MTDC in press

Excerpts from the article "A Professional Project"

Computerworld, 03.06.2002

Iwona Słowik, Wawrzyniec Sosnowski, Artur Ziajko of ComArch S.A. and Andrzej Piotrowicz from Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. are the first certified graduates of IT Project Management Academy (IT-PMA) in Poland. The program is a result of collaboration between Management Training & Development Center in Falenty near Warsaw and Washington-based Educational Services Institute International that is also associated with George Washington University. The curriculum was developed based on Project Management Body of Knowledge, a comprehensive guide published by Project Management Institute. Founded in 1969, this international association of project managers has around 86,000 members all over the world.

The course consists of 11 modules. In order to receive the certificate you have to complete seven modules: four in the core curriculum (Managing Information Technology Projects; IT Project Planning, Analysis, and Control; Leadership; case study - simulation game) plus three out of seven electives (Managing Software Development Projects, Managing Software Quality, Risk Management, Testing Procedures, Systems Integration Projects, Telecommunications Projects, Financing IT Projects).

Mock problems
According to the participants, the most interesting element of IT-PMA was an IT project simulation. The students received a made-up request for proposals on developing an IT system. Among other things, the system was supposed to include vision glasses as a replacement for conventional monitors. Each team had some information required to develop a proposal specifying the project scope, budget, and schedule, however, the crucial element was also to use the public information and knowledge gained throughout all the courses and professional practice.

At the following stages of the simulation the teams went through detailed postaward planning, negotiated a contract, performed, and closed out, which also included documenting lessons learned and maintaining customer relations. The instructors made sure that the participants have various emergency situations to act on, such as unavailability of human resources, late hardware delivery, changing customer requirements. In the opinion of those who participated, the simulation offered an excellent opportunity to make a practical use of the tools introduced in the course, e.g. Risk Evaluation Forms.

The next step in the education of the four Polish graduates will be the Project Management Professional certificate awarded by PMI, internationally recognized as a validation of professional qualifications in project management. So far, PMP title was awarded to 43,000 managers all over the world.

Piotr Plewiński
responsible for IT Project Management Academy at Management Training & Development Center

It seems that there's still a lot to do about project management in Poland. The area of greatest exposure is the one of defining customer needs and requirements. Information technology projects may take even several years and when they come to completion it often turns out that although results were delivered on time and within budget, the final deliverable doesn't make sense for the customer. Not many resources are dedicated to risk management. Proper communication doesn't receive enough attention. Lessons learned are not documented and people don't capitalize on experience from past projects.

Wawrzyniec Sosnowski
Manager, Center for Production and Implementation in Financial Markets Sector at ComArch S.A.

I have approached the course equipped with certain experience. I have run different projects for seven years and I try to back up my practical experience with some theory. Nonetheless, I still have a lot of doubts. What I found particularly interesting was the methodology for estimating the level of effort for a project at the stages of requirement analysis, design, and implementation. Moreover, the course let me see the other side of the coin, e.g. the disadvantages of prototyping. It also turned out that the traditionally neglected risk analysis takes little time, provided that you use proper tools.

Andrzej Piotrowicz
Multimedia Division at Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.

I was deeply impressed with how George Sifri, the course instructor, communicated his knowledge. He repeatedly emphasized that no area of project management is more important than other ones, therefore a comprehensive approach is the key here. Looking back at my own experiences, I think that for a manager soft skills like communication, negotiation, or leading a team are as important as (if not more important than) hard skills like planning, analyzing, controlling, or risk management.

Artur Ziajko
Quality Systems, ComArch S.A.

We are pursuing the level 2 certificate in the Capability Maturity Model, a specific quality certificate developed for IT industry by the Software Engineering Institute. Level 2 requires formalized configuration management, subcontractor management and quality control. There are certain mandatory procedures, e.g. changing requirements have to be reflected in an updated project plan, technical documentation, test scenarios, etc. It's not only about the certificate. The company with SW-CMM is simply a better place to work and develop better products. Also, it goes without saying that mess is always costly.

Iwona Słowik
Quality Systems, ComArch S.A.

The knowledge gained throughout the course will enable us to evaluate the procedures used in ComArch projects and suggest some new, better solutions. As an alternative, changes might be introduced by implementing best practices from a given department across the company, but this could generate resistance and trigger turf wars between departments. It is better to bring in an external solution substantiated by the authority of Project Management Institute and George Washington University. Another objective will be to implement the procedures for documenting lessons learned. Thanks to that, experience from each project in any department will be disseminated in the whole the company.