Al wrote:
>
> I am interested to know as to what department is responsible for IT
> software project implementation in an organiastion. Should it be the IS
> or someone from the user departments. I am having this debate in my
> company saying that once a third party package has been agreed by a user
> department, the IS should be responsible for its implementation. The
> user department's role on the other hand should be training of the new
> package for their staff. But the business manager of the department
> concerned insists that he should be in charge of implementation. Any
> ideas how it works in your organisation or any others?
>

I'm assuming you mean implementation of commercial vendor software and not
in-house development.

Successful software implementation take cooperation. A *lot* of
cooperation between IT and the functional/user department.  Either can be
"in charge" if they understand the other's needs, *listen well*, and have
the all necessary cooperation.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it sounds like your
implementation is already off to the wrong start.  Try to share your
concerns and get the business manager to share his (her?) - what do you
fear going wrong, what kind of time will project management take, etc.

On balance, I'd say the importance of IT project management depends on
just how *technical* the implementation really is.  Some software
implementation depends heavily on user understanding and others depend on
a good deal of technical IT work to adequately support or interface the
new system. In either case, close cooperation and a lot of hard work are
key.

Also bear in mind that even the best managed software implementation
projects can and do fail - a lot also depends on the software and vendor.
Talking about the real risks and challenges to be faced is a good way to
get started.

> Thanks
> Al


--
Richard L Gambrell
Database Administrator and
Consultant to Computing Services at UTC

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