Admittedly, the modern competitive world makes companies reduce budgets. Companies have to develop products in less time using fewer resources (Project Management Institute, 2011). Different companies address these problems differently.
Agere Systems made several successful decisions that enabled the company reduce budgets significantly (Marchewka, 2009). One of these decisions was to involve the business units. Thus, Agere managed to obtain comprehensive information from various departments which enabled them to prioritize projects. This, in its turn, led to proper allocation of resources both financial and human resources.
It is important to note that the tools used to develop proper plans could not meet an important requirement. The tools could not prioritize projects, which was extremely important in terms of budget tightening. Executives could not make proper decisions as they did not see the complete picture.
However, involvement of business units enabled the executives to obtain the necessary information. Such integration also enabled unites to share responsibilities concerning IT portfolio. This positively affected project management in the company.
Business unites could provide comprehensive information on on-going projects. Every project could be analyzed in terms of its efficiency and cost. Basically, this information is enough when prioritizing projects.
It is important to note that involvement of business units was also an effective strategy as these units could be more precise when developing their projects. Thus, every unit tried to make projects efficient. Every project was also analyzed in terms of its “fitness” to the company’s objectives. This precision contributed greatly to the quality of project management in the company.
Many researchers claim that using a project management software tool is beneficial in many cases (Marchewka, 2009; Project Management Institute, 2011; Schwalbe, 2010; Wysocki, 2011). Such tools can help project managers develop a thorough plan on the basis of some information. Admittedly, these tools save a lot of time as project managers should simply key in certain information.
Thus, when it comes to some project which is not crucial for the company or the projects which do not involve many stages, project management software tools are irreplaceable (Schwalbe, 2010). These tools can help project managers to create a proper plan in a short period of time. It is also important to note that this can help project managers to focus on more important projects.
However, when it comes to more difficult projects, i.e. projects which require analysis of considerable amount of data and prioritizing, project management software tools cannot be enough. Thus, Wysocki (2011) claims that it can be more effective to use more conventional tools like discussions or even moving “sticky notes across a whiteboard” (p. 154).
In fact, when tackling voluminous projects, it can be effective to combine the two types of project management tools (software and manual). It is also important to note that project managers should be really precise when using software tools. For instance, Schwalbe (2010) provides several examples when project managers made mistakes which led to poor projects.
It is essential to key in all the necessary data and to reveal ties between different stages and minor projects (Schwalbe, 2010). It is also necessary to check on the plan provided. It can be effective to launch some sort of discussion involving executives, units’ representatives, and project management specialists. Thus, it is important to choose the most appropriate strategies and tools when developing important projects.
Reference List
Marchewka, J.T. (2009). Information technology project management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Project Management Institute. (2011). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Schwalbe, K. (2010). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Wysocki, R.K. (2011). Effective project management: Traditional, agile, extreme. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons.