A Coaching Portal for IT Project Management

Abstract

Current investigations of numerous institutions (Genus & Dalcher, 2003; RAE, 2004; Sauer & Cuthbertson, 2003; The Standish Group, 2003) demonstrate that about 75% of all IT projects fail. The reason for such a high rate of IT project failures is mostly a lack of professionalism and competence in IT project management (RAE, 2004). IT companies often do not have enough resources for filling in the competence gap, especially under conditions of time pressure in IT projects. Project coaching is a possibility for acquiring the required competencies (Rauen, 2002b). A search for suitable project coaches is often a challenging and time-consuming task, and usually limited to the local area. Even if an appropriate coach is found, their availability is still uncertain. Furthermore, professional project coaching is associated with high costs. This article proposes that Internet technologies can help to overcome these difficulties, considering that Web-based project coaching can reduce the time of problem solution, and due to its virtual character, can be offered without geographical limitations. This article focuses on the concept of Web-based project coaching and its practical experiences, and points out the benefits of using portal technology for its implementation.