The Big Issue

Project Management needs agreed protocols and training to succeed

By Rob Clark, Member of the Institute of Management Consultants and of the Association for Project Managers

Businesses recognise that implementing project management well adds significant value to their organisation. That value is seen by managers and staff across a broad front, with specific benefits often being measured in financial, customer satisfaction, and business improvement terms.

It is increasingly recognised that gaining these benefits requires clear project aims and objectives, prioritisation of projects and effective project management processes and skills. The essentials are a project office, an agreed project management methodology, and the use of supporting software. Project management processes need to be integrated into key internal processes with a detailed roll out plan.

The plan needs to include a thorough scoping of the project, an accurate assessment of resources required, a clear description of deliverables, a defined execution phase with accurate time lines, and control mechanisms including budget reviews and regular process reports.

With that understanding has come a parallel appreciation of the fact that organisations must also invest in the tools and technologies that will help them manage resources from both inside and outside the company.

While companies must not get confused by thinking that everything is a project – they must continue to deliver their core business and meet their core goals - it is dangerous to give a department manager the responsibility to deliver projects if they do not have the right Project Management skills and training. It is doubly dangerous if they are asked to deliver high profile and important projects without the appropriate resources and whilst still being expected to meet departmental targets.

In most private or public organisations the day to day business is run as a collection of ongoing processes, relying on a stable and permanent workforce to deliver customer needs. However, if ambitious companies want to change and develop then they must institute structured change programmes to meet their future objectives. Many organisations are implementing their business change objectives as a series of programmes or projects tied directly to their strategic initiatives.

We all know of projects that have encountered problems and how difficult they can be to address in the implementation phase, therefore projects need to be properly managed and resourced. If projects are important contributors to meeting the strategic goals of the organisation then they must be provided with all the appropriate resources as is the day-to-day business. Many projects have failed to deliver the required results because it has been assumed that these can be achieved by someone on a part-time basis whilst still hitting stringent operational targets.

Poorly set up projects that do not successfully deliver the required business benefits are simply a drain on scarce company resources. In essence, companies cannot afford projects to go wrong.

If projects are to be implemented, then they must succeed, if they are to realise the business benefits sought. To succeed organisations must train staff in the use of effective project management tools and techniques, ideally setting up expertly-delivered project management training programmes

These training initiatives will only be successful if there is real commitment to a set of project management protocols which everyone follows. Without these protocols the chance of project management training delivering any real benefits for the organisation is minimal.