Project Advice for 2008

Advice for the new year includes building better business cases and planning for the organizational changes needed to operate new business processes enabled by technology implementations. ...

... "If your business case can't stand up to careful scrutiny and evaluation, then it's highly likely the project will experience significant downstream problems. " ...

Via ZDNet: Five Tips for IT success in 2008

Plan and Estimate using Agile

Agile techniques are not just for small projects. ...

Resource Planning for Project Success

IT services organization, Parity, sees resource planning as an opportunity to position projects for success. Their whitepaper offers advice that includes a thorough planning period, setting appropriate resource durations to support sourcing arrangements, and a disciplined approach to recruiting project talent. They see shortages in skilled IT resources as a strategic challenge confronting the IT space. ...

... "Failure to get IT resource requirements mapped out adequately is undermining the chances of IT projects succeeding and raises the risk of projects going over time and budget warns Parity ... " ...

Via Parity: Inadequate resource planning puts projects at risk

Enterprise Architecture Comes to Forefront

David Linthicum, an author and respected expert on integration, shares thoughts on the importance of a well-planned enterprise architecture and leveraging architects to develop a sustainable roadmap. ...

... "If investors hold management accountable for accounting irregularities and missed sales, then lost dollars around the ineffectiveness of IT can't be far behind. Thus, the ability to maintain effective and agile enterprise architecture is indeed a corporate responsibility ... " ...

Via InfoWorld: SOA

Project Planning for Scale

Server stress tests. Network utilization tests. Plan for scalability accordingly on your IT projects. ...

... "First, every IT project takes twice as long as you expect. Don't let any IT guys tell you otherwise and, if you're the IT guy, plan accordingly. " ...

Via ZDNet: Scalability

Steer Your Plan

Business planning requires routine schedule updates. Sound familiar? ...

... "Set up schedules for frequent review. Your plan will change. Your assumptions will be wrong. Your plan will be wrong. " ...

Via Tim Berry, Huffington Post: Business Planning

Seasonality in Project Resource Plans

Wishing you a nice holiday this summer ... don't forget to update your resource plans. ...

... "Kevin Fitzpatrick, CIO at Sodexho U.K., said plans are often made irrespective of the fact so many key people will be away. " ...

Via ZDNet Asia: Summer impact on IT projects

Quality is Job One

Who said that? ... What is the right balance of quality, schedule, and budget on an IT project? It's situational. Just know which one is most important and plan accordingly. ...

... "Quality happens only when careful planning is done, when the entire project team maintains a quality-conscious approach every step of the way, and when problems don't escape from the phase in which they were introduced. " ...

Via CIO: Software Quality Control