Let Me Pick Your Brains?

[Yat5]

Alot of the people who read these messages are clued up and no what there talkin about. Some have been to uni and done a dissertation, no worries if u havent u can still help...

If you could write a dissertation (final year project) on project management, what subject would u write about? What technology is in the pipeline I should think about? Need it from an information system prospective really but any ideas will help.

Thank You For Your Time

 

[johnherman]

Technology wise - the gradual blurring of the lines between handhelds, cell phones, tablet PC, and notebook computers over wireless would seem to be just waiting for a killer application.

Management wise - oursourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, etc seem to be a hot topic. Could also consider the other side as some companies have outsourced IT only to bring it back inside. Also could consider which aspects could be outsourced (help desk, OLTP development) and which should not be outsourced (data modeling, data warehouse)

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that noboby appreciates how difficult it was.
- Steven Wright

 

[PDQBach]

I'd do some research (Google and Alta Vista are your friends) on IT project failures. Then I'd focus on the importance of change management (or, in the case of the failures, the lack of same).

My belief: if you don't have a rigourous change management process in place then you are doomed from the start.

On the other hand, for someone who is a gifted writer and who can develop the flow and narrative of an actual risk management process and entwine that thread with a parallel narrative about risk theory ... well, in that case the excitement of risk and risk management dissertation might be a more appealing topic. Risk and risk mitigation can be very sexy.

 

[jancebk]

The concept of Project Management as it relates to Virtual teams (team members located in different geographic locations) is becoming more and more important. Discussing the challenges and proposing solutions for virtual project management - how to use technology to do so, etc. could be a very interesting topic.

Jan, PMP

 

[XPersephone2]

If you are career-minded, I would agree with the suggestion that you like at why IT projects fail. I make this suggestion for the reason that fail is precisely what most projects do.

From my perspective that is because of over-emphasis of generic methods. I am thnking here very much of Prince 2, used (or more to the point frequently paid lip-service to) within UK government contracts especially, although it is increasingly infecting private enterprise.

Prince tells you a great deal about WHAT, but little about HOW. The little thing it clearly tells you about how is that it is assumed that your IT is provided by a prime contractor.

The obvious implication is that you don't need to worry about HOW, because the prime contractor provides the answer, in terms of lots of people to generate paper work for you (or am I getting cynical?).

The prime champions of Prince are precisely those who stand ro benefit from the outsourcing of technology provision - sell them your licence to operate and they will tell you how to do it. The 'revolving door' and pork barrel are IMHO abundently on display.

 

[cjowsey]

I think it could be fun to compare and contrast between a couple of major projects run 20 or 30 years ago and a couple of recent ones. The evolution of technology and development languages is quite well documented, but have development tools, methodologies and project management techniques moved along at a similar pace? Is the way we handle big teams significantly better than it was 30 years ago?

"The Mythical Man Month" would be a good starting point for information about a major project (IBM OS360) from the dark ages.

 

[BNPMike]

"The Mythical Man Month" would be a good starting point for information about a major project (IBM OS360) from the dark ages.

Nothing has changed. Still the best book to start your voyage of discovery.

 

[cjowsey]

I too think not much has changed. It would be interesting to work out why project management seems to lag so far behind the advances in technology.

 

[Yat5]

Thanks for your comments and thoughts guys. Give me a few thing to think about.

Another question I have is, If I was looking to write on an Information Systems side, still sticking with "Project Management" what areas do you think would be of intrest?

 

[MikeLacey]

why project management seems to lag so far behind"
[tab]Because it's hard, I would suggest. Hard in the way that tranlating between languages is hard - requires a lot of human intervention in the process.

Mike

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