Good project management discipline is the way to overcome
these shortcomings. Having good project management skills does not mean you
have no problems. It does not mean that risks go away. It does not mean that
there are no surprises. The value of good project management is that you have
standard processes in place to deal with all contingencies.
Project management processes and techniques are used to
coordinate resources to achieve predictable results. However, it should be
understood that project management is not an exact science and there is never a
guarantee of success. Since projects involve people, there is always complexity
and uncertainty that cannot be absolutely controlled.
Project management is both science and art. It is science in
that it relies on proven and repeatable processes and techniques to achieve
project success. It is an art because it also involves managing and relating to
people and requires the project manager to apply intuitive skills in situations
that are totally unique for each project. A good project management methodology
provides the framework, processes, guidelines and techniques to manage the
people and the work. A good methodology increases the odds of being successful
and therefore provides value to the organization, the project and the project
manager.
The value proposition for project management starts with the
proposition that it takes time and effort to proactively manage a project. This
cost is more than made up for over the life of the project by:
Completing projects
more quickly and reasonably. One of the biggest benefits of using a common
methodology is the value of reuse. Once the processes, procedures and templates
are created, they can be used (perhaps with small modifications) on all
projects in the future. This results in reduced project start-up time, a
shorter learning curve for project team members and time savings from not
having to reinvent processes and templates from scratch on each project.
Being more
predictable. One of the first benefits that should occur with good project
management processes is that you will be more predictable. You will find that
if you do a better job of planning you will better understand the work to be
accomplished, and you will do a better job of estimating this work. Then as the
project progresses you will do a better job of managing the work to hit your
estimated schedule and budget. This ability to be predictable is crucial when
your company is making business decisions about which projects to execute. You
should strive to achieve a level of predictability of 80%. In other words, 80%
of your projects will finish on-time and within budget.
Saving effort and
cost with proactive scope management. Many projects have difficulty
managing scope, which results in additional effort and cost to the project.
Having better project management processes will result in being able to manage
scope more effectively.
Generally, it is
believed that organizations that follow good processes are more successful than
organizations that do not. Organizations that have good processes, and follow
them, are sometimes called “Process Driven Organizations”. These organizations
get more work done and they tend to do the work that is of most value. They
also have organizational systems in place to help make everyone more
successful, including project managers.
