IT project management is the process of organizing and facilitating various IT projects and initiatives at an organization. This can include the scheduling and prioritizing of IT projects, gathering information regarding ongoing projects, and communicating with cross-functional stakeholders to enable smooth progress and guide them towards completion.
IT project management is a critical part of holistic IT Management and it is an essential function for organizations of every size, as it frees IT professionals to focus on their IT projects rather than priority management and workflow development.
What does an IT Project Manager do?
IT project managers work to ensure that IT projects run smoothly from start to finish and help drive them to their completion.
This can include:
- Gathering information for upcoming and ongoing IT projects
- Communication with stakeholders, both within IT and cross-functionally
- Utilization of a project management applications such as JIRA
- Ongoing deadline management to meet and protect SLAs
- Priority assignment across the IT team to meet organizational goals
IT project managers can be viewed as the air traffic controllers of the IT world, providing information and guiding IT professionals towards the take-off and landing of IT projects. Without their integral operational function, the complexity of IT projects could lead to less effective and less efficient work.
Who is involved in an IT project?
IT projects can involve a vast amount of cross-functional collaboration with an IT team. That can include stakeholders directly involved in the project from various teams, customers working with an organization, or even outside vendors working to implement technology at an organization.
The role of IT is extremely collaborative as information technology is so integral in the operations of every organization.
What are examples of IT projects?
IT projects are any project that involves software or hardware technology. For example, an IT project can be something as simple as clearing a queue of support tickets, or as complex as implementing a new cross-functional application.
The balancing act of prioritizing large, complex IT projects and smaller, support tasks is what makes IT project management so integral to the operations of an organization. While many IT professionals are focused on the execution of IT projects, IT project managers free those professionals from the logistical and sometimes tedious nature of completing them.
One common IT project that arises for an IT is the onboarding and offboarding of employees. Onboarding can become a time-consuming and complex IT project each time an employee joins an organization. Click here to learn three ways to improve the onboarding process.
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