Project Management

PMI Sites

Join the Conversation on Artificial Intelligence

Process/Project - HEADWAY PM Process

Stage PMJ - Justify Project
Stage PMP - Plan Project
Stage PMA - Activate Project
Stage PMC - Control Project
Stage PME - End Project

Description

How to HEADWAY
1. Read this description
2. Determine project model
3. Download your WBS
4. Apply Risk Estimation Guidance.

Timing is everything, even in project management. The key to a successful project is to use Project HEADWAY. Project HEADWAY is a full life cycle project management process and it is the essential connective tissue that will hold each of your development projects together. It is the disciplined prescription for getting executive buy-in with a solid business case; for defining the project plan, schedule, budget, resources, risks, scope; for securing the resources, motivating the players and launching the project; for monitoring all project activities and deliverables against plan, tracking issues and communicating progress; and for capturing the successes and lessons learned for the next time around.

Corporate members have access to:

Complete access to task level details
Advice from Subject Matter Experts
Direct links to gantthead content that supports the process
The WBS in MS Project

Considerations

Consider the following key points as you look to apply Project HEADWAY on your projects.

Project Overlay

The project overlay has been designed to provide guidance to project managers and teams in applying the Project HEADWAY process to projects of different size, scope and complexity.

Any process or methodology will at best support 90% of the possible cases where it can be applied. For the balance of cases, some level of adaptation is required to meet the unique needs of the project. The intelligent application of the process requires consciously and actively choosing how to apply it.

As with the principle of scalability, the project manager and team must actively choose how to apply the processes and tools defined within the guidelines, when it is reasonable to deviate from the guidelines, and when additional rigour is appropriate and necessary.

Making active choices requires a critical application of the methodology's activities and tools, centred on the following questions:

What are the components of the methodology that are appropriate or essential to apply on the project?
What are the components of the methodology that are unnecessary to support the project?
What aspects of the methodology need to be adapted to support the specific needs of the project?
What additional activities, tools and deliverables are appropriate that the methodology doesn't address?

In asking these questions and consciously making choices about the methodology, project managers and teams avoid falling into the trap of being boxed in or constrained by the methodology framework. Instead, the methodology serves as a foundation that can be adapted as required to support the unique needs of any given initiative.

Project Size

The following bullets define the assumptions used to establish the different project models defined within the project overlay:

Small. Typically, a small project is departmental in focus. This may include small organizational improvements or enhancements to current way of doing things. Often this can include process improvement efforts, updates or minor enhancements to an existing information system or an incremental product development project. These projects are often only 2-3 months in duration, and will have a smaller number of project team members.
Medium. A medium project is often one conducted within an individual business unit. These projects typically involve implementing new capabilities to support key business function, and can include significant process improvement projects, systems enhancements or the development and implementation of new systems to support a single business function. These projects are often 6-9 months in duration, and may have 10-15 project team members. There may be some procurement associated with the project, whether for products, services or resources.
Large. Large projects tend to be significant and strategic organizationally-driven projects. There are usually aligned with the attainment of key strategic objectives of the organization, and will often have far reaching impact within the organization. These projects are usually 12 months or more in duration, and involve larger size project teams – often with 30 or more team members. These projects may require more extensive use of external consultants and contracting expertise, and will typically have much more complex procurement requirements.

Strategies

The following bullets define the considerations used to recommend how to approach each of the project models:

Formal. The related activity needs to be conducted, and should be formally documented and included as part of a project or project management deliverable, as appropriate.
Informal. The related activity needs to be performed, and will usually be documented in some form, but typically is only documented for the purposes of the project team or project manager. This would not be included as part of a formal deliverable, and typically does not require any separate review or approval.
Consider. The related activity may or may not be performed, depending upon the specific needs and complexity of the project. The project manager or project team member should give consideration to whether or not the activity provides sufficient value to warrant the cost of the performing the activity. The results may be completed informally, or the activity may be evaluated or discussed within the project team without any documentation being produced..
Not required. The related activity is not required for the project model. The project team is not expected to give consideration to the activity.

PMBOK® Alignment & Support

Advice and Examples from Subject Matter Experts

Here’s some of what projectmanagement.com's experts have to say about project management...

Project Management for Non-Project Mangers

by Andy Jordan August 1, 2013

Is any career exempt from project management skills? You don’t have to be a project manager to practice project management; organizations recognizing this will find more benefits than they expected. Does your HR team have the right outlook?

Can Project Management Save the World?

by Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP December 9, 2013

Saving the world is a heavy undertaking. That's probably why many of us leave it to the superheroes of cartoon and screen to take on. Or the men and women of the armed forces, taking on the impossible while wearing blue berets. Whatever your preferred form of superhero, real or imagined, it probably isn't you. But maybe it's time to go get a cape...

Project Management: Lingua Franca or Tower of Babel?

by Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP October 17, 2011

Project management is becoming recognized on an international scale. In support of this, there are a number of efforts underway to promote a global view of how we think about, discuss and practice project management. But to what extent is project management a universal language? To what extent can it be? Or are we all simply sowing confusion as we use the same words to mean very different things?

Premium

Project HEADWAY Webinar: Selling Project Management to Your Organization: Are They Buying?

by Craig Curran-Morton

June 16, 2009 | 57:57 | Views: 1,988 | PDUs: 1.00 | Rating: 4.01 / 5

Project managers often express frustration that those in the executive and management roles within their organizations do not 'get' project management. They don't appear to believe that project management has any value or , if they do, they often pay it lip-service but do not appear to be committed to actually implementing and using it. As project managers, we can often see the direct benefits of the structure, rigour and control that project management brings and would like our organizations to take project management to the next level. But how? Where should we start? What approach should we take? Why isn't management listening to us? In this Project HEADWAY webinar, we will be interviewing Mark Mullaly, the President of Interthink Consulting Incorporated and a co-lead of PMI's Value of Project Management research study. Mark will provide insights into the challenges that we experience and offer suggestions for how we can try to gain the support and commitment of management to the project management process.

Evolving from the Edge

by Rob Saxon September 17, 2012

Three aspects of project management need to take center stage, and in many organizations they are especially neglected. These principles include project management as a career path, leveraging the value of technology already in place and using matrixed management to effectively deploy resources. A cutting-edge company will invest deeply in these three aspects and unleash the hidden potential of their people.

Project HEADWAY: Selling Project Management to Your Organization

PREMIUM presentation

Finding Value in Project Management (Part 1)

by Ian Whittingham, PMP November 11, 2013

While our writer is inspired by a well-known vision of what project management should be, he is sometimes a little unsure as to what, exactly, the value of project management is. And is it really as valued by others as he feels it to be? Do they see the value that he sees in it? Or is it perhaps less consequential--and therefore less valuable--than he thinks it is?

The Challenge with Projects and Corporate Strategy Execution

by Harlan Bridges October 10, 2013

It can be argued that project management has not lived up to its potential in many organizations. To successfully execute the corporate strategy, project management must become strategically focused in order to align with business needs. This paradigm shift must occur within both project management and business.

Project Management: A Tale of Two Futures

by Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP December 12, 2011

Project management in practice struggles to evolve, and we consistently fail to take the actions we know we should. Human inertia is too strong an influence to ignore if we want the future of PM to be that much different than it is today. If it were to be different, however, where might it go? There are two overall directions that appear to be emerging, and each has advocates and detractors. Whether (or indeed if) one attains dominance will depend upon the intersection of many forces.

The Metamorphosis of Project Management

by Jim Harris March 18, 2004

Times have changed, and so have the expectations placed on project managers and project management offices. Jim Harris takes a look at the continuing evolution of the dynamic discipline of project management.

Project Management: A New Definition

by Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP July 23, 2003

At last, it's here--the moment you've been waiting for. If we can't define project management, then how do we communicate what it is, and how do we defend its value? A definition that clearly delineates between other roles in the project organization, that is unambiguous and that doesn't blur or overlap with other roles should be one that most of us can agree on. Right?

	Templates for this Process
	Show all Techniques
	HEADWAY - WBS
	About Project HEADWAY PM Process

	PMBOK® Alignment & Support
	Advice and Examples from Subject Matter Experts