based
on what can be completed in that
timeframe. Requirements that
cannot be completed in that
release are automatically
scheduled for future releases.
Set
Achievable Goals
When constraining the duration
of the release, we never assume
that our development teams will
create more functionality faster
than they currently do.
Historically, good developers
will commit to more than they
can deliver; particularly on an
exciting project. Therefore, we
figure this into the mix and set
clear, achievable goals for any
project scope.
Define Priorities
To help manage the scope of
projects we perform requirements
prioritisation, risk analysis
and contingency planning in the
project planning process. By
applying these tools together it
is possible to identify
potential hurdles and
opportunities that would not be
evident if the tools were
applied in a linear fashion.
The prioritisation step is
necessary to separate the
project requirements into the
absolutely necessary, the
important and the optional. Even
though most project managers use
some form of requirements
prioritisation, they are
generally not rigorous enough to
force trade-offs.
Assess Risk
Risk analysis and contingency
planning are complementary
activities. For each
requirement, we ask “what is the
risk of the requirement not
being fulfilled, the probability
of this event and its impact”.
For those requirements with a
high risk of not being fulfilled
and a high-impact to the
project, we develop contingency
plans or alternatives for
fulfilling them.
In addition
to being able to provide a
secure, robust and scalable
technical platform and support
to your organisation, you can
now source
Infotech project managers to
meet your organisation’s
specific project needs.
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