A self-paced career-skills course for IT professionals and coordinators who want to move into IT project management. Seven lessons cover what IT project managers do, initiating a project and defining scope, planning and estimating, managing risks and issues, agile and hybrid delivery, stakeholder communication and reporting, and controlling, closing and building your transition plan. The course builds skills and does not promise a job, promotion or salary outcome.
What you will learn
- Describe the role and responsibilities of an IT project manager
- Write a project charter with scope, objectives and constraints
- Build a work breakdown, schedule and estimates
- Maintain a risk and issue log
- Choose between predictive, agile and hybrid approaches
- Report status and manage stakeholders
- Control change, close projects and plan your own transition
Lessons
- What IT Project Managers Do
- Initiation and Scope
- Planning and Estimation
- Risks and Issues
- Agile, Predictive and Hybrid Delivery
- Stakeholders, Communication and Reporting
- Control, Closure and Your Transition Plan
Self-paced course from Tech Skills Library. Educational content only; it is not an accredited qualification, licence or credential.
Lessons
What IT Project Managers Do
Initiation and Scope
Projects that start badly rarely recover. Initiation clarifies why the project exists, what it will deliver and how success will be judged. The project charter A charter or project brief records: Background and business need. Objectives, ideally measurable. Scope: what is in and explicitly out. Deliverables. Key stakeholders and the sponsor. Constraints: budget, deadlines, technology, […]
Planning and Estimation
Planning turns the charter into a schedule of work that people can commit to. Good plans are realistic, visible and updated as the project progresses. Work breakdown structure Break the deliverables into smaller pieces until each work package can be estimated and assigned. For a system migration this might include design, build environments, data migration, […]
Risks and Issues
Risk management is how project managers deal with uncertainty before it becomes a problem. Issues are risks that have happened or problems that need resolving now. Identifying risks Use workshops, past project lessons and checklists. Common IT risks include unclear requirements, integration complexity, data quality, supplier delays, security approvals, key-person dependency and user resistance. Describing […]
Agile, Predictive and Hybrid Delivery
IT projects use different delivery approaches. A good project manager chooses an approach that fits the work instead of applying one method to everything. Predictive approaches Plan the full scope upfront and deliver in phases such as design, build, test and deploy. Suitable when requirements are stable and well understood, such as infrastructure upgrades with […]
Stakeholders, Communication and Reporting
Projects succeed or fail through people. Clear communication keeps stakeholders informed, engaged and supportive. Stakeholder analysis Map stakeholders by influence and interest. Manage key players closely, keep interested parties informed and monitor others. Communication plan For each audience define the information they need, the format, frequency and owner: weekly team updates, fortnightly sponsor meetings, monthly […]
Control, Closure and Your Transition Plan
This lesson covers keeping a project on track, closing it properly and planning your own move into project management. Change control Any change to scope, time or cost should be assessed for impact and approved at the right level. Record changes in a change log and update the baseline. Tracking progress Compare progress with the […]