How Project Managers Can Help Organize Businesses Essay

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Project Management and Information Systems

Project managers can assist in the organization of information systems, which in turn can aid businesses in integrating security and infrastructural needs to facilitate business objectives. Indeed, a business user can be directly involved in the core activities of building an information system. Software development methodologies (such as agile development) are just one example of the type of means by which project managers can apply themselves to the task of organizing IS in order to benefit both IS development and the business's own infrastructure. Thus, project/IT managers can ensure that IS development projects are aligned with business strategies and goals by providing oversight, leadership, direction and integrative formulas for success. This paper will examine each of these points to show that project management, information systems development, and business organization are overlapping issues that are central to every firm's overall progress.

As Mir and Pinnington (2014) show, the utilization of a project management system by itself does not necessarily translate into project or business success. The key to the successful implementation of project management is the integration and coordination of several variables amongst which the project manager can act as director. Essentially, the issue is one in which the project manager must relate to the different factors within the organization, identify the needs, and coordinate an integrative approach to problem solving that neither isolates nor divides the various departmental aims from the overall objective of the organization (Mir, Pinnington, 2014). In this manner, the project manager oversees delivery of a comprehensive strategy that involves the business's total infrastructure in a top-down model.

Park and Lee (2014) indicate that the successful approach of the project manager towards this aim is dependent upon the application of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing within the firm. Without these variables being utilized, complexity within the company can quickly turn into complications. When knowledge is shared and trust built, communication develops and coordination naturally flows as a desired outcome. In terms of developing an information systems strategy, the project manager is capable of leading the teams involved in the process by inviting the various departmental heads to contribute their assessment of how their individuals processes are impactful, oriented, and vulnerable in the light of the business's main objectives. This type of communication allows the IS development to proceed with optimal facilitation.

A business user could thus be involved in the core activities of building an information system by providing the information it has to the IS department, focusing on the type of operations it is conducting, what it needs to have in place in terms of a backup should a system failure occur, the type of data it plans to store and secure, a list of priorities in terms of what is most essential and important to the organization's operations, and the depth of its communicative network. In this manner, the business user gives the IS department the key knowledge of how the organization flows, and with this information the IS department can work to develop a safe systems infrastructure for the company that addresses the needs of the business in a through and effective manner, while maintaining adherence to the business user's overall objectives.

Software development methodologies like agile development can be utilized to allow project management to work in tandem with the IS department for the benefit of both information systems development projects and the overall organization. Agile development is a method by which solutions are developed via a strategy of integrating cross-functional teams based upon a self-organizing principle, while promoting continual enhancement, progress, planning, and evolution of strategic thinking. The concept allows managers and team members to be adaptive and flexible in terms of responding to issues that arise throughout the process. The agile method is simply this: to promote agility among the systems development concept, with team members coordinating yet maintaining autonomy and independence within the system so that they can obtain objectives simultaneously as other members and units reach goals oriented towards their own needs and capacities (Collier, 2011).

Indeed, lightweight software development methods are advantageous to the business when compared to the heavyweight systems that were waterfall-oriented and extremely micro-managed in the past. The appeal of software development methodologies today is that they allow for freedom of operation within the various teams and dissuade micro-management.

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Creative opportunities are thus more likely to appear and be utilized and allow for a more agile system to appear. Customer satisfaction is one of the perks of these methods, with simplicity of operations being an overall aim and objective that both customers and businesses can approve of (Laman, 2003).

In this manner exercises, such as penetration testing, can be an example of how the agile system software is utilized, as members coordinate to adapt to a planned testing of the organization's response to an attack, hack, or system failure (Haes, Grembergen, 2009). Testing the overall IS development can act as a method of contingency planning and testing of the overall company/business as it practices a risk management method of ensuring that the infrastructure is stable in case of a system wide failure and that every team and/or department understands its role and part to play in the restoration process. Project management can oversee this objective and help to coordinate among the various departments and teams as the company as a whole works together to meet a safe and secure aim.

Project managers and/or IT managers can ensure that information system development projects are in alignment with business strategies and goals by clearly defining these objectives for all team members in all departments so that from the top-down the company's members are aware of the aims of the business and the strategies being employed to achieve the goals. Without clear definition and explicit statement of purpose, supported by a mission statement that summarizes or represents the strategies and aims of the business, workers will lack the cohesion and coherence needed in order to work both loosely and interconnected with other members of the company. For example, one department might be striving to achieve a dissimilar aim from another department, while the business leaders attempt to meet a third objective; there is no coordination, no communication, no knowledge sharing, no understanding and no integration. The end result is a failure of oversight and a lack of internal and external success.

Thus educating members of the organization as to the organizational culture and to the organizational objectives is paramount to successful operations. Project managers must also, however, ensure that projects are aligned with goals and strategies by testing them in terms of evaluating the objectives, the methods, and the utility of the projects and gauging whether or not they are in conformity with the company's directional course of operations. Are they supportive of the business network? Do they protect the business in the case of system failure? Do they enable integration of communicative lines and facilitate organizational frameworks? These are questions that a project manager can ask as he or she evaluates the projects and development of IS within the company.

As Heagny (2012) notes, project managers are most successful when they simply lead. As a leader within an organization, they provide the guidance, objectives, strategies and methods to be used by team members, followers and workers working according to the outline provided by the project manager. When project management embraces the concept of leadership and adopts the types of leadership approaches that best facilitate the organization's objectives, management can provide the right tools to workers to achieve the desired aims. Without adequate leadership, however, the business is likely to suffer, as it will lack vision, cohesion, understanding, knowledge sharing, transparency, and positive morale. Workers who are under the influence of negative leadership tend to react negatively within the business -- thus it is highly imperative that project managers maintain a positive leadership approach.

In conclusion, project managers can work to integrate teams within a business and allows business users to take part in the information systems development process by facilitating communication, information sharing, team building, goal setting, methodology selection, and project orientation. By identifying needs and helping teams to familiarize themselves with concepts related to how those needs can best be satisfied, the project management allows the organization to effect supports internally and gain stability. As Mir and Pinnington (2014) note, coordination and integration is the key to success in project management's work with IS. And as Park and Lee (2014) state, knowledge sharing and trust building is the basis of a good project management system foundation......

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