| Leading IT training company Xpertise has announced the addition of three new project-management courses to its portfolio. These skills are much needed within the IT community, says Xpertise, to resolve recurrent issues which mean that IT projects often fail to meet their original objectives.
With the majority of investment in IT being in large projects and technology implementation, you would think that project management would be high on organisations' agendas, yet research firm Forrester says that about two-thirds of major IT projects actually fail to deliver some of their original objectives, with more than a quarter of IT projects failing totally.
It's easy to blame technology or to assume that the benefits of the new technology were originally oversold, but that's usually not the case. Research by The Coverdale Organisation found that the most important factors determining success or failure for IT projects are not IT-specific or technical issues. The actual problems lie with the way in which people work together to deliver the project. The biggest issues are often communications, leadership and clarity of purpose. According to Coverdale's research, the most common project problems lie with the project-management process itself.
Bob Bradley, chief executive of Xpertise, believes that IT professionals often have to undertake complex project-management roles, without having adequate training or skills. "It's now being recognised that excellence in IT skills is not enough to ensure project success. What's needed is equal excellence in project management. The majority of organisations' IT spend - and certainly almost all of the spend associated with strategic plans - is focused on large-scale projects and technology implementation. As the projects are technical, the role of project manager often falls to the IT team. However, the project-management skills within these teams often fall short of those required to deliver the project on time and within budget. The end result is that the solution isn't as effective as predicted, is delivered late or just doesn't work. Technology gets the blame, but, in many cases, the fault lies in the way in which the project was managed. IT teams are being asked to perform highly complex roles, often with great responsibility, but they haven't had the training required to enable them to do it with confidence."
For this reason, says Bradley, Xpertise has announced a range of project management courses aimed at IT professionals.
Xpertise's courses fit into two categories. The first course (Introduction to Project Management) is designed to teach the fundamentals of project management, without using a specific project-management method/methodology. This course is designed for those project and team managers with responsibility for almost any form of business project, including IT projects. The second category has two courses (Prince2 Foundation and Prince2 Practitioner), aimed at those people and organisations which want to use the recognised industry-standard project-management methodology: Prince2. This is especially useful for those organisations which insist that projects be run using Prince2 as the project methodology - which includes government organisations (such as local health trusts, county councils and the UK's criminal justice service).
The Prince2 courses are provided in partnership with Benchmark Ltd - an authorised training organisation for the delivery of project-management and Prince2 courses.
Xpertise believes that project management is a key skill for IT professionals - and that anyone responsible for major projects, IT implementations and application development should have this as a core skill alongside his/her technical abilities.
"When you consider that many IT projects disappoint, or even fail, you must look at the reasons why," says Bill Walker, training projects director at Xpertise. "When you consider how important these IT projects often are - shaping an organisation's future fortunes - then it puts the need for these skills into perspective. Unsuccessful projects have been known to cost organisations hundreds of thousands - or even millions - of pounds, all for the want of a few days' training. IT projects and teams are shaping organisations' futures - they need more than just IT skills. Xpertise's courses can really help organisations to get projects completed on time and within budget - they're a sound investment which will pay back their cost many times over."
Xpertise's courses will be available from September - the company is accepting enquiries and bookings now. |