IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (33 page)

Some companies may choose to set up special “
chargeback codes
” for projects so that it’s easier to track the total costs. This is especially true for very large projects. This means that other departmental budgets aren’t impacted by the project, and it also presents a convenient way to track the project’s costs. Then again, when such a special code exists (sometimes jokingly referred to as a “slush fund”), it can be very tempting to use it for items that have only a tangential relationship to the project. For smaller projects, individual departments may be instructed to “eat” the costs as part of their regular budget. It’s important that you know how upper management wants to pay for the costs associated with your project so that there are no surprises and that your project doesn’t make enemies among other department heads at the same time you’re trying to develop allies.

Justifying the Costs

No matter who initiated the project, sooner or later you’re going to have to defend the costs. If you’re the one who initiated the idea for the project, you may have to justify the project even before you know the costs. The most efficient means of justifying your costs is to try to show a clear Return on Investment (ROI) for your project. For example, if you wanted to implement a pool of shared printers, you could easily justify the costs by demonstrating that the company will no longer have to pay for individual printers at each desk and workstation. Keep in mind that justifying the costs is usually very closely aligned with justifying the project. Very often, when trying to justify the costs, you have to look no further than the project objective and its justification to find what you need.

Often, the justification may consist of a variety of intangibles that are hard to quantify. In the printer pool example used earlier, you could also cite that it would simplify the inventorying of toner and spare replacements parts.

First, here is a list of the more tangible benefits:

•
Improved productivity and efficiencies (faster and/or less expensive)

•
Reduced costs (fewer dollars/resources needed to accomplish the same task)

•
Increased revenue

•
Meeting changing demands of the marketplace

•
Less waste (materials, time, resources)

•
Reduced head count (in these more politically correct times, it’s better to phrase this in more sensitive terms: “reallocation of existing staff to other company areas” or “eliminate the need to add to staff”)

•
Compliance with legislative regulations (tax laws, environmental issues, safety regulations, etc.)

Next is a list of the less tangible benefits:

•
Increased advantage over competition

•
Improved customer relations

•
Better company/product/brand awareness

•
Higher quality

•
Improved staff morale

•
Greater convenience (for staff, customers, business partners)

Both of these lists can come in handy when defining your project charter. Think of the project’s justification as the answer you give to people when they ask, “Why should we do this?” and later when they ask, “Why are we doing this?”, and finally when they ask “Why did we do this?”

4.11 Multiple Projects: How to Juggle Them Well

You Will Have Multiple Projects

There are some IT Managers who work on a single project 40 hours a week, but they are the exception. Almost every manager, and certainly almost everyone in IT doing project management, has to juggle multiple projects. Some may be small, some may be due later in the year, but almost everyone is juggling more than one project. You may decide that an enterprise project management tool (discussed on
page 118
of this chapter) is the sort of thing you need to help manage multiple projects.

Prioritize by Time and Money

Some projects are huge. “Huge” depends on the size of your organization, of course, but if they need 75 percent of your time, be clear to yourself and others that this is where you’ll be spending most of your time and effort.

Sorting tasks by time is a common technique: if you have a relatively low priority task that is due tomorrow but a high-value task that is due in two months, you can accomplish both by doing the lower priority one first. But that is the simple case. More often the problem is juggling two competing projects, both “due yesterday.” You’ll become a radically better manager of projects if you can take situations like this and convert them to your advantage: evaluate each project and determine which one has the highest priority. Make that determination and act clearly upon it.

Prioritize by Politics

Why kid around? Some projects are simply more important because they are politically more important. If your boss wants all of his executives to have webcams, you are going to do this before you install the new network printer downstairs. Be clear about your tasks and tell your boss about your other priorities; often they won’t care, but sometimes they’ll adjust their needs when informed of your conflicts—the new network printer required downstairs may be for a department he’s trying to appease.

4.12 Dealing with Non-IT Departments on a Project

It’s important to remember that IT is a service organization: it exists not to test out the latest hardware and software (although that is definitely a perk), but to provide computing capabilities to other groups within the company.

Working with other groups in the company is inevitably going to mean having non-IT members on a project. In that situation, three basic issues will arise: how do you motivate individuals you aren’t managing, which department is in charge, and how do we charge our time?

Motivating Employees outside of Your Department

This situation isn’t always a problem: most project members are willing and capable performers. Many see the task defined, see their roles as part of the bigger picture, and perform admirably.

Others, however, do not. Also, employees that don’t play well with others are hardly unique to IT-managed projects. There are two actions you can take in this situation: emphasize the company’s overall goals to that individual (“when this project wins, we all win”) and, if more drastic measures are required, speak privately with the person’s manager. If more direct managerial actions are required to get the desired employee performance, let the correct manager handle the situation. You wouldn’t want some other manager “handling” your employees.

Who Is in Charge?

Some projects will never resolve this issue, but most will. And you can save everyone a lot of headaches by addressing this issue as quickly as possible. Bring the point up in the introductory meetings, at the funding meetings, and at the kick-off meeting. Get the issue settled as fast as possible.

One common scenario is one department (e.g., IT) working with another (e.g., Sales). Both departments have vested interests in the success of the project and the time and money investments are the same. But one of the department heads has a much more domineering personality; this individual is very vocal about his needs and those of his department.

If you find yourself in this situation,
from the beginning
you must be clear to your team members, his team members, and the two or three people up the ladder that you both report to that this will be a 50–50 project in terms of decisions. When you’re clear to everyone about that, be clear that you will “go upstairs” as required, and the people upstairs know it and everyone on the team knows it.

4.13 Further References

Websites

www.ca.com/us/project-portfolio-management.aspx
. [enterprise project management tool vendor].

www.hp.com
. [enterprise project manager tool vendor].

www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/portfolio
. [enterprise project manager tool vendor].

software.isixsigma.com/newsletter
. [Six Sigma—quality control implementation methodology].

www.kforgeproject.com
. [web-based project management tool].

www.mercury.com/us/products/it-governance-center/projectmanagement
. [enterprise project management tool vendor].

www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/solutions.aspx
. [enterprise project management tool vendor].

www.oracle.com/us/solutions/project-management/index.html
. [enterprise project management tool vendor].

www.planview.com
. [enterprise project management tool vendor].

www.pmi.org
. [Project Management Institute].

www.redmine.com
. [web-based project management tool].

www.tenrox.com
. [web-based project management tool].

Books and Articles

Berkun S, (2008).
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management
. O’Reilly Media.

Brooks F, (1995).
The Mythical Man-Month
. Addison-Wesley Professional.

Geracie G, (2010).
Take Charge Product Management
. Actuation Press.

Kendrick T, (2010).
The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right
. Amacom.

Marchewka JT, (2009).
Information Technology Project Management
. Wiley.

Philips J, (2010).
IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish
. third ed. McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.

Project Management Institute , (2008).
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: Pmbok Guide
. Project Management Institute.

Roberts P, (2011).
Effective Project Management: Identify and Manage Risks; Plan and Budget; Keep Projects under Control
. Kogan Page.

Simon , Bruce , Webster , Phil F, (2010).
Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects
. Course Technology PTR.

Swanborg R, (2011). Winning Ways to Project Success.
CIO Magazine
. [August 1].

Wysocki RK, (2009).
Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile
. Wiley: Extreme;.

Chapter 5

Software, Operating Systems, and Enterprise Applications

A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different
from what you had in mind.

Joseph Weizenbaum, Artificial Intelligence Pioneer

Chapter table of contents

5.1
Types of Software

5.2
Operating Systems

5.3
Open Source

5.4
Managing Software

5.5
Cloud Computing

5.6
Enterprise Applications

5.7
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

5.8
Further References

Although software has never been a simple item to categorize, these days there are many more types of software and many more methods of managing them. This chapter discusses some of the major types software: operating systems (OS), database management systems,
enterprise applications
, business applications,
middleware
, productivity tools, utilities, and security. It talks about how to manage them successfully (including purchasing, management, licensing, and tracking), as well as computing in the cloud.

5.1 Types of Software

In general, software is categorized according to its use.

•
Database Management Systems
(DBMS):
Data are the heart and soul of IT, and its most valuable asset. While all data are in a database, a DBMS is used for administering data. The DBMS is the interface to the database and can control access, maintain integrity to minimize corruption, adjust the structure of the database to match changing business needs, perform transaction processing (Online Transaction Processing;
OLTP
), and generate reports (Online Analytical Processing; OLAP). Enterprise DBMS solutions include MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft's SQL Server, and IBM's DB2. There are also small-scale DBMS offerings such as Microsoft's Access and FileMaker Pro.