I think Richard raises a good point. The project is co-founded from the
beginning. A marriage of disciplines, both that of your business department,
and that of the IS department.

I have seen many projects 'managed' by managing the manager. It takes the
excellent communications skills that Richard suggests. The point is, who
takes ownership of the project?

Good luck, it would sound like your off to a rough start.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Gambrell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 6:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: IT Project Implementation

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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