Posted by Kevin Brady on Sun 10th December 2006 at 11:12 AM, Filed in IT Strategy,  Key Articles,  Software Development

So what do we mean by the term Offshoring for the Newbie Project Manager?

“It is the relocation of business processes to a lower cost location, usually overseas”.

In theory this looks an almost “too good to be true” opportunity to increase profits through reduced production costs via the exploitation of cheap foreign labour. The expectation with respect to IT software development is a promise of cost reductions in the region of 30% to 40%. The management consultants convince clients that all you needed to do in order to encapsulate this cost saving into your balance sheet, is to carry out, with their help, an IT staff change-over similar to changing out an old car engine and replacing it with a new one made in India or China. Make this happen and “he presto you’re in the money”.

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Posted by Kevin Brady on Tue 5th December 2006 at 01:03 PM, Filed in Prince2,  Project Management,  Risk & Issue Management

How do you introduce risk & issue management into your project?

• Stage 1 Set-up a Project Organisation

- Designate a Project Sponsor

The first thing to do is designate someone as your project sponsor who will ultimately be responsible for the success or failure of the project, and as such will have authority over all the participants involved in the project, whether they are IT or business related professionals.

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Posted by Kevin Brady on Fri 1st December 2006 at 11:21 PM, Filed in Prince2,  Project Management,  Risk & Issue Management

This is a question, which I have rarely seen properly answered in any PRINCE II manual.

As with many things in life, the theory and the practical application of a concept are often two distinct sides of the same coin, which can lead to some serious difficulties. Over the years, I have audited many projects /programmes of work and most, if not all, of those which were subsequently discovered to be failures were characterised by poor /non-existent risk & issue management.

More often than not the project /programme managers responsible for these process failures, when challenged, refuse to accept that they had been running a project /programme of work with little, if any, risk and issue management present. 

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