Reaching Success through Best Project Management Practices
The Common IT Project Challenges and Best Practices
As indicated in the OPM3 article, the main challenges within IT projects is the issue of time and budgetary (Project Management Institute, n.d.). The article states that the consumers have created a mindset for late delivery of IT projects, especially government linked IT projects. Clark (2014) explains that IT projects should be undertaken based on stakeholder requirements. To control these challenges and improve performance, all the IT project team members should align themselves with the latest project management principles, credentials and other important IT project management tools. This would enhance customer confidence, trust, and working relationships with an IT project management firm, thereby, boosting team performance as well as restoring consumer confidence and trust.
Consequently, insufficient project mandate is another challenge of IT projects. A project mandate is a program blueprint that allows IT projects to recover in cases of risks and with an improperly defined project mandate, the IT projects do not recover. Besides, project mandates are important in all key decisions regarding the project, therefore, it should be documented together with its budgetary and communicated to all the project stakeholders and team.
Challenges that exist when working with Virtual Teams
From the article, the main challenge that exist when virtual teams are involved include low participation by some virtual team members, reduced decision-making speed, and a lower relationship time. Virtual teams are basically a group of employees interacting through electronic means to complete tasks across organizational, time, and space boundaries. This means that decisions are made and relayed via electronic channels when utilizing virtual teams due to the reduced physical contact between the team members (Lilian, 2014). This lower the speed through which decisions are made and relayed as the team waits for a member to receive the information, make suggestions, and get the feedback. This makes the process less effective and slow as compared to the one-on-one decision-making process.
Furthermore, virtual team members do not have enough time to create relationships as their interactions are mainly based on the project. Besides, they are based on distinct geographical locations, thus, it is extremely difficult to get the virtual team members together. This affects the durability of the team, thus, it is impossible for them to last longer.
Comparison between the Assessment Steps in OPM3 Model and the CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework.
In the OPM3 Model, project are conceived, organized, controlled, and implemented at the departmental level. The two model frameworks are not prescriptive on the summary and organization of the best IT project management practices. This is based on their 5 and 3 process level to maturity for CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework and OPM3 Models respectively as evident in Crosby’ assessment steps. Consequently, it is evident that the steps of both the frameworks build on each other, therefore, it is not possible for any of the process to skip foundational best practices.
They are both not specific to a particular industry of project management. They have patterns and extensions for specific usage. For instance, CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework has the IPPD extension and a risk management castellation in level 3 of the process, where the risks and the organizational process are defined. The OPM3 Model on the other hand, has the OPM3 survey in level 2 and 3, which helps analyze various project management metrics.
Third, they are dissimilar as OPM3 still aims to continuously improve the system while CMMI aims to optimize the system after the last phase of the model. OPM3 Model begins by first standardizing the project management process before measuring and controlling the measures. The CMMI framework on the hand, has an initial step before it is managed, defined, and qualitatively managed.
The key relationship between the maturity levels and the assessment steps in the CMMI Model is that in the assessment steps, the processes are measured against the project requirements, thereby, guiding the project management team through all the steps to maturity. This is possible since they help establish measurable, formal, and dependable IT development process. The main aim of CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework is to develop a solid project optimization process. The assessment steps helps build the foundation for the best optimization practice for the model, with each level beginning in the initial phase and then gradually developing to their maturity.
CMMI processes that can improve the productivity of virtual teams.
- Engineering. This process in the CMMI Project Management framework helps an organization’s virtual team to utilize Technical Solutions, Project Integration, and Requirement Development tools, thereby, allowing them to efficaciously stakeholder and project requirements for enhanced productivity.
- Project management. It is an important process for virtual teams as it allows them to utilize project planning and management and risk management tools in CMMI. This boost their project management capabilities, thus, enhancing productivity.
- Process management. In this process, virtual teams make use of OPM and OPP (Organizational Performance Management and Organizational Process Performance) tools, which are essential in streamlining projects for delivery success.
References
Clark, T. (2014). 4 Common IT Project Management Challenges and 4 Solutions. [Online] LiquidPlanner. Available at: https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/4-common-it-project-management-challenges-and-4-solutions/ [Accessed 25 January. 2020].
Project Management Institute. (n.d). OPM3® case study: OPM3 in Action: Pinellas County IT Turns Around Performance and Customer Confidence
Lilian, S. C. (2014). Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 110, 1251-1261.