Understanding the most critical skills for managing IT projects: A Delphi study of IT project managers

A Delphi study with 19 IT project managers found 19 skills as being the most critical for IT PMs and ranked them based on their relative importance, compared with two previous studies of IT PM skills.

Abstract

The skill requirements for project managers in information technology (IT) projects have not been widely studied in the past, especially in terms of their relative importance. We addressed this gap in the literature by conducting a Delphi study with 19 IT project managers (PMs). Among the list of 48 skills identified, our panelists selected 19 skills as being the most critical for IT PMs and then ranked them based on their relative importance. Follow-up interviews were conducted with selected panelists to gain insights into the importance of the top-ranked IT PM skills. We compare our results with two previous studies of IT PM skills and discuss the implications for research and practice.