Project Management and Presented at Southeast Regional Conferences

Dashboards help inform the end-user community of progress on major IT initiatives and also help the IT community keep focused on the status of less intensive projects. Dashboard interface uses can range from an individual campus-wide initiative dashboard to a one showing multiple projects occurring simultaneously. A dashboard not only can enhance a website's visual appeal, but it can also give project managers (and IT and other campus leaders) information at a glance that helps them understand the current status of the IT organization's priorities and its future direction.

For the past two years, Georgia State University's Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) has been building a portfolio of projects. With over 40 ongoing projects, IS&T needed to prioritize projects to ensure the appropriate resources are applied to meet deadlines. Over the course of the process, many changes to strategy and the ranking format were made to arrive at the current model. This seminar will demonstrate how IS&T prioritizes projects and determines resource planning for those projects. The session will also cover the methodology and tools used.

Managing, documenting, and controlling service activities is one of the biggest issues facing an IT organization. Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) within the University of Georgia approached the problem by implementing the Clarity Portfolio and Project Management tool and adapting it to meet the needs of both project and service management. We will discuss the process we used to determine the activities our organization is accomplishing and to implement a tool to capture data to document those activities and help plan for the future.

This presentation will focus on the development of the Project Management Office at Georgia State University and discuss how a PMO can improve customer communication and the success rate of project completion in an organization.

Every IT organization must manage projects. In fact, our clients (customers) base much of their evaluation of IT on how well projects are managed. In this seminar, we will address managing single projects of all sizes, as well as how the IT organization can better manage its slate of projects. We will interactively discuss project management concepts and techniques, emphasizing practical solutions to the most common reasons given for project failures. Our exercises will provide an immediate opportunity to put what we discuss into practice, to experience first-hand well-managed projects and learn to use each project to improve the next one. This project management approach is grounded in theory that emphasizes both research and practice. Project management sites at the University of Memphis will illustrate how these basic principles can be applied in ways that help organizations plan and execute projects to ensure their success for the entire enterprise.

This presentation was also given at the Southwest Regional Conference 2004.