Project Management in Student Information Technology Projects

Abstract

Universities teach project management to information technology (IT) students. The project management principles that students previously have learned often are put into practice in a project course that is intended to give final-year students the experience of applying their knowledge to real or simulated projects. This article reports on research that investigated the use and usefulness of project management in student IT projects. The results show that there was a wide range in the application of project management practices, with students being more likely to produce the initial documentation associated with some of the project management knowledge areas than to make use of it throughout the project to monitor the project’s progress. The results also showed that the number of project management guidelines applied in student projects was not linked to IT project success. However, there was a strong relationship between project management plan quality and obtaining a good software product.