Turner Invests Tuesday Tips - Managing IT Project Costs

Managing project costs can be hard enough as it is, but when it is an IT project the challenge is much harder. On average IT projects run 45% over budget and over time so businesses should ensure they have the right plan and management of the project. The following are our top three tips to controlling an IT project.  

“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it” – Scott Allen

Tip 1:                Clearly Define Requirement 
Defining your exact requirement and specification of the IT solution you are creating is key. By specifying and sticking to the precise requirements of the IT project, exactly what the IT solution should be covering and who can make changes to the plan you will avoid ‘scope creep’ and an ever enlarging IT project and budget. 

Tip 2:                Consider Outsourcing   
Outsourcing to countries has become a lot easier and due to the reduced wages in some countries, can be a cost effective solution. Whether you outsource the entire project and ongoing solution or just specific parts of the project there are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing that you should consider depending on the project. Sites such as people per hour and elance are good for project work and bit.ly/thevivaclub is good for hiring a full time employee. 

Tip 3:                Reduce Ongoing Costs  
Not only can the project works spiral but the ongoing IT maintenance and support can get unnecessarily large. Carry out an audit of software licences and existing IT costs, you may find too many licences have been purchased or you still have membership or maintenance costs for programmes you no longer use. Also consider cloud computing that can significantly cut costs of the purchase and maintenance of servers along with bringing efficiencies for access to data. 

As evidenced, managing IT costs needs firm control in order to stay within budget. Using these tips along with other project management tips, see our Three Tips to Project Management blog, will help you control the project and costs to come in on target.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

​Thanks, 
Turner Invest
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