Take the uncertainty out of IT projects—every step of the way.

Effective IT Project Management gives you a complete blueprint for overseeing every step of your projects, from initial planning to completion. You’ll learn a proven system for planning and executing IT projects all the way through the project management life cycle, and get important insight into the overall responsibilities and goals of a product team.

Giving you indispensable tools to help you make informed decisions and focus your time and efforts for maximum impact, the book outlines, in detail, every step of the project life cycle:

Phase One
Project Concept: Propose new project ideas and align the project with the strategic direction of the organization. Once approval is granted, produce a project road map.

Phase Two
Project Design: Assemble a core team of people responsible for developing the project. Establish a schedule and estimate costs.

Phase Three
Project Development: Develop the project, making sure that all documented requirements are satisfied using a strict verification process. Begin to develop user manuals.

Phase Four
Quality Assurance: Deliver the finished product and user manuals to the Quality Assurance Group, and ensure that the product meets all specifications. Then, develop a marketing launch plan.

Phase Five
Beta: Send the project to a select group of users to test the product in a commercial environment. Monitor the process and continue to fix bugs.

Phase Six
Release: Prepare for full support of the project, and establish user training.

Phase Seven
General Availability: Put the project in use and train users. Manage the daily use of the project. Establish a yearly phase review to measure the project’s continuing effectiveness.

Phase Eight
End of Life: Later in time, review the project history. Consider the current benefits and expenses, and decide whether to discontinue the project’s use.

Simply written and containing in-depth analysis for beginners and advanced project managers alike, the book breaks the entire project down into easily understandable steps, making it simple to manage and keeping you and your team from becoming overwhelmed in the face of complex challenges. Packed with examples, explanations, and indispensable information, Effective IT Project Management is a practical, one-stop resource that will help you take the uncertainty out of IT projects.

Effective IT Project Management takes you step-by-step through the completion of an IT project, showing you how to plan, implement, manage, and organize both simple and complicated hardware and software projects. Using a project management life cycle approach in line with the methods espoused by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), you’ll learn indispensable tips for how to:

• Organize the project
• Establish the scope
• Calculate both expected and hidden costs and risks
• Design the work breakdown structure
• Manage the implementation team
• Evaluate different possible solutions
• Create a working Product Requirement Document (PRD), Design Document, and other important, measurable forms

The book provides a complete system for successfully completing any type of IT project on time and under budget. By following the processes outlined in the book, you’ll discover simple procedures for setting schedules, overcoming difficult challenges, getting new team members on board quickly, designating roles and responsibilities, establishing budgets, and measuring each stage of the project management life cycle.

Keeping the big picture in view while illustrating how to divide complex tasks into manageable chunks, Effective IT Project Management guides you all the way through the project, from establishing a team, to producing a schedule, anticipating hidden costs, creating required documents, developing user manuals, overseeing quality assurance, and monitoring the project in a commercial environment.

Filled with proven strategies that will help simplify even the most complicated IT project, Effective IT Project Management is a complete blueprint for achieving IT project success.

Anita Rosen has more than 20 years’ experience in IT project management. She has worked for companies including Alta Vista, Oracle, Netscape, Novell, AT&T, and IBM. She is the author of The E-Commerce Question and Answer Book. She lives in Mt. View, California.