Project management software have made lives of countless project managers easy, thanks to the host of features it provides. The only challenge is to configure this software to suit your particular needs as a project manager. When you have multiple IT projects to deliver, it becomes a hassle to keep a track. With an efficient project management software available at disposal, you no longer need to worry about effectively implementing an IT project. Simply prioritize projects and evaluate them one by one.
If the evaluation is successful, you can roll out the project for delivery and feedback. If the project does not evaluate well, it’s time for a second look and check for improvements. This prioritization is extremely important to avoid “unlearning” of the project details by the team, if not revised immediately. This saves time and budget and enables a smooth work flow. In this article, we focus on IT project evaluation steps before the final delivery stage. These evaluation steps can be configured into the project management software for a more automated and real-time evaluation.
Consider your job as a project manager in an organization
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So you are ready for the launch of your new IT Project and are excited about the prospects of “immensely” pleased stakeholders in your organization. You know you have done an amazing job with your team. The CEO of your company even liked the final project output. What more could you possibility need? A Reality Check. Executing an IT Project is all about iterations and versions and that said, revising the plan with the experts make complete sense.
Evaluating your IT project by the toughest judges – your client, is the cornerstone of project management. Receiving feedback from your client enables you to improve the workflows associated with your IT project. Since iteration is a recurring step in the IT project design, it follows each time after the evaluation step.
There are many advantages of conducting a post- IT project evaluation. For starters, it helps you understand your weak areas – both in design and delivery of your IT project. The core of this activity is to upgrade the IT project according to the client performance criteria. A post- IT project evaluation usually appears as a comprehensive survey. Most of the time, we see this survey either too short or too long, but seldom covering the key areas of an IT project design and delivery process. Now is the chance to involve your client in the design process of your next IT project. This step is highly crucial to determine the desired pathway of future IT project designs.
Let’s discuss the elements that need to be present in the post IT project evaluation survey. Use this checklist to guide you to create your next survey as you can’t cut corners. You need to be sure in covering each and every conceivable gap. In this checklist, we highlight 12 criteria to be incorporated in your next project design:
Accessibility
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Accessibility issues deal with the look and feel or more precisely, an overview of your IT project. This step also includes the technical challenges that your client may possibly come across. Was your client able to navigate easily? How accessible was the online material? Could your client find information quickly? Did the buttons and link work? Were the foot notes readable?
Content
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Content is the cornerstone for your IT project. Given this fact, you need to determine if the content was relevant to your client. Did they get what they signed up for? Was the content complete, current and appropriate? This includes examples, case studies and scenarios that were incorporated in the content.
Goals and objectives
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For an efficient execution of your IT project, it’s imperative to establish goals and objectives from the beginning. You need to absolutely nail this part, else you won’t be able to make a lasting impression on your client. Make sure that the objectives are closely tied to the performance expectations of your client. Moreover, any gaps in highlighting goals and objectives should be covered in this step.
Visual design
Ask your client about the choice of colors, font, and graphics etc. – the overall visual design of your IT project. Ask for a constructive feedback, if you are to make visual changes aligned to their business goals.
Text
Ask about spelling, grammar, language, tone, style and composition of the text used in your IT project. What are their comments? What could be done to write effectively?
eLearning resources
eLearning resources are additional aids that help your client gain a better understanding of your IT Project. Ask your client if they used the resources provided. Were the instructions to use them clear and understandable? Were these resources useful to understand the content? Does your client have extra resources as suggestions for this IT project?
Interactivity
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Interactivity should be appropriate to the content and context of the IT project. Find out what your client thinks about the interactivity. Did it encourage them to think critically? Did your client find the technology easy to use?
Multimedia
Not all clients can use multimedia like video, audio or interactive diagrams easily. Ask your client about the software and hardware needs of the IT project. Were the instructions complete or was something missing? Ask them to rank the multimedia in the IT project on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of effectiveness, quality and relevance.
Social interactions availability
If you have a collaborative IT project in which you incorporated social learning elements, you need to know their effectiveness. Ask your client if they could form peer to peer interactions. Did the collaborations improve their learning experience?
IT project expectations
Did your client meet or exceed their personal and professional learning goals through this IT project? Were there any exceptional topics? Were there any missing topics? Were the activities reasonable?
Overall experience
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This is a summing up question. You need to find out the emotional reaction of your client towards the IT project. Do they feel empowered or bored after completing the project? What was their overall impression? Did the project fit their schedule easily or did it demand too much of their time? After completing the project, do the client feel confident of their new skills and capabilities? Finally, ask your client if there are any ways in which the design and delivery of the project can be improved.
Conclusion.
Project management of IT Projects can be a daunting task if not managed properly. Being proactive and mindful of these evaluation and prioritization guidelines will enable a project manager to run multiple projects smoothly. These 11 strategies of improving project evaluation can be configured easily into the project management software. Monitoring the response to these strategies and predicting time roll out time is much easier. The trick is to know WHAT to evaluate in a project and HOW to prioritize the projects. Now you have your answers!