What are the IT management best practices that go beyond the usual IT project management bodies of knowledge? How can project managers gain valuable support?
These questions were answered at the ISS Seminar: Beyond IT Project Management 2013 - Advanced IT Management Best Practices’, held on 3 July 2013. The seminar provided participants with a forum for knowledge sharing by experienced IT managers.
Opening the seminar, Goh Boon Nam, Chief of New Initiatives & Strategic Planning at ISS, welcomed IT Project Managers and IT professionals interested in upgrading their IT management skills. Stephen Barry, Regional Director of UXC Consulting, emphasised the continuing relationship between ISS and UXC Consulting as he announced the launch of UXC Consulting Asia Pte Ltd. Re-affirming their dedication to the industry, Nick Mescher, CEO of UXC Consulting, explained, “We are building up on infrastructure, applications business and consulting, where we enjoy taking these
specialisations to students across the region.
First row from left: Goh Boon Nam, Chief of New Initiatives & Strategic Planning, NUS-ISS; Nick Mescher, CEO of UXC Consulting, Australia; Harold Petersen, Director of Advisor, UXC Consulting; Stephen Berry, Regional Director of UXC Consulting
Second row from left: Yum Hui Yuen, Deputy Director, NUS-ISS; Samantha Cox, Senior Consultant, UXC Consulting; Krist Yong, Senior Consultant, UXC
Harold Petersen, Director of Advisor, UXC Consulting, spoke first on the advantages of managing beyond the project with Managing Successful Programmes (MSP). “Imagine looking at Marina Bay 20 years ago. What would you envisage? The Marina Bay Sands? The Singapore Flyer? For each and every initiative, there could have been a project. MSP gives you the flexibility you need to control your vision, even when you can’t specify all the details yet.”
Harold also expanded on Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O©). “P3O©. recommends that you set up a centre of excellence that supports your projects with templates, standards, coaching and training,” he enthused. “If you make it real for real people, you will see higher success rates and better achievements!”
Next, Goh Boon Nam covered how ITIL practices can complement project management capabilities. “A customer does not simply want to fix the problem; he or she wants to get on with his or her business,” he deduced. “If her printer malfunctions, redirect her to another printer before fixing the faulty printer. If her car breaks down, call her a cab and get her to the airport.”
Samantha Cox, Senior Consultant at UXC Consulting, engaged the audience with an in-depth look into the evolution of banking and technology with real-life examples. “Banking is no longer just about functionality; customers want to feel secure,” she said, before underlining the key aspects of security, compliance, resilience and scalability. “Anything that can be automated needs to be; because it’s a high cost not to automate,” Samantha shared.
Krist Yong, Senior Consultant at UXC, explored how IT service management and project management often overlap. “The project goal was to be a one-stop shop or a one contact-point of report across 32 countries – linking users to the service management tool,” Krist explained as he shared his experiences from the perspective of the PRojects IN Controlled Environments (Prince2®) project management methodology.
Goh Boon Nam closed the seminar with a summary on the full lifecycle of IT management from a COBIT perspective. “You can only manage what you can measure,” he concluded, homing in on the importance of ensuring that the IT of any enterprise is well run and has good alignment to the needs of the business.
We received good feedback from our participants on the seminar.
“I appreciate the effort to educate PMPs on the long-term, practical aspects of IT support in production, an aspect that is easily missed.”
Hui Wai Mun, IS Section Manager, Micron Semiconductor Asia Pte Ltd
“The breadth of content is good value for one morning.”
Tan Ting Yuan, IT Project Manager, Rolls-Royce Singapore
“Provided a good overview of the best IT practice available currently.”
Billy Tan, Lead Consultant, NCS Pte Ltd
This article is first published in NUS-ISS quarterly e-newsletter, Issue 3 (Jul-Sep 2013).