Teaching Project Management Skills Information technology is no
longer just about creating a product; it’s also about managing
the process of development. “The IT industry initially was
operating more like a fly-by-night kind of operation,” said Hans
Jonasson, senior instructor with ESI International. “There were
a lot of studies in the ’80s and ’90s. One organization, The
Standish Group, [looked] at the status of the software industry,
and they found that less than one-third of all projects [were]
successful. That was the wake-up call, and some people said,
‘Maybe it’s not enough to just sit down and program something.
We have to make sure that we understand what a customer wants,
what are the time frames, what are the business goals, and we
have to organize [that] process.’” As a result, project
management is a growing trend, and more organizations are
expecting their IT professionals to have some experience in this
area. Jonasson used the analogy of a vacation: You don’t just go
on vacation. You have to pl