If that’s the case, check out these free software development templates for Excel, Word and more. They’re just a sampling of all the free project management templates available to download on our site. They cover every aspect of managing a project across multiple industries.

For those wanting a more efficient and effective tool than software development templates, there’s ProjectManager, award-winning project and portfolio management software with robust Gantt charts to plan software projects, especially with waterfall or V-shaped models. Yes, it’s easy to assign teams and drag and drop timelines, but it also links all four types of task dependencies to avoid costly delays, filters for the critical path and sets a baseline to compare planned effort against actual effort in real time to keep the project on track. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Why Use a Software Development Template?

Still reading? Then let’s explain why some prefer to use a software development template. For one, they provide consistency. Templates help maintain uniformity across projects, ensuring that coding standards, documentation and processes are followed. This creates a level of efficiency by saving time with a ready-made structure. This allows developers to focus on the actual coding rather than starting from scratch.

Using a software development template incorporates industry best practices and guidelines, which promotes better coding habits and quality. It reduces errors and omissions to enhance overall code quality and stability. They also help new team members onboard quickly as templates make it easier for them to understand the project structure and standards.

With templates, developers can set up new projects or features faster. This accelerates the development cycle, enabling teams to iterate more rapidly and respond to changes in requirements or market conditions. In agile environments, where speed and flexibility are key, templates can help teams spin up user stories or feature branches, aligning with the fast-paced nature of agile methodologies.

18 Free Software Development Templates

While templates will always lag behind project management software, they do have benefits and can act as a bridge for teams as they transition from templates to software. The demands of software development are unique and these free software development templates address the specific needs of software developers and their teams.

1. Software Development Plan Template

Software development without a plan is foolhardy. That’s because it provides a structured framework for development processes and outlines phases, tasks and timelines. This helps managers see the entire project on a timeline. It provides an overview of the project and helps track progress to ensure the work is done according to the software development plan.

Download this free software development plan template for Excel to organize tasks and monitor progress. On one side of the template is a project scheduling spreadsheet. Here all tasks are listed, including their start and end dates. This indicates the duration of the work. This data automatically populates a timeline, which can be color-coded to differentiate project phases. There are columns on the spreadsheet that note the task’s priority and the percentage complete to track progress.

2. Test Case Template

The test case is a critical component of software development. It ensures the quality and reliability of the software product by allowing testers to create test case scenarios for the software product or one of its features. This free test case template for Excel is a methodical tool for doing a thorough test of the product that developers and testers can use to discover missed errors and defects.

Use this software development template to carefully check every aspect of the software to ensure it’s working properly before releasing it to the public. The free template has a column to give the test case an ID, another for defining the test case scenario and one to explain how it will be tested. There’s a field to capture pre-conditions, test steps, expected results, actual results, post-conditions and more.

3. Agile Sprint Plan Template

Sprint planning is a meeting that occurs at the beginning of each sprint, which is a time-boxed iteration, usually between one and four weeks. The team discusses and decides which items from the product backlog will be worked on. This free agile sprint plan template incorporates the entire scrum team to motivate and challenge them to drive success.

This software development template opens in ProjectManager, which gives users a variety of project views to work from. There are kanban boards for agile teams, task lists for developers and the aforementioned Gantt charts to track progress. Real-time data is shared across all project views, which keeps cross-functional teams working off the most current information to foster better collaboration.

4. Project Plan Template

Project plans serve as a comprehensive document that outlines the strategy for managing a software project from initiation to completion. It includes such vital information as defining the scope of the project, creating a timeline and adding milestones to ensure that the project stays on schedule. It also includes resource allocations, budgeting, risk management and more.

The free software development template includes all these components in a thorough Word document. It breaks the project into phases and tasks and creates a schedule with task dependencies, project assumptions and constraints. It also defines the change management process to log and track any changes to the project plan.

5. Bug Report Template

This free bug report template for Excel is used to maintain software quality and ensure that issues are identified and resolved effectively. It documents defects or issues found in the software and serves as a communication tool between developers, testers and other stakeholders. They prioritize and track progress and promote accountability within the team.

The bug report is an essential software development template that captures all the pertinent information needed to fix the bug. There’s the bug ID, including the reporter’s name, assigned developer and the date it was submitted. The bug is then summarized, adding a URL or screenshot if possible. The environment is defined and the details of the bug are listed. The severity and priority are also noted.

6. Roadmap Template

A roadmap provides a strategic overview of a project’s direction and milestones. This free roadmap template for Excel outlines the long-term vision and goals of the software project, which helps stakeholders understand where the project is heading. This free software development template is similar to the Gantt chart, with a spreadsheet that populates a timeline to keep the project team and stakeholders aware of the project’s objectives.

But why bother with limited templates when one can sign up for a free trial and use ProjectManager’s dynamic roadmap feature for long-term planning? Our roadmap can also be used for portfolio management, capturing all projects on a Gantt chart that has resource management, time tracking and task management tools. The roadmap can be filtered by the assignee, project manager or customer to make forecasts and highlight key metrics for stakeholders.

7. Test Plan Template

A test plan provides a structured roadmap for verifying that a product, system or feature works as intended. It can help save time, prevent defects and reduce risks. It defines what will be tested, how it will be tested and who is responsible for ensuring thorough coverage. This improves product quality, builds stakeholder confidence and supports smooth project delivery.

Rather than creating a plan from scratch for each product or feature, use our free test plan template for Excel. It improves consistency across testing cycles, reduces the risk of missed defects and helps developers and stakeholders see progress clearly. Ultimately, it supports higher-quality products, faster release cycles, and more reliable decision-making throughout development.

8. Requirements Gathering Template

Requirements gathering is an important part of software development as it collects, analyzes and documents the needs and expectations of stakeholders. This helps to understand the use needs for the software, defines the project scope and ensures all stakeholder perspectives are considered. This software development template is about business, user and system requirements and is crucial to complete before starting any software development project.

When you download the free requirements gathering template for Word, there’s everything needed for a thorough listing of project requirements. It has a cover page with the project name and a chart to track the versions of the document. There’s a section to show the project plan and describe the project and its purpose, scope and timeline, which has milestones, goals, dependencies and more.

9. Risk Tracking Template

The free risk tracking or risk register template is essential for identifying and mitigating risks that can impact the project’s success. This software development template allows teams to proactively identify the risks that could arise as issues in the project and note the impact, which will help to categorize risks by levels, such as high, medium and low. This allows risks to be prioritized.

This free template allows developers and their teams to systematically track and evaluate the actions taken to mitigate the risks that show up as issues in the project. Risk is an inevitable part of any project management. Being prepared for risk is key to software development to ensure the delivered product is high quality, on time and stays within budget.

10. Bug Report Template

Catching bugs early is pivotal, so a bug report is key. It typically includes details like a clear description of the problem, steps to reproduce it, expected versus actual behavior, severity or priority, screenshots or logs and the environment in which the bug occurred.

Use this free bug report template to help maintain software quality, prevent recurring issues and ensure that stakeholders are aware of defects that could impact performance, user experience or timelines. Well-documented bug reports streamline debugging, improve accountability and support a smoother, more predictable development process.

11. Issue Tracking Template

Another software development template that helps to keep work moving smoothly is our free issue tracking template for Excel. Unlike a risk, which is an event, both positive and negative, which might occur, an issue is presently impacting the project for the worse. The issue must be resolved.

Download this issue tracking template to ensure that issues are not only identified but resolved without negatively impacting the project. Each issue is listed and described with the potential impact to the project defined. A priority is then set and the date the issue is opened is noted. There’s space to list the date when the issue has closed as well as who on the team is responsible for dealing with it. A column with the status tracks whether the issue is open or closed.

12. Product Backlog Template

A product backlog is a prioritized, dynamic list of all the work items required to build or maintain a product: new features, bug fixes, improvements, technical tasks, or other requested changes. It acts as a “single source of truth” for everything that could or should be done for the product.

The product backlog template helps teams organize and manage all work items in one place. It lets you list each task or feature, assign priorities, estimate effort, track status and record acceptance criteria. By keeping everything structured and visible, the template makes it easier to plan sprints, communicate with stakeholders and focus on the most valuable work. It ensures clarity, transparency, and flexibility as priorities change during product development.

13. Change Log Template

Change is a constant and if it isn’t managed it’s a project-destroyer. Change can come from problems in the project to last-minute requests from stakeholders. Wherever they originate, change has to be logged to determine if it should be followed. This free change log template from Excel helps to manage equipment breaks, team members getting sick or whatever change occurs in the project.

Use this software development template to capture change as it happens and track it throughout the project until it’s no longer impacting work. The template notes the type of change, describes it and prioritizes it to help the team know which to address first. The team member who’s assigned to own the change is listed and much more to ensure that the change never falls through the cracks.

14. Change Request Form Template

Another component of change management is this free change request form template for Word. It collects data that determines how to deal with the proposed change. This way, if the change request is approved, the work won’t create issues with the current workflow. This ensures that approved changes are smoothly implemented.

This software development template has everything one needs to capture the specifics of the requested change. It shows who requested the change, the date it was submitted, the priority and the impact on deliverables. There’s also a field to note the impact of not responding to the change and why. Other fields note the cost, quality and duration of the change, impact on deadlines and much more.

15. Kanban Board Template

In software development, a kanban board provides a visual way to manage and track work as it moves through different stages of the development process. Typically, tasks or user stories are represented as cards that move across columns such as “To Do,” “In Progress” and “Done.”

This kanban board template helps teams see workflow bottlenecks, manage workload and prioritize tasks. It promotes transparency, encourages continuous delivery, and allows developers, testers, and product owners to quickly understand project status at a glance.

16. Root Cause Analysis

Root cause analysis is a systemic process used in software development to identify the underlying reasons for defects or issues within a system. This free software development template can help identify problems when a bug or failure occurs and analyze the contributing factors.

Use this free root cause analysis template for Word to identify and document what is responsible for the problem. The root cause analysis template is a fishbone diagram where the problem is at the head and the spine captures various causes that are the reason for the problem being analyzed.

17. Timesheet Template

Timesheets help with payroll. Specifically, as a software development template, timesheets can help track contractors. They tend to work long hours when doing development work. Timesheets not only help them log their hours but also allow managers to track their labor costs to ensure that the project stays within its budget.

Download this free timesheet template for Excel to manage payroll and track expenses. There’s a box for the employee’s name, department, supervisor and hourly rate. Under that, the days they’re working for the pay cycle are listed, including start and end times, with a lunch break. There’s a column for any overtime hours and then it’s all added, with signature lines for the employee and their supervisor.

18. Progress Report

A progress report is a document that shows how far the project has progressed in comparison to where the project plan says it should be. This software development template is key to tracking the project to ensure that it stays on schedule.

Download the free progress report template for Word to keep software products meeting deadlines. The template opens with a summary and then lists all the tasks that were executed over the period covered in the report. If there are issues, they’re highlighted in another section. Both progress and the budget are tracked. The template closes with accomplishments over that period and what is expected to be accomplished over the next period covered.

ProjectManager Helps With Software Development

While these software development templates are helpful, as we’ve mentioned, they cause frustration. That’s because they’re only static documents working in a dynamic field. It’s hard enough to do a software development project without having to stop and manually update templates. And forget about collaborating with other team members. Templates aren’t capable. Project management software clears all those hurdles and more. ProjectManager is award-winning software that has Gantt charts and roadmaps that are updated in real time, and can be shared with teams whether they’re working side-by-side or in another time zone.

Execute Work on Kanban Boards and Task Lists

While Gantt charts are great for planning and roadmaps illustrate strategic objectives, dev teams need tools designed to help them execute their work. That’s why we have multiple project views that share data so everyone is working on the same page. They can visualize workflow with kanban boards. Teams can collectively plan sprints, manage their backlog and managers can see potential roadblocks and reallocate resources quickly to clear the way and keep the project moving forward as planned. Task lists and calendar views give stakeholders a monthly overview of progress to keep them informed.

Track Progress, Costs and More in Real Time

Instead of using a software development template to report on progress, use one of our customizable reports on status, portfolios, workload, variance, timesheets and more. They can be filtered to go deep into the details for teams or a more general overview for stakeholders. For a high-level overview, toggle to the real-time project or portfolio dashboard. It automatically collects live data, which is displayed on easy-to-read graphs and charts that show time, cost, workload and more. There are also secure timesheets that can help managers track labor costs.

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams, whether they’re in the office or anywhere in the world. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

The post 18 Free Software Development Templates for Excel, Word & More appeared first on ProjectManager.

ProjectManager has dozens of free project management templates for Excel and Word that IT managers need when working on web development, software development, mobile app development, network configuration and so much more. Try these 21 free IT project management templates today.

1. IT Project Plan Template

IT project managers are responsible for many different types of projects, from developing new systems to upgrading old enterprise applications. But every IT project has one thing in common: it starts with an IT plan. With our free IT project plan template, IT project managers can organize tasks, costs and resources with scheduled deadlines and deliverables.

Using an IT project management template saves you time and helps you to start a project more efficiently, which leads to a more successful outcome. Not only are you able to figure out what you’re going to do, but you can also share the IT project plan template with your team to get them on the same page.

2. Gantt Chart Template

When making an IT plan, or any plan for that matter, the go-to tool is the Gantt chart. It’s a tried-and-true tool for good reason; Gantt charts create a visual timeline in which all your project tasks are scheduled. They can manage time, costs and resources. Creating a Gantt chart in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel is frustrating, especially when there’s one ready for you to use when you download our free Gantt chart template for Excel.

3. IT Risk Assessment Template

IT projects are no different than any other type of project in that they’re rife with risk. IT risk carries an extra burden in that most businesses, regardless of what they do, demand that their IT systems work. If something goes down or is compromised in any way, it can lead to a significant financial loss or worse. This is why our free IT risk assessment template for Excel is so important.

The structure of any risk assessment tool has common elements. Ours lists the risk numerically, which makes it easy to track, as well as describing the risk and the control environment. It collects data but also defines the actions to take if the issues do in fact arise so you can mitigate the risk. There’s also a calculator to note the likelihood of the risk occurring and, if it does, what impact it will have.

4. IT Incident Report Template

An IT incident report template is a structured document used to record unexpected events that disrupt IT systems or services, such as outages, security breaches, hardware failures or other technology issues. It captures what happened, when, who noticed it, the impact and how the issue was resolved. A well-documented incident report helps teams analyze causes, restore service properly, track patterns over time and improve system reliability and future response.

In this IT incident report template, you’ll find a ready-to-use form to log all important details of an IT incident: incident ID, time and date, who reported it, affected systems, severity, description of the event, actions taken, resolution steps and recommendations to prevent recurrence. It also includes fields for impacted users, recovery actions and evidence attachments (like logs or screenshots). Teams can use it to ensure incidents are consistently documented, making post-mortem analysis, audits and continuous improvement easier.

5. Action Plan Template

Whether you’re responding to risk or simply planning an IT project, you need a strategy. Our free action plan template for Excel is a document that outlines the steps you should take in order to achieve that strategy. IT project managers can use this IT project management template to visualize how to turn the strategy into actionable steps, which can be broken down into subtasks or action items.

IT project managers can use the free template during the planning stage of the project. It outlines goals, action steps, tasks and a timeline and can address business, strategic and corrective action as needed. It’s a versatile tool. However you use it, an action plan provides a framework that helps you think pragmatically and ensures you don’t overlook important tasks.

6. IT Project Budget Template

Getting an accurate count of the costs of your IT project is how you ensure you have the funds to do the work properly. That includes everything from your team, equipment and more. It’s a lot of costs to track, which is why IT project managers can download our free project budget template for Excel.

Not only will it help you create a more accurate budget but it’ll help you monitor your costs as you execute the project. The IT project management template captures labor, consultant and software license costs to name a few. But it also collects recurring costs such as phone bills, office space and equipment costs. Remember, you’re not only creating a budget but a cost control mechanism.

7. IT Server Maintenance Checklist

If the server goes down, trouble is around the corner. To avoid that, schedule maintenance. There are many things to check to ensure that all are well, which is why we recommend downloading our free server maintenance checklist for Excel. This free IT project management template helps you do a thorough job.

Using the template is simple. On the left-hand side are a variety of tasks that are common to server maintenance, such as updates, security, backups, monitoring, file system maintenance and more. On the right is a grid where you can schedule those tasks as daily, weekly, monthly or occasionally. The template is customizable so you can add or subtract what you want, so it better reflects your responsibilities.

8. IT Budget Template

An IT budget template outlines all expected technology-related expenditures for an organization (hardware, software, personnel, maintenance, subscriptions, etc.) over a period — often a fiscal year. It helps ensure financial resources are properly planned, tracked and aligned with business goals. A good IT budget prevents overspending, supports strategic investment decisions, enables forecasting, and ensures accountability and transparency in IT spending.

Our IT budget template for Excel organizes all your technology costs in one spreadsheet, letting you list items such as hardware, software subscriptions, labor, infrastructure and recurring expenses. You can enter projected costs, track actual spending month-by-month, and allocate costs across departments or projects. It makes it easier to spot overages, forecast future expenses, and maintain control over IT spending — helping you plan, monitor, and adjust budgets with clarity and accountability.

9. IT Asset Inventory Template

An IT asset inventory template acts as a comprehensive record of all hardware, software and digital resources owned by an organization. It tracks each asset’s identity, location, user assignment, purchase and warranty data, and current status. Keeping this information organized helps prevent loss or misplacement, supports compliance with licensing rules, simplifies audits, helps plan upgrades or replacements and keeps maintenance or security tasks on track.

The IT asset inventory template in Excel organizes your technology assets in a single, customizable spreadsheet, where you list each item’s ID, type (hardware, software, etc.), description, purchase date, warranty info, assigned user or department, location, status (active, in repair, retired) and other relevant details. It makes it easy to update or reassign assets, track maintenance or warranty expiration and monitor what’s in use or retired. The template is useful for tracking assets across teams or departments and helps you maintain clarity and accountability over your organization’s IT resources.

10. IT Roadmap Template

An IT roadmap template is a high-level plan that outlines an organization’s technology goals, initiatives, and the schedule for implementing them over time. It aligns IT strategy with business objectives, guiding decisions about infrastructure upgrades, software deployments, security improvements and resource allocation. A good roadmap gives structure, helps prioritize efforts, anticipates future needs, and ensures all stakeholders share the same long-term vision.

Use this IT roadmap template for Excel to organize your major technology initiatives in a clear timeline, showing current capabilities, upcoming projects, milestones, responsible teams and resource needs. It captures strategic objectives, planned upgrades or deployments, and key dependencies. Laying everything out in one spreadsheet helps you communicate your IT plan to stakeholders, track progress, and make informed decisions about priorities and timing.

11. Dashboard Template

Monitoring IT systems is key to keeping software and hardware running smoothly. By having a high-level view, it’s possible to not only track progress and performance but also catch any anomalies that might indicate issues that need to be addressed before they become problems. Use our free dashboard template for Excel and track this data at a glance.

Use this IT project management template to track keep performance indicators (KPIs) such as tasks, workload, task length and cost. The colorful bar graphs and charts make it easy to digest the data quickly and provide IT project managers with the perspective they need to get valuable insights that’ll guide better decision-making.

12. IT Risk Register Template

Every IT project manager knows that risk is always around the corner. That’s just part of project management. Planning for it is also part of project management. Our free risk register template for Excel gives you the tools to plan and mitigate risk in your IT projects. This tool allows IT project managers to prepare a strategy that helps them to respond to risk and resolve or take advantage of it if it occurs in their project.

This IT project management template numbers risks to make them easy to track. You can also describe the risk, its impact and what response you’ll have if it becomes an issue in the IT project. There’s also a column to rank the level of the risk from high to low, which helps with prioritization. Finally, you can assign an owner who’s responsible for identifying and mitigating the risk.

13. IT Issue Tracking Template

Issues are problems. Whether they’re risks that you planned for or something that comes out of the blue, they can sidetrack your IT project. When an issue arises, you have to be able to identify it and resolve it quickly before it impacts the time, scope or cost of your project. That’s what our free issue-tracking template for Excel is designed to do.

Use the free IT project management template to capture any issues that show up in your project, which is the first step in developing an action plan to deal with the issue. There’s a column to describe the issue and its impact. Then you can add the priority, the date it was identified and who’s responsible for responding to it. There’s also space to add the department that’s handling the issue, its status (open or closed) and even a place to add notes.

14. IT Change Log Template

Another risk or issue is change. That change can occur in an IT project due to equipment failure, human error, an act of God, such as a power outage or requests from stakeholders, to name a few. Whatever the reason, changes in a project can impact your schedule, budget and more. To manage them, download our free change log template for Excel.

Everything you need to collect and manage change is included in the document. From the project’s and project manager’s names to the change number and type of change request, it’s all included. There’s also a date to note when the change was requested or occurred, a description of the change and its status. You can also assign it, add a priority and determine when it’s expected to be resolved, understand its impact and outline the action steps that’ll resolve it.

15. GDPR Compliance Checklist

Anyone in IT knows the importance of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). While it’s specific to the European Union (EU), any tech company that collects and processes personal information and has a presence in the EU is under a legal requirement to be compliant with this law. Our free GDPR compliance checklist template makes it easy to manage that process.

Our IT project management template has columns to collect the tasks that are required to remain compliant with the law. It assigns owners to each of these tasks to ensure they’re done in a timely and thorough fashion. There’s also a place to add a deadline and you can even allocate resources to each task as needed. Then simply check them off as you go down the list. It’s an easy way to manage a legal requirement.

16. Requirements Traceability Matrix Template

IT projects have requirements, meaning they must be done and done right or else the project suffers. In order to ensure that, use our free requirements traceability matrix template for Excel. It does this by listing all those project requirements and how to track them through the project’s life cycle. This wa,y nothing critical can fall through the cracks.

There are many ways in which this IT project management template helps you manage your project requirements. It’s great for quality assurance (QA) and understanding what needs testing to ensure it’s meeting the project requirements. IT project managers can also use this document to help them make data-informed decisions rather than acting on instinct.

17. IT Project Prioritization Matrix Template

Not all IT project managers have the luxury of focusing all their attention on one project. They’re often responsible for a portfolio of work and making sure they allocate their resources wisely among that group. Our free project prioritization matrix template allows you to look at all your IT projects and make objective decisions as to which projects need attention and when.

This Eisenhower matrix is broken into four quadrants. On top, there are two columns: one for do now and the other which says do later. On the left-hand side, there are two rows: crucial and not crucial. Now you can place your projects in one of the four squares to know what must be done immediately, what can be scheduled for the future, what can be delegated and what can be deleted or moved.

18. Implementation Plan Template

Every IT project starts as an idea that’s codified by a plan, but it needs to be realized by an implementation plan, or the steps required to actualize that plan and produce its deliverables. While it might sound redundant to have the plan to execute a plan, anyone who’s familiar with project management knows that using our free implementation plan template for Excel is how you organize those ideas into actionable steps.

The IT project management template is broken up into three distinct parts. First, there is the project strategy, which moves down to processes and actions to implement that strategy. Then there’s the timeline, which shows the planned and actual start and end dates for the tasks as well as the planned hours for the task. Finally, there are the resources to execute those tasks, including materials and costs. With all this mapped out, you can implement your plan successfully.

19. Requirements Gathering Template

Knowing the requirements for an IT project is what starts out the planning phase. They will be collected in a document, which is where our free requirements-gathering template for Word comes in. This IT project management template also acts as a communication tool connecting the requirements of the user to the developer.

But it’s not only user requirements that are gathered; there are also business and system requirements captured in the document. The requirements are broken down into seven subsections: user, functional and system requirements, software and user interfaces, workflow activities and change and risk management. There’s also high-level technical architecture sketched out plus maintenance and support. There’s even testing and evaluation, such as objectives, artifacts, users and tasks included.

20. Test Case Template

A test case template is a software development document that allows developers to verify if new software will perform as expected before releasing it to the public. To do so, they test all the features of the software and then use a test case to document their findings.

21. Bug Report Template

A bug report is a document that helps IT and software development teams document and monitor software malfunctions, commonly referred to as bugs. Bug reports are commonly used when testing a new software feature before it’s released to the public. They should contain basic information that developers can use to understand the circumstances in which the bug occurred so they can fix it.

ProjectManager Helps With IT Project Management

As any IT project manager will tell you, templates are static documents. They can be a step back, not forward, when it comes to managing a project. What you need is project management software, such as ProjectManager. Our online software delivers real-time data for better decision-making. What also makes our software superior to templates is that you can use a variety of tools that all share the same updated data.

Use Multiple Project Views

Not all project tools are created equal. The Gantt chart is ideal for scheduling, but kanban boards visualize and control workflows as you plan and execute sprints or manage your backlog. Teams might prefer using our robust task list, which also shares the same real-time data as the other tools, such as the sheet and calendar views. That means you can work on the tool you want and stay up-to-date with the most current project information.

Capture Real-Time Data

Having everyone on the team work on the same live data is key to productivity, but it’s not everything. IT project managers also need a see high-level view of the project whenever they want. Our real-time dashboard does just that. It captures live data and crunches those numbers to display metrics on time, cost and more in easy-to-read graphs and charts. Best of all, there’s no setup required. It’s plug-and-play.

Reports take you deeper into the data, customizing results to show just what you want to see and making it easy to share with stakeholders to keep them updated. There are also resource management tools that balance workload, risk management tools that track issues and task management tools that keep teams collaborating and productive.

Related IT Project Management Content

If you’re still on the fence about signing up for a free trial of ProjectManager, we have lots of free content you can read. From weekly blog posts to guides, videos, templates and more, we have information on every aspect of the project management phases. Here’s a small sampling of our IT-related content.

• IT Project Management Guide
• IT Project Management Software
• IT Audit: Definition & Quick Guide
• How to Become an IT Project Manager
• IT Problem Management
• IT Risk Management Strategies
• IT Governance Framework

ProjectManager is award-winning software that empowers IT teams to plan, manage and track their work in real time. Our collaborative software makes it easy to comment and share anywhere and at any time, whether across departments or continents. Get started with ProjectManager today.

The post 21 Free IT Project Management Templates for Excel, Word & More appeared first on ProjectManager.

Implementing IT change management allows organizations to track changes systematically, document decisions and measure outcomes. This improves accountability and helps teams respond to incidents faster. By using IT change management, organizations can anticipate potential issues, reduce downtime and ensure that changes are tested, approved and communicated effectively across stakeholders.

What Is IT Change Management?

IT change management is the process of planning, implementing and reviewing changes to an organization’s IT systems in a controlled and structured way. It minimizes risk to critical systems while ensuring that changes are executed efficiently. This includes tracking requests, analyzing potential impacts, scheduling modifications and documenting outcomes to maintain accountability and compliance.

Project management software greatly enhances the IT change management process by centralizing requests, providing automated workflows and offering real-time visibility into change status. Teams can assign tasks, set approvals and monitor deadlines, ensuring that changes follow standard procedures and are implemented smoothly across departments.

ProjectManager is the ideal tool for IT change management because it combines task management, workflow automation and reporting in a single platform. Managers can use dashboards to monitor change requests, allocate resources effectively, track approvals and generate compliance reports. Its integration capabilities allow seamless documentation and collaboration across IT teams, making it easier to implement and track every IT change efficiently. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Is ITIL Change Management?

ITIL change management is a framework within the IT Infrastructure Library that governs the lifecycle of all IT changes. It ensures that standardized processes are followed to reduce risk, minimize downtime and maintain service quality. ITIL change management helps organizations implement changes efficiently by providing structured procedures, approval workflows and consistent documentation, ensuring that IT systems remain stable and reliable while adapting to business needs.

Types of ITIL Changes

ITIL categorizes changes into types to streamline approval and implementation processes. Each type has specific procedures and risk levels, ensuring IT teams apply the appropriate level of oversight for every change.

• Standard IT Change: Pre-approved, low-risk changes that follow established procedures. These changes are routine, repeatable and do not require additional approval. Examples include software updates or password resets.
• Normal IT Change: Changes that require assessment and approval before implementation. They vary in risk and complexity and may include system upgrades or configuration modifications. A change advisory board typically reviews these.
• Emergency IT Change: Urgent changes that must be implemented immediately to prevent outages or resolve critical incidents. These bypass some standard procedures but still require post-implementation review and documentation.

ITIL Change Management Roles

ITIL change management defines specific roles to ensure changes are evaluated, approved and implemented efficiently. Each role carries clear responsibilities to maintain IT stability while supporting business objectives. Understanding these roles helps organizations assign accountability and streamline their change processes.

• Change Advisory Board (CAB): A group of stakeholders and experts who review and approve normal IT changes. The CAB evaluates the risks, impacts, and benefits of proposed changes to ensure they align with business priorities and minimize potential disruptions.
• Change Manager: Responsible for overseeing the change management process, coordinating approvals, scheduling changes and ensuring documentation. The Change Manager ensures policies are followed and that changes are implemented smoothly with minimal service interruption.
• Change Implementer / Owner: The individual or team responsible for executing the approved change. They carry out the technical tasks, follow implementation procedures,and report back on completion and any issues encountered during the process.

Related: 14 Free Change Management Templates for Excel and Word

IT Change Management Process Explained

The IT change management process outlines structured steps to handle changes in IT systems efficiently. It ensures minimal disruption, maintains compliance and improves service quality. Each phase from request to closure is documented to provide accountability, track performance and guide teams in implementing changes effectively.

1. Identify and Record the Change Request

All changes begin with a detailed change request, including the nature of the change, affected systems, requester information and desired timeline. Recording this ensures transparency, provides a reference for approvals and helps track the change throughout the lifecycle. Accurate documentation at this stage reduces errors and supports auditing processes.

2. Assess and Classify the Change

Once submitted, the change is assessed for type, priority and urgency. Classification determines whether the change is standard, normal or emergency. This step ensures proper review, assigns responsible personnel and sets timelines. Clear categorization helps allocate resources effectively and prevents unnecessary delays in handling critical updates.

3. Evaluate Risks and Impacts

Each change undergoes a risk and impact assessment to identify potential disruptions to services, security, or operations. The evaluation considers dependencies, resource requirements and compliance issues. By understanding risks and impacts beforehand, IT teams can develop mitigation plans, reducing downtime and avoiding costly mistakes.

4. Approve or Reject the Change

The change request is presented to the appropriate authority, often the Change Advisory Board or Change Manager. Approval is based on risk, benefit and alignment with business priorities. Rejected changes are documented with reasons, while approved changes move forward to implementation, ensuring accountability and traceability of decisions.

5. Implement the Approved Change

The approved change is executed according to the implementation plan. Change Implementers follow procedures, coordinate with stakeholders and document progress. Communication ensures users are aware of potential impacts. Successful implementation minimizes service disruption and adheres to IT policies, providing a controlled and repeatable process for all changes.

6. Review and Close the Change

After implementation, the change is reviewed to verify that objectives were met and no issues remain. Documentation is updated, lessons learned are recorded and the change is formally closed. This phase ensures accountability, allows performance evaluation and provides data for continuous improvement of the IT change management process.

Benefits of IT Change Management

Implementing IT change management provides organizations with structured processes to handle changes efficiently. It improves communication, ensures accountability, reduces errors and strengthens IT service reliability. Teams can manage risks better, minimize downtime and maintain business continuity while aligning changes with organizational goals.

Improved Service Stability

IT change management standardizes procedures for implementing updates, upgrades and modifications, ensuring that systems remain stable and reliable. By following defined workflows, teams reduce unplanned interruptions and conflicts. This structured approach allows IT departments to maintain consistent service quality, improve user satisfaction and prevent cascading failures across dependent systems.

Reduced Downtime

Changes implemented without proper management can result in outages and service disruptions. IT change management minimizes downtime by planning changes carefully, scheduling them during low-impact periods and testing updates before deployment. Teams can quickly address issues and recover from failures, keeping critical business operations running smoothly without major interruptions.

Better Risk Control

Through risk assessment and approval processes, IT change management allows teams to anticipate potential problems before changes are applied. By evaluating impacts and implementing mitigation strategies, organizations reduce operational, security and compliance risks. Proactive monitoring and documentation provide visibility and accountability, helping IT departments control risk and maintain system integrity.

Related: 9 Free Risk Management Templates for Excel

IT Change Management Tools & Documentation

Effective IT change management relies on structured tools and documentation to standardize processes, improve visibility and ensure accountability. These resources help teams track change requests, assess risks, obtain approvals and monitor implementation. Proper documentation provides a clear audit trail and supports continuous improvement across the IT environment.

Change Request Form

The change request form captures all essential details about a proposed IT change, including description, requester, date, priority and affected systems. It serves as the official submission for consideration, providing a standardized format that ensures no critical information is overlooked. Teams can review, track and assign changes efficiently.

Related: Change Request Form Template

Change Log

A change log records all submitted and approved changes in one centralized location. It tracks status, implementation dates, responsible personnel and outcomes. This log provides visibility to IT managers and stakeholders, ensures accountability and helps identify recurring issues or bottlenecks, supporting proactive risk management.

Change Impact Analysis

The change impact analysis evaluates the potential effects of a proposed change on systems, processes and users. By identifying dependencies and risks, teams can prioritize changes, mitigate negative consequences and develop contingency plans. This ensures smoother implementation and minimizes service disruptions.

Change Approval Matrix

The change approval matrix defines who must review and authorize each type of change. It clarifies roles and responsibilities, ensuring proper oversight for standard, normal and emergency changes. By formalizing approval hierarchies, organizations reduce risk, streamline decision-making and prevent unauthorized modifications.

Change Implementation Plan

The change implementation plan outlines step-by-step instructions for executing an approved change. It details tasks, timelines, resources and communication protocols. By providing a clear roadmap, teams can coordinate efforts, avoid errors and ensure that the change is implemented efficiently and effectively across all impacted systems.

Post-Implementation Review Report

The post-implementation review report evaluates the success of a change after deployment. It documents outcomes, issues encountered, lessons learned and opportunities for improvement. This report supports continuous process improvement, informs future change decisions and ensures accountability for both the planning and execution phases.

Best Practices for IT Change Management

Following best practices ensures IT change management is efficient, consistent and reduces risk. Structured processes, proper documentation and stakeholder engagement help organizations implement changes smoothly, minimize disruptions and maintain system stability. Applying these principles supports continuous improvement and better decision-making across IT projects and operations.

Maintain a Centralized Change Log

Keeping a centralized change log allows IT teams to track all submitted, approved and implemented changes in one location. It provides visibility into ongoing and completed changes, helps identify trends or recurring issues and supports auditing and compliance efforts. Centralization reduces errors and ensures accountability across the change management process.

Involve Stakeholders Early

Engaging stakeholders at the start of the change process ensures their requirements, concerns and priorities are considered. Early involvement improves communication, fosters collaboration and helps identify potential risks or dependencies before implementation. This proactive approach increases the likelihood of successful changes and reduces resistance from affected teams.

Related: 13 Free Stakeholder Management Templates for Excel & Word

Monitor Post-Implementation Results

After implementing a change, monitoring post-implementation results ensures it meets intended objectives and does not cause unexpected issues. Tracking system performance, user feedback and any incidents allows teams to correct problems quickly. This review supports continuous improvement, informs future changes and validates the effectiveness of the IT change management process.

Free IT Change Management Templates

These free IT change management templates help streamline your change processes and improve consistency across projects. Each template supports different stages of the IT change management process, from documenting changes to evaluating impacts and approvals. Using templates saves time, reduces errors and ensures all necessary information is captured for effective decision-making and compliance.

Change Log Template

Download this free template to help teams track all change requests in a centralized log. It records request details, status, priority, approvals and implementation outcomes. By maintaining a comprehensive change log, IT teams can monitor trends, ensure accountability and quickly identify any recurring issues across projects or systems.

Change Impact Assessment Template

Use this free change impact assessment template to allow IT teams to evaluate potential effects of a proposed change on systems, users and business processes. It captures risk levels, affected areas, required resources and mitigation strategies. Using this template ensures informed decision-making and minimizes negative consequences from unplanned impacts.

Change Request Form Template

This free form standardizes the submission of change requests, capturing essential details such as requester information, change description, priority and proposed timeline. It ensures requests are complete and consistent, enabling quicker assessment and approval. Teams can efficiently manage requests while maintaining documentation for audit and compliance purposes.

How ProjectManager Helps IT Teams

ProjectManager allows IT teams to track every change request and task in real time. Dashboards display task status, pending approvals and risk indicators, while reports provide insights into completion rates and delays. Teams receive alerts when issues arise, helping prevent downtime and maintain service stability. By tracking changes effectively, IT managers can ensure projects stay on schedule and IT change management processes are followed accurately, giving full visibility into ongoing work and outcomes.

Visualize Project Timelines With Multiple Project Views

ProjectManager offers multiple project views, with Gantt charts as the central tool for IT teams. Tasks are linked with dependencies and timelines can be adjusted as priorities shift. Calendar, list and board views provide alternative perspectives to manage simultaneous changes. This flexibility helps IT managers see the full picture, coordinate tasks efficiently and identify potential scheduling conflicts before they impact deadlines, keeping IT change projects aligned with business objectives.

Manage Resources Effectively

Related IT Change Management Content

For those who want to learn more about IT change management, check out the links below. There are articles that cover IT roadmaps, service management and much more.

• What Is an IT Roadmap? (Template Included)
• IT Service Management (ITSM): Frameworks, Processes & Phases
• How to Make an IT Disaster Recovery Plan
• IT Audit: Definition & Quick Guide (Checklist Included)
• IT Governance: Definitions, Frameworks and Planning

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams, whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay up to date with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

The post IT Change Management: Process, Tools & Documentation appeared first on ProjectManager.

We’ll explore what an IT strategic plan is, how it fits into IT strategic planning, what should be included in the plan and who’s responsible for it. Whether an organization is scaling operations, improving cybersecurity or integrating new systems, an IT strategic plan provides a structured approach to decision-making and resource allocation.

What Is an IT Strategic Plan?

An IT strategic plan is a comprehensive document that outlines how an organization’s technology initiatives will support and advance its overall business goals. It serves as a roadmap for aligning IT infrastructure, applications and services with the company’s vision, mission and operational priorities. The plan typically covers a multi-year timeframe and addresses areas such as digital transformation, cybersecurity, data management and systems integration.

At its core, an IT strategic plan helps organizations prioritize technology investments, manage resources effectively, and ensure that IT activities are reactive to current needs and proactive in anticipating future demands. It includes clear objectives, performance metrics and timelines to guide implementation and track progress. Stakeholder alignment is also a key component, as collaboration between IT leaders and business executives is critical for a plan’s success.

A well-structured IT strategic plan also promotes transparency and accountability, providing teams with a unified direction and reducing the risk of misaligned or redundant initiatives. As technology plays an increasingly central role in business operations and customer engagement, an IT strategic plan becomes essential for driving innovation, maintaining competitiveness and managing technological change in a controlled, strategic manner.

An IT strategic plan informs a Gantt chart by providing the foundational objectives, initiatives and timelines that drive the scheduling and sequencing of tasks within a project. The strategic plan outlines long-term goals and key IT priorities, such as system upgrades, cybersecurity improvements or digital transformation projects. These strategic directives are broken down into actionable projects and milestones, which are then plotted on a Gantt chart to visualize when and how each component will be executed.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has robust Gantt charts that can turn an IT strategy plan into an actionable schedule. It sequences tasks, resources and costs, but more than that can also link all four types of task dependencies to avoid cost overruns and bottlenecks. Our Gantt can quickly filter for the critical path and set a baseline to track progress in real time to help the strategic plan meet its deadline. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Is IT Strategic Planning?

IT strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s technology direction in alignment with its overall business goals. It involves setting long-term objectives for IT systems and services, identifying the technology initiatives needed to support those goals and creating a roadmap for implementation. The goal is to ensure that IT investments and resources are used effectively to drive business value, improve operations and support innovation.

This planning process typically includes assessing the current IT environment, analyzing emerging technologies and trends, identifying gaps or inefficiencies and prioritizing projects that will deliver the most strategic benefit. IT strategic planning is essential for helping organizations stay competitive, adapt to change and ensure that their technology infrastructure evolves in a way that supports future growth and transformation. This leads to the creation of an IT strategic plan.

What Should Be Included in an IT Strategic Plan?

Now let’s look at how to make an effective IT strategic plan. It serves as a blueprint for how an organization’s technology initiatives support its overall business strategy. To ensure clarity and direction, the plan should be comprehensive and structured, covering the current state of IT and the future vision. Here’s what to include.

1. Executive Summary: This brief overview highlights the purpose of the plan, key objectives and major initiatives. It offers stakeholders a snapshot of what the strategy aims to achieve.
2. Assessment of Current IT Environment: Analyze existing IT infrastructure, systems, processes and capabilities. This assessment should identify strengths, weaknesses, gaps and areas for improvement.
3. Business Goals and IT Alignment: Show how IT will support and enable business objectives. This ensures that business needs drive technology investments.
4. IT Vision and Mission: Define the IT department’s long-term vision and its guiding mission. This anchors all initiatives in a shared sense of purpose.
5. IT Governance: Outline the structure, roles and processes used to make IT decisions, manage priorities and ensure compliance with policies and standards.
6. Risk Management Plan: Detail the key IT risks (e.g., cybersecurity compliance) and mitigation strategies. Proactive risk management is vital for business continuity.
7. IT Roadmap: Include a high-level timeline of strategic initiatives, showing when key systems and technologies will be implemented or upgraded.
8. IT Capability Requirements: Identify the resources, skills and technologies needed to execute the plan. This may include staffing needs, new tools or training.
9. IT Budget: Provide a financial forecast of IT spending related to the plan. This should include capital investments, operating costs and projected returns on investment.

Key IT Strategic Planning Roles

Successful IT strategic planning relies on the collaboration of key stakeholders who bring diverse perspectives and expertise to align technology with business objectives. Each role contributes specific leadership, insight and accountability to ensure the strategy is visionary and executable. Here are four core roles in IT strategic planning.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

The CIO leads the IT strategic planning process, setting the vision and direction for the organization’s technology landscape. They work closely with executive leadership to align IT priorities with business goals, assess current capabilities and champion innovation. The CIO also oversees the implementation of the strategic plan, ensuring it drives measurable value and business transformation. In hybrid work environments, adopting secure remote access solutions becomes a strategic necessity for IT leaders to ensure teams can safely connect to corporate systems without compromising data integrity.

IT Strategy Manager

The IT strategy manager translates the CIO’s vision into actionable initiatives and frameworks. They coordinate planning activities, conduct market and internal assessments and develop roadmaps. This role is instrumental in analyzing data, managing stakeholder input and ensuring that the strategy remains aligned with technological trends and business demands over time.

Executive Sponsor

Typically, a member of the senior leadership team, the executive sponsor provides high-level support and ensures cross-departmental alignment. They advocate for IT initiatives at the executive level, secure funding and help remove organizational barriers that could hinder strategic implementation.

IT Infrastructure Manager

This individual assesses the current IT architecture and infrastructure to determine what upgrades or changes are necessary to support strategic goals. They ensure that the foundation of the IT environment—networks, servers, storage and cloud services—can support current needs and future growth outlined in the plan.

IT Strategic Planning Best Practices

Effective IT strategic planning isn’t just about crafting a visionary document—it’s about creating a practical, actionable guide that drives measurable impact. To ensure success, organizations should follow best practices that enhance the plan’s relevance, buy-in and long-term value.

Create a Realistic Plan Based on Resource Availability

An ambitious IT strategy can fall short if it overlooks the constraints of time, budget and personnel. Building a realistic plan means aligning goals with the actual resources available. This includes evaluating internal capabilities, existing infrastructure and budget allocations before defining project scope and timelines. By grounding the plan in reality, organizations can avoid overextension and increase the likelihood of successful execution.

Involve Key Stakeholders in the Planning Process

IT strategic planning isn’t just an IT function—it must reflect the needs and priorities of the entire organization. Engaging department heads, end users, finance, operations and executive leadership fosters collaboration and ensures the plan supports broader business goals. Early stakeholder involvement also builds commitment and surfaces potential risks or opportunities that may not be visible to IT alone.

Establish KPIs and Measurement Tools

A strategic plan without clear performance indicators is difficult to manage and improve. Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and selecting the right measurement tools allows leaders to track progress, assess ROI and make data-informed adjustments. Regular performance monitoring ensures the strategy remains on course and adapts to evolving business needs.

Free IT Management Templates

While project management software is an ideal fit for making an IT strategic plan, for those not ready to upgrade, there’s a workaround. Our site features over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that cover all aspects of managing projects across multiple industries. Below are just a few that can help with IT management.

IT Project Plan Template

Open this free IT project plan template in ProjectManager to outline the critical elements of an IT project. It serves as a comprehensive planning tool that organizes the project’s scope, objectives, timeline, resources, tasks and risk management strategies. This is particularly useful for standardizing project planning across teams and ensuring consistency in execution and communication.

IT Risk Assessment Template

Download this free IT risk assessment template for Excel to identify, evaluate and document potential threats to an organization’s information technology systems, data and operations. It provides a consistent framework for analyzing risks, assessing their impact and likelihood and planning mitigation strategies to reduce vulnerabilities.

Service Request Form

Use this free service request form for Excel to formally capture and manage requests for services from users or customers within an organization. These services can range from IT support (like password resets or hardware requests) to maintenance, HR or facility needs.

How ProjectManager Helps With IT Projects

Why do we keep pushing project management software over templates? Simply because templates are helpful, but they’re not designed for managing projects, especially ones as complex and ever-changing as an IT strategic plan. No one wants to stop what they’re doing to manually update a template, and don’t get us started with its limited collaboration.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that gives IT managers and their teams multiple project views, which means they can choose between Gantt charts, kanban boards, sheet, task and calendar views to do their work. This connects cross-functional teams, while updating their work in real time, which adds efficiency unheard of from templates.

Get Visibility and Allocate Resources in Real Time

Real-time visibility into resource availability and workloads helps IT leaders allocate the right personnel, hardware and software resources to priority initiatives outlined in the IT strategic plan. Team availability can be set when onboarding the team, while the color-coded workload page shows who is overallocated or underutilized so IT project managers can balance their team’s workload and keep them productive. A team page offers a daily or weekly summary of their activities and can be filtered by priority or progress. Tasks can even be updated without leaving the page.

Track Time, Budget and Progress With Live Dashboards and Reports

With integrated timesheets and budget tracking, IT teams stay within the financial boundaries established in the IT strategic plan. Managers can monitor actual resource usage and expenditures against forecasts to ensure strategic initiatives are progressing cost-effectively on project and portfolio, real-time dashboards.

Customizable reports go deeper into the data and can be filtered to focus on specific information or provide stakeholders with a general overview of progress.

Related IT Management Content

An IT strategic plan is part of the larger IT management process. For readers who care to learn more about this subject, click on the links below. They cover everything from an extensive overview of the topic to more specific pieces on requirements gathering and budgets.

• IT Project Management: The Ultimate Guide
• Burndown Chart: What Is It, Examples & How to Use One for Agile
• How to Become an IT Project Manager: Career Paths, Resume Tips & More
• Requirements Gathering: The Process, Best Tools & More
• What Is an IT Budget? IT Budgeting Basics (Template Included)

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

The post Making an IT Strategic Plan: IT Strategic Planning 101 appeared first on ProjectManager.

Before we get to all that, though, we’ll define what an IT roadmap is, what should be included in one and how you can create one that supports both long-term vision and short-term execution. To help you get started, we’ve also included a customizable IT roadmap template that you can tailor to your organization’s unique priorities and timelines.

What Is an IT Roadmap?

An IT roadmap is a strategic document that outlines how an organization plans to use technology to support its business goals over a specific timeframe. It serves as a high-level visual guide for planning and prioritizing IT initiatives such as infrastructure upgrades, software implementation, cybersecurity improvements and cloud migration. The roadmap details what technologies will be adopted, when they will be deployed and how they align with business needs, helping stakeholders understand the direction and value of IT investments.

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IT Roadmap Template

Use this free IT Roadmap Template to manage your projects better.

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Beyond just listing projects, an IT roadmap helps coordinate cross-functional teams, manage resources and track progress against long-term objectives. It ensures that all stakeholders—from IT departments to executive leadership—are aligned on technology priorities and timelines. By using an IT roadmap, organizations can reduce redundancy, improve scalability and make more informed decisions about budgeting and resource allocation.

While it looks like a Gantt chart, an IT roadmap is more expansive, including the context, strategy, project breakdowns, timing and sequencing, resources and budget plans and governance. Think of a Gantt chart as a delivery timeline, while the full IT roadmap is the blueprint guiding everything, technically and strategically. We have an IT roadmap template for free, but we recommend project management software.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with comprehensive IT roadmaps designed to provide a strategic, high-level view of projects, programs and portfolios. These tools help with strategic alignment, ensuring all stakeholders understand the project’s direction. It also integrates with resource management, time tracking and task management features to ensure projects stay on track. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Should Be Included in an IT Roadmap?

An effective IT roadmap provides a clear and comprehensive view of how an organization plans to use technology to meet its strategic goals. Whether you’re introducing new infrastructure, upgrading software or enhancing cybersecurity, a well-structured IT roadmap aligns technology initiatives with business objectives. Here’s what should be included in an IT roadmap to ensure it serves as a reliable and actionable guide.

1. Executive Summary

This section provides a high-level overview of the roadmap, outlining its purpose, scope and alignment with the organization’s broader strategic vision. It’s aimed at stakeholders and decision-makers who need a concise summary of the roadmap’s goals.

2. Current IT Environment

This is a snapshot of the organization’s existing IT infrastructure, systems, tools and capabilities. This baseline helps identify gaps, limitations and opportunities for improvement. It should include the following.

• Infrastructure: Describes the physical and virtual computing environment, including on-premises servers, data centers and cloud hosting platforms.
• Network: Covers internal and external connectivity such as LAN/WAN architecture, VPN access, firewalls, bandwidth and network redundancy. In scenarios where remote teams must connect securely from diverse locations, offering a free VPN to users can strengthen your network connectivity strategy and ensure endpoints are safely integrated into the roadmap.
• End-User Devices: Refers to the hardware employees use, including desktops, laptops, mobile devices and their operating systems.
• Applications: Lists core business software in use, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) and collaboration tools.
• Data Storage: Involves how data is stored, backed up and retained, including total capacity, storage types and backup protocols.
• Security: Encompasses tools and processes to protect IT assets, such as antivirus software, multi-factor authentication (MFA), encryption and vulnerability management.
• IT Service Management (ITSM): Includes the systems and workflows used to manage IT support, including helpdesk software, ticket resolution processes, SLAs and response times.
• Integration Points: Describes how systems communicate using APIs, middleware and third-party software connections.
• Licensing & Compliance: Tracks software licensing agreements, renewal schedules and adherence to industry regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.
• IT Team: Outlines the structure of the internal IT department, including team roles, skillsets and headcount.
• Vendors & Contracts: Identifies key external technology partners, service providers and the status of contractual agreements.
• Pain Points: Highlights current challenges or limitations within the IT environment, such as aging hardware or unsupported legacy systems.

3. Strategic IT Goals

These are defined objectives that the IT roadmap aims to achieve. These goals should align with business strategy and might include goals such as improving system reliability, enhancing cybersecurity or enabling digital transformation.

4. Key Initiatives and Projects

This is the core of the roadmap, detailing the major IT initiatives and projects planned to achieve the strategic goals. Each project should include a brief description, objectives, timelines and responsible teams.

5. IT Roadmap Timeline

A visual or tabular representation of when each initiative will be executed. This timeline is like a Gantt chart, showing activities required to meet the IT goals. It ensures alignment across departments and helps with planning and resource allocation.

6. Resource Requirements

Outlines the personnel, tools, hardware and software needed to execute the roadmap. Resource requirements are essential for assessing feasibility and ensuring appropriate resource planning.

7. IT Roadmap Budget

A financial estimate for the initiatives and projects included in the roadmap. It should include capital expenses, operational costs and contingency funds.

8. Risk Management Plan

Identifies potential risks that could affect the roadmap’s success, along with mitigation strategies. Common risks include vendor delays, scope creep or cybersecurity threats.

9. Performance Metrics and KPIs

Defines how progress and success will be measured. Common IT KPIs include system uptime, project completion rate and return on technology investment.

10. IT Governance Structure

Details the roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes for overseeing the roadmap’s execution. This section ensures accountability and consistency in implementation.

11. Communication Plan

Describes how the roadmap and its progress will be communicated to stakeholders, including reporting frequency, formats and key audiences. This promotes transparency and engagement.

Benefits of an IT Roadmap

An IT roadmap delivers numerous strategic and operational benefits, helping organizations align their technology initiatives with long-term business goals. Here are some of the key advantages.

• Stronger strategic alignment
• Improved prioritization and planning
• Enhances communication and transparency
• Better risk management
• Resource optimization
• Adaptability to change

IT Roadmap Template

Now that we understand more thoroughly what an IT roadmap is, readers are most likely eager to get their hands on one to use it or, at least, play around with the tool to get a better understanding of its usefulness. Download our free IT roadmap template for Excel and give it a try.

This free IT roadmap template helps organizations plan, organize and communicate their technology strategy over time. It serves as a guide for outlining current IT capabilities, future technology initiatives and the steps needed to bridge the gap between them.

Related IT Templates

There are more IT templates than the IT roadmap. In fact, there are over 100 free project management templates available for immediate download. They cover all aspects of managing a project across multiple industries. Here are just a few that are appropriate for IT.

IT Project Plan Template

Open this free IT project plan template in ProjectManager to help project managers organize, document and communicate the key components of an IT project. It outlines what the project will deliver, how it will be executed, who will be involved and how progress will be tracked—serving as a comprehensive blueprint for successful project execution.

IT Risk Assessment Template

Download this free IT risk assessment template for Excel to identify, evaluate and prioritize potential risks to an organization’s information technology systems, infrastructure and operations. It provides a repeatable process for analyzing vulnerabilities and threats so that mitigation strategies can be developed proactively.

Agile Sprint Plan Template

Use this free agile sprint plan template to organize and manage work during a sprint (a short, time-boxed development cycle, typically one to four weeks). It helps teams outline what they aim to accomplish during the sprint, track progress and ensure alignment across team members.

How ProjectManager Helps Manage IT Projects

It may feel odd using outdated technology like templates to manage an IT project. Yes, they can provide a free workaround, but they’re limited, requiring manual updates and not built for collaboration. It’s unlikely to find IT teams working with templates. Understandably, they prefer project management software.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has multiple project views that allow IT teams to work on kanban boards, but cross-functional teams to use tools that are more appropriate for their work, whether that’s Gantt charts, task, sheet or calendar views. All project views are updated in real time to keep teams collaborating and working on the same page.

Allocate and Monitor Resources

Our software enables IT teams to allocate and monitor resources, whether people, equipment or budgets, in real time. For example, our color-coded workload chart makes it easy to see who is overallocated or underutilized and balances the team’s workload to keep them productive.

When teams are onboarded, their availability can be set to make assignments based on actual availability and skills. There’s even a team page for a daily or weekly summary of their activity, which can be filtered by progress or priority. Tasks can be updated without leaving the page.

Track Tasks and Progress With Real-Time and Reports

Sticking to the IT project plan requires constant monitoring. Our real-time tracking features ensure that the collected data is updated and relevant. For a high-level overview, toggle over to the real-time project or portfolio dashboard for instant visibility into KPIs like task completion, resource utilization and budget health.

For further details, use our customizable reports on status, variance, timesheets, workload and more. They can be filtered to show the information you want to see. Even our secure timesheets help by tracking labor costs to help keep to the budget.

Related IT Management Content

An IT roadmap is part of the larger IT management process. For those readers curious to learn more about this discipline, below are some recent blog posts that expand on the subject.

• 5 Roadmap Templates
• What Is IT Management? Why Is IT Important for Businesses?
• IT Service Management (ITSM): Frameworks, Processes & Phases
• What Is an IT Budget? IT Budgeting Basics
• IT Financial Management (ITFM) Best Practices
• IT Incident Management: How to Manage IT Incidents
• IT Risk Management Process, Frameworks & Templates

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

The post What Is an IT Roadmap? (Template Included) appeared first on ProjectManager.

A burndown chart helps agile project management teams keep track of what’s been done, what needs to be done and how much time is left in the project. While a burndown chart is traditionally a visual tool, it can also act as a list that outlines the work to be done and what percentage of it is complete.

What Is a Burndown Chart?

A burndown chart is a project management chart that shows how quickly a team is working through a customer’s user stories. This agile tool captures the description of a feature from an end-user perspective and shows the total effort against the amount of work for each iteration or agile sprint.

The quantity of work remaining appears on a vertical axis while the time that’s passed since the beginning of the project is placed horizontally on the chart, showing the past and the future. The burndown chart is displayed so everyone on the agile project management team can see it and updated regularly for accuracy.

Types of Burndown Charts

There are two burndown chart variants: a sprint burndown and a product burndown. A sprint burndown is used for work remaining in the iteration, while a product burndown illustrates the work remaining for the entire project plan.

Sprint Burndown Chart

Sprint burndown charts usually track progress within a single sprint, usually 1-4 weeks. It shows the remaining work for that specific sprint to help the team monitor progress and ensure they’re on track. The horizontal axis represents the days within the sprint and the vertical axis represents the remaining work, such as story points or hours.

Product Burndown Chart

Product burndown charts offer a broader view of the project’s overall progress. It tracks the remaining work for the entire product or a specific release that covers multiple sprints. The horizontal can represent sprints or iterations, while the vertical axis represents the remaining work in the product backlog.

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Sprint Planner Template

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Components of a Burndown Chart

Although the specifics can vary, it’s common to see the below sections of a burndown chart.

Axes

A burndown chart has two axes, x and y. The horizontal axis represents time while the vertical axis displays user story points. The rightmost point of the chart indicates the start of a project or agile sprint while the leftmost point shows its end.

Ideal Work Remaining Line

As its name suggests, the ideal work remaining line indicates the remaining work that a team has at a specific point of the project or sprint under ideal conditions. Project managers use past data to estimate this baseline and draft a straight line across the burndown chart. The ideal work remaining line should always have a negative slope.

Actual Work Remaining Line

The actual work remaining line indicates the remaining work a team has at any point of the project timeline. Unlike the ideal work remaining line, this is not an estimate, but rather a realistic depiction of the team’s performance. The line is drawn as the team progresses and completes user stories. Actual work remaining lines are usually not straight as teams work at different paces as projects are completed.

ProjectManager is online software that offers multiple project views to help you collect and track your burndown chart. Our list view captures your tasks and shows how much work is left before tasks are complete. This real-time data access allows team members to comment and share files as needed. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Burndown Chart vs. Burnup Chart

A burndown chart and a burnup chart are very similar—they have the same components, achieve the same purpose and are used for agile project management. But there’s one major difference.

On one hand, the burndown chart keeps track of the remaining work by removing user stories from the vertical axis as they’re completed while the burnup chart adds user stories to the vertical axis as they get done.

How to Read a Burndown Chart

The burndown chart has several points. There’s an x-axis, which is the project or sprint timeline. The y-axis is the work that needs to be completed in the project. The story point estimates for the work that remains are represented by this axis.

The project starting point is the farthest point to the left of the chart and occurs on day zero of the project or iteration. The project endpoint is farthest to the right and marks the final day of the project or iteration.

Ideal Work Remaining Line

There is an ideal work remaining line which is a straight line connecting the starting and ending points. This line represents the sum of estimates for all tasks that need to be completed, or in other words, the scope of the project. At the endpoint, the ideal line crosses the x-axis and shows there is no work left to be done. This line is based on estimates and therefore is not always accurate.

Actual Work Remaining Line

The actual work remaining line shows the actual work that remains in the project or iteration. At the beginning of the project execution phase, the actual work remaining and the ideal work remaining are the same, but as the project or iteration progresses, the actual work line fluctuates above and below the ideal work line. Each day, a new point is added to this line until the project or iteration is completed to make sure it’s as accurate as possible.

If the actual work line is above the ideal work line, it means there’s more work left than originally thought. In other words, the project is behind schedule. However, if the actual work line is below the ideal work line, there is less work left than originally predicted and the project is ahead of schedule.

Burndown Chart Examples

A visual depiction of a burndown chart can help bring the concept to life. Below are two more examples to better illustrate a burndown chart.

Burndown Chart Example with Actual vs Ideal

In this burndown chart example, the blue ideal line shows how the project would progress if all things went perfectly. It marks the pace at which tasks should be completed to finish the project on time. The purple line is the actual line that represents the team’s progress. It shows if the team is ahead, behind or on schedule at various weeks throughout the project.

Burndown Chart Example with Estimated Line

This burndown chart example has the work that’s left to do on the horizontal axis, while time is on the vertical axis. There are three lines, each representing different types of progress. The green estimated line shows the estimated progress calculated using the due date and estimated hours.

The ideal line is the blue straight line that averages the number of tasks by the number of days. As time progresses, the volume of tasks decreases. The red line represents the actual progress and any outstanding tasks. As tasks are completed, the estimated hours decrease.

Who Uses a Burndown Chart?

Agile teams, including project managers and scrum masters, often use a burndown chart to track and manage projects. These charts help monitor the project’s progress against the planned schedule, allowing these roles to identify delays before they cause a major impact. Scrum masters may also use a burndown chart to communicate the project status to stakeholders.

Development teams also use burndown charts to visualize how much work remains and if they are on schedule to complete it. It fosters transparency and accountability, helping the development team to self-manage. Other roles that may use this tool include product owners or stakeholders.

How to Use a Burndown Chart in Agile & Scrum

Agile project management relies on agile sprints to plan and execute projects. These sprints are short iterations of work where a team accomplishes specific goals that are initially set during a sprint planning meeting. Burndown charts are ideal for agile project managers as they allow them to keep track of the work remaining, compare performance against a baseline and quickly determine whether they’re behind schedule. Here are some examples of how to use a burndown chart to help you manage an agile or scrum project.

• Create a work management baseline to compare planned vs. actual work
• Complete a gap analysis based on discrepancies
• Get information for future sprint planning meetings
• Reallocate resources and manage tasks to complete sprints on time

What Are the Benefits of a Burndown Chart?

The obvious benefit of a burndown chart is that it provides an updated status report on the progress of the project. Having a visual representation of this key data keeps everyone on the same page.

Displaying a burndown chart prominently for all to see keeps everyone involved and encourages the team to deal with issues before they evolve into problems. It should be the focal point of the workspace so that it helps direct conversation toward the project and its progress.

The simplicity of the burndown chart is also extremely helpful as it outlines the velocity history of the project. Velocity is an agile term that means the total effort estimates associated with user stories that were completed during an iteration.

What Are the Limitations of a Burndown Chart?

The burndown chart doesn’t reveal everything. For example, it only shows the number of story points that have been completed. The burndown chart doesn’t show any changes, for example, in the scope of work as measured by the total points in the backlog.

As a result, it can be hard to tell if changes in the burndown chart are due to completed backlog items or because of an increase or decrease in story points. Having a burnup chart resolves this problem by having a separate line in the graph for the overall backlog size.

However, neither a burndown nor a burnup chart offers any indication of which product backlog items have been completed. While a burndown chart might show progress, it may not represent whether the team is working on the right tasks. These charts are often a way to show trends rather than represent whether the team is delivering the right product backlog items. If you’d like to prioritize project tasks, you may use an Eisenhower matrix instead.

It Relies on Good Estimates

Another issue with burndown charts revolves around the accuracy of the ideal work line. Whether the actual work line is above or below the ideal work line depends on the accuracy of the original time estimates for the tasks. If a team is overestimating time requirements, progress appears on track or ahead of schedule. But if the team is underestimating the time requirements, it will appear that they’re behind schedule.

There’s a way to respond to this issue—incorporating an efficiency factor into the burndown chart. After the first iteration of a project, the efficiency factor is recalculated to allow for more accuracy.

How ProjectManager Helps With Sprint Management

A burnout chart is important but it’s not the only guide that scrum teams can reference. There are many other reports and tools that can improve the probability of success. ProjectManager is an online collaborative software with the features scrum teams need to manage their sprints better.

Real-Time Dashboards

If you need a high-level view of your project, ProjectManager has a real-time dashboard that tracks your sprint as it happens. Data automatically populates for the most accurate view of your project. Teams can make decisions based on current project data as opposed to referencing old data.

Robust Kanban Boards

Reporting on progress is only one part of what a scrum team needs. They also require tools that allow them to manage product backlogs and sprints. ProjectManager has this portion of the sprint covered too, with kanban boards that visualize workflows, collect user stories and prioritize tasks. Scrum teams will always know what to work on and when. The kanban boards feed directly into ProjectManager’s reporting features for total project visibility.

Product owners and scrum masters will also appreciate the kanban for its transparency in the sprint. When going through a sprint retrospectively, the kanban is an archive of what went right and what went wrong, allowing for future improvements.

Managers must keep their eye on the progress of a project. If they don’t, then they’re risking the successful completion of the project. A burndown chart is just one of the many tools that lead to project success. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software that any manager will want to have in their toolbox. It has features such as a real-time dashboard to monitor and report on progress, and an online Gantt chart to streamline scheduling and help with collaboration. Try it today for free with this 30-day trial.

The post Burndown Chart: What Is It, Examples & How to Use One for Agile appeared first on ProjectManager.

Here’s a screenshot of the whiteboard for your reference!

What Is IT Project Management?

IT project management consists of applying project management principles to information technology projects. It involves planning, executing, monitoring and closing IT-related initiatives to ensure they align with business objectives. As this industry is constantly changing thanks to rapid technological enhancements, these projects must be completed on time to keep up with the competition.

Key aspects of IT project management are scope, schedule, cost, resource and risk management. Common IT project examples include IT system implementations, data center migrations, network infrastructure upgrades, software development or cloud computing deployments.

IT Project Manager Job Description, Skills & Qualifications

What does a project manager in IT do? Jennifer described an IT project manager as one who oversees the process of planning, executing and delegating responsibilities around an organization’s IT pursuits and goals, often with the help of IT project management software.

That sounds a lot like what a project manager does in any industry. For clarification, she went on to note some unique aspects of the job, by detailing the skills and qualifications needed to work as an IT project manager:

• Technical management skills
• Technical understanding including hardware, software, network, infrastructure, security, etc.
• Ability to analyze information and glean insights from data
• Good at informing others and at communicating with many different teams
• Capable of staffing many different roles
• Excellent at problem-solving
• Strong data center management skills
• Advanced resource planning, capacity planning and task scheduling skills

IT Project Manager Salary and Job Outlook

When it comes to an IT project manager’s salary, there is a broad range. In the U.S., this role can earn anywhere from $95,000 to $125,000 per year. Entry-level positions typically earn less while those with specialized skills and experience can earn considerably more. Key salary factors include location, experience, certifications, company size and industry. For example, IT project managers in finance or technology may offer more compensation.

The job outlook for IT project managers is overall positive. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is expected to grow to $5.74 trillion in 2025, a 9.3 percent increase from 2024. According to Zippia, the technology industry is the highest-paying for project managers, while project manager employment is expected to increase by 7 percent from 2023 to 2033.

Career Paths for IT Project Managers

If you’re interested in becoming an IT project manager but you’re not sure where to start, consider an entry-level position as a project coordinator or assistant. This is a great way to get hands-on experience supporting IT project managers. Volunteering to manage IT projects for a nonprofit organization can also build your portfolio.

Those who already work in IT may want to transition into a project management role. In this case, consider obtaining certifications such as a PMP (Project Management Professional), CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) or agile certifications like a scrum master. These can demonstrate your knowledge and commitment to project management. Don’t be afraid to attend industry events or conferences, or use platforms like LinkedIn to connect with IT professionals.

Preparing an IT Project Manager Resume

To land your dream job as an IT project manager, ensure your resume is as strong as possible. The top of your resume should include a customized summary for each job you’re applying for. Here, highlight relevant skills, technical expertise and leadership abilities. When showcasing your experience, list them in reverse chronological order, with your most recent position at the top. Quantify your results whenever possible (ex: reduced downtime by 20 percent) instead of using general language.

As IT projects are incredibly technical, be sure to emphasize technical skills on your resume. List any relevant hardware, software or programming languages you know and highlight proficiency in areas like cybersecurity or cloud computing. With this knowledge, you can use your resume to showcase your skills and land your next job.

IT Project Management Job Plan

To get that position as an IT project manager, Jennifer said, you’ll want to first look at what skills, experience and training you already have. Now compare that to the skills, experience and training necessary to land that IT project management position you’re after.

Where are the gaps in your skills, experience and training? Once you’ve identified them, you can begin to create a plan and work towards filling those holes in your resume.

Related: Using the STAR Method to Crush Your Next Interview

What About IT Project Management Training?

Training is always helpful for IT positions, especially if you lack real-world experience. Jennifer listed the following training courses that deal with the specific needs of an IT project manager.

• IT PM: Project management training that deals with technology, such as infrastructure, hardware, software, networks, etc.
• ITIL: Information Technology Infrastructure Library covers the best practices used to develop and execute IT service management for a company.
• ITSM: Information Technology Service Management teaches how to deliver end-to-end IT services for a company.

What About Scrum, Agile and Other Certifications?

Jennifer added that some people ask her how Scrum and Agile or other certifications fit in. She said it often has to do with your organization.

While it’s true that Scrum and Agile are often thought of in terms of managing IT projects, that’s not always the case. Those ideas have seeped into project management writ large. But more importantly, not all IT projects use them, so it’s not a deal-breaker.

Transcription:

Today we’re talking about how to become an IT project manager, and IT meaning information technology. And when someone asks me that, I love it because I know they’re intentional, but it really depends on how to get there for their career path.

So let’s take a look at some options. It depends on if someone starts in IT. They could be a techie or they could be some other role in IT already, so they have an interest in the project management piece.

They could also be non-IT, meaning they could be in a different business unit. Maybe like operations, marketing, or even finance. And they could be a project manager for those type of projects or they could be some other role.

So again, they have an interest in becoming a project manager for the IT part of the project.

So some people ask, “Well, what about Agile and Scrum? How does that fit in?” And it really depends on your organization, and it really depends on the type of projects you work on. Not every project is managed using the Agile or Scrum methodology, so you may not need it.

So let’s look at some…the job description, and let’s look at some common skills and qualifications that companies look for.

So the job description is, the project manager oversees the process of planning and executing and delegating responsibilities around the organization’s IT pursuits and goals.

So some of the job skills they look for is someone with technical management and a technical understanding. They wanna make sure the project manager has an understanding of how maybe the hardware or the software, the infrastructure, maybe network and security, all fit together.

They also wanna make sure that the person can analyze information because, in IT, there’s a lot of data and metrics that go. So they have to be able to take that information and glean insights for the project.

They also need to be good at informing others because, typically on IT projects, there are different types of things, again, people working on the infrastructure, the software, the hardware, that have to integrate and communicate.

Also, staffing the roles on the project, problem-solving things that come up, data center management. So typically, the technology is in data somewhere. It could be within the company or it could be somewhere outsourced by a third-party vendor.

And then also, it’s very important to understand advanced project management tools for resource planning and advanced scheduling feature. Something like a projectmanager.

So here are…when you’re looking at the career path, how to get there, so you wanna look at the skills, experience, and training that you have already, and you want to compare that to an IT project manager and the specific type of projects you’re interested in working in.

So look at the specific skills, experience, and training that you need or is required. And with that, you find the gaps, and that’s what you use to build your custom plan for you.

So let’s talk about some of the training. So with that, you will need project management training. But there’s also a specific IT training dealing with technology, specific understanding how to manage projects around infrastructure, hardware, software, maybe again networks, and now, security is so important.

But some people ask about ITIL and ITSM. So what does that stand for? So ITIL is Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It’s not project management. What it is is best practices used to develop and execute IT service management for the company.

And so ITSM is, again, Information Technology Services Management, and it’s how you deliver end to end IT services within the company.

So hopefully, that helps to delineate what some of the terms mean, understand what the description of the role is, and some of the requirements for that.

So if you need a tool that help you become an IT project manager, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.

The post How to Become an IT Project Manager: Career Paths, Resume Tips & More appeared first on ProjectManager.

There are many requirements for a big project like this and as a project manager, you keep track of them all. Requirements gathering is a step in the requirements management process, which consists of gathering, documenting and analyzing project requirements.

We’ll start with a requirements gathering definition and then we’ll look into the process and tools you can use.

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Requirements Gathering Template

Use this free Requirements Gathering Template for Word to manage your projects better.

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What Is Requirements Gathering?

Requirements gathering, or requirements elicitation, is the process of determining all the requirements of a project. There are two main types of project requirements, business and technical requirements.

Business requirements define what an organization will accomplish with the project, while technical requirements explain how the project must be executed. They’re gathered during the initiation phase of the project life cycle, but project managers need to monitor them throughout the project timeline, as they can change.

Truly effective requirements gathering and management is started at the very beginning of the project, and must answer the following questions:

• How long will the project timeline be?
• Who will be involved in the project?
• What are the risks for the requirements-gathering process?
• What is our ultimate goal in understanding our project requirements?
• What are our technical and business requirements?

It sounds fairly simple, but it’s incredibly important. Once the project team has gathered requirements, they should be compiled in a requirements document.

Project management software can help with requirements gathering. ProjectManager is a cloud-based work and project management software that organizes your requirements. Use our task list project view to collect, prioritize and assign your project requirements. Plus, once in our software, they’re tracked in real-time with live dashboards and reporting features. Get started with ProjectManager for free today.

What Is a Requirements Document?

A requirement document is used to explain what is needed from the product. Among the things it defines is the product vision and how it must be achieved by the end of the project. It doesn’t go into details about how it will be delivered, though. It’s more to put the product in context, such as why the product is needed or what problem it’s solving. The details of how it will do this are not included.

Why Is Requirements Gathering Important?

Remember back to the last project you managed. What were the risks that came to light? Which resources did you run out of? Was there any scope creep or budgetary mishaps? And overall, what were the impacts of those shortcomings on the project as a whole?

Deadlines, scope, cost overrun—without proper requirements identification at the outset, all of those elements will be affected. Design issues to the product will be impacted, and developmental delays will occur. Ultimately, your product won’t be set up for optimal success as it faces an overrun budget.

Requirements Gathering Checklist

The requirements gathering checklist below is a great starting point for covering all essential project requirements. While this list is not exhaustive, it can help lead to other important questions.

1. Key stakeholders have been identified
2. Goals have been outlined and agreed upon
3. Items within scope have been identified
4. Items outside of scope have been identified
5. Interviews and workshops to collect needs and expectations have been held
6. Functional needs that the project seeks to accomplish have been acknowledged
7. Data needed to reach the project goals have been recognized
8. Stakeholders have signed off on the project

Each industry and project will have a different requirements gathering process. For example, some may focus on regulatory compliance or technical complexity while others focus on business objectives and stakeholder involvement. Be sure to tailor the requirements gathering checklist accordingly.

Requirements Gathering Process

So, how do you gather requirements in the most effective and manageable way possible? Typically, requirements gathering is made up of a few discrete steps.

1. Appoint and Assign

First things first: who’s going to be the person that tells everyone you’re the project manager? Ensure that that person understands why this role is so important—everyone must go to you with all project updates, as you will act as the knowledge center for project progress.

You’ll also want to identify who the key stakeholders will be. These will be the people who brainstorm, analyze, approve or deny project updates. They’re typically made up of customers, team leads, department managers, board members, business partners or manufacturers. They’ll have the most say in the progress of the project overall.

2. Elicit Requirements & Interview

Next, you’ll want to interview all of the stakeholders that you identified. Ask them questions like:

• What is on your wishlist for this product update?
• What is your ultimate goal for this project?
• What do you wish this product would do that it doesn’t already?
• What got you interested in this product in the first place?
• What changes would convince you to recommend this product to others?
• What tools would you need to make this project successful?
• What are the concerns you have for this project process?

3. Gather and Document

Write absolutely everything down. Write until you can’t write anymore. Record every single answer, and create an easily-accessible repository where (approved) others can access if they need to reference any information that was collected during the requirements gathering phase.

Not only will this documentation be helpful at the end of the project when you reflect back on goals achieved, updates accomplished, features added and bugs fixed, but it will also act to help manage stakeholder expectations, and keep team members focused and on track.

4. List All Assumptions & Requirements

This is the meat of the process. Once you’ve documented everyone’s goals and expectations, you can create a requirements management plan that’s actionable, measurable and quantifiable.

During this phase you’ll answer:

• How long will the project timeline be? Map out your timeline, and then map out your requirements on that timeline. This will help in case some requirements are contingent on dependencies.
• Who will be involved in the project? Will it be the entire design and development teams, or just a select few from each? Which team members will be available? Which team members specialize in the types of issues the project will tackle?
• What are the risks for the requirements-gathering process? Define all assumptions, and document all risks that might impact your requirements. Understand that your assumptions are typically divided into three categories: time, budget and scope. They can range from assuming PTO, holidays and sick days, to assuming stakeholders will provide feedback in a timely manner.
• What is our ultimate goal in understanding our project requirements? What is the time-based goal, the budget goal and the scope goal? Will it be to compete in the market more directly with a competitor? Will it be to solve a customer problem, or fix a bug?

By answering all of the questions above in a clear and concise manner, you’ll have a full map of your requirements ready to present to stakeholders.

5. Monitor Progress

Once you’ve gotten stakeholder approval on the requirements you’ve presented, you’ll implement them into the project timeline and process. At this point, you’ll want to make sure you have a method in place to monitor and track all of your requirements across all teams to ensure that triggers for risk stay low.

You’ll also want to use this data to report project progress to stakeholders, give feedback to department managers, and ensure the project is on track from a time, scope and budget standpoint. Our free requirements traceability matrix is a great tool to keep track of project requirements.

Requirements Gathering Template

To kick off your requirements gathering, check out this template. Our free requirements gathering template includes a cover page to distinguish this doc from other projects. There’s also a place to track any revisions to the document. Then you can describe the project, its purpose, scope and timeline. There’s even a space for stakeholders to capture their thoughts. Download your template today.

Requirements Gathering Techniques

Now that we know what requirements gathering is and we’ve explored the steps of the requirements gathering process, you’ll want to have good sources from which to get them. The primary sources are stakeholders, such as customers, users, et al. Other sources could include experts, analysts and information about competitors.

Once the sources have been identified, there are a number of techniques that can be applied to gather the requirements. This is an iterative process and no one requirements-gathering technique is going to do the job by itself. You’ll need to use as many as you feel necessary. Here are some of the top requirements-gathering techniques.

Use Case Scenarios

A use case is a document that explains how users will perform tasks on your product. It is written from a user’s point of view and done in steps that include: who’s using the product, what they want from the product, the user’s goal, the steps they take to accomplish their task and how the product responds to their action.

Brainstorming

Conduct a brainstorming session with a group of participants who can say whatever they want about the product as long as they feel it’s important. Have a facilitator lead the group, organizing and prioritizing their responses. Start by explaining the objective of the brainstorming session, get the group to provide as many ideas as possible, don’t criticize or debate and when done gather all the information.

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is another way to gather ideas. It involves creating a mind map, which starts by placing the central idea in the center of a page. Then use lines, arrows, speech bubbles and different colors to show the connection between the central theme and the ideas that stem from it. It allows for an organic development of ideas relating to your central idea. It shows how different facts are related.

Great Requirements Gathering Tools

Requirements gathering tools help streamline the process of collecting, documenting and managing requirements effectively. Here are some of the best requirements gathering tools to consider.

Jira

This tool is known for its robust requirement tracking features. Jira allows teams to capture, prioritize and track requirements. It has features specific to issue tracking such as issue types, allowing users to categorize and organize requirements. Use Jira to link issues, oversee workflow management and add attachments and comments to requirements.

Jama

This software is seen as a requirements management tool that is especially ideal for large-scale projects. It provides a central platform where stakeholders can collaborate on requirements in real time. It uses diagrams, flowcharts and interface mockups to visually represent requirements so stakeholders better understand the final product.

Confluence

Atlassian’s team collaboration tool Confluence is widely used for requirements gathering. Although it isn’t a dedicated requirements management platform, it has features such as collaborative documentation, structured pages, templates, version control and a Jira integration.

Accompa

Accompa is an online requirements management software that’s known for its user-friendly interface and features that benefit various teams. It supports review and approval workflows so stakeholders can formally sign off on requirements to ensure they meet the necessary standards. This platform is typically ideal for medium-sized teams looking for an affordable requirements-gathering tool.

Microsoft Azure DevOps

While this is mainly seen as a DevOps program, it offers capabilities for requirements gathering. Azure Boards help manage work such as user stories, features and epics, representing requirements. It also has work item tracking to define, assign and track requirements throughout their lifecycle. There is also a marketplace that has extensions for visual modeling, reporting and requirements traceability.

More Requirements Gathering Templates

Whatever technique or combination thereof for requirements gathering, you’ll need to have them collected in a document. Templates are a great tool to gather requirements and more. ProjectManager is the online hub for free templates related to any aspect of a project. Here are a couple that can help you with requirements gathering.

Stakeholder Analysis Template

Speaking of the stakeholders, our free stakeholder analysis template for Excel will help you identify and manage your stakeholders. You can use this free template to describe the stakeholders involved with the project, what their relationship to the project is and the level of commitment, which helps you plan how to manage them.

Project Plan Template

Finally, you’re going to have to take all this information and use it to inform your plan. Our free project plan template for Word helps you scope out the work and make it down into manageable tasks. There’s also room to manage your team’s workload. The project plan template takes all the requirements gathering and puts it to practical use.

ProjectManager Helps with Requirements

The key to any great project is to have all requirements gathered from the outset. This requires a seamless method of communication across all channels and a repository that can hold data for an endless amount of time. ProjectManager has tools that make that not only possible but easy. With our cloud-based software, you and your team can host an unlimited amount of documents so you can store any requests from people for any length of time.

Plan Your Project on Interactive Gantt Charts

Need a Gantt chart that’s cross-functional with a time-tracking system? Our software hosts hybrid tools that can adapt as your project moves forward. Our Gantt does everything Gantts are known for and more. You can filter for the critical path and set a baseline to track the variance between your planned effort and actual progress.

Use Multiple Project Views

Our software has multiple project views so what you plan on the Gantt is updated across the entire tool, be that the kanban board, task list, sheet or calendar view. Everyone can work how they want and communicate in real time no matter where they are.

Collaborative to the Core

ProjectManager is great for teams looking to communicate with more transparency across multiple locations. With our software, you can collaborate effectively and with ease by adding comments from key stakeholders or team members. Plus, appointees can schedule tasks and make alerts to ensure clients are being well managed and the timeline stays intact.

Our platform is the single source of truth for your project. Email notifications and in-app alerts keep you updated on comments and progress. Real-time dashboards and one-click reports deliver the live data you need to make insightful decisions to deliver a successful project.

Gathering and managing requirements across multiple teams are no easy feat. Ensure that team members and stakeholders are up-to-date no matter what. ProjectManager is award-winning software that helps teams collaborate effectively across multiple channels. Get started today for free.

The post Requirements Gathering: The Process, Best Tools & More appeared first on ProjectManager.

First, we need to understand what an IT budget is, how often they’re made and what is the best size for one. We’ll also discuss the importance of an IT budget, who’s involved in making one and what’s included so you don’t miss any crucial steps.

What Is an IT Budget?

An IT budget consists of all the IT spending for an organization over one year. That spending can come from a range of sources. Anywhere the organization incurs IT operations costs, though not limited to the IT organization, will be included in the IT budget.

This will include an accurate estimate of decentralized IT spending and shadow IT spending, the former being the distribution of functions, control and information, while the latter is IT-related hardware and software use without the knowledge of the IT department.

Some of the items that are included in an IT budget are hardware, software, personnel, outsourcing, disaster recovery and any occupancy costs associated with the support of the IT in the organization. Taxes, except value-added taxes, are also included.

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How Often Are IT Budgets Created?

As stated above, an IT budget is usually created once a year. This is a common budget cycle, though all budgets should be reviewed throughout the year. It’s never a good idea to create an IT budget and forget about it. Remember, the IT budget is the plan for the organization’s IT expenditures for the financial year. But those forecasts are estimates and to ensure that you keep to your IT budget, monitoring and tracking costs is imperative.

What Is the Ideal Size of an IT Budget?

The ideal size of an IT budget is relative and depends on many factors. There isn’t a definitive answer to that question. In general, you’ll find that banking and financial services spend the most on their IT budget, which is understandable as security and integrity are paramount issues for this sector. Media and entertainment are behind banks and financial institutions, followed by software publishing and internet services. Construction tends to have the smallest IT budgets and less complex IT management departments.

Planning and managing these resource costs in an IT budget can be facilitated by project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that can plan, manage and track IT resources, both human and nonhuman, in real time. Use our robust Gantt charts to plan all your IT costs and view your planned costs against your actual costs as you move through the year by setting a baseline. This real-time data will then be available across our software features. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Is the Importance of IT Budgeting?

The importance of having an IT budget is to align technology requirements with an organization’s business strategy. You can’t manage your IT finances without an IT budget. But these are relatively obvious reasons. Let’s explore some other reasons.

Ensure the Continuity of IT Operations

IT operations are all about the implementation, managing, delivering and support of IT services. This must align with the larger business needs of internal and external users. This important part of IT service delivery needs to be well funded as it’s a crucial part of the financial, telecommunications and retail industries, just to name a few.

Fund the Execution of Future IT Projects & IT Roadmap

Then there are the future IT projects, which will also require substantial investment. Using an IT roadmap, businesses can develop and share a strategic-level plan for future IT initiatives. Not only does this create a more strategic approach to IT costs and future investments, but it also helps to save money by identifying those tasks and systems that are costing the organization money. It also keeps the organization’s technology systems running smoothly by staying on top of mission-critical items.

Support the IT Asset Management Lifecycle

Then there’s the IT asset management lifecycle, which goes from request, fulfillment and deployment to monitoring, servicing and retiring. The IT budget creates a centralized, cost-effective way of procurement by identifying opportunities for consolidation. But IT budgets also fund the streamlined provisioning of this process through effective planning and optimizing utilization.

Establish a Cost Baseline to Control and Track IT Costs

The ability to track these costs is essential to keeping to your IT budget once it’s been created and approved. By creating a baseline, you capture the IT budget as planned. Then you can use this baseline to compare it to your actual spending at any time in the year. This allows you to see the difference, if any, between what you planned to spend and what you spent. If there’s a discrepancy between the two, you can work to reconcile it and stay on budget.

Who Is Involved In IT Budgeting?

Various people in an organization can be involved in IT budgeting. It depends on the organizational structure of the company. However, there tend to be a few professionals who are mostly involved in this process. They include the CIO (the chief information officer); they’re responsible for creating business value, approving invitations and establishing policies, strategies and standards.

Other IT professionals involved in IT budgeting include the CFO or chief financial officer, who is responsible for all financial decisions for an organization. There are also IT managers, IT directors and even the IT team who should be consulted. If the organization has a project management office (PMO), it’ll be part of the IT budget-making process, but even leaders in different departments who use IT should be part of the IT budget decision-making process.

What Is Included in an IT Budget?

There are many things to consider when creating an IT budget, but the first and most important is what is your priority. Before you put pen to paper, know what your business goals are for the year and prioritize each. It’s also helpful to look back at last year’s budget. Now, let’s look at what should be included in the IT budget.

• Staff and compensation: This includes the salaries of your staff, any contractors and whatever rewards you expect to provide, such as bonuses.
• Hardware: This includes costs such as laptops, servers, desktop computers, printers, telecommunications equipment, phones, phone systems, networking equipment and firewalls.
• Software: Any programs that you own or subscribe to.
• Infrastructure expenses: This includes the purchase price and the cost of using the infrastructure, maintenance and disposal when it’s retired.
• Cybersecurity expenses: This includes any items that are used to secure your network and data, such as an IT-managed service provider.
• IT audit costs: This includes external auditor costs and the costs needed to implement the suggested changes.
• Disaster recovery costs: There needs to be set aside funds for the organization to restore access and functionality to its IT infrastructure in case of a disaster, whether man-made or natural.
• IT asset requests: There needs to be funds set aside for employees who might submit requests so that an organization can buy new IT assets at any given time.
• IT asset maintenance expenses: This is any cost that is incurred by the organization to keep its assets in good working condition.
• IT project management costs: These are costs related to the execution of specific IT projects, as opposed to recurring costs that are required for the normal IT operations of an organization. While these costs should be reflected in the overall IT budget, IT projects should also have their project budget.

How to Make an IT Budget in 7 Steps

We’ve talked about the various items that need to be included in your IT budget. Now, it’s time to list the steps you should take to create that IT budget.

1. Define the IT Goals for Your Organization

The first step is to understand what the strategic goals are for the year. These IT goals, of course, must conform to the overall strategic goals of the organization. If the organization sees IT investment as a critical part of its strategy, then there might be more funding for it. If they’re trying to save money, then it might get less. Therefore, the IT manager has to figure out what’s needed in terms of IT operations and infrastructure as it aligns with the organization’s strategic goals.

2. Create an IT Roadmap

Whatever you define as your strategic goals in the prior step needs to be planned out on an IT roadmap. This high-level visual plan will help you communicate the organization’s IT strategy. The IT roadmap shows all your IT initiatives on a shared timeline, which makes it easier to determine the best way to share resources that benefit all the projects involved. The IT roadmap lays out current IT capabilities, projected IT needs and any improvements that will be executed over the coming year.

3. Identify the IT Costs for the Last Year

If you made a budget the year before it can prove a valuable tool for creating the new year’s budget. That’s because you can see what you needed over the last year and what those associated costs were. This provides an idea of what your costs will be for the coming year, though you’ll have to adjust for inflation and any other factors that could be impacting those costs. It also helps you understand what you need then and what you’ll likely need again.

4. Make an Inventory of Current IT Assets

Having an inventory of your current IT assets helps you identify, track and manage those assets. In doing so you’ll also have a better understanding of what you’ll need in terms of assets for the next year. Therefore, make sure you have a thorough list of all servers, laptops, mobile devices, printers, network devices, software licenses and other IT-related assets used by the organization.

5. Estimate the Costs of IT Projects for the Upcoming Year

With this information, you can now start to forecast what your potential costs will be for the coming year. But don’t forget any IT projects that are looming. They’ll bite into your budget and should be accounted for in the IT budget. Therefore, if you’re planning to purchase new devices, add servers or whatever other project is coming up, be sure to make accurate an estimate of what they’ll cost.

6. Create an IT Disaster Recovery Plan

You’ll also need to create a fund for any major issues that might occur over the year. This is part of your risk management plan, called a disaster recovery plan. It’s a set sum that you believe will cover any disasters, such as a weather-related outage or a man-made hack that compromises your infrastructure and data. It must be enough to get you back up and running quickly.

7. Determine Optimum IT Staffing Levels

We’ve discussed equipment, software and projects, but it’s important not to neglect your staff. They are the ones who will manage the IT and respond to any issues. Every organization has a different amount of necessary staff to man its IT department. This depends on what you’re tasked with and how much the organization will fund those staff members.

IT Budget Template

Creating an IT budget can be a daunting task. Using a template can help you make sure that nothing crucial has been overlooked. ProjectManager is more than an award-winning project management software, it’s the online hub for all things project management. We have dozens of free templates for every aspect of managing a project across numerous industries, including IT. Download our free IT budget template for Excel and get a head start on building an accurate IT budget.

How ProjectManager Helps With IT Budgeting

Our free template can help get you started, but like all templates, it can only do so much. It’s a static document that has to be manually updated if you want to monitor cost variance. What you need is project management software. ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software with features to make budgets and track costs in real time. Create your budget on our powerful Gantt chart and, once you set a cost baseline, track your resource costs to make sure that you’re not going over your budget.

Monitor Costs and More on Real-Time Dashboards

Whenever you want to check on your costs, you can toggle over to our live dashboard. It automatically captures real-time data and displays it on easy-to-read graphs and charts. One of the metrics is cost, which shows the actual, planned and budgeted costs in a color-coded bar chart to give you a high-level overview of how much you’re spending. Unlike lightweight alternatives that make you go through a complicated and time-consuming setup, our dashboard is ready when you are.

Prepare for Unexpected Issues With Risk Management Features

Nothing can disrupt a budget faster than a problem that brings your IT systems down. Our software helps you plan for unexpected events with risk management features. You can identify risks, note the likelihood of it happening, and, if it does, the impact it will have on your IT. Then you can describe a plan of action and who on the team is responsible for carrying it out. This way, when an issue shows up you’re prepared to act fast and mitigate the problem before it has a greater impact on your IT budget and business.

Another tool to help you monitor and keep to your budget is our customizable reports. Our reporting features go deeper into the data than the dashboard. View costs on status or portfolio reports, but there are also variance and timesheet reports, the latter can help you monitor your staff costs. All reports can be filtered to show only the data you want to see and then easily shared in various formats to keep stakeholders informed.

ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams in the office, out in the field and anywhere in between. They can share files, comment at the task level and more to foster better collaboration. Managers get transparency into the team’s progress and performance as well as being able to track other resources and costs in real time. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

The post What Is an IT Budget? IT Budgeting Basics (Template Included) appeared first on ProjectManager.

IT financial management is a bit more complicated than that and we’ll explain by more thoroughly defining the term. Then we’ll list the professionals who are tasked with IT financial management and their key objectives. To close, there will be some of the best practices to employ for more successful IT financial management.

What Is IT Financial Management (ITFM)?

IT financial management is made up of the processes and tools that are needed to manage and analyze IT costs. There’s also the communication of the value of these processes and tools to IT leaders in order to prove their value to the business.

Part of the process is explaining the costs for IT services to executives and aligning the investment with business objectives in order to increase value for the business. This is done through analysis, planning and managing costs that are related to IT operations, projects and services.

IT financial management must be transparent, accountable and optimized for efficiency when dealing with the costs of these systems. To accomplish this requires financial governance, creating and controlling an IT budget, tracking expenses and doing cost-benefit analysis of IT investments. All this helps to make more insightful decisions that can save money and lead to better business outcomes while improving IT performance.

That’s a lot of responsibility, but it can be handled more effectively with project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that gives IT leaders the features they need to do their jobs on a cloud-based tool with real-time data to better track their costs. One way to gain efficiency is through our workflow automation, which uses any number of triggers to automatically create actions to save time and keep the IT financial team focused on more important tasks.

Who’s Responsible for IT Financial Management?

There are several financial managers who are responsible for IT financial management in a business. They’re tasked with the financial health of the business in terms of its IT systems. They have many responsibilities that go beyond cost, such as making sure the business’ data and computational resources are accessible and secure.

Chief Information Officer

The chief information officer (CIO) manages all aspects of the delivery of IT activities. This position is also responsible for IT governance, ensuring that standards, rules and proper procedures are being followed. This includes IT operations management, IT service management, IT asset management and IT risk management. This executive-level position works closely with the chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

Chief Financial Officer

The chief financial officer (CFO) is responsible for the management of a business’ finances, including those related to IT. This high-level executive will track cash flow and financial planning as well as analyze the business’ financial performance and suggest ways to improve it. A CFO can be seen as the business’ controller or treasurer as they all manage finances and accounting to ensure accurate financial reporting.

IT Director

The IT director can be seen as a bridge between the CIO and a business’ IT staff. They’re the team leader, in a sense, who reports to the CIO, but unlike that executive position, are tasked with the daily operation of the business’ IT department. An IT director is responsible for the IT team and ensuring that they follow guidelines defined by the CIO and other regulations.

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Key Objectives of IT Financial Management

IT financial management is tasked with many things, but there are key objectives that are most important to keep in mind. Of course, though objectives can vary depending on the company and industry, but for the most part there are core objectives that every IT financial management process is going to follow. Here are a few of them.

Creating and Managing IT Budgets

When we’re talking about IT budgets, what we mean is the total allocation of IT spending over the year. This spending can come from anywhere in the business that has IT costs. It’s not limited to the IT department. It should include estimates on decentralized IT spending as well as shadow IT, that is IT used without knowledge of the IT department. That includes hardware, software, personnel, outsourcing, disaster recovery and occupancy costs for supporting IT within the business.

Tracking and Reporting IT Costs

IT costs consist of operational costs (running IT services daily), staff costs (hiring, training and retaining employees), core costs (overhead) and capital costs (money invested to acquire or upgrade assets). In order to know what you’re spending and to monitor that it doesn’t go over your budget, it’s important to track those costs. This can be done with dashboards and reporting features for greater detail.

Ensuring IT Spending Supports Business Operations and Aligns With Strategic Goals

Strategic goals are defined in a business’s strategic plan. The IT infrastructure should support the operations of the business. Different departments, such as marketing, sales, production, etc., should operate as efficiently as possible. This allows them to contribute to the overall strategic goals of the business. Therefore, IT spending should be focused on the acquisition of IT assets that help the IT infrastructure achieve the business’s strategic goals.

Evaluating the Feasibility and Profitability of IT Projects

Each project the IT team evaluates has to meet certain criteria. If not, then the project shouldn’t be initiated. Those criteria can be different from business to business and across industries, but the tools to evaluate them tend to be the same. There is a feasibility study, which is used to analyze the viability of the project to determine whether it’s worth pursuing or not. Businesses will also perform a cost-benefit analysis to see if the project will prove profitable. This looks at all costs involved in executing the project and compares them against the return of the project. If the project proves feasible and delivers a return on investment, then it’s more likely to get approval.

IT Financial Management Best Practices

It’s clear that IT financial management is important. What might not be so clear is how to effectively manage IT finances. Let’s look over several of the best practices in IT financial management

Do an Inventory of Your IT Assets and Human Resources

An IT asset inventory is the process of identifying, tracking and managing all the hardware and software assets in your business. This includes everything from servers, laptops and mobile devices to printers, network devices and software licenses. You’ll also want to know who does what in the IT department. This helps you monitor costs for IT assets and human resources, which will help you plan for the future and determine a budget that can maintain or improve your levels of service.

Assess the Current IT Costs of Your Organization

Understanding what you’re currently spending on IT allows executives to make more insightful decisions regarding future plans and budgets. With this information they can weigh the costs of IT against the benefits or profits that are coming in. IT executives will want to determine the most effective technical and economical solutions for a business, which cannot be done without having a clear picture of what IT costs are currently.

Understand How IT Assets are Used By Different Departments

IT assets are used across a business. Different departments will use assets differently or not, but it’s important that the IT team understands how those assets are used by different departments. By understanding this, changes can be suggested to find a more cost-effective solution to meet the IT needs of the business.

Identify IT infrastructure Gaps

An IT infrastructure gap is an insufficient investment in IT that has left an inadequate infrastructure plan. This is going to negatively impact a business’ performance. While the solution can have a high upfront cost, it’s worth it in the long run to have infrastructure that provides full coverage. This will permit your business to work more efficiently and effectively.

Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis Before Purchasing IT Assets

Just as a cost-benefit analysis is helpful in choosing the right project, so can it help with purchasing IT assets. Just like a project, an IT asset can have a price tag that is never going to see a return on that investment. Using a cost-benefit analysis of IT assets prior to purchase can help you save money and run your IT better.

How ProjectManager Helps IT Teams

In order to plan, manage and track IT financial management, businesses will need to first invest in project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps IT managers track costs in real time. But there are also planning tools to implement, manage and track new projects in real time. Whether that’s managing IT assets or a new project, such as implementing a new service or software installation, our tool helps you control the process and costs to have better outcomes.

Plan With Multiple Project Views

One tool is often not sufficient when planning and executing projects. Managers tend to prefer Gantt charts, but IT teams don’t need all that information. They tend to execute projects with task lists or kanban boards, which allow them to manage their backlog and collaborate on sprints. Our software had multiple project views so everyone can work on whichever tool they’re comfortable with, from Gantt charts to kanban boards, task lists to sheet and calendar views. All project views update together in real time so everyone is always working on the same page.

Track and Report on IT Costs

After you’ve made your plans, you’ll have to monitor them to make sure that spending doesn’t get out of hand. Our real-time dashboards give you a high-level view of your costs anytime you want them. Just toggle over to the live dashboard—there’s no complicated setup required as you’ll find in inferior alternatives—where you’ll find easy-to-read graphs and charts on costs, but also workload, time and more. For more in-depth data, use our reporting features. You can generate reports on project status or portfolio status, but also timesheets, variance and more. Each report can be filtered to show only the data you want to see and they can then be easily shared to keep stakeholders informed.

Those are only a couple of things our tool can do. There are also resource management tools, as your IT teams are often a large part of your IT costs. We have features that allow you to set rates, track time with timesheets and balance workload with a workload chart. All this and more help you manage and track resources to keep your IT costs within the plan you made for your IT financial management process.

ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams in the office, out in the field or anywhere in between. They can share files, comment at the task level and much more to foster better collaboration. Our task and risk management tools help you keep to your IT financial management plans. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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