Today, the city has five project management consultants handling a list of 35 existing and planned IT projects, ranging from a simple social service application to an enormous, citywid e utility billing system. You have to remember to take on those projects that add value. Give the customer choices, keep it simple and get it done. In Kansas City, project management training is under way for assistant directors, business analysts, programming leaders and internal business consultants. Training at Michigan's Project Management Office is under the direction of the Project Management Research Institute, which has set up a chapter in Lansing to train public-sector employees.
Graduates receive certification upon completion of the courses.
But the goal is not only to give the students additional knowledge about project management. They may have to complete a number of projects along with certification. One thing we don't want is someone taking on a major project who has never done project management before. Such a requirement is a break from the past, when IT managers were often given major projects to manage, not because of their management skills, but because they happened to be familiar with the technology being used. While we have a lot of subject-matter experts, we don't have a lot of project management experts.