Project management is a very widely applied practice in the world, which can be applied in a wide variety of situations not only in business, but also in life. However, is there anything to think about before implementing project management in an organization?
Is project management and its principles the same in different areas of business?
The answer to this question is yes and no. The practice of project management is applied everywhere the same:
before the initiation of the project, the idea of the project and the desired benefits of the project are arranged
before starting to prepare a project plan, it is decided what solutions are available and which one to choose
then the project actions are planned, a detailed plan is prepared and possible unexpected situations are assessed
after the preparation of the detailed plan of the project, the implementation of the project is carried out
after the implementation of the project, the benefits received and the lessons learned are assessed
All of these steps are perfectly applicable to any area of business, from that construction business to information technology. Though there are some steps are specifically applicable in IT, real estate or any other area, if we would go deeper in to the details.
So, what should we pay attention to when we want to implement a project management methodology in our business enterprise?
The implementation of project management seems very easy, you would say what is here: you came up with the main life cycles of the project, arranged the main steps and requirements of the project and launched it into life.
In part, this is true, but there are a few things that are very important to think about before drawing what the project management process will look like in your organization:
identify what problem you want to solve with project management practices
name what you want to consider as a project – not all changes should be called projects, this can make the implementation of the smallest changes more expensive
when you know what changes will be identified as projects - answer the question of how many such changes occur in the organization per year
the answer to the third question will help you to assess how complex project management practices are needed, i.e. if the number of projects in the organization is large, then you may need project dependencies, risk management and a few more steps in making a decision
another important point is what is the maturity of project management in the organization: although in the absence of an official project management methodology, are there people who manage change according to project management practices? If maturity is low and people are not very aware of the principles of project management, it is very important that first stages of the implementation of project management are as simple as possible and more complex stages are introduced gradually during the development of the organization