Adopting a project management methodology
Introduction: Organization A is a financial services organization from Australia that has over 80 employees working for them. The company uses a Regulator Performance Framework defined by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. The company has significant authorities given to the project managers and thus, their impact on project is very high. The company decided on the project management methodology fast. There are several project management methodologies that are available to choose from. PRINCE 2 and PMBOK are the most commonly used methodologies for managing projects by the organizations worldwide. An appropriate choice can be made based on the organization structure (Court, 2006).
Figure 1: PRINCE 2 Methodology for Organization A (Turley, 2012)
Proposed Methodology: As the organization is using a project management methodology already, it needs an upgrade on the methodology which helps the organization achieve its goal of performance enhancement through the exploration of the project management best practices. As PRINCE 2 provides best practices and makes and a detailed guidance how it can be adopted to a specific scenario like the case of Organization A through tailoring. Thus, the project would make use of the PRINCE 2 project management framework (Ferguson, 2011). The project would be handled in five phases including start-up, initiating, controlling project stages, manage stage boundary and project closure. IN the start-up stage, all the information needed for the project is collected such that an initial project plan can be made in the next stge. In the initiation, stage a Project Initiation Document is prepared and is approved by the management. In the next stage, the project deliveries are managed as per the work break down packages identified in the initial plan. In the same stage, control would be established on the stage activities. The next stage involves management of the stage boundaries that identify the closure of a specific stage. The last stage if the project closure stage in which the project would be completed and closure documentation would be done along with the project sign-off marking the acceptance of deliverables and completion of the project (Hinde, 2012).
Introduction: Organization B is a building society of 600 dwellers which follows the Regulator Performance Framework just as the organization A for managing its operations. The company had developed project management methodology internally for managing it project. Thus, it does not follow any formal standard that is recognized. One way is to introduce project management methodology that helps in planning , organizing, executing and controlling any project taken by an organization in a way that the team productivity and the organizational performance is improved (Karaman & Kurt, 2015).
Proposed Methodology: The Company does not have any formal methodology used and thus, needs to build upon the foundation through the use of an extensive and detailed methodooogy that provides a step by step guidance for the organization. PMBOK guide would solve this purpose as the methodology identifies project management processes and activities very clearly which would help the management adopt the practice effectively (PMI, 2010).
The scenario
Introduction: Organization C is an international IT organization that has 1200 people working for it across globe. The company is already using CMMI model for managing its IT projects and is certified in it. There can be several challenges that the company would be facing while adopting the PMBOK methodology that are important to explore in order to come up with the possible solutions to overcome those challenges.
Proposed Methodology: As the company is already using CMMI, it needs a project management methodology that is adaptable and complements the CMMI practices and not cause any conflicts. Also, the company would have more specialized contexts for managing IT projects. However, PRINCE 2 is a methodology that is more suitable for the general context and thus, PMBOK would make a more appropriate project management methodology. It would easily mingle with the processes defined in CMMI (Karaman & Kurt, 2015). As PMBOK works on certain principles and practices, there is a need for the company to modify its culture. As the company already CMMI implemented, the staff is already used to a similar culture and thus, it would not be difficult to adopt PMBOK in the company culture (Measey, 2014).
For the implementation of the PRINCE 2 methodology for the organization A, the company’s top management professionals including Chief operating Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief operating officer (COO), and Vice President would have to be approach to seek buy-in from the management. After this, the employees of the finance organization would have to be trained on the PRINCE 2 practices which would include IT manager, project manager, contract manager, pre-sales, sales staff, operations manager, and so on. Upon completion of the training of these employees, the new project management processes can be implemented that would be primarily managed by the project manager (Kirwan, et al., 2008).
The adoption of PRINCE 2 project management methodology for the organization would need the company to follow certain principles like (Saad, et al., 2012):
- The project manager needs to create a business case that can justify the project viability with respect to the strategic goals of the organization such that the top management can take an appropriate decision on whether to go ahead with a project or not(Siegelaub, 2009).
- The company can learn from the past experiences of the other projects that other financial organizations have completed using PRINCE 2 such that best practices can be identified and used for the current organization so as the improve the chances of the success of the project. Every project that is completed would also involve recording of the lessons learned.
- The implementation of any finance project would be divided into certain manageable stages with a logical structure that would make way for the periodic assessments of the progress against the project plan. These stages would include negotiation, funding, system development, training, and project closure(Murray, 2009).
- The financial projects would be managed by exceptions which would involve definition of the operational structure and responsibilities of the project staff such that the staff is made accountable for the deliverables and the control of project cost, time, quality and risk aspects.
- The implementation of the methodology would have the focus on the financial product that would be designed on a project such that the project deliverables would be identified accordingly.
- A tailoring would be used on every project based on the requirement of the project in which the deliverables and processes would be adjusted as per the requirement of the organization and the specific project(Siegelaub, 2009).
PMBOK is a guide and not a specific process that can be implemented using specific steps. It is more like using certain ideas for managing specific projects. For this, PMBOK provides a global library of documents, terms, ideas, principles, and practices that can be studied to refine and customize the existing processes used in the organization for the management of the real estate society project.
Figure 2: PMBOK Processes (Vargas, 2015)
The PMBOK methodology provides an inventory of activities that can be executed at five key stages of a project that include initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing. These stages have activities categorized into 10 knowledge areas each containing specific number of processes or activities from a total of 47 activities as identified in the graph above (Wojnar, 2015).
For implementing PMBOK in the company C, the 10 knowledge areas of methodology would have to be understood along with each identified process in these areas to discover what processes can be applicable to the company and what are not. The decisions can be taken by the project manager post having discussions with the staff on which processes are needed to be adapted to. Once the activities are identified, a detailed project plan would be created for specific IT project that has to be managed. As the company is already CMMI certified, the processes would be chosen accordingly such that the processes that are already managed under CMMI may not be used with PMBOK but those that are not present in CMMI can adopt PMBOK approach. Both CMMI and PMBOK practices can easily be used simultaneously on the same project without facing any conflict (Williams, 2014).
Answers
PRINCE 2 implementation in the financial organization would face certain challenges such as:
- PRINCE 2 can be used with tailoring on each finance project. However, the company employees or the project team needs to have extensive knowledge of how tailoring can be done for which the high level training of employees on PRINCE 2 methodology is must
- The practices in the PRINCE 2 methodology need specific styles of management to be followed by the organization which would need change of the approaches and culture of the organization in order to learn and implement PRINCE 2 which would not be easy as employees may resist this major change.
- The benefits of PRINCE 2 framework could not be achieved without proper training and implementation of the practice and thus, involvement of project tam and the organization employees is very essential and a close coordination is needed
- As PRINCE 2 practice is driven by a specific management style, the company that has not been using any professional methodology would find it difficult to learn and implement as it would need the entire culture of the company to change
- Without the adequate knowledge of PRINCE 2 , the implementation would not deliver required benefits to the financial organization and thus, the implementation has to be done only after the teams are appropriately trained in practice(Turley, 2012)
- The adoption of PRINCE 2 needs professional guidance and certification to be taken by some of the project team members including project manager to be able to efficiency adapt to the practice.
- As the company did not have any professional methodology implemented earlier in the company, it would be difficult and time consuming to adopt one the first time
- PRINCE 2 does not involve all the processes in an organization. For instance, it does not include the guidance on procurement and knowledge management processes and in the case these are needed, the staff would not be able to use PRINCE 2 methodology(Saad, et al., 2012).
PMBOK project management methodology implementation in the organization B would face certain challenges such as:
- Organization B may have certain processes that are efficiently handled using current processes and PMBOK guidance may not be needed. The project manager can selectively adapt to specific guidelines based on the needs but identifying where to adopt PMBOK and where to avoid it is a challenging task(Vargas, 2015).
- Project managers and teams have the tendency to follow a practice completely and thus, would try to use PMBOK in every place in the company which may not be an intelligent thing to do as it would not be appropriate for certain processes and can become time consuming if used.
- PMBOK does not provide specific templates that can be used directly by the company to start with but only has guidance on what to be included which could be difficult for the company to understand when using the methodology for the first time(Siegelaub, 2009).
The implementation of PMBOK in the IT organization would be faced with certain challenges such as:
- PMBOK methodology can be very challenging to understand and adopt as it has many processes and is an extensive guideline which needs a careful study
- For PMOK to be successful, commitment from the top management is necessary as the processes in the methodology need their inputs as well as support for management and control. If the top management is not committed, it would be very difficult to push employees into adoption of such an extensive methodology like PMBOK.
- To use PMBOK, the company would need to create many documents including templates as well as establish new processes which can be both time consuming and overwhelming for the staff that can cause resistance in them(Rowley, 2013).
As the company is already used to practicing CMMI which is different methodology, there can be additional challenges in the implementation of PMBOK project management methodology such as:
- For the company to be able to practice two methodologies together without any conflicts, a coordination would be required in the teams as well as a suitable infrastructure that integrates the processes would be needed. This would need not just training on the roles and responsibilities of people as per PMBOK but also how to use the practice in the presence of CMMI certification(Business Solutions, Inc., 2015).
- The measurement metrics used by the company for measuring performance of the project could be different in two methodologies and thus; measures have to be taken to align them for better governance which can be complicated(Ghosh, et al., 2012).
To overcome PRINCE 2 implementation challenges in the organization A, the first step that is to be taken is train the employees on the processes and principles of PRINCE 2. The project manager along with some key personnel may be trained extensively to the level of PRINCE 2 certification such that they can understand the intricacies of the system. The company should provide clear guiltiness to all the other team members on the business processes that would be managed using PRINCE 2. The structure of the company and the processes may not be in tandem with the PRINCE 2 methodology in which case tailoring can be useful (Valek, 2014).
The challenges that would be faced by the organization B while adopting the PMBOK project management methodology can be resolved using following steps:
- Advise can be taken from a project management consultant on the adoption of PMBOK in the organization
- All the key personnel and team members working on the society project must get a training and professional guidance on the PMBOK practices
- The adoption can be done phase wise and not one shot such that only a few processes are adopted using PMBOK methodology and gradually, the methodology is integrated into the entire system(Ghosh, et al., 2012)
The company needs to create an infrastructure that brings improvement in the processes that are already being used in the CMMI system. The common roles of two methodologies have to be determined and appropriate identification must be done which processes have to be implemented using which system from the two (Fritzsche & Keil, 2007).
Some action steps that can help overcome challenges in implementation of PMBOK with CMMI driven organization include:
- Senior management must provide strategic direction to the project team to enable improvement in the existing system
- Project manager and the trained professionals on PMBOK must act as coordinators and facilitators for the teams such that the deliveries and execution of IT projects can be made effective.
- A temporary staff may be deployed in the company to help the team with the implementation of the PMBOK methodology and integration of the same with the CMMI practices. This can be done through a project management consultant (Valek, 2014).
PRINCE 2 methodology adoptions in the finance company would bring following benefits to the projects executed by the company:
- The methodology is highly flexible and as the financial organization has differences in the way they operate from other industries, adoption of PRINCE 2 to the financial domain would be needed which can be made possible with the tailoring of the methodology that would bring alignment in the organization practices.
- The methodology works best with lessons learned and previous lessons learned from previous projects can be recorded and used for subsequent projects such that the learning curve is fast and a continuous improvement can be made possible(Measey, 2014).
PMBOK methodology adoptions in the society would bring following benefits to the project executed by the company:
- The processes of the company would be organized and formalized which would make the staff more productive.
- PMBOK provides a very detailed guidance on the documentation of processes which would improve the learning for the organization
- The processes used in PMBOK are standardized and makes the system transparent which would bring coordination benefits to the organization(Jarocki, 2014).
Benefits of using PMBOK guidelines for the project management in the organization A include:
- The formal and highly standardized systems would help the company fill the performance gaps in the organization
- An extensive planning of projects would make it possible for the company to monitor and measure the progress of the projects easily
- As the processes would become more transparent and documented, the company would get the strategic benefits with the knowledge base made available to the management
- The drawbacks in the CMMI practices that do not provide guidelines on certain processes can be overcome with the use of PMBOK methodology(Tutorialspoint, 2015)
Conclusion
This research explored the cases of three organizations including a finance organization, a real estate project and an international IT organization with an objective to understand how organizations adopt to project management practices. It was found that all the three companies were from different industries, had different organizational structures and different levels of exposure to the project management discipline. The finance organization was using project management methodology but not extensively. Real estate project used its own methodology which was not professional while the international IT organization was already certified on CMMI. Based on these differences in the organizations, appropriate project methodology was chosen and recommended for these organizations with details of the challenges that could be faced while implementing methodologies and the methods that can be used to solve the issues. Organization A was recommended to use PRINCE 2 while other organizations were suggested to use PMBOK.
References
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