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By Michael Shveda, Managing Partner
North Star Group (Published February 26, 2007)
Customer, investor, and competitive pressures always drive us to
look for more economical and faster ways to accomplish our goals.
This often leads us to find good solutions, but it also can lead
us down inappropriate paths when it comes to acquiring technology
or adopting methodologies. Project management is one of those resources
that offers a lot of value, provided that it is deployed on the
right project.
How do you ensure that you have the right projects and can efficiently
execute them with project management? It starts with a well-grounded
understanding of what it means: project management is about the
planning, allocation, use and tracking of resources (in other words
capital, people, and materials) necessary to achieve defined objectives
within a specified cost and time. Project management provides organizations
with the processes, knowledge, skills, and tools to execute projects
on time and on budget.
To add another perspective this, project management is useful for
non-recurring, corporate-wide activities that require bringing together
teams from across the organization, according to Jim Bannantine,
managing partner of the private equity and real estate investment
firm Atlantic Capital Group. These types of projects need common
platforms and points of reference to keep all of the resources coordinated,
on schedule, and on budget. These activities include integration
of a new acquisition, rollout of new systems, implementation of
new corporate processes or procedures, and opening new facilities.
Project management also allows companies to systematically implement
project “portfolios” that are both prioritized and aligned
with corporate strategic goals.
A key challenge for organizations today is to maintain a focus
on their strategic objectives. Often projects are approved, but
they are not the ones that are most compatible with the strategic
goals. Approved projects are also often not executed in a manner
consistent with the organizational goals. Even the right project,
if done in the wrong timeframe, is not the right project after all.
Companies have three basic options when it comes to implementing
project management processes: 1) it can be done entirely with internal
resources and effort 2) hire an external project management consulting
firm to develop the necessary procedures and train staff on the
necessary resources, and 3) outsource the effort entirely to a project
management consulting/staffing firm. There are slight variants of
each option and the best choice depends on the situation faced by
individual companies, but remember that project management cannot
be a “one size fits all” solution. The PREPSM process
is based on the Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org) principles
and is one solution that can provide value to organizations of all
sizes, can be utilized by projects large or small, and can be implemented
by project management practitioners of varying experience and skill
levels.
Whether it is PREPSM or any other project management process, be
sure that it is agile and both the process and deliverables are
scalable to particular project characteristics and company needs.
Be careful when looking for tools and resources to help in efficiently
managing projects, and reporting performance. Develop pro and con
lists to assist you in considering cost, support requirements, functionality,
usability, security, and application integration capability. Above
all, remember all tools require resources in terms of people, time,
and costs.
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