Managing IT projects : the case for consolidating and developing a body of knowledge

Effective and efficient Project Management (PM) is vital to delivering successful Information Technology (IT) projects. This requires a sound knowledge of management processes that deliver successful projects. Historically, IT projects have a reputation for higher failure rates, resulting in billions of dollars of financial losses. Like any other project, IT projects do follow the typical project lifecycle and need to be executed as projects. But the particular context and special nature of these projects must be carefully factored in by a successful IT project manager. IT projects are often special because these deal with technologies often with a short shelf life, cut across many and seemingly unknown or unanticipated stakeholders, have multiple dependencies on other projects, and are often rapidly executed with a vague initial scope. It is, therefore, important and timely to develop a body of knowledge on IT PM that would help project managers to understand and improve their present practices. This book aims to initiate the development of this special body of knowledge in IT PM, also learning from relevant experiences from other sectors, such as construction, where PM is well established and successfully practised.