The world of IT clearly has its challenges, but generally speaking, process is not one of them. This is especially true when the topic is enterprise IT in most established companies. All the “ilities” such as maintainability, upgradability, scalability, etc. are process driven, often through disciplined but incremental establishment of more robust processes. Project management is a natural partner, and that’s why reason why PMPs attract more IT professionals than any other industry that I know of.

Thus, in my view, the tension between IT and project is not philosophical but often driven by the poor understanding from the business. Business people often see great ideas as golden and execution as an afterthought. How often do IT people complain that business users want “x” because they read it in a magazine or heard it somewhere. The idea is great and they want it done. If it’s a technology project, then this is when the conflict between IT and project management starts. IT may have the “potential” to accomplish what business want, but often requiring more time and resources than one appreciates. So it’s not as much as an orphan step-child relationship, rather, it’s one of practicality. IT and project management both needs to educate each other, and more importantly, their common customers.

Te Wu’s comment on the below article:

Danny Bradbury for IT World Canada writes:   Last month wasn’t one of Hewlett Packard Co.’s finest. The company is being sued by the state of Michigan, which claimed that the company failed to deliver on a $49 million 2005 contract to update the state government’s IT infrastructure.

Although no judgement has been reached and no blame yet assigned in court, this certainly isn’t the only IT project to run into trouble with a client. IT projects can be difficult to manage, especially at that scale, but even smaller ones can lead to trouble if improperly governed. What makes an effective IT project, and how can project managers avoid disaster?

Chris Ward, a trainer at training firm CBT Nuggets, is in the final throes of launching a new training program for the company focusing on IT service management using the ITIL framework. “In the past, IT was the orphan stepchild when it came to project management,” he said.

One of the biggest problems for IT is that project management methodologies and technology move at different speeds, said Ward, who was handling Y2K remediation projects at the end of the last millennium, and who has authored several books on the topic.  SNIP,  the article continues @ IT World Canada, click here to continue reading….