IT Jobs Tips

Implementing Project Management Strategies Has Become a Trend

The popularity of implementing project management strategies has become a business industry trend of sorts over the past several years. This is because more and more organizations are realizing the advantages that doing so offers.

Project managers must construct cross-functional teams that include individuals from various divisions of the organization. As such they have to have strong communication skills and be adept at conflict resolution. When the varying priorities of the diverse project team members cause disagreements, the project manager must be able to iron out the concerns to keep the team focused on the end goal of providing the company with a total IT solution.

Proficient planning is perhaps one of the key factors that helps to keep the project on track. Even with the best-laid plans, changes generally occur and when they do, the project manager needs to be able to adroitly guide and support team members to ensure the successful completion of the project.

The IT Industry Is Starting to Formulate Tentative Recovery Plans

With the business market slowly improving, companies in the IT industry are starting to look ahead and tentatively beginning to plan their recovery strategies. With carefully consideration and attention to tenuous budgets, many IT job industries seem to still be in a survival mode of sorts.

IT industry trends reports from Microsoft and Harris Interactive, reported that, on average, sixty three percent of their budgets were being used to “keep the lights on” and only thirty seven percent was earmarked for innovation. Furthermore, only twenty two percent noted giving their business a competitive edge was their top spending priority.

However, one hopeful sign was that in terms ranking the priorities of their expenditures, business efficiency placed higher than cost cutting initiatives. So even as the economy recovers and financial pressures start to ease, IT industry executives will undoubtedly remain extremely cautious when considering how to efficiently divide and distribute their precious budgetary dollars.

IT Departments Need to Sort Out Their True Priorities

There seems to be a bit of confusion amongst IT industry executives. A recent business industry trends survey from the Info-Tech Research Group found that CIOs and top IT decision makers rated the skill and abilities of their staff to be the most important factor in ensuring the effective delivery of a solid level of support to the enterprise.

This was an extensive study that reached out to over 1,400 decision makers in a variety of IT job industries. Yet, the findings point to an alarming disconnect between priorities and actual commitment. We all know actions speak louder than words and the actions of these IT industry decision makers have missed the mark.

While the capabilities and expertise of their staff clearly ranked ahead of hardware and software capabilities in their philosophical priority list, when it came to reviewing their actual resource allotment expenditures, funding levels for hiring and training came in near the bottom of the list of seventeen IT management priorities.

Understanding the Difference Between IT Managers and Project Manager Job Roles

While there are many similarities between IT Managers and Project Managers, there are also vital differences as well and it is important for IT industry executives to truly understand these distinctions. Industry trends reports show that the success rate of technology initiatives increases when IT Managers truly understand project management concepts.

For example, one of the key differences between the job roles is that of focus. A project manager's authority is limited to the timeframe of the project, whereas an IT manager oversees the departmental efforts of the total IT solutions division. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the IT manager to provide the required resources and manpower that the project manager will need for their tasks. Because the project manager has truncated authority, they can sometimes face confusion or resistance from team members when regular work responsibilities and project activities conflict. The IT manager can assist by adjusting departmental priorities and workloads accordingly. Consequently, effective communication between these IT industry job roles is vital to achieving a positive project outcome.

Open Source Adoption Increasing in the Business Intelligence Market

Business industry trends reports from Third Nature, a consulting and technology research firm focused on information management, explored the adoption rate of open source software in the IT industry market of business intelligence. The top motivating factor for incorporating open source technology into this realm was found to be the potential cost savings. Secondary reasons were the reduced vendor dependence that open source provides and the ease of integration with existing tools and technologies.

Yet there are still shortcomings to open source software and this has been found to be true across all IT job industries. Therefore IT professionals who are being asked to consider or deploy open source in the business intelligence market would be wise to heed lessons learned from other technology segments. First, organizations should consider establishing open source policies, which can provide blueprints and guidelines for the use and implementation of open source. Secondly, it may be advisable to start out by augmenting the division's existing software rather than fully replacing it. Lastly, always keep in mind the return on investment (ROI). Even if there is a huge cost savings, if the software creates more problems than it solves, the ROI simply does not compute.