SP210 blog series – Project Management
Continuous further development and innovation have lead to an increase of priority given to Information Technology. At the beginning considered as “service provider”, IT is now a business booster. Information technology as engine for operating effeciency, in turn, is often depending on innovation. Great impotance is attached to the three main factors “budget, time and quality” when companies are realizing IT projects. Thus the importance of IT project management was increasing, too.
We’d like to give you an insight into our daily work as project managers in our blog series “project management”. It’s not a scientific essay; it’s just some information and our comments as well. The last entry dealed with the definition of both “project” and “project management”. This time, we are going to tell you something about so-called “procedure models”. Enjoy it.
Part 2: Approaches/ Procedure models
Why do we plan projects? Why do we hunt for the best planning method ever? Is it, because project managers and leaders love to discuss every single tiny detail? Well, we don’t think so.
There is always a project’s point of departure, the actual state “A”. The project’s goal is the target state “X”. The route from point “A” to the final destination “X” is leading along several stages: “B”, “C”, “D” etc. Sometimes the route is far from being straightforward. In particular, when realizing large, complex projects or projects dealing with unexploited fields, participants could find themselves faced with different routes or additional stations. The problematic nature: Right at the beginning, there is a broadly, but not exactly defined project’s target.
A classical example of such projects mentioned above: space travel (please note, I am a complete lay(wo)man in space travel). A few decades ago, scientists, reseachers and others have met to realize a dream of mankind. Somehow humans should be able to conquer space. Furthermore they were involved in a race against the clock (USA, USSR). The crucial point: “somehow”. At that time, space travel had been an unexploited field. Therefore they had to discover knowledge, to develop their know-how etc.
Back to our topic approaches/ procedure models. There are quiet a lot of approaches and procedure models. We use them to bring temporal as well as methodical structure to projects. Therefore a project is split into phases, milestones as well as a schedule are defined. Depending on the scope and the project’s complexity tools, such like a project’s manual, a specification, several document templates etc are used. Thus project managers and/or leaders are creating a roadmap, also specifying role allocation, procedures as well as operations and workflows. Another aim of the red thread running though all of this is to be able to determine the actual status of as well as within a phase, milestone or task. Furthermore transparency of budget, time and quality can be ensured.
Companies realizing routine projects are benefiting from standardized procedure models. Also Speicher 210 is supporting customers to implement standards, because an enterprise-wide implementation can lead to a significant reduction of expenditure of time – even during the planning phase. In other words: Project managers and/or leaders do not need to go and reinvent the wheel when initiating a new project.
Classical Project Management
There are quiet a lot of approaches, inter alia classical and agile. The decision that has to be made is depending on the project’s scope and other factors.
Traditional, planning-oriented project management is often sequential. It ensures a transparent, controllable procedure and is advantageous for both complex as well as large projects. A carefully considered, regularly and continuously updated project plan forms the basis. It allows an optimum control as well as risk minimization. But project participants may also tend to a constant focus on documentation. Even relevant information could get lost. Document templates that are somewhat chaotic or that don’t provide space for additional information could cause this loss. BTW: In many cases “additional” information is relevant, too. Processes of thinking could be displaced by documents – errors aren’t identified in time – stagnation. Project managers and/or leaders could spend more time in actualizing their project plans and lists than in doing the important things they’ve got to do.
In our opinion, forms, document templates etc should be implemented where they are needed – “As much as necessary, as little as possible.” Checklists and project management SW tools are very suitable in many cases. Classical approaches do not fit into every project, but this does not mean that classical methods are wrong. There are many types of projects classical methods are tailor-made for, inter alia in the financial and banking area. Therefore: Careful consideration must be given to this topic before implementation.
One of the most popular process models is PRINCE2, PRojects IN Controlled Environments 2. It’s a very structured project management method. Operations, workflows are predefined. The project is divided into managemable stadiums. Each process has specific key input and outcome indicators, targets and it’s activities are planned in advance. Thus PRINCE2 ensures a controllable and organized project realization.
In the course of time a need for other approaches and methods was arising. People started to develop processes characterized by flexibility. Especially in software developers were looking for methods offering scope for development. Just take a look at our next entry, if you’d like to know which approach we are talking about.
Please do not hesitate to leave comments by using the form below or sending us an email to office@speicher210.com if you have any questions. Suggestions and feedback are of course welcome.
Continuous further development and innovation have lead to an increase of priority given to Information Technology. At the beginning considered as “service provider”, IT is now a business booster. Information Technology as engine for operating efficiency, in turn, is often depending on innovation. Great importance is attached to the three main factors “budget, time and quality” when companies are realizing IT projects. Thus the importance of IT project management was increasing, too.
We’d like to give you an insight into our daily work as project managers in our blog series “Project Management”. It’s not a scientific essay; it’s just some information and our comments as well. The last entry dealed with the definition of both “project” and “project management”. This time, we are going to tell you something about so-called “procedure models”.
Enjoy it.
Part 2: Approaches/ Procedure models
Why do we plan projects? Why do we hunt for the best planning method ever? Is it, because project managers and leaders love to discuss every single tiny detail? Well, we don’t think so.
There is always a project’s point of departure, the actual state “A”. The project’s goal is the target state “X”. The route from point “A” to the final destination “X” is leading along several stages: “B”, “C”, “D” etc. Sometimes the route is far from being straightforward. In particular, when realizing large, complex projects or projects dealing with unexploited fields, participants could find themselves faced with different routes or additional stations. The problematic nature: Right at the beginning, there is a broadly, but not exactly defined project’s target.
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