COVER STORY

Project Tracking and Control : Can We Measure the Time? -- Mario Vanhoucke

Project scheduling and tracking are key parameters to a project's success or failure. Earned value systems have been set up to deal with the complex task of controlling and adjusting the baseline project schedule during execution, taking into account project scope, timed delivery and total project budget. Although earned value systems have been proven to provide reliable estimates for the follow-up of cost performance within certain project assumptions, it often fails to predict the total duration of the project. This article presents results obtained from a large simulation study on a wide and diverse set of projects. The study investigates the potential of three earned value-based methods to forecast the final project duration.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

PERSPEFCTIVES

Finding, Developing and Managing Project Talent : In Today's Top Enterprises, Everyone's a Talent Scout! -- Stacy A Goff

The article explores the acquisition, the steps needed to develop and the challenges of managing Project Talent. Finding, managing and developing project talent is both a serious challenge and a great opportunity. Talent is essential in two project dimensions—Application Area talent in the disciplines needed to deliver the project's product, and in the Project Management competences needed to leverage that talented team.

© 2008 Stacy A Goff (www.projectexperts.com). Reprinted with permission.

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Project Management Coaching : Optimizing, Learning, Improving Performance -- N Vijaya Lakshmi

Coaching and training are not substitutes but they complement each other. Coaching in project management is not a methodology, nor a consultancy. More importantly, it is seen as a key skill for highly experienced managers in project management.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

The Futures Market in Project Management : A Forecast for the Next Five to Ten Years -- Carl Pritchard

What's in the offing in project management? Growth. Both in India and abroad, project managers should expect to see continuous rise in the demand. Carl Pritchard examines the places, traits and the forms that demand is likely to take, and what we can do as project managers to prepare ourselves for the coming opportunities. He takes a closer look into China's role in these expanding markets and some of the critical skills that are essential to succeed.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

PROJECT TOOLS

Project Charter : An Essential Step for Project Management -- V Venkateswara Rao

Project charter is the foundation for any project irrespective of the type and industry. It enables all stakeholders in the project to share a clear understanding of the goals and agree on how these objectives will be achieved.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

PROJECT STRATEGY

Measuring Continuous Integration Capability -- Bas Vodde

Continuous Integration (CI) is an important Lean software development practice. Measuring the capability of your CI environment provides a road map for improvement and an aid for sharing practices between projects. The CI grid, introduced in this article, is a simple, question-based metric for checking the current CI capability of a project.

© 2008 Bas Vodde. This article was first published in May issue of Crosstalk Journal. Reprinted with permission.

PROJECT STRATEGY

Building Executive Support : Key to Project Success -- Alfonso Bucero and Randall L Englund

The success or failure of any project often hinges on how well the project sponsor—the person who funds the project and ensures that desired benefits are achieved—associates himself with the project, the project manager and other stakeholders. Problems in communication and execution are inevitable as long as senior managers and project managers do not understand the mechanism of their relationship. This article addresses how project sponsors and project managers can develop the skills they need to manage successful projects. The project's sponsor and manager should learn how to negotiate effectively with each other and the project team to achieve their commitments.

© 2007 Alfonso Bucero and Randall L Englund. Originally published as a part of 2007 PMI Global Congress Proceedings, Budapest, Hungary. Reprinted with permission.

SOFTWARE PROJECTS

The Role of Software : Test Management in Product Development -- GP Sudhakar

Test management has got much significance in software product management. Every software product undergoes a specific life cycle. What is that product life cycle? What is a software project life cycle? What does a product engineering team do? What is the role of test team in product development? What are the different levels of testing? What does a support team do? How testing is significant in product development? We can find answers to all these questions in this article. This article also discusses unit testing, integration testing and system testing, bug tracking tools and testing tools, etc. It also explains the challenges faced by the test managers in product environment.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

CASE STUDY

Delivering the eNaTIS as a Strategic Project for South Africa -- Johan Vorster

In this article Johan Vorster, CEO of Tasima (Pty) Ltd., reflects on the road leading to the launch of South Africa's National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS), and discusses project management challenges that were encountered—and overcome—during the process of creating and implementing the system. After presenting background information including the nature of the system, the tender process followed, the structure of the consortium, work share, the strategic importance of the system and its architecture, the author proceeds to discuss challenges unique to this project and the project governance model and methodologies employed. The author also discusses project management realities encountered and lessons learnt.

© 2008 Tasima (Pty) Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

INTERVIEW

Most consultants fail to grasp that a PMO is a functional department. -- Mike Beard

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved