4 Skills Needed for IT Project Management Success

An IT project manager is an important part of any new technology initiative in your workplace. Therefore, you should be looking for specific requirements when finding a project manager for your latest project implementation. Here are some specific traits that your business should look for in an IT project manager.

Be Aware of Return on Investment
Any technology that your business implements should present a clear return on investment. If it doesn’t, then you can’t justify implementing it. A good IT project manager will be able to identify whether or not a project will yield sufficient return on investment for your business. Some questions you should ask yourself are if it will bring more profits in and if your operations will become more efficient. If the answer to either of these is a yes, chances are the solution is worth implementing, and an IT project manager needs to know how to read these situations.

Identify Potential Issues
An analytical mind is critical to the success of any IT initiative. Your IT project manager needs to not only be able to identify potential roadblocks, but how to respond to them as well. This includes extensive knowledge of how IT systems work, including networking components, software solutions, hardware (like servers and workstations), and cloud-based applications. The true IT professional will be able to identify what your business needs, any roadblocks that will be encountered along the way, and the ideal way to approach them.

Have Patience with Non-Technical Workers
Let’s be realistic; nobody knows the ins and outs of IT terms, definitions, and technologies quite like a project manager. Therefore, you’re likely to run into situations where your business will have non-technical employees or administrators who don’t necessarily know all of the details regarding your project. It’s up to the project manager to bridge this gap of understanding and ensure that even the most untechnical workers understand both the benefits and shortcomings of the various technologies you’ll implement.

Make Tough Calls
It’s not always easy working with technology, and nobody knows that more than your IT project manager. Sometimes they will need to make decisions that nobody likes, be it the implementation of a content filter to limit employee use of social media networks or pulling the plug on a solution when it’s just proving to be too stubborn to yield a return on investment. These tough choices are what ultimately defines the project manager position, and you only want one who can separate the bad from the good to make an objective decision.

Does your business need a quality project manager? Directive can give you a whole team of IT experience ready and willing to help you ensure success. To learn more, reach out to us at 607.433.2200.