CIOL: According to you, how many projects managers would India require in the next five years? And how PMI is addressing this issue?

RK: PMI India has recently commissioned a research on this and results are expected in a month's time. Going by the global figure of 20 million practitioners and India’s economic growth plans it is expected that India will need many more PMs than available now. PMI India charter is advocacy within government, organization and academia.

CIOL: Challenges for any CIO is to determine the RoI for their IT implementations. How can project management addresses this issue?

RK: Before we measure the RoI of any implementation, it is important to ensure that the project is implemented within the budget, in time and as per scope. RoI has a direct correlation with the investments and time, both of which are key elements to project management. The concept of earned value management also assists the PM in tracking the progress of the project.

CIOL: What are the changes you have noticed in the IT landscape in terms of IT deployments using project management techniques?

RK: With the globalization of the Indian IT Industry, the delivery centres of the organizations are across India and in many cases across countries. This requires project team members to be able to speak a common lexicon. This is one of the greatest  benefits of using standardized project management principles.

CIOL: What is your recipe for a successful IT Project?

RK: The Indian IT industry has matured and is delivering project successfully. The question to ask, however, is the definition of success. Therefore, the key aspect of stakeholder management becomes important. What needs to be asked is not only if the project has been completed as per scope, also whether the project has met the end customer requirement (in most cases it may be a customer’s customer).