CIOL: What according to you are the challenges in project management in reviving economy?

RK: With the economic changes that have occurred over the last year, it’s anticipated that project managers may be asked to tighten their budgets and try and get the work done more quickly with fewer resources. It has never been more important in project management to avoid costly delays and cut costs wherever possible.

It’s also important not to sacrifice quality in the final product for the sake of saving money. Project managers will have to figure out what can be trimmed without affecting productivity.

Having said that, project management provides organizations benefits both in a boom time and downturn. In a downturn there is a pressure on resources and a skilled project manager is sensitive to the fact and is able to deliver results. In a boom time there is pressure to introduce new products and services, each of which is a project in itself.

CIOL: Where do you see project management in India when it comes to IT industry?

RK: The biggest revenue provider to the Indian IT industry is the IT services/export segment. Success is defined by the ability of the organization to deliver projects on time, within budgets as per the defined scope. Thus, project management plays a crucial role in the success of the Indian IT industry. It is also evident from the fact that a majority of the members of the PMI community comes from the IT industry.

CIOL: What are the primary challenges of project management to achieve all the project goals and objectives while factoring the project constraints?

RK: Research has proven that scope creep, unrealistic deadlines, communication deficit, failure to manage risks, stakeholder management and resource competition are amongst the top challenges facing project managers. Project management allows the project managers to be aware of these facts and build in mitigation plans at the planning stage thus increasing the probability of project success.

CIOL: What kind of a role does a software developer play in project management?

RK: A software developer as a person is either in the role of a team member or a team leader. In either case having the knowledge of PM would assist him/her to plan and execute the project well.

A software developer as a company provides tools which assist the PM in automating reporting and monitoring and also do analysis.

CIOL: Where do you see the demand for project management in India and what qualities should one have to be part of this industry?

RK: It is estimated that world over the demand for project management professionals exceeds 20 million. Suffice to say that India needs far more PMs than is being produced by the academia. The 12th five year plan envisages investments of over USD 500 billion in infrastructure. The IT exports revenue in 2008 was close to USD 47 billion.

As explained earlier, IT exports comprises largely of project execution. To fulfill the gap, tier-I IT companies have set up PM Centre of Excellence or PM Academies.