26 June 2009

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Taking Baby StepsImplementing Project Management with Limited Resources

By Gloria Durham, MSPM, MEd

It’s a common dilemma: you have decided to implement a project management program. But your organization is young and / or small, and it doesn’t have a lot of resources to spare. Project management is a complex methodology, after all. How can you possibly execute it in these circumstances?

Fortunately, project management is adaptable to any situation. And there are ways to implement it by using a limited approach—by taking small “baby steps” to minimize resources, maximize effectiveness, and grow a department or company through process improvement.

First, identify what you’re looking to accomplish. Depending on the size of your organization, implementing large, time-consuming processes might not be conducive or cost effective.

Establish a focus group to determine your organization’s exact needs. Since all people in the organization will be impacted by the work, you should include a few people from each department. Document your findings and prepare a proposal for executive management.

Next, gain the support of your executive management. Any program or process changes can be doomed to failure without adequate management support. To do so, you might have to give the executives some level of training on project management. Remember, most executives won’t have three or four days to sit in training, so focused, powerful PowerPoint^® presentations might work best. Include your key points and goals, as well as some basic information on project management concepts

Once you have the support of executive management, start implementing the five basic project management processes:

1. Initiation – Develop an approach to determine how the organization will initiate projects. Your process should include how you will submit, evaluate and prioritize new projects.
   
2. Planning – Establish and document the steps that you, as project manager, must take to plan the projects. Set up a template with the guidelines and requirements, in addition to expectations for the deliverables of the plan. Most plans will include an executive summary and components of a statement of work.
   
3. Execution – Establish the steps and guidelines required to manage the projects and deliverables. This also includes monitoring and reporting on the project performance.
   
4. Monitoring and Control – Determine the guidelines to monitor and control your project outcomes. This may involve the creation of weekly/monthly status reporting templates, earned value methodologies, or risk and quality control guidelines. Setting up an ongoing reporting structure for the overall project program is essential as well.
   
5. Closure – Identify the most efficient method to document and file all associated project documentation for the project. Closure might also include developing a lessons learned database for future references.

Finally, determine how you will communicate the new project management processes. If you think in terms of marketing, this may mean developing fun ways to convey the information and progress of the overall program implementation.

Get as many people involved in the process as you can through newsletters, flyers, e-mail communications and so on. The more aware people are of the change, the more accepting they will be. Nothing is worse than developing processes that no one is willing to use.

These steps will allow you to deploy a project management methodology, even with limited resources and skill sets. This methodology will organize the project work in the business environment and provide you with a good foundation to build on. With these basics in place, you can develop and integrate new process improvements to grow your project management environment to meet the ongoing needs of your organization.

Gloria Durham holds a Masters in Project Management from Keller Graduate and a Masters in Education from Rockhurst University. She is currently a doctoral student at Capella University completing course work to achieve her Doctorate in Organization Management with an emphasis in Education. She has worked in information technology for over 25 years and was a senior project manager for a financial processing company in Kansas City. Ms. Durham is currently an online faculty manager at DeVry University. She has authored project management papers and articles for PMI congresses and PMI Today®, and presented seminars PMI’s Kansas City Mid-America Chapter. Ms. Durham has been an active volunteer for and member of PMI for over 11 years. You can contact her at durhamgj@aol.com.