IT project management – fundamentals, methods, and specific aspects

1. Introduction to project management

• Definition of projects and project management.
• Characteristics and life cycle of a project.
• Roles and responsibilities in the project (e.g., project managers, team, stakeholders).
• Differences between classic, agile, and hybrid project management.

2. Project initiation and planning

• Define project goals: SMART criteria.
• Scope definition and requirements gathering.
• Stakeholder analysis & project structure plan (PSP).
• Resource, time, and cost management.
• Establish a communication strategy in the IT environment.

3. Communication and team management

• Developing a communication strategy.
• Role of project communication in the IT environment.
• Managing team dynamics in diverse IT teams.
• Collaboration and cultural diversity.
• Designing effective reports and meeting formats.

4. Specific aspects of IT project management

• Complexity in IT projects: Technological dependencies and interfaces.
• Dealing with change requests and high change dynamics.
• Common obstacles in software and infrastructure projects.
• Lessons learned from failed IT projects.

5. Comply with regulatory requirements

• Integrate security and data protection requirements early on.
• Implement regulatory requirements (e.g., ISO 27001, GDPR).
• Ensure auditability and documentation requirements.

6. Process models and delivery approaches

• Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps compared.
• Waterfall and V-model – when and why they are still relevant.
• Hybrid frameworks for complex IT projects.
• Integrate CI/CD pipelines and release management.

7. Project management tools and collaboration

• From Jira to MS Project: Use cases and best practices.
• Version and configuration control with Git.
• Automated dashboards and status reports.
• Tool integration into existing IT landscapes.

8. Practical application of the fundamentals

• Creating a project plan for a sample IT project (workshop).
• Conducting a stakeholder analysis and communication planning.
• Creating a risk management plan.
• Discussion of participant projects: challenges and approaches to solutions.

9. Conclusion and reflection

• IT trends and future developments in IT project management.
• Summary of the most important findings.
• Transfer to practice: How do I start my next IT project?