Run a company induction at the moment, but looking to develop a specific course for long term IT project staff. Would be interested in ideas of what should include other than basic company information. Do you think that covering project management skills in an induction is appropriate?
thanks
Sarah Brown
3 Responses
Projects are the meat and bone (sorry if you’re a veggie!) of IT
Sarah
I suggest that for any IT department to be run successfully, the staff need to have at least an awareness of the nature of projects and how they are managed and what makes them successful. Maybe half a day awareness – certainly more if they are managing teams. Maybe related to your in house approach/methodology as to how projects are carried out.
Yours
Barry Faith
barryfaith@betterprojects.co.uk
Induction
Typically IT project environments work in some form of matrix or fluctuating structure based on the projects under way.
In that case its often helpful to cover the issues which are different or need clarifying in this environment:
– how people are assigned to projects
– the performance management system
– personal development and training requests
– pay and rations
I’ve also found it useful to establish some of the ground rules (and processes where relevant) relating to:
– knowledge management
– methodologies
– accepted values and behaviours
Mark
Induction and project ,management
You need to define your audience, and the precise needs of your business. Will the Induction course be specifically for IT project staff only, or for all staff in general? What is the scale of the projects in terms of impact and frequency? What PM skills do your IT project staff have? What are they required to do under the projects? Do they need generic PM skills, or tailored to your in-house specifics? Do you use a PM methodology? PM is a highly specialised and skilled area, and you are unlikely to ‘cover’ it in any justice on an induction course (see http://www.apm.org.uk for PM qualifications, publications, and further PM info).