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The Importance of a Project Management Methodology
August 18, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings
The Importance of a Project Management Methodology
By Peter Birley
One of the things that is important to project success is having a consistent methodology across the whole organisation.
The alternative of allowing different methodologies or no methodology is often inefficiencies, higher costs, longer schedules and of course higher risk.
Consistency means having a standard way of managing all projects. It ensures that all aspects of the project are considered, evaluated and documented.
Methodology is a collection of agreed processes, methods and tools to accomplish an objective. It becomes a road map for managing projects and provides guidance to project teams.
Advantages abound in that you can achieve common:
- Training
- Understanding
- Process
- Tools and techniques
- Measurements
And of course a key advantage is that the risk of failure is reduced.
And as more projects are completed using the methodology it becomes part of the fabric of work, speeds up the project process and can help to reduce change management issues as more of the work force understand the process, where to find information and who to communicate with.
The methodology does not need to be rigid and can be modified to suit the particular projects although the core process will remain. The tools and techniques become a tool chest from which the right tool can be chosen for the right job. One essential tool on any project of a reasonable size is suitable software to help manage the project. The number of tasks and resources being managed becomes very difficult without some software to assist particularly once changes start coming in requiring some replanning.
A lot of organisations will take a common method such as that from ‘PMI’ or ‘Prince’ and adapt it to their own requirements without losing the essence of the methodology.
They can of course go wrong and this is generally a result of over enthusiasm which creates a monster by following methodologies to the finest detail regardless of the size of the project or the capability and type of the organisation. Other problems occur when core elements are bypassed usually as a result of weak project management.
Setting up a methodology in the first instance does require commitment in terms of resource and money. The most important aspect is buy-in from top management and if it isn’t driven top down then it will fail.
There will then be which method do we go for, do we need to adapt it, what are training requirements, communication to the business and help with introducing the chosen methodology. In most cases external consultancy help is needed in choosing the methodology and in helping to introduce it into the company.
A project driven company is often a successful company and one that can delight clients by delivering change in a timely and efficient manner.
Peter Birley is the director of Information Technology at Browne Jacobson LLP. He can be contacted through is blog, the CIO Blog.
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