DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH TEC
IT Projects have a very high rate of failure. It is the responsibility of the IT project manager to ensure the success of the project. For a project manager to be both effective and efficient at their job they must possess the appropriate qualities and skills. Failure of an IT project as a result of poor project management can result from the lack of management of the various constraints on the projects. There can be many factors that can contribute to this, but ultimately it is the role of the project manager to assess and allocate the resources such as time, cost and staff skills accordingly. In assessing the success of the project managers' role, it is considered necessary to use qualitative and quantitative research techniques together, rather than either of them alone. To support this argument, two journal articles which be reviewed to show the benefit of both research techniques, but in particular, that the success of IT project management can not be assessed with qualitative measures. The two articles selected to address the essay topic in relation to the practice of information technology project management are attached at Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. The first article is entitled 'No More IT Projects'
In evaluating the different aspects of IT project management the ability to align 'IT plans with corporate strategies' is an extremely important facet of IT project management. The second article is 'IT Project Management: developing on-going skills in the management of software development projects'5. Three lecturers/tutors (including the authors) were involved. If statistical data is required, then the most suitable method is quantitative research. The qualitative research involved the authors in self observation, student observation, speaking with individuals and groups of students, and comparison of student assignments and examination results with those of previous semesters. in 1995 over 31% of information technology projects were cancelled before completion'8. The results of the research, using detailed surveys (a quantitative approach), showed that '. It is then possible to target questions to focus on particular topics of choice. They used a more traditional approach to using qualitative research practices, such as observation, evaluation and comparison, while taking in to account the gender and previous experience of the sample. This article goes on further to say that 'the designers of tertiary computing courses should give renewed consideration to the way in which the teaching of project management is undertaken' , with utilised a qualitative research approach to support their argument. For a project to be ultimately successful it must be completed on time, meet certain requirements and be delivered on budget. It is important to remember that many quantitative techniques such as surveys fail to inform the individuals taking the survey, of the context and other variables, within the actual survey questions.
Common topics in this essay:
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