ICT project manager

ICT project managers schedule, control and direct the resources, people, funding and facilities to achieve the objectives of ICT projects. They establish budgets and timelines, perform risk analysis and quality management, and complete project closure reports.

The following job titles also refer to ICT project manager:

ICT project managers
web project manager
IT project manager
IT projects manager
web projects manager

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as ICT project manager. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

ICT project manager is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to ICT project manager.

telecommunications manager
ICT product manager
project manager
ICT operations manager
ICT documentation manager

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of ICT project manager. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of ICT project manager with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of ICT project manager.

Internal risk management policy: The internal risk management policies that identify, assess and prioritise risks in an IT environment. The methods used to minimise, monitor and control the possibility and the impact of disastrous events that affect the reaching of business goals.
Quality standards: The national and international requirements, specifications and guidelines to ensure that products, services and processes are of good quality and fit for purpose.
Ict project management: The methodologies for the planning, implementation, review and follow-up of ICT projects, such as the development, integration, modification and sales of ICT products and services, as well as projects relating technological innovation in the field of ICT.
Ict project management methodologies: The methodologies or models for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals, such methodologies are Waterfall, Incremental, V-Model, Scrum or Agile and using project management ICT tools.

These skills are necessary for the role of ICT project manager.

Coach employees: Maintain and improve employees’ performance by coaching individuals or groups how to optimise specific methods, skills or abilities, using adapted coaching styles and methods. Tutor newly recruited employees and assist them in the learning of new business systems.
Apply conflict management: Take ownership of the handling of all complaints and disputes showing empathy and understanding to achieve resolution. To be fully aware of all Social Responsibility protocols and procedures, and to be able to deal with a problem gambling situation in a professional manner with maturity and empathy.
Perform risk analysis: Identify and assess factors that may jeopardise the success of a project or threaten the organisation’s functioning. Implement procedures to avoid or minimise their impact.
Manage budgets: Plan, monitor and report on the budget.
Create project specifications: Define the workplan, duration, deliverables, resources and procedures a project has to follow to achieve its goals. Describe project goals, outcomes, results and implementation scenarios.
Manage project information: Provide accurate and relevant information to all the parties involved in a project on time.
Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
Manage ict project: Plan, organize, control and document procedures and resources, such as human capital, equipment and mastery, in order to achieve specific goals and objectives related to ICT systems, services or products, within specific constraints, such as scope, time, quality and budget.
Provide cost benefit analysis reports: Prepare, compile and communicate reports with broken down cost analysis on the proposal and budget plans of the company. Analyse the financial or social costs and benefits of a project or investment in advance over a given period of time.
Recruit employees: Hire new employees by scoping the job role, advertising, performing interviews and selecting staff in line with company policy and legislation.
Identify legal requirements: Conduct research for applicable legal and normative procedures and standards, analyse and derive legal requirements that apply to the organisation, its policies and products.
Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
Build business relationships: Establish a positive, long-term relationship between organisations and interested third parties such as suppliers, distributors, shareholders and other stakeholders in order to inform them of the organisation and its objectives.
Estimate duration of work: Produce accurate calculations on time necessary to fulfil future technical tasks based on past and present information and observations or plan the estimated duration of individual tasks in a given project.
Train employees: Lead and guide employees through a process in which they are taught the necessary skills for the perspective job. Organise activities aimed at introducing the work and systems or improving the performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings.
Perform resource planning: Estimate the expected input in terms of time, human and financial resources necessary to achieve the project objectives.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT project manager. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Incremental development: The incremental development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Systems development life-cycle: The sequence of steps, such as planning, creating, testing and deploying and the models for the development and life-cycle management of a system.
Agile project management: The agile project management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Software architecture models: The set of structures and models needed to understand or describe the software system, including the software elements, the relations between them and the properties of both elements and relations.
Iterative development: The iterative development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Spiral development: The spiral development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Object-oriented modelling: The object-oriented paradigm, which is based on classes, objects, methods and interfaces and their application in software design and analysis, programming organisation and techniques.
Outsourcing model: The outsourcing model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Hybrid model: The hybrid model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Crowdsourcing strategy: The high level planning for managing and optimising business processes, ideas or content by gathering contributions from a big community of people, including on-line groups.
Waterfall development: The waterfall development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Outsourcing strategy: The high level planning for managing and optimising external services of providers to execute business processes.
Service-oriented modelling: The principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture and application architecture.
Software design methodologies: The methodologies such as Scrum, V-model and Waterfall to design software systems and applications.
Rapid application development: The rapid application development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Legal requirements of ict products: The international regulations related to the development and use of ICT products.
Open source model: The open source model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Quality assurance methodologies: Quality assurance principles, standard requirements, and the set of processes and activities used for measuring, controlling and ensuring the quality of products and processes.
Ict system user requirements: The process intended to match user and organisation’s needs with system components and services, by taking into consideration the available technologies and the techniques required to elicit and specify requirements, interrogating users to establish symptoms of problem and analysing symptoms.
Process-based management: The process-based management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Lean project management: The lean project management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Agile development: The agile development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Document management: The methodology of tracking, managing and storing documents in a systematic and organised manner as well as keeping a record of the versions created and modified by specific users (history tracking).
Prototyping development: The prototyping development model is a methodology to design software systems and applications.
Saas (service-oriented modelling): The SaaS model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Insourcing strategy: The high level planning for managing and optimising business processes internally, usually in order to maintain control of critical aspects of work.
Devops: The DevOps development approach is a methodology to design software systems and applications focused on the collaboration and between software programmers and other ICT professionals and automation.
Ict process quality models: The quality models for ICT services which address the maturity of the processes, the adoption of recommended practices and their definition and institutionalisation that allow the organisation to reliably and sustainably produce required outcomes. It includes models in a lot of ICT areas.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT project manager. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Create solutions to problems: Solve problems which arise in planning, prioritising, organising, directing/facilitating action and evaluating performance. Use systematic processes of collecting, analysing, and synthesising information to evaluate current practice and generate new understandings about practice.
Provide technical documentation: Prepare documentation for existing and upcoming products or services, describing their functionality and composition in such a way that it is understandable for a wide audience without technical background and compliant with defined requirements and standards. Keep documentation up to date.
Develop information standards: Develop norms or requirements that establish uniform technical criteria, methods, processes and practices in the information management based on professional experience.
Apply change management: Manage development within an organisation by anticipating changes and making managerial decisions to ensure that the members involved are as less disturbed as possible.
Maintain relationship with suppliers: Build a lasting and meaningful relationship with suppliers and service providers in order to establish a positive, profitable and enduring collaboration, co-operation and contract negotiation.
Use ict ticketing system: Utilise a specialised system to track registration, processing and resolution of issues in an organisation by assigning each of these issues a ticket, registering inputs from involved persons, tracking changes and displaying the status of the ticket, until it is completed.
Implement ict risk management: Develop and implement procedures for identifying, assessing, treating and mitigating ICT risks, such as hacks or data leaks, according to the company’s risk strategy, procedures and policies. Analyse and manage security risks and incidents. Recommend measures to improve digital security strategy.
Execute ict audits: Organise and execute audits in order to evaluate ICT systems, compliance of components of systems, information processing systems and information security. Identify and collect potential critical issues and recommend solutions based on required standards and solutions.
Apply procurement: Undertake ordering of services, equipment, goods or ingredients, compare costs and check the quality to ensure optimal payoff for the organisation.
Manage localisation: Modify content or a product for the transference from one locale to another through the use of content translation or localisation service providers.
Apply organisational techniques: Employ a set of organisational techniques and procedures which facilitate the achievement of the goals set. Use these resources efficiently and sustainably, and show flexibility when required.
Define technical requirements: Specify technical properties of goods, materials, methods, processes, services, systems, software and functionalities by identifying and responding to the particular needs that are to be satisfied according to customer requirements.

1330 – Information and communications technology service managers

 

 

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References

1. ICT project manager – ESCO