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August 30, 2004 (Computerworld) -- Project management experts will tell you that IT departments are doing a better job than they used to in delivering big projects on time and within budget. But shift the discussion to smaller projects -- those valued at $250,000 or less -- and their confidence starts to dwindle.
"There's a gap when it comes to small projects and the due diligence that should be applied to them," says Margo Visitacion, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.
With small projects, IT project managers often spend less time on critical areas such as testing and quality assurance, says Visitacion. And even if IT departments have fairly mature project management disciplines in place, "they apply the practices, but the rigor goes down," she says.
Other tasks that IT managers tend to downplay on small projects include documenting the business objectives, defining requirements and managing changes, consultants say.
While individual small projects may seem less significant, they add up. This year, for example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has 28 projects it defines as "major" on tap that cost at least $5 million per year or $20 million over the life of the project. But the 50 to 60 "nonmajor" projects in the pipeline this year represent $40 million of the agency's $200 million IT project budget, says Rod Bond, director of strategy and planning at the FDA in Rockville, Md.
What to Keep
Project managers understand that they can be more flexible with small projects but critical requirements remain.
At Capital One Financial Corp., effective small-project management starts with defining the criteria for a small project -- those valued at $50,000 or less -- and establishing a set of requirements that have to be met.
For instance, the manager of a small project at McLean, Va.-based Capital One will place greater emphasis on how changes directly affect end users and focus less on technical change management issues, says Ray Frigo, vice president of corporate technology management at the credit card issuer.
Since it began refining its project delivery approach three years ago, Capital One has scaled back documentation requirements for smaller projects so they don't become too cumbersome to manage, says Frigo. The tailored small-project methodology has helped the company complete projects 10% to 15% faster this year, he says.
The FDA uses IT portfolio management software from Portland, Ore.-based ProSight Inc.
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