Managing an IT Department with Project

[Andrew Foote]

I am an IT Manager recently promoted to CIO. I have always used Project to
manage discrete projects, but have struggled to find a way to utilise it to
keep tabs on all the activities a busy internal IT function undertakes. The
need to do this in my new role is more pressing then ever. My IT division
does development and maintenance on in-house core business apps, dev and
maintenance on applications developed for our customers (both windows and
web) and technical support for all of this. We have a combination of
"projects" and day-to-day development tasks, peppered with dynamic ad-hoc
change requests to meet changing business requirements, the ability of which
is a key component of our business strategy and success.

I am interested to find put how others in this or similiar scenarios utilise
project to keep tabs on multiple projects and tasks of this nature and get
that top-level view to keep things under control and avoid feeling
overwhelmed.

thanx

 

[Rick Roszko]

Okay, sounds like you need MS Project Server to load all of your projects in
one centralized database.

Caveat, I don't work for Microsoft but I am a MS Project Server Consultant,
so keep that in mind when deciding what to do (meaning, I like MS Project
Server, but it's not an easy tool to use for the uninitiated)!

MS Project Sever will give you a central database with all of your resources
in your entire department and you can have all of your PMs load the plans
onto the server.

That was the easy part. The difficult part is, you need someone really
knowledgeable to install Project Server. That's not enough. You need a
really good hands on Project Manager (I don't mean a PMP, they won't help
here) who know MS Project and how to manage projects "using" MS Project
Server with MS Project. It's not cheap. You need to buy an MS Project
Server 2003 license. You need to buy the more expensive MS Project 2003
Professional for each and every single project manager. All resources can
use Internet Explorer to access their data; but each and every single user
nees a CAL (Client Access License). Then, you need to really really train
your PMs well, or they can really create problems. You need a really sharp
MS Project Server Administrator (not same as Windows Administrator, but it
helps!) Oh, and you need a minimum of 2 dedicated servers, one for IIS and
one for SQL (and the associated licenses for that, of course...)

Okay, do you want to go for MS Project Server 2003 or Microsoft' next
version of Project Server which is coming out (we think, best guess) at the
end of this year? Don't know. If you do get 2003, make sure you get
software assurance so you don't have to pay for the new version when it comes
out! Some info:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010254871033.aspx

 

[Tina S]

Project is great for managing your development and maintenance. However, for
technical support you will have better luck using another tool, such as a
Case Management system. Remedy comes to mind, but it is expensive. There is
also Clarify (not sure if this is still being used in the industry) for
tracking support cases and then enhancement activity (good in a product
company) There are also small scale web applications like Elementool.com.
These types of tools will help with the 3 day duration, 8 hour effort
activities performed as support. You can get reporting from them on cases
solved weekly and time to resolve. This is more of what you will be looking
for as a CIO.

Personally, I have found that combining MS-Project with a Support tool the
best approach to overall management of IT resources and tasks.

 

[Michele]

I have to offer my recommendation to use Project Server as Rick suggested.
Once installed and set up, it makes managing multiple schedules and keeping
track of resources a breeze!