Dear PM Advisor. May 19, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I work at a consulting firm that is developing a lot of small IT projects at one time. I've been trying to get the steering committee interested in using the Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC) that I used at previous companies but my proposal got squashed immediately. Enclosed is a project plan template that is very similar to what we used at UPS and Medco which made IT DEV project management run very smooth (not to mention both were multi-billion dollar corporations). 

My point is, if it worked successfully there, I don’t see why we cannot implement this strategy/methodology here. I understand that we have a SDLC methodology here (scaled down – that NO ONE uses) but adding this release calendar to just the IT dev projects would add tremendous value to both the PMO and IT. 

Personally, I think IT would love this methodology in place (I know I do). Let me know your thoughts.

Tied up in Morristown, NJ

Dear Tied up.

It all seems quite reasonable. Why not use these tasks when you plan your projects? You can guide the team members to come up with the wording you want. Sometimes they’ll balk and you use their wording but it means the same to you. That’s what I do when I plan projects. Here’s the conversation:

“So the first thing we need to do is plan this project, right? How about we say Concept proposal? Have you done that already? You have? Good. Then we have to Identify vision and scope. That’s what we’re doing now. Do you know the deliverables? OK, from there we create the project plan.”

And so on until they are using the deliverables and tasks you are familiar with.

I always do that with my projects so that I know what is happening on the project I plan and execute. Often people will add tasks that I don’t have in my template which are specific to that project and the way they do things. I’ll compromise there. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor

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