Within any organization, the roles of information technology (IT) and project management have never been more intertwined than they are today. Digital technology has become a critical part of daily operations at all levels in any industry, and coordination between IT and project management sectors is instrumental to generating positive outcomes for their organization.
Today’s project management leaders rely on the expertise of their professional IT counterparts in order to effectively manage and best utilize their digital infrastructure. However, project managers also need to understand the information systems that help their businesses operate. This knowledge will help them gain keener insights, become more effective communicators on technical issues and even create competitive advantages.
Advanced business degree programs such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Information Systems online program from St. Cloud State University help aspiring management professionals understand IT systems based on research-backed insights and approaches. Graduates of the program will be able to easily apply the knowledge and ideas they gained to the needs of any industry.
The Opportunities of Data
Digital technology and software have become deeply ingrained in all facets of business in 2022. As coordinators, project managers regularly seek leading-edge technologies to help manage all kinds of operations and objectives throughout an organization. As a result, they need to have a vast knowledge of technology at each level of a company’s process. The best project managers can communicate and apply their knowledge of IT infrastructure, communications and the protection of their assets against loss, damages and competitors.
Data analytics use has exploded in recent years, as companies turn to numbers-backed approaches for many tasks and projects. As this article from ProofHub points out, project managers have been using huge swaths of data to optimize everything from project planning to quality management to risk estimation.
Managers use the data to inform the makeup of teams in the workplace, including size and skills. Project leaders have found that this information can be useful at both the macro and micro levels, and IT professionals can be major assets when trying to mine for such data. When project management leaders have a firm grasp of analytic principles, they can better wield that system along with their IT professional counterparts.
Some data analytics strategies go beyond simple projection or optimization. AI-powered analytics, as explained in this post by time-analytics company Replicon, “provide a complete picture of the entire organization and all projects,” which means “(delivering) granular-level visibility into the activities and (generating) custom reports to help visualize the data in the exact way needed by the project managers.”
These automated insights can help project managers plan for tasks big and small, from company strategy down to simple scheduling. More IT professionals are finding ways to harness the massive amounts of data created every day and utilize that information to drive effective strategy.
Gain Competitive Advantage
In St. Cloud State University’s MBA in Information Systems online program, courses help graduates become experts on modern information technology. One of the program’s courses, Information Systems Strategy and Management, surveys the methods of creating and maintaining information systems and management technologies, mainly for the purposes of finding competitive advantages. Concentration courses like IT Infrastructure address field-related issues such as internet-based architecture, computer and network security and business continuity. The IT Project Management course looks at the key intersections of effective management and contemporary information systems.
Learn more about St. Cloud State University’s MBA with a concentration in Information Systems online program.
