Continuous improvement in IT project management

Project management has been an issue for the last fifty years. Much has been learned about how to run projects - from fatal project failures as well as from highly successful best practice examples. However, despite all the experiences made and all the knowledge collected the failure rate of projects, especially in the IT environment, is still extremely high. It is therefore not surprising that many companies try to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their project management, often by spending enormous amounts of money on the development of project management manuals and for project management trainings. However, experience has shown that manuals are mostly not read and the proposed methodology is seldom "lived" and the one time training initiatives often do not bring the expected improvements. The objective of this paper is to discuss various aspects of a continuous improvement approach to IT project management. The suggested solution includes a comprehensive framework for IT project management which is based on experience from a truly global company with a complex IT project environment. The paper also stresses the importance of an ongoing IT risk management as an integral part of project management. To show how the suggested framework can be implemented in reality, a practical example from Daimler Chrysler is outlined and further suggestions for enhancement are provided.