Projects and proven, repeatable processes

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as an effort that happens once, not repetitively. So how can proven, repeatable processes be applied to something that only happens once? The answer is the project management process.

A project—from building a house, to building that new whiz-bang business application—takes place on at least two levels:

• The actual work being done
  
• The administration of the work
  

At the administration level, a number of activities take place throughout the project. Some can be cyclical, such as progress and status reporting. Reporting takes place on a regular basis to keep all of the stakeholders informed of how the project is going, and whether they need to take action to keep in on track. Some activities are triggered by events, including changes in scope, changes in design, or issues that arise. And speaking of issues, a project can live and die by how well the project manager tracks issues and revisits them on a cyclical basis.

Good project managers handle all of the aforementioned activities using predefined processes. These processes involve the implementers and stakeholders, get the right information communicated, and lead to effective decisions. Projects almost always involve groups of people that don’t “speak the same language.” I’m sure many of you have seen miscommunication between Business and Information Technology departments. The project manager must facilitate communication between these two entities, and most of the project management activities involve facilitation of information exchange, including Issue Tracking, Change Management, Scope Control, and Status Reporting.

In addition, there are “clusters of activities,” such as Planning, Design, Construction, Testing and Implementation. Each activity carries its own set of walk-throughs and sign-offs that the project manager must schedule and administer.

Project managers can gain some of their best experience in the consulting world. Because consulting companies go from client to client, they have to learn particularly strong project communication skills. Their methodologies stress communication between the client and the consulting teams at every point. When an internal Information Technologies department develops an application for another department in the same company, they would do well to employ the same kind of methodologies. I have seen even small projects become horribly expensive because no one took the time to even use the basics:

• Write down and gain agreement on the business requirements
  
• Hold the design to the original scope
  
• Use change management
  
• Track and resolve issues
  
• Activities like those above keep the project from being like changing a tire on a moving car.
  

Any project will have its share of surprises and fire-fighting. Having pre-designed processes in place for projects has the same effect that it does for business in general: it frees people’s energy up for the really difficult problem-solving. The project manager and project management team won’t have to waste time inventing ways to administer the project because that part of the thinking is already done.

Project management isn’t about absolute control. It’s more like “herding butterflies.” Over the next few months, I will introduce more project management concepts. On the docket so far is the Project/Program Office and Rational Unified Process (RUP). My aim is to give you a few ideas to help you keep the herd “heading west.”

© 2002 M. A. “Ryan” Yuhas
InterDimension Strategies Inc.