I work in a small software house (10-15 employees) as a Project Coordinator. I would like to ask how I can improve Project Management practices. Saving Changes...
Tomashia RobinsonSenior IT Project Manager| North Carolina Department of RevenueFuquay Varina, Nc, United States
Hi, everyone. I happened upon this topic which is very interesting. I work for local government as an IT Project Coordinator. My counterpart and I are currently working through this same issue. Our positions are new to the department, but I have been in the department as a Business Analyst for a little over 3 years before moving into my current role. Typically, we categorized projects into 4 tiers based on a decision tree. Upon trying to improve our processes, we started a discussion on what is truly considered to be a project. We are proposing to make a change and categorize work better to only use PM discipline to the work that truly needs it. Maybe full v/s lite PM and everything else is really operational/managed work. Has anyone taken that approach to classifying if work is truly a project in improving PM processes? Saving Changes...
Maturity models sound nice, and can give you a direction, but if you let the model drive the priority you may not be addressing the most critical issues, first. My first question is, "What part of Project Management do you need to improve?" Without knowing your customers, I would ask the following:
Is your team delivering value?
- If no, determine why not and what can be done about it
- If yes, next question
Is your team delivering value quickly (or as quickly as expected)?
- same options
Are your stakeholders and customers getting the information they need to make decisions when they need it?
- same options
If Project Management consists of the following:
- Scoping the problem
- Identifying the solution
- Determining the tasks, effort, and resources required
- Planning & controlling the schedule
- Risk management
- Scope change management
- People change management
- Communication planning & management
- Solution delivery
- Benefits management/realization
...what areas do you need to improve in? Where are the gaps and what can you do about them? In a small shop you can keep things fairly lightweight and be highly successful.
Assuming that you have a working process and nothing is broken, effective communication is probably the most important area to address, first. Make sure the decision-makers have, and understand, the information they need to make informed decisions quickly. After that, what matters most to your stakeholders? Saving Changes...
Andrew SoswaTechnology leader| Leading global financial institutionElk Grove Village, Il, United States
If you ask a carpenter, every problem is a nail to hit. If you ask a Project Manager, every problem is a process, and methodology, and PMO, and Global PMO... to create.
I 100% agree with first part of Aaron post = deliver business value to your customers. Now, some customers are internal or external. Your customers will have different needs and priorities. That's why you have to show great skills in dealing with ambiguity, in Situational Leadership and Transformational Leadership.
Don't jump into implementing rigid processes (i.e. creative-Agile methodology to build a house vs pre-planned-waterfall for software products) but always be mindful that the process can be improved. Saving Changes...
Temitope ISIJOLAReliability Engineer| Aspen Aerogels, East Providence, RIEast Providence, Ri, United States
The first thing that I'll do is to perform a gap analysis. What are the areas that you are lacking or would like to improve? It may be documentation, or other areas of the project management knowledge. Once you have identified the gap, then you have to set up a plan to tackle that. The most important concept in PM is tailoring. You have to tailor the PM knowledge areas to your facility and to the type of project you are working on. You can also start by creating PM templates for your facility as well. Saving Changes...
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