The IT project manager's overall responsibilities include defining the project scope, assigning resources, driving the project timeline and budget, and ensuring delivery. Day-to-day tasks involve morning meetings to discuss progress, issues, and tasks, as well as using communication tools like email. The project manager uses Microsoft Project and email/phone for project management. They use the PMBOK framework which provides a logical structure, though different frameworks may be suitable for different project types. A good project manager is able to successfully complete projects on time and budget, and also make difficult decisions about cancelling projects when needed.

1. ITC493 - Information Technology Project Management

2. Question 1.
 What are your overall responsibilities as
an IT project manager?

3.  My overall responsibilities are pretty much
controlling the project from beginning to end.
From meeting with the stakeholders to defining
the scope of the project, to getting a handle on
what resources from within the client business
we have at our disposal, to assigning tasks to
the different people at our disposal. Basically it
is driving the project bus, making sure we hit
all the stops, keep moving on time and on
budget, getting the most from the passengers
on board and arriving at the pre determined
destination.

5.  What day to day tasks does an IT
project manager carry out?
Question 2.

6.  The day to day tasks can vary according to the project at
hand, but generally speaking once the project gets the go-
ahead the day will normally begin with a morning meeting
with as many team members as possible to discuss
progress, report on issues, and to confirm tasks
completed. Things change, and things certainly don’t
always go to plan despite everyone’s best intentions so it
is at the daily meetings where red flags can be raised to
communicate to the team when things have gone off track
or are about to. As well as the various meetings, email is
an important tool which is used to communicate the day to
day of the project. Communication is probably the
lynchpin to the project. Communicating what is actually
required to the team from the project sponsor and
stakeholders and communicating progress or the lack of it
within the team as the project develops

7.  What project management tools have
you used in the past week?
Question 3.

8.  Pretty much I use Microsoft’s Project
exclusively. I would probably consider
email and an iPhone to be project
management tools as well to be honest.

9.  What framework (methodology) do you
generally use and why?
Question 4.

10.  The framework used would best be
described as PMBOK I suppose. It is the
one I have trained in and used routinely.
I am aware of other methodologies
including Prince for example, but once
you get your head around PMBOK it is a
very logical way of structuring how
things should be done.

11.  Does choice of framework
(methodology) have an impact on
project success?
Question 5.

12.  I think that generally speaking the
PMBOK is pretty much the way to go
with generalised IT projects. I haven’t
used the prince methodology so I cant
say if it would lead to a better success
rate, but obviously we aren’t going to
use more appropriate for software
development when undertaking a server
upgrade.

13.  What is the difference between a good
(successful) IT project manager and an
average IT project manager?
Question 6.

14.  Obviously completing the scoped project
on time and on budget more often than not
would help. Sometimes though a project
can be completed for a host of reasons and
the ability to see that project cancellation is
the best or only option is something which
needs foresight and bravery. The ability to
make that difficult decision and not
continue on blindly hoping would separate
good project managers from average ones.