How to Tailor a Project Management Methodology: Why It's Important
Posted by [email protected] on Aug. 24, 2022 / Announcement / Subscribe 0
A shocking 42% of project managers do not use any sort of project management methodology. This can easily lead to wasted time, money, and a lack of rapport between management and the project team. A tailored methodology should be designed to not only bring benefits to the project, but to the organization. A broad outline of how to tailor a project management methodology is as follows:
Assessment
Development
Improvement
Closing the loop
Assessment
The assessment phase involves evaluating where you are now. The project manager should look at things like whether the organization has invested in training for management, the team members, and their leads. Are there standards that have been adopted, and how well are they working? How much control does senior management have over projects? Does the company have an established process for delivering projects? The last thing a project manager wants to do is to assume that everyone knows what they know.
Development
In the development phase, the project manager should take the information that they collected during the assessment phase and develop a methodology that takes those factors into account. The development phase should be oriented towards directing and increasing project output.
Improvement
Finally, in the improvement phase, the project manager should monitor the implementation and initial performance of the tailored methodology. What is working for the team, and what is not? The project manager should closely monitor this phase and be prepared to adjust the methodology as necessary in order to make things work better for the team. They should not continue with standards and processes that aren’t working because they were “set in stone” at the beginning of the project. This defeats the very purpose of tailoring a methodology to the project and the organization.
After this is done, the project manager should “close the loop” and document what worked for the project, what didn’t, and what can be improved for future projects. Should something be a potential organizational standard, that should be documented as well. It’s vital that organizations use their experimentation with tailored methodologies in order to improve their structure.
At PMI San Diego, we have been studying the field of project management for decades. A leader in the industry, we provide standards and research meant to take the field of project management to new heights. You can learn more here.
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