Where can i find documents/essays/reports which discuss the impact of 
IT (Information Technology) In the five stages(Initiating, Planning, 
Executing, Controlling, Closing) of Project Management?

To begin, the following link is to the Microsoft Project Home Page,
which is a treasure trove of information on the subject of IT as it
relates to Project Management.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/default.asp

Pay close attention to the links under the "Take a Closer Look"
heading. I am not kidding when I say that if you are serious about
becoming an authority on how IT impacts Project Managment (or even
just gaining some "real-world" sense of your academic subject matter
you can use to challenge your professors with), I would read every
word on every one of the links from this page, and think about why
they phrase things the way they do, why they include or don't include
certain things. It'll take a few hours, but you'll be much the wiser
for having done it. The marketing/industry information presented here
is very carefully crafted by hundreds of intelleligent people working
for high-stakes incentives, and has been sifted through oodles and
scads of focus groups before making it onto the official pages. I
guarantee you that the insights you will glean from combing and
analyzing the site in this manner will be worth at least $25. Most
likely, you could do an entire Master's thesis with a thorough
analysis of the product itself, its usage in industry and the
"trueness" of its promotional website.

Now, to stop tooting Mr. Softy's horn--there are several IT categories
which each contribute to project management in a general sense.

I would assemble a timeline of technological advancements which
contributed to project management in some way.

Although your topic is officially how "IT" impacts project management,
the biggest leaps in project managemnt which truly changed how people
did business came from chages in communications. Since technology
drives communications, and communications are used to transmit
information, then commincation advancements are relevant to your
pursuit.

Also, don't get caught up in trivial details of modern day project
managment software. Look for the true advancements.  Don't get too
hung up on things like "the standard Gaant chart has been replaced
with a more dynamic calendaring tool..." or anything like that.

Learn to recognize the patterns of dramatic improvement. For example,
the invention of the fax machine (and widespread adopted use) in the
1970s had to be a tremendous leap for project managers everywhere.
Going from no widespread, convenient and affordable way of transmiting
documents, to having a way, is a quantum, irreversable leap. Going
from telegraphs to telephones was a quantum leap. Fast-forwarding, the
transition from faxes to computers with modems for FTP and later
e-mail was tremendous. These are the true advancements of how
information technology has affected project management. And now we
have software programs, like MS Project, which address the specific
issues of project management as a discipline itself.

So, to recap: 

1. Construct a timeline of technological advancements that affected
project management (telegraph->telephone->fax->computers->computers
with modems->the internet->cellular phones->the WWW->e-mail-> Instant
Messaging->>videoconferencing-->handheld/wireless
computing-->internet-based pay-for-answer services! (sure, I bet
services like Google Ansers are affecting project management, as an
inexpensive, anonymous outsourcing source)-->[and end with your guess
as to what's next?!]

Get the years right for each blossoming of the different communication
types. (I'm not saying that the above I listed are the only ones--or
that they are in the exact right order, but I think it's reasonably
correct and I'm sure you get the idea). Use a case study of a real
company that was doing business both before and after each one of
these major communications transitions, to directly show  the impact
the technology had with a real-life example. (ie Company X in 1989 was
doing business like this...In 1993, after e-mail usage became fairly
widespread and was implemented as a corporate-wide messaging standard,
Company X was doing business like this....Do this for each one of the
major communications/technological advancements I listed above and
present them all side-by-side. The results will give you a precious
glimpse into the patterns of true advancement. What's next? What's
next? What's next?

2. Comb through the MS Project site and analyze it, as I outlined
above.

Finally, here are some general links relevant to your topic:

The Project Management Institute:
http://www.pmi.org/

This is a professional organization for project management
professionals. Although not focused exclusively on IT and project
managment, looking at general project management sites rather than
those focused exclusively on IT for project management is a good way
to see which IT advancements are truly filtering into the profession
itself.

Association of Project Management:
http://www.apm.org.uk/

[See statement for Project Management Institute, above].
 

Project Management Research on the Web:
http://www.fek.umu.se/irnop/projweb.html

This site is a long list of links to project managgment sites.

Project Management-Software
http://www.project-management-software.org/

This site is devoted exclusively to project management software (some
of it freeware) solutions.


Google search strategy:
Keyword searches, 

"IT project management"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=IT+project+management&btnG=Google+Search,

"MS PRoject" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=MS+Project&btnG=Google+Search,

"future of project management"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=future+of+project+management&btnG=Google+Search,

"project management trends"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=project+management+trends&btnG=Google+Search,

"project management history"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=project+management+history&btnG=Google+Search

"project management software"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=project+management+software&btnG=Google+Search,

"project management communications technology"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=project+management+communications+technology&btnG=Google+Search

Please don't hesitate to ask for clarification to anything I've
written or listed here.

Good luck in your studies!

~omnsicientbeing

---

Request for Answer Clarification by xmlmagician-ga on 20 Aug 2002 04:03 PDT

honestly i am not very happy about the answer. You did not tell me
anything that i did not know. I have found all these websites myself
and your approach that you are proposing is what my lectures in the
uni have taught me the last four years. So you have not added anything
new. I can ass ten about more sites that you have not found yet such
as: http://www.allpm.com/static.html,
http://www.itmweb.com/topics.htm. Plus some of the sites you listed in
order to get all the "good" stuff you have to pay. Something new would
be certain papers from scientist. Furthermore, something that you
might have not thought is that i must include in my project both sides
of the story something that i definetely would not find in the MS
Project 2000 website. In addition to all that my question is about the
impact of IT in the five stages. So i recon that you have to try
harder. Although i would like to thank you for the time you spent and
i hope that in the future you will give me a more clear cut answer to
my question. My apologies if i give you too much troubles. Thanks
again

---

Clarification of Answer by omniscientbeing-ga on 20 Aug 2002 09:40 PDT

xmlmagician-ga,

No problem. I am sorry that you are not entirely happy with the answer
at this time, but it's impossible for me to assess what you may or may
not already know, which is why I stated in my Answer that I would be
happy to provide any clarificaitons.

As far as obtaining "both sides of the story" with regard to MS
Project, this can be done by reading the product reviews. Some of the
review sites are linked to from the official MS Project site, but, as
you suggest, it is indeed a good idea to get these independent
viewpoints completely outside of the Microsoft site. Here is a link to
the Google page which lists "Microsoft Project reviews":

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Microsoft+Project+reviews&btnG=Google+Search

As far as specifically locating documents pertaining to each of the
five stages of project management and IT, the Case Studies are your
best bet, as well as the sites I have listed. Yes, I know, some of
them require a fee to access the reports you seek, but that's the way
it goes.

Now, I believe that the following, in addition to what I've already
provided, will constitute what you seek, but correct me if I'm
mistaken.

I adopted the strategy of performing Google keyword searches for
"project management [+ (stage)]" for each of the 5 stages of project
management, and examining a few sites on each of those pages, and
pasting the most relevant links below.

So, below is the Google link for "project management initiation":

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+Project++management+initiation&btnG=Google+Search

Of particular note from these links is the "Software Project
Management" link, which is concerned specifically with the initiation
phase of project management as it pertains to software:

http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/dwfarthi/projman.htm

Also, this link is to a site titled, "Project Management Initiation
and Startup":

http://www.smartforce.com/corp/marketing/corporate/content/Solutions/SmartCourses/catalog/english/cbtweb/curicula/courses/PROJ02E/PROJ02E.htm

Here is the Google search link for "project management planning":

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+Project++management+planning

The following is a link from this page to the PlanBee software site,
which addresses specifially the project planning phase with their
software (and it's non-Microsoft!):

http://www.guysoftware.com/planbee.htm

Here is the Google search link for "project management execution":

://www.google.com/search?q=+Project++management+execution&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

This link is to the Fissure site which focuses exclusively on "Project
Execution and Control":

http://www.fissure.com/wrks_pm_pec.htm

Here is the link to the Google search for "project management
control":

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+Project++management+control

This link is to Project Control Software's site, which is quite
relevant to your pursuit:

http://www.projcontrol.com/

Lastly, here is the link to the Google search for "project management
closing":

This page, from Software Productivity Center, Inc., deals literially
with the 5 phases of project management s you outlined them in your
question:

http://www.spc.ca/resources/projmgmt/

Then, I repeated the above Google keyword searches, but added the word
"phase" to each, as in "project management initiation phase" etc. the
results are pasted here below:

"project management initiation phase"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=project+management+initiation+phase&btnG=Google+Search

"project management planning phase"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=project+management+planning+phase&btnG=Google+Search

"project management execution phase"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=project+management+execution+phase&btnG=Google+Search

"project management control phase"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=project+management+control+phase&btnG=Google+Search

"project management closing phase"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=project+management+closing+phase&btnG=Google+Search

Again, don't hesitate to ask for further clarification, and good luck
in continuing your inquiries!

~omniscientbeing

Perhaps an increase in price might get a response. Often researchers 
shy away from questions that appear open-ended, or $2 questions that 
require more than a simple answer.

Searching google.com or microsoft.com for "MS Project" will take you
to the Microsoft product page for MS Project 2002. This software has
been used for years for large-sale project planning, and just reading
the product description will give you a sense of how IT is used in
each stage of the project life-cycle. Many related links and resources
are available from the MS Project product page on the miscrosoft.com
website.

If this question is still open later tonight I will probably answer it
formally.

~omniscientbeing

i did not mean the MS project. I mean Project management as a science.
I know about MS project 2000. I am studying a MSc project management
degree

Allow me to explain my rationale:You indicated in your question that
you are interested in "documents/essays/reports which discuss the
impact of
IT in the five stages(Initiating, Planning,  
Executing, Controlling, Closing) of Project Management." 

Certainly the product engineering teams at Microsoft put a little
research into an expensive project management software package before
they released several versions of MS Project.  I think if you examined
the product marketing information--especially the numerous case
studies they provide on the website--and the associated documentation
in detail (not as a user), you could discern what Microsoft deems
would be the most impactful methods IT could affect each stage of
product planning, and extrapolate a bit and assume that the amount of
research they put into it exceeds what you will be able to do and
learn from what they've already done with their vast resources. For
example, online collaboration software (ie instant messaging,
videoconferencing, etc.) has certainly impacted the "science" of
project management. If you examine how the premier project management
software products integrate and market these features, you'll be on
your way to understanding what you seek. (I didn't say it would be
easy!)
~omniscient being

omniscient being you are handling quite well a part of the question.
although i cant see clear what you mean. Please give a sort example or
a case study from Microsoft's site or database which indicates how the
industry got better through the years. I think that is fairly simple.

Addendum to Answer:
I meant to include this Microsoft Case Studies site to my Answer:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/

This is a valuable resource. Select you prroduct from the left-side
listbox ("MS Project" in this case), then on the right sidelistboxes,
choose the Industry, Solution, Company Size and Publication date you
wish to see a case study for.

~omniscientbeing

This may be a little off-topic...take a look at the website
http://www.leanconstruction.org for a paper that was recently
presented at PMI's bi-annual research conference titled "The
Underlying Theory of Project Management is Obsolete"
http://www.leanconstruction.org/pdf/ObsoleteTheory.pdf.  (You will be
asked to register to get the file.  No charge.)

The paper caused quite a stir when it was presented at the conference
in July.  Why might you be interested?  There is very little going on
today in project management that doesn't conform to the current
(underlying) theory.  The changes in communication technology offer
the greatest hope for getting projects done on time and on budget.