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TEAMFLY330 THE e REVOLUTION

text, project scheduling is touching IT/AD tools in many ways: (1) using best
practices or methodologies to generate the work breakdown structure, esti-
mate durations and effort, and assign skill types or roles to the work. This inte-
gration is an important step to improve the quality of the initial schedule; (2)
integrating projects with service requests and standard activities. A project
schedule is meaningful only if the resource assignments are based on true
availability; (3) integration of risk and change management into the scheduling
process. Technology projects are inherently risky (much more than bridge or
building projects) and acknowledging that risk and managing it is critical; (4)
the relationship between project schedules or forecasts and the actual perfor-
mance both in meeting delivery dates and accounting for the spent or charged
resources. Integration of project management and project accounting for both
progressing and customer billing is a current reality. Linking project schedules
to contracts and customer information is also a reality today; (5) project sched-
uling and resource assignment are organizational processes that feed data
marts or data-mining applications to give management an integrated picture of
the business.

I could go on to more integration processes, such as knowledge management
or asset management, but the key point is that enterprise project and resource
management is an integrated information system in most IT/AD organizations
and the integration is critical.

What Is the Impact of B2B on How Firms Are Organized to
Manage Projects?

By further reducing the walls separating different organizations, B2B is thereby
helping to create the virtual organization. Properly organized, B2B provides
workarounds to barriers to trade and creates processes to quickly and easily out-
source work.

How Does It Impact on Traditional Roles and
Organizational Boundaries?

The organizational barriers need to be handled or defined through formal docu-
ments, like a contract. Then once the organizations are a part of a common ex-
change (typically run/owned by the buyer), they can deal with integrated
processes. The role of the project and resource manager can be dramatically im-
pacted by this new approach. The key is who has the obligation to assign work to a
resource and what criteria they use.