Discussion Questions
1. "A Consultant's Viewpoint and Relationships"
· Read and reflect upon the "Top Ten - Considerations for Evolving into the Role of a Consultant" in Chapter 5 of Roberts' text. Propose three actions that IT professionals should undertake in order to successfully achieve the Top Ten. Determine the single most paramount consideration and justify your selection.
· As an IT professional who may face differing and competing priorities from business units, suggest one strategy for negotiating an achievable project scope without damaging the relationship with business units. Support your answer with the steps that you would take in order to implement your strategy.
2. "Project Management Skills and Formal and Informal Project Management"
· Speculate on the main reasons why the skills and training of project managers have changed over time. Give your opinion as to whether these changes have been good for business. Provide a rationale for your response.
· Suppose you are starting a Project Management Office (PMO) at an organization. Give your opinion as to what the key considerations would be for the endeavor to be successful. Speculate whether you would hire an experienced project manager or a consulting company to facilitate the starting of the PMO. Support your rationale with at least two advantages of hiring your selection.
3. "Managing Projects and Requirements Gathering"
· According to Roberts, the industry deems only 25% of technology projects successful. Analyze why this statistic is so low. Suggest strategies that an IT department could use in order to increase the success rate of projects. Give your opinion on whether the structure of the PMO contributes to this statistic. Justify your response.
· Imagine that you are a senior business analyst with a multinational corporation. Examine the process of requirements gathering discussed in Chapter 9 of the Roberts text. Suggest your strategy for gathering requirements from across divisional lines. Determine at least two obstacles that you may encounter and propose one method for overcoming each. Provide a rationale for your response.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.