Successfully managing intranet projects is a challenging task. Most intranet managers have experience managing a particular area, such as a corporate information center, marketing, IT, or publication areas. We know one functional area or type of work extremely well and suddenly we're in charge of a multi-faceted project that requires multi-disciplinary and leadership skills, along with an understanding of other functional areas. The truth is, we're concerned most about the one area of the project about which we know the least. Non-programmers are most concerned about the technology. If you don't know the business unit, you're concerned about what the unit does and its particular needs. If you're unfamiliar with the end users or clients of the project, you're focused on whether they'll like, accept, and use the results of the project. As intranet project leaders we will likely never have expert knowledge about all aspects of a project. Rather, we need to create and guide a strong team with the expertise required to get the job done.

Intranet project success requires that several areas come together which basically boil down to people, technology, and money.

Before we get into these nuts and bolts, it's helpful to first define what we mean by project management. It's easy to think that the "intranet" is a project itself. It's not. One of the best definitions of a project is from Effective Project Management by Wysocki, Beck, and Crane:

A project is a temporary sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification. 

This definition tells us a great deal. In order to have a "sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities," we must have a methodology for designing the project. Since this project is "unique," it is not an activity that is routinely performed and, therefore, must eventually have an end. Once we've completed the project, we move on to another project. As there is "one goal or purpose" for the project, there must be a measurable outcome against which to judge the success of the project. This assessment is typically whether the project is completed within a "specific time, within budget, and according to specification."

Project management is the process of defining the extent (known as scoping), planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time frame. 

Intranet project management differs from traditional management tasks in that project teams are usually cross-departmental workgroups that contain both technical and non-technical users, managers, information technologists, and sometimes, users of the project. Traditional, hierarchical command structures and permanent staffing patterns are not found in project teams. Instead, the team members are given responsibility and assigned to the project. Team members are often juggling their regular duties with multiple projects. Since the project team only exists for the duration of the project, once the project is completed, the team members return to their regular job duties. Because of this, it is not uncommon in some organizations for the project manager to be appointed from the ranks of the team. However, in other organizations (typically larger organizations dealing with very large projects), the intranet project manager is someone specially trained in the methods of project management whose primary job responsibility is to manage projects.
 

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