How Does Project Management Work for IT Services?

Project management is the overall set of processes and activities needed to coordinate and implement changes in your business environment. Some examples of projects include: changes to operational processes, changes to physical locations or machinery, responding to customer requests, developing new software, products, or services, or making a change to an IT system. In this article, you’ll learn everything about project management for IT services.

Understanding IT Project Management

Understanding project management for IT services starts with defining what a project is. A project is a temporary effort undertaken to create something with a specific outcome, within a well-defined process that has a beginning and an end, aimed at meeting unique goals and objectives — typically to bring about necessary change or added value.

It’s important to note the temporary nature of projects, especially when compared to operations, which are more permanent. Projects are how companies implement change — whether within operations or in other areas.

Project management is a set of processes used to organize, coordinate, and implement projects. This includes initiating, planning, executing, controlling (monitoring), and closing the project. But let’s not go too deep into management theory here.

Projects are often led and managed by trained professionals (project managers) who use industry standards, personal experience, organizational processes, and a set of tools and templates to structure the project, manage information, and facilitate collaboration among team members.

Project Management for IT Services

IT project management is a subdiscipline of project management in which technology projects are planned, executed, and controlled. IT is one of the most common areas where project management is used within an organization.

Most IT investments and initiatives fit the profile of a “project,” with a limited timeline, defined scope, desired outcomes and objectives, and a set of resources that must be coordinated.

IT project management begins at the portfolio level, where the organization’s strategic vision is translated into metrics and investment opportunities that create value. Most organizations have limited financial, human, and technical resources. Therefore, project portfolio management helps IT departments select the best projects to deliver the desired value with the available resources.

By using structured project management processes to deliver portfolio projects, the organization can track performance and value delivery at every step of the project life cycle.

Methodologies and Frameworks

In recent years, several variations of IT project management have emerged and been adopted by companies, including:

• Waterfall methodologies

• Agile or iterative approaches

• Specialized techniques such as Scrum

  
  

Each of these has unique characteristics that affect how quickly value is realized, how team members collaborate, and how the project is integrated with others within the broader organizational portfolio.

Why Is Project Management Valuable for Businesses?

Project management involves the efficient use of resources and achieving results as effectively as possible. Adopting project management strategies and methodologies helps companies reduce risks, control costs, and improve success rates.

For small businesses, project management provides structure and direction to achieve results faster. For larger enterprises, project management ensures consistent delivery, the ability to plan, monitor, and control large portfolios of projects, and integration with ongoing core business operations.

At the level of an individual project, rigorous project management for IT services can bring numerous benefits, such as better decision-making, agility, and cost-efficiency in today’s competitive market.

While it’s still possible to deliver projects without formal methodologies (which many organizations still do), structured project management can help deliver value more cheaply, quickly, predictably, and with higher quality.

The effectiveness of project management can be enhanced even further through the right standards, skills, and tools — helping your organization manage individual projects in the context of a larger portfolio and ongoing business operations.