Project Management Methodology for IT Operations?

sleeperservice asks: "There are a multitude of books, tools, and educational programs that deal with managing development projects. Whether you subscribe to IBM's Rational Unified Process or maybe SEI's Capability Maturity Model, whether you read Tom DeMarco's Peopleware or possibly Brooks' Mythical Man Month, there's something out there for you. However, most of these deal with projects that have a heavy amount of development, often new development associated with them. What about the folks in Operations? Let's say you need to upgrade your Oracle-based data management system for 1000 non-technical users? Or maybe you need to migrate your enterprise off of Outlook/Exchange and onto an alternative? What pointers are out there that Slashdot readers have used in such situations?"

Comments

IT Operations PM

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been involved as PM for a number of years in the operations and implementation space. The most common practices out there are related directly to PMI/PMP and ITIL standards...

Re:IT Operations PM

[meburke]

This is correct, IMO. See Baseline Magazine for examples of how people are manageing their IT projects.

With today's Project Management software it's easier to track the progress of a project. (I've been doing PERT/CPM since the early '70's, and then I had to draw my diagrams by hand and update my task lists on a typewriter.) Unless the project is massive, Microsoft Project or Primavera SureTrack should be more than sufficient. The PMI (project Management Institute) has standards for Project Management in .pdf for download. They offer a certification, but Novell already proved that certification is no guarantee of competency. Knowing the best practices is very helpful, even if you don't intend to get the cert.

A wrinkle in the Project Management model showed up with the Goldratt Institute's publication of "Critical Chain". This book attempts to answer the question, "Why don't well-managed projects finish on time?" Unfortunately, the answer is partly contained in the process discoverd in the books, "The Goal" and "It's Not Luck" by Eli Goldratt. You would probably have to read all three books to understand critical chain logic, and you would still have to know something about PERT/CPM to understand the difference. I's only worth it if you are committed to a business-wide policy of excellence.

Don't confuse Project Management with other tools, such as Rational Rose, which are resources, not project management. On the other hand, good use of these type of tools are helpful in keeping a project mananged. I've adopted the approach used in "Tried and True Object Development" by Aalto, et al., which describes a very good use of UML as practiced at NOKIA.

Good luck.

Operations books

[Checkered Daemon]

"The Practice of System and Network Administration" by Limoncelli and Hogan.

The book I wish I'd had when I started doing this 35 years ago.

"Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson.

Even if you think you don't need it. Especially if you think you don't need it.

Operations Methodology

[Anonymous Coward]

ITIL

ITIL, from the UK

[davecb]

See the the IT Infrastructure Library site at http://www.itil.org.uk

This is a set of books on different aspects of IT Operations, and is widely used in the industry. Of course, some people misuse it to create a straight-jacket (MS, for one), and others use it to make a sarong (Sun, SGI), but the basic cloth is there (:-))

It's orthogonal to the CMU maturity model.

-dave

ITIL

[Pete (big-pete)]

ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library, and defines an IT Service Management structure that can be applied to IT Operations as an effective framework. There are two main areas within ITIL, Service Delivery and Service Support.

Service Delivery includes:

Service Level Management

Capacity Management

Availability Management

Financial Management

IT Service Continuity

Service Support includes:

Service Desk

Incident Management

Problem Management

Change Management

Release Management

Configuration Management (arguablely also part of Service Delivery)

If you apply an ITIL methodology throught IT Operations you will find that the IT operational projects are run more smoothly in a well controlled environment. You can google for a lot more information on ITIL, but I recommend certification, at least to Foundation level for anyone seriously interested in implementation. See also BS15000, the British Standard associated with ITIL which is expected to become an ISO (International Standard) in the future.

-- Pete.

Project Management

[Laferlout]

Here in the UK we use the PRINCE2 methodology (at least in out public bodies). Its a bit heavy on documentation... does the job well though.. http://www.ogc.gov.uk/prince2/

PRINCE2

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in the UK Civil Service, and we use (a loose form of) PRINCE2 as recommended by the Office of Government Commerce.

However, the trick is to know what of it to use and what not to. That comes with practice, experience and common sense. No methodology, however good, can replace these.

Projects vs. Operations

[masterplanorg]

You are either working on a project or you are working on operations. A project has a defined scope, time frame, is temporary and has a unique deliverable. Operations is on-going and repetitive.

If you are tasked with upgrading something, by definition, you are working on a project.

The Project Management Institute literature and methodology is quite clear and applies to all work sectors - IT, engineering, manufacturing, etc... It's a project or it's operations. Never both.

Projects can turn into operations upon completion of particular milestones. Operations can spawn projects for upgrades, etc. There is a relationship and there are dependencies but they are not one and the same.

Daily system maintenance of your database = operations. Patching of your database = project.

This may sound pedantic to IT people for something as "trivial" as a small upgrade, but when you scale it out to massive infrastructure work - be it expanding a data center or building a new refinery - the separation is the only way you can plan and then properly execute the work.

Try this link

[k0mplex]

Try "How to Manage Projects" by Hooman Katirai from MIT I've seen this methodology repeatedly outperform the one you find in textbooks. What I like about it is that it is light, and it was born out of hi-tech, but has been applied in a lot of other contexts.

Re:Get good people - and support them

[6800]

The migration/upgrade projects we plan and execute, all come back to us admins to figure out wtf to do and how long it will take. The pm keeps a timeline and gives pitches to upper mgmt to keep them in there cages (and the money flowing, etc). The benifit of pm to us is simply to keep us honest and make us formalize the plans. Thing is we must fully understand how to get where we are going from where we are. No project mgmt approach can replace that.

Of course if you don't care about a smooth transition to the new..... or if you are throwing out the old and runnning parellel with all new foreign systems, you could lay me off and how you do it is your problem.

PMBoK in plain english

[sdanic]

I've distilled the 9 knowledge areas from PMI into plain english.

What are we doing?
Who wants it?
What could go wrong?
Who's gonna do it?
How long is it gonna take?
How much is it gonnna cost?
To get it done, what all do we have to buy?
How are we gonna make sure that stuff works?
How are we gonna bring this whole mess together?

Recite that to yourself every day and you've covered the 9 PMBoK knowledge areas.:

Scope
Communications
Risk
HR
Schedule
Cost
Procurement
Quality
Integration

Also, get the PMBoK Guide
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1930 69945X/qid=1109447541/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8164 264-6245456?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Prince2

[tliet]

As mentioned already by someone else, Prince2 is fast becoming the defacto project management standard in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if it would become the defacto standard in the world because Prince2 focuses so much on viability of a project.

At each phase Prince2 checks whether the reason for doing the project in the first place are still valid. If not, a the project is halted or even shutdown. This way, Prince2 tries to assure that projects are done with a valid businesscase. Not only before the start of a project, but also while running the project.

Prince2 can be quite daunting and it's not recommended when all you're doing is upgrading the local Exchange server. But projects with a budget above 100K dollars could benefit from running them with Prince2.

And no, Prince2 is not just for IT projects. Although it started life in the IT world it has become a generic method that can be used in any line of business.

All process-driven teams die this way

[Ars-Fartsica]

People end up associating themselves with key elements of the process, not the product or the customer. Team members end up literally thinking they will be rewarded in the market if they satisfy the process.

Its useful to note that these practices only take root at organizations with lots of money to waste...money generated by a small group of kick-ass people who probably ignored anything process-oriented and just delivered.

Pentagon or Pentagon contractor I presume?

[Ars-Fartsica]

Look at the great products you swear by every day (e.g. iPod, Google, etc) and think of how many more years you would be waiting for these if the firms in question used your approach.

3.Make it incredibly hard (and let people know it will be) to change

Yup, that says Government money to me.