Without going into to much detail let me explain my situation:

I have recently been shoved into the Director of IT role in my organization. I am a developer who doesn't have any experience at all with this position and/or it's responsibilities.

This is where your help is needed. I am now responsible for project planning, capacity planning, project duration estimation, Business Rule Development, .Net Migration, the complete project lifecycle and on and on.

Basically, anytime we receive an RFP for a web project they hand it to me and I have to run with it all the way through up to and including post launch management and development of phase 2 selling.

I am completely lost and have no idea where to begin. I don't know how to develop/maintain/manage any of this stuff and even though I have been reading and studying the abundance of information available online regarding these areas I don't know where to begin or which information to study most intensely.

To give you a little background, I am an ASP / Perl developer who now works for an ad agency that has expanded it's offering to include large scale content management based web applications for universities and venture capital firms.

I could really use some guidance about how to develop Business Rules, Project plans, estimates and all other information that might help me get a handle on my new job.

Thank you in advance for all of your help in this matter.

Eric S.

Hi Eric

Is your situation any different/better? You asked for guidance on project plans so you might be interested in the template MS Project file that I’ve posted to this forum (http://www.e-consultancy.com/forum/default.asp?v=1109&p=1)

I’ve met few ad agencies in the past who have really understood the process and technology aspects of web development. Many tried to set up in house departments or bought existing web agencies to integrate them and most attempts failed. However, now that there are many more good and experienced web people on the job market, ad agencies are beginning to take on the right kind of people with the right kind of skills to make things work, or at least to be able to successfully work in partnership with web agencies.

If you are doing content management projects then you will most certainly need strong analysis, facilitation, process and project management skills – not to mention technical, interface design etc. which I assume you have. Perhaps I would say this, but I think if you want to feel better about your job I would get in a kick ass project manager to relieve some of the responsibilities heaped upon you so that you can concentrate on doing what you do best. Otherwise, could your company not partner with an agency that could bring the necessary skills? There are plenty of smaller, more technically focused, companies out there who need the customer/brand/client/planning type skills of an ad agency.