Is Technology Changing the Nature of Project Management?

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Is Technology Changing the Nature of Project Management?

From time to time, I am asked about whether new technology is changing the nature of project management. It seems like technology is changing faster and faster all the time. But is technology changing project management to any degree?

This is an interesting question. Certainly, there are a couple aspects of projects where technology comes into play.

  • It is true that many projects are becoming more and more technically complex. This is true for many projects – IT, pharma, engineering, finance, etc. It seems like many projects have some tool or technology component. However, this is not a project management matter, but it is a characteristic of the products we are building and the project tools we are using. 
  • The tools we use for project management are changing. This includes tools for  scheduling, risk management, communications and more. Client-server tools replaced mainframe tools, which have all been replaced by web tools. Today, many of the project management tools run in the cloud. The tools have also become more complex to satisfy the needs of project managers today.

Of course, Agile processes allow us to deliver solutions more quickly through short iterations. Many of these Agile projects are technology projects, but the project management approach is driven more by philosophy rather than by technology.    

All that being said, in my opinion, the actual project management discipline has not changed that much based strictly on technology drivers. You still have to manage scope. You still have issues to resolve. You still have to manage risks, etc. The various aspects of planning and managing work as a project do not necessarily change based on the technology. For example, it is true that there are new technologies for helping you build and manage a schedule. But the basic mechanics of building and managing a schedule have not really changed.

There may be some aspects of communication that have been affected by technology. Technology has given us the ability to communicate faster and in more real-time. There are also better tools for collaboration and sharing. This may be an area where technology has affected to fundamentals of project management.

So, to answer the question from the beginning of the article – has technology changed project management? In my opinion – not so much. The nature of the projects themselves may be impacted by technology, but the fundamentals of planning, cost management, schedule management, risk management, scope management, etc. have not changed so much. Project management is process-driven. Although technology has impacted the automation and speed of these processes, I think the fundamental nature of project management has not been changed much by technology.

 

Five Project Management Mistakes Pt2

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Mistake #2: Poor scope management practices

Managing scope is one of the most critical aspects of managing a project. However, if you have not done a good job of defining scope, managing scope will be almost impossible. The purpose of defining scope is to clearly describe and gain agreement on the logical boundaries and deliverables of your project. The business requirements are gathered to provide more detail on the characteristics of the deliverables.

Defining scope means that you have defined the project boundaries and deliverables, and the product requirements. These should all be approved by your sponsor.

The project manager and project team must realize that there is nothing wrong with changing scope – as long as the change is managed. If you cannot accommodate change, the final solution may be less valuable than it should be, or it may, in fact, be unusable.

Every project should have a process in place to manage change effectively. The process should include identifying the change, determining the business value of the change, determining the impact on the project and then taking the resulting information to the project sponsor for their evaluation. The sponsor can determine if the change should be included. If it is included, then the sponsor should also understand the impact on the project, and allocate the additional budget and time needed to include the change.

The most common problems with scope change management are:

  • Not having the baseline scope approved, which makes it difficult to apply scope change management.
  • Not managing small scope changes leaving yourself open to “scope creep”.
  • Not documenting all changes – even small ones.
  • Having the project manager make scope change decisions instead of the sponsor (or designee).

If you find that your project is starting to trend over its budget and schedule, try to find the cause. In many cases you will find that you are simply taking on more work than you originally agreed to. If you do not have a good scope change process in place, it is never too late to start.

Six Sigma Methodology is the Goal

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The establishment of a six sigma methodology is the goal of most, if not all, businesses in the modern world. This is the creation of a project plan where the deliverables being produced only have 3.4 defects in every 1 million that are produced. This might sound like an unachievable goal, but it is now possible with the right methodology in place within your organization.

The basic concept behind the six sigma methodology is to reduce possible errors in all process and procedures involved in a project. This is a constant process where all areas of the procedure are constantly reviewed, along with modifications to processes, until no waste is possible from your production facility.

In many industries, achieving the goal of the six sigma methodology is not practical, but the effort to achieve it will have positive results on your organization. This is a path for constant improvement of your organization which will reduce the waste and costs of producing the goods you sell to the global marketplace.

For most medium and large size organizations, they will have a group whose sole responsibility is to reduce waste. They are constantly reviewing the SOP’s, procedures, and process to locate any place where waste is possible. Unfortunately, waste is just part of producing a product for the market place. Machinery breaks down or bad raw materials make their way to the production floor. This is why for most businesses, the possibility of actually achieving six sigma is only theoretical.

What is achievable is a reduction in the waste that is being produced without this process of constant improvement. This makes the implementation of the six sigma methodology advantageous for an organization to do.

Unlike the lean methodology that has a goal of reducing costs, the six sigma methodology is there to also improve the processes that are in use to increase efficiency. This will result in a reduction of waste while making all of the processes better, with the final result of being more profitable to operate.

Implementing Enterprise Project Management

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The implementation of enterprise project management does not necessary mean you have to be a large corporation or involved with a large scale project. This was the original intentions of this kind of program, but it has been found to be useful in the smaller scale ones also.

Because of the name enterprise project management, there are certain expectations by the users. This is a set of programs that have a great amount of detail in their construction. It is expandable to handle any size project that has ever existed. In the early stages of its development it was used on nuclear plants and other large scale project that were generally funded by governments because of their size. Today more and more organizations are using it because there are few to any limitations with the programs.

On the smaller scale projects the enterprise project management programs are not entirely used. There will be sections that just do not apply while others that are used extensively. The thought is that it is better to have the capability rather than wishing you did. It makes a better use of time by the project team so the deliverables can make it to the global market place faster. This allows for the goals and scope of the project plan to become a reality easier.

The methodology used for the small scale projects and the enterprise project management ones can be the same. This is why many organizations use it. This allows for just one set of programs to be purchased, learned and used. This allows for a better efficiency to be attained by the project team when interacting with the program and all of the process invalided in your project.

The enterprise project management plan is no longer just for the ultra large projects, but it is still applicable there. It is the details that make the difference in just how well a project turns out and these types of programs give the project manager more options available to them. This will help to reduce any possible delay because the right project management tool will always be available.

Incorporating a Project Management Process

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By incorporating a project management process with your next business venture, its chances of success will increase. This is what stakeholders are referring to when they demand their employees to become better organized. By establishing a set plan of attack to planning and controlling your next project, the performance of the plan will be enhanced.

The project management process is an all encompassing approach to developing a revenue stream with the production of a deliverable. This will even begin in the inception phase of a project’s lifecycle. To come up with an idea and actually place it into a business case will not occur without a set plan. Then to ensure the idea is feasible and profitable must also be known before any planning of how the deliverable will begin. There is no need to plan the production of an item if you are not going to be able to make money with it.

In each project management process, there are nine separate and different processes that must be coordinated for it to be a success. Each one of these processes must be documented for each process so there is a paper trail for not only the project team to follow, but so there is a record of what was attempted.

To do the documentation of the project management process, the use of project management templates are most often used. This not only speeds up this documentation process of the process, but also helps to bring consistency to the paper trail. There will also be similarities from past project that can be used in your present project so the entire process does not have to be constructed from scratch.

Not every part of the project management process will be used by each member of your project team, but all nine processes need to be written because someone will need them during the course of the project. This documentation of the process is now a requirement in the industry set forth by the standards that are used globally.

By using a project management process for your next business venture, you will be able to meet the requirement set by these standards. This will allow your deliverable to be acceptable in more markets than ever before.