Six wrong ideas about IT Project Management

Error 1: The Wrong demand investigation phase makes many projects unable to end forever!

In the software industry, all work is in the demand research phase before the interface design is officially presented to the customer. In fact, the construction industry has set a precedent for us: before buying a house, customers should first look at the model room and model. They can't see anything about the house. Do you dare to buy it? Unless you are not yourself!

In the software engineering conceptual model we have learned, there are three phases: demand research, demand analysis, and outline design.

When the customer delivers the business modules they want to manage, as well as the business data, processes, and forms related to them to you, do not define this stage as the end of the investigation, write the specification. A large number of practices prove that the demand workload derived from the outline design stage is the previous 5 ~ 10 times, or even more, because it depends on the business communication capability and modeling level of the designer.

Project management personnel with rich implementation experience concluded that the implementation of software projects in China must be carried out through consulting: to launch their own solutions, rather than making projects based on the customer's requirements. This is a good solution, but it cannot solve the problems of all implementation projects. The premise of this solution is either that the project implementer has a mature business model or a mature product (including a mature business model). Otherwise, it is impossible. However ~ Five years of implementation experience and theoretical summary in the same industry and field, no it enterprise can meet such requirements.

In fact, the deep reason for this conclusion is that most enterprises in China do not have mature management ideas, let alone perfect business models. Therefore, the customer's thinking is divergent to a certain extent and has not yet formed a system. Even some customer leaders may have a lot of new ideas in their minds. They may want to add them in the implementation process of enterprise informatization. This is to control the scope of the project and the implementation effect of the project, may be the beginning of a disaster.

Therefore, to do a good job in implementation projects, implementers must have good business modeling capabilities to quickly present a reasonable software prototype software demo to customers.

Please remember: for software implementation projects, you must see the demo of the model room software to the user before the demand research is over!

Error 2: IT personnel do not need to master project management

There are not a few people who have such opinions. According to observations, the reason for this is that the real concept of the project is not clear, and the concept of management is mythical. It makes the management an uncertain and uncertain thing that ordinary people can do. First, it is necessary to popularize the concept of the project.

Many people have defined a project. The project management Bible PMBOK is defined in the third edition (version 2004) to create a unique product or service, or complete temporary efforts for a unique task. PMBOK provides detailed explanations and examples for this sentence. It is very rigorous. Learn PMBOK if you want to know it. Because they are all translated definitions, it is easy to get people involved in the translation. In China, it is not ruled out that professionals who have obtained the PMP certification certificate still cannot figure out what the project is. Here I only want to use the most popular Chinese language to describe what is project and project management.

A project is a task completed by a person at a limited time. Remember the three keywords to grasp: people, time, and events.

Project management is what participants use (knowledge, skills, tools, and methods) to do this well.

Once you understand this, you will understand that from everyday life's eating, drinking, and drinking to national management, projects are everywhere, and project management is everywhere, you will understand that everyone needs project management, you can understand how much project management will benefit, and the use of project management thinking will be invincible!

However, we need to remind you that the current PMBOK integrates the project management knowledge of the traditional manufacturing industry, construction industry, IT industry, and other industries, which is big and comprehensive, but not well targeted, therefore, many people think that PMBOK is too theoretical and it is useless to learn many things. Ipmp is now another internationally renowned project management certification, which is rated based on job capabilities and is not broken down for the industry. Therefore, no matter what PMP or ipmp is, many people will have the same confusion. It is understood that PMI is ready to make such improvements, which is a good news.

Error 3: Forget the project target

What do you think of this question? Many people may think that such an error would happen? Almost no one will think they have made this mistake! There are two scenarios for forgetting the project objectives: one is to take over the project from the very beginning, and the other is to know what the project objectives are, however, they do things that are irrelevant or even harmful to the completion of the project goals.

Keep in mind that the project goal is an Important Thought in project management. All the activities of the project are centered on this idea. However, with the gradual development of projects, especially complex projects: many people, many tasks, and long periods of time, many project managers will gradually forget the project's big goal due to their personal preferences, typical examples are: technical project managers will indulge in technical details, and spend a lot of time learning new technologies or worrying about solving technical difficulties; A popular project manager gets angry with the team because of a lot of things that are not worth the money. A wide-eyed and face-loving project manager will hate a team member for their unintentional bid, from then on, I always put on small shoes for the team to build gangs and do not unite. What's worse, such as games and wine lovers. All of these results are the same whether they are immature, lack of management experience, and lack of management capabilities, that is, project problems or even failures.

One of the most important tasks of a project manager is tracking and controlling the project direction, ensuring the smooth implementation of the project plan, and keeping deviations within the controllable risk scope. However, there are always too many unexpected factors in projects, especially long-cycle projects. People often use night-long dream to describe that risks will increase with the extension of time, so the project manager must always be clear-headed, do not do things that are not beneficial to the project, nor do things that are risky to the project.

Any project is constantly faced with opportunities and temptations during the development process. The project manager must be clear about the project objectives to clearly identify the opportunities for project success, which of the following are the temptations that will bring risks to the project, so as to avoid detours and achieve success as soon as possible. Project Management Alliance and project management issues.

People need to be reminded constantly, which is determined by human nature. Smart people can constantly reflect and remind themselves, and stupid people will be reminded by setbacks and external warnings, which forms a difference between success and failure.

Error 4: the plan cannot be changed

How can we ensure project success? Planning, planning, and re-planning are the best practices for project management! Therefore, project management generally knows how to prepare a project plan, and many people are proficient in using the project tool and know the 80-hour or 40-hour rule, the concept of WBS and key paths. Every project manager will remember the principle that once a plan is formed, it will be executed in strict accordance with the plan, without the influence of a person or thing, we also understand that this can not only reduce the waste of a large amount of resources, but also ensure the quality of our products. Therefore, many project managers reject or even refuse to change their plans. Stick to the principle. It seems that there is nothing wrong, but is it true?

To find out whether it is necessary to do one thing, we must first find out two questions: 1. Why should we do this? 2. What are the benefits of doing so?

First, let's ask what the purpose of the plan is? We know that planning is the best practice of project management, and planning is a means and method to ensure the success of the project. There is only one purpose to do this, that is, to ensure the success of the project, but the premise is that, this plan is thorough and feasible. Strict implementation of a well-planned and feasible project plan can ensure the success of the project. Many project managers remember the strict implementation principles above, but forget this premise.

The second question is, what are the benefits of the plan? The planning method of project management organically combines project activities, duration, and required resources, and has a strict sequence, milestones, and key paths, it can clearly remind all members of the project at what time and what to do to ensure that each project task is executed. by tracking the execution of the plan, the Project Manager can clearly understand the project progress and deviations, assess and effectively control project risks in a timely manner, so as to ensure project success.

Now that we understand these two points, let's look at it projects. For most IT projects, especially software implementation projects, there are situations where the scope is not clear enough and the requirements are not clear. Only when the software demo is generated can the requirement be clear and the scope be determined. These situations determine that the IT project plan needs to be corrected in a timely manner based on the actual situation of the project. How to compress the time to determine the scope and develop a feasible plan as soon as possible is an important topic of software projects.

Developing a thorough and feasible plan is a manifestation of the excellent ability of the Project Manager, especially the preparation of WBS, which is very difficult for complex projects. When talking about the management experience of the 2008 Olympic project, project expert Cao Lei mentioned that the most difficult part of the Olympic project is the establishment of WBS (see the PMU website's interview with the 2008 Olympic project ). To ensure the success of the project, we must ensure that every activity of the project can be smoothly executed. Therefore, when there is a change in the project situation and there is a need to change on the basis of the original plan, it is necessary to add the new task to the plan, correct the plan, ensure the integrity of the WBS, and ensure that the plan is well-planned and feasible, the subsequent work is strictly enforced.

By the way, some project managers may go to another extreme: they do not plan a project because of their uncertain requirements. This is also an incorrect understanding of the plan. Even if the plan is not well-planned, it can remind us of the major objectives of the project and ensure that the actions taken by the project team do not deviate from the general direction. Any large project can be split into many small projects. The progressive details of WBS are also one of the tasks that must be completed by the project. The duration of all tasks must be estimated, even if it is not accurate enough, at least it can be used as an accumulation of experience to prepare for accurate estimation in the future. Therefore, there must be a plan at any stage of the project.

Error 5: The project must be profitable

The project must be profitable. This sentence has been regarded by countless IT project managers as truth and is doomed to create many tragedies! In order to achieve this goal, many IT project managers are even carefully studying the thick black school, learning how to make the younger brother enthusiastic, tired than migrant workers, in this way, the lowest cost is used to create the largest profit.

As a tactical management method, project management must serve the strategic direction. A mall may fail if it wins. In order to win the strategy, many battles must be defeated to lure the enemy into depth. It doesn't matter if you lose a battle. The key is to find out the level and extent of the defeat, clarify the real objectives of this battle, and then fight this battle, this will not lead to a situation that will not only damage the enemy, but also fail to lure the enemy into depth.

It is an essential step for every company to develop and seize the market, gain a firm foothold in the market, and explore the market. Many projects, for the company, are aimed at occupying the market, or even getting rid of food. For such a project, the first requirement of the company from the strategic level is definitely not profit, but how to take the market and then gain a firm foothold. The project manager must understand this strategic intent.

Balance is one of the most important ideas in project management. From the balance of quality, time, and cost in the past to meeting the needs of stakeholders, all the best practices and theoretical research results will never advocate extreme attacks! Profit is only a goal of a project. You must understand the short-term profit and long-term profit. A project that is too single to pursue profit is doomed to fail, and a company that is excessively pursuing profit will not last for a long time.

The cost cannot be saved, and the cost should not be spent for one minute. The Project Manager puts the cost within a reasonable budget range, that is, the cost control is successful. In order to make a profit for a project destined to lose money, you must try your best to compress the cost with your brains, so that the team members can work overtime and work hard. At the end of the day, the project is finished and the people are gone, it is also very likely that the quality of the project is unqualified due to the rush of work, and the customer is not satisfied, it is really lost!

The project team must be passionate and efficient, and never be lazy. The project manager must grasp this degree and never go to the extreme. Balancing is an art and an important yardstick for demonstrating the ability of a project manager!

Error 6: Remember science and forget Validity

If you learn how to use it, you will be afraid of using it. Products, technologies, and management methods all fall victim to more advanced, scientific, and blind misuse. As a result, advanced and scientific technologies and tools not only do not improve production efficiency, this situation is everywhere, and there are also a large number of IT projects.

A large number of failed ERP projects in China are typical of such errors. Some people regard the ERP project as a top-level project, which means that only the leaders attach importance to and promote it can succeed. Leadership support is an important condition for project success, but it is certainly successful without leadership support. Some projects are blind to leadership decision-making mistakes and are doomed to fail from the very beginning. The implementation of an information project is a major reform for many enterprises. All employees need to adjust their thinking, skills, work habits, and other aspects. If the quality of employees in an enterprise cannot keep up, even if there are all kinds of training, but regardless of the basic staff and learning curve, users cannot really master the new system, the results will only increase the burden on users, but cannot produce the expected results.

After learning some new technologies, many IT project managers always want to practice them in the project immediately without carefully analyzing whether these technologies are required or not in the project. IT technology is changing with each passing day, and new theories are constantly put forward and translated into China. When some project managers are not familiar with these technologies, they dare to boast to others about the scientific and advanced technologies they have mastered, and thus require them to be put into practice in the project. This may be the project manager of Party A or the project manager of Party B. Examples of project failures caused by incorrect technical selection are available in China, and there are still examples! There is absolutely no shortage of preparation. A new technology will be introduced in a wide range. It will not be available until the project time is over half the time. At that time, everything will be late. There is a learning curve for mastering any new things. The time limit of the Project is an element that must be kept in mind by the Project Manager at all times. A poor grasp will bring great risks to the project.

Concerning specific IT project management, PMBOK's knowledge system can be described as broad, and there are some other new project management tools, which cannot be said to be not advanced, but which knowledge, tools, and methods are suitable for this project, the project manager needs to carefully analyze the facts and then filter and use them.

Modifying titles in science, advanced, and easy-to-use is not the primary reason for choice. The need, applicability, and effectiveness are the primary considerations. Many IT project managers are not afraid of tigers because they are young and have the courage to introduce new tools and methods in practice. Dare to try is not a bad thing, but the risk of the test must be well controlled. For the project manager, all decisions should be made around the project objectives. The primary task of the project manager is to ensure project success. If new technologies and tools can be introduced at the same time, the knowledge and skills of the team members can be increased, the efficiency of the project team can be improved, and the product quality and reliability can be improved, it is definitely icing on the cake, but it is absolutely impossible to cause the project to get out of control or even fail to get rid of sesame seeds and lose watermelon!

【