Description: Effective project management is essential to co-ordinate the many organisations and activities that comprise a typical construction project. As such it is generally acknowledged that widespread good practice exists within this field in the construction industry. Nevertheless it is too often the case that the good practice that exists is not applied to the specific case of the management of an IT project.

What then are the particular difficulties of an IT project? There are considerations such as procurement and data management that are peculiar to IT projects and so these specifics are addressed throughout the guide. It is the contention of this guide however, that the main challenge in the successful management of an IT project is that of fully involving the relevant business areas so that IT projects are not simply seen as "IT projects run by IT managers". With the involvement of the relevant business areas the likelihood that an IT project will meet business needs and be managed with the same rigour as a conventional project is greatly increased.