Opportunities and limits of an internal IT with a multi-project management approach (PDF)

Document from the year 2011 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Deggendorf, language: English, abstract: In this paper the role of an internal IT and the handling of IT projects is discussed. The success factors of a good project and the problems which can occur are inspected. Furthermore, an MPM approach for the handling of several simultaneous projects is shown.

In the seventies electronic data processing was a big issue for several companies. Early systems were big number crunchers and were installed exclusively by large organizations. Nowadays, the situation has changed. Data processing departments were renamed to IT departments and the IT is available to the smallest company. In the last years a lot of the internal IT departments were outsourced to reduce the costs. But later it was recognized that it is not always the best way to compete with others, particularly in terms of the globalization without an own IT. Those companies which kept their IT department also have problems. The IT is often considered as a black box with own rules. Projects which need IT resources often move into a dependency on the IT.

In the last years the number of projects increased enormously. The high number of projects ends in a high requirement for the IT department. The problem is that nearly every project needs IT resources. Another problem is that in most companies several projects are handled simultaneously. For that, the IT must be efficiently organized with standardized processes to meet the demand for the resources. The classic project management has no tool in the portfolio to manage simultaneous projects and the resources because only a single project is considered. A new approach is needed, which is the missing link between the classic project management and the handling of simultaneous projects. An efficient way to handle several projects at the same time is the multi-project management (MPM) approach, which could close the gap.