Process Improvement and Documentation: The Project From Heck

  Lessons Learned   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)   Knowledge Shelf  

As project management professionals, we have all become increasingly aware of the importance of the so-called “soft skills” aspect of our profession. In recent years, skills such as time management, communication (verbal and non-verbal), emotional intelligence (EQ), facilitation, conflict resolution, and organizational management have received more and more recognition as essential aspects of successful project management. To that list, let’s add a skill I like to call “project relationship management” or PRM.

The documentation of processes and procedures is a much talked about subject in today’s business world. Numerous events in the corporate world have led to a heightened level of oversight, with regulators and auditors taking a closer look at the procedures and controls that have been put into place by management and also examining the extent of their compliance by businesses. The need for complete documentation was reinforced by the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley rules (SOX), and auditors started taking a very close look at the formal documentation of policies and controls put into place by senior management. At the time of the introduction of the SOX rules, there was a rush by many businesses to create an appropriate document library that demonstrated the existence of such controls; an entire industry grew up around SOX …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.