The roles and duties of IT project management depend greatly on the maturity of other IT processes. For example, if no change management process exists then project management must “pick up the slack” and, for each project, identify how to move deliverables into production. However, for project managers and project teams, they often do not notice these other processes are missing and they can become frustrated that projects require so much work that seems immaterial to the task at hand: defining access policies, for example, or training the Service Desk. At the same time, the role and expectations of project managers and project teams will vary wildly over time as related processes are developed and improved. Project management maturity is also dependent on other processes: an immature request intake process can limit portfolio management’s predictive ability, for example. One way of thinking about project management is it ends up being the “process of last resort”–project management will get the work done (somehow), even if no other processes exist. Project management is often the first IT management process that departments consciously build, and can be a key source of ideas for process improvement.

2. John Borwick, PMP®
 Wake Forest University, 2003-
2012
 Director of Service Mgt
 PMO Director
 Manager/Owner,
HEIT Management
Career goal: Make people’s lives
easier by improving how higher
education IT is managed.
johnb@heitmgt.com

3. Higher Education IT
Management, LLC
“Helping Higher Education IT effectively deliver
value to campus while minimizing waste.”
 One-on-one coaching
 Custom engagements
 Blog
http://www.heitmanagement.com

4. IT Project Management
in Context

5. COBIT 5: 37 IT processes

6. COBIT 5: 37 IT processes
 APO02 Manage Strategy
 APO07 Manage Human Resources
 APO10 Manage Suppliers
 BAI01 Manage Programmes and Projects
 DSS04 Manage Continuity

7. (Some) IT Domains of
Knowledge
Project/Program/Portfolio
Management
IT Service Management
(e.g. ITIL)
Software Development
Lifecycle (e.g. Scrum)
Enterprise
Architecture
IT Governance IT Security Management
(e.g. ISO 27002)

8. PPM Maturity
Project/Program/Portfolio
Management
IT Service Management
(e.g. ITIL)
Software Development
Lifecycle (e.g. Scrum)
Enterprise
Architecture
IT Governance IT Security Management
(e.g. ISO27002)
• Project charters, scope statements, WBSes
• Risk management plan, …
• Program management, program charters
• Portfolio management, project costs vs.
value
• Project scorecards
• Project benefits realization
• Resource management

9. ITSM Maturity
Project/Program/Portfolio
Management
IT Service Management
(e.g. ITIL)
Software Development
Lifecycle (e.g. Scrum)
Enterprise
Architecture
IT Governance IT Security Management
(e.g. ISO27002)
• Service Portfolio Management
• Service Level Management
• Change Management
• Release Management
• Service Request Management
• Continual Service Improvement
• …

10. (Some) IT Domains of
Knowledge
Project/Program/Portfolio
Management
IT Service Management
(e.g. ITIL)
Software Development
Lifecycle (e.g. Scrum)
Enterprise
Architecture
IT Governance IT Security Management
(e.g. ISO 27002)

11. What does project
management look like
when you don’t have all
these processes?

12. Example:
(ITIL) Release Management
 Groups changes into releases
 Manages from development to production
E.g.
 For low/medium priority server changes:
 First Saturday of the month: development
 Second Saturday of the month: test
 Third Saturday of the month: production

13. Process maturity
 Level 1: Initial/Ad Hoc
 Level 2: Repeatable
 Level 3: Defined
 Level 4: Managed
 Level 5: Optimized

14. Process maturity
 Level 0: Unaware
 Level 1: Initial/Ad Hoc
 Level 2: Repeatable
 Level 3: Defined
 Level 4: Managed
 Level 5: Optimized

15. What value does project
management provide?

16. What value does project
management provide?
John B’s answer:
Within defined
constraints, project
management creates
certainty from uncertainty.

17. What is your request intake
process?
Initial
request
Something
broken?
Help Desk
ticket
“Routine”
change?
Help Desk
ticket ??
Otherwise
Project
management

18. What is your request intake
process?
Initial
request
Something
broken?
Help Desk
ticket
“Routine”
change?
Help Desk
ticket ??
Otherwise
Project
management
We need to create
certainty from
uncertainty.

19. What is your request intake
process?
Initial
request
Something
broken?
Help Desk
ticket
“Routine”
change?
Help Desk
ticket ??
Otherwise
Project
management
Incident
Management
Service Request
Management
Bunch o’
Processes e.g.
Change
Mgt, Release
Mgt, SDLC

20. Assuming work gets
completed either way, the
higher the threshold for work
becoming a project, the more
mature your IT delivery
processes.

21. Takeaways: Using this
context to develop IT
project management

22. Awareness of other IT
processes
 What processes don’t exist?
 Who can become the expert?
Think: Continual Service Improvement manager

23. Watch your “triggers”
 Trigger = an event that starts a process
 What are your triggers for project
management?
 How much does your process cost to trigger?

24. Work should be a
“project” only if project
management is valuable

25. Create process feedback
loops
Open-Loop
Process
Closed-Loop
ProcessINPUTS OUTPUTS
OUTPUTSINPUTS
Feedback
Loop

26. Look for process
improvements
 Identify IT process improvements
 What IT process improvements would most
help project management?
 Note: difficult to decide when building a new
process is worthwhile

27. John Borwick
johnb@heitmgt.com