If you are exploring a professional career in the IT industry, you may be interested to learn about the available jobs in IT project management. Over the course of their careers, developers and engineers who work their way up through the ranks in the Information Technology field often consider the profession of IT Project Manager to be the pinnacle of achievement.
What is IT Project Management?
IT Project Management involves planning, organizing and allocating resources to accomplish the information technology goals of an organization. The overarching discipline of Project Management encompasses several disciplines, including construction, transportation, information technology and logistics management. As a subset of professional project management, IT Project Managers specifically focus on software and technical infrastructure projects. The IT Project Manager may be employed by government agencies, non-profit organizations or large enterprises, and most IT Project Managers work on a contract basis.
The IT Project Management Process
Successful IT project managers are able to see and plan the “big picture” in IT projects. They identify the scope of each project by specifying what will and will not be included as deliverables once the project has concluded. In other words, the project manager takes the requirements from the project stakeholders (those who are responsible for the project’s funding as well as those who will be using the project’s deliverables) and defines the limits of the work to be done to achieve the stakeholders’ goals.
The IT project manager is responsible for allocating resources to achieve the objectives of the stakeholders while staying within the constraints of the budget they are provided. The project manager may play a large role in defining the funding contracts and the project budget, or he may be assigned the oversight task once the budget is established by the organization and the contracts are ratified.
The IT project manager develops the project timeline by identifying measurable milestones, or goals, that are utilized to mark identifiable levels of achievement. Based on what is expected from the project (deliverables), the project manager identifies resources, both personnel/skills and hardware, that the project will require to achieve the end goals. The project manger then determines and assigns specific tasks and deadlines to each human resource. Finally, the project manager tracks the progress of the human resources, and regularly communicates the project’s progress, as well as any roadblocks or issues, to the stakeholders.
The Project Management Institute
The most significant organization for those aspiring to jobs in IT project management is the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI offers various certifications, the most significant one for IT project managers is the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate. There are no hard and fast educational requirements for sitting for the PMP certification examination, however, many candidates have achieved significant success in the IT field and/or advanced degrees. The PMP test is very challenging and requires significant preparation to learn the language and concepts of professional project management. Certified Project Management Professionals (PMPs) must renew their certifications every three years by fulfilling requirements specified by PMI. Certified PMPs are listed on the PMI website so companies and other project managers can verify the status of each PMP’s certification.
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To prepare for a job in IT project management, study the requirements for the PMP examination on the PMI website, master the study materials for the PMP exam and communicate with those who have achieved success in the IT project management field.
