If a project manager does not have experience or a systematic approach, the project is likely to stall, go over budget or simply fail. It is very difficult to find competent managers overnight. This is where off-the-shelf, proven and highly reliable project management methodologies come to the rescue. They significantly reduce the risk of failure. And work obeys the laws of logic rather than the laws of chaos.
Classification of project management systems
It is worth noting at the outset that project management systems can be designed for different levels of coverage:
national (for example, P2M for Japan, DIN 69901 or V-Modell for Germany, AFITEP for France),
global (well-known to many PMBOK and the standard based on it — ISO 21500:2012, PRINCE2, etc.)
specialised (used for projects of a certain type).
Since global and national systems are not well suited for use in small teams and medium/small businesses, let’s look at different types of specialised project management systems.
There are two main schools of thought:
- Classical management practices. They correlate with the general management theory described in higher education institutions.
- Modern project management practices. These are usually flexible methodologies.
Different management approaches and practices are most often developed and used in the IT industry.
The most popular project management practices
Many IT projects use simple, clear and as practical as possible methodologies. These include:
- Agile — flexible methodology that combines a large pool of project management systems with similar or not so similar features.
- Scrum — is actually part of the agile family of methodologies, but due to its popularity it is released as a separate methodology.
- Kanban — all project tasks get their own Kanban board and move from the starting state to the final state, the progression process is easily tracked on a dedicated Kanban board.
- Waterfall — or cascade model.
- The iterative approach to project development, like waterfall, belongs to the category of linear/sequential methodologies.
- Incremental model — the project is divided into many modules, each of which can be implemented separately, but linked to stages of increasing size.
- Incremental-iterative model — a kind of symbiosis of the two previous models.
Let’s take a closer look at the top 3 models.
Agile project management practices
Agile is not really a method. It is a general approach, basic principles and values to follow when working on a project. There are only four values:
- People and relationships are the highest priority.
- The main goal is a working product, not detailed documentation.
- Working with the customer or client is more important than negotiating the terms of the contract.
- You should always be prepared to change the terms of the original plan (hence the flexibility of Agile).
There are 12 principles, but they all revolve around the same values and explain the approach in more detail. For example, only professionals should work in an agile team; the process is evaluated on the basis of working product and implemented features; the customer’s needs always have the highest priority; changes to the project are possible even in the last stages of work; customer representatives should work with the project team to ensure continuous communication and control, and so on.
Scrum — an effective project management practice for small teams
Unlike the general Agile approach, Scrum is a very specific methodology that is well documented and formalised. In fact, it is a kind of iterative model of project work, where each iteration is a kind of race (sprint).
The race is preceded by a specific list of objectives, and the customer’s representatives are actively involved in setting the objectives.
The tasks are then written on the SCRUM board, which is in many ways similar to the Kanban approach, except that the task charts are more informative (who is working on the task, what are the deadlines, etc.).
The downside is that this management system doesn’t scale well to large teams. And it takes several sprints to adequately assess the productivity of the people involved in the project.
Kanban practices and lean manufacturing
The word ‘kanban’ comes from the theory of lean production. However, Kanban is now associated less with a methodology and more with a way of visualising tasks. It is very handy when you have a list of all the tasks in a project, categorised according to the visual status of work on them.
As the status changes, the task map moves through the columns. The last column is the final status. This means that the task has been completed.
In this way you can easily keep track of which tasks you have in your pool, which tasks your employees are actively working on and which tasks have already been completed. A Kanban chart can have any number of statuses. Sales funnels in CRM systems work on the same principle (all customer contacts go into the common pool and the final state is the transaction, i.e. the sale), except that not all cards reach the final state, hence the name ‘funnel’, because the neck narrows towards the end.
Lean manufacturing as a methodology is very effective. You only use the resources you have available to work on a project, and everyone is always busy.
For more options on modern management methodologies, see our Top 10 Project Management Methodologies.
Time, money and resources
When applying different project management practices, the issues of legal responsibility for the outcome are no less interesting. After all, any relationship between client and performer can be translated into material responsibility (as a matter of realising the right to make a mistake).
What if we consider the baseline of the project in terms of available resources? Then the system will definitely include:
- Time — i.e. the actual time of implementation or the time of the specialists involved in the project;
- Money — more precisely, the budget allocated to the project implementation, which may include various expenses, the most important of which is the salary of the project team;
- Other resources, including human resources, allocated to the existence and implementation of the project.
Based on these criteria, the following principles should be followed when documenting responsibilities.
A fixed set of resources
When assigning tasks to a project manager (i.e. the whole project), there may be strict limitations:
- Time — the project may have specific deadlines or a fixed periodicity of reporting (acceptance of results);
- Budget — the maximum amount that cannot be exceeded may also be linked either to the project as a whole or to specific periods or functions;
- Scope of work — clearly defined product functions, tasks to be performed at the time of project delivery.
Accordingly, these criteria are evaluated during the acceptance of the project results. Any resources allocated in excess of the norm are at the expense of the contractor. This is an important legal subtlety. The objectives, targets and limits are therefore strictly defined in the contract with the project team. It also specifies the financial liability in case of non-fulfilment of the conditions.
Flexible billing scheme for materials and resources
Clients of large projects are well aware that they need a lot of resources and time to achieve specific goals and results. It is extremely difficult to estimate the scope of work in advance. Then the issue of legal liability is not easy to negotiate.
The most flexible approach in this case is to estimate short-term recurring costs. The best evaluation criterion is the time of the specialists involved.
In other words, the project manager hires the right people and pays them according to the amount of work they do. This optimises the overall cost level.
Specialists are actually hired as specific tasks arise, perform them and leave the project. They will have their own pool of tasks with their own responsibility and motivation.
Thus, the right to error for the executors in such an evaluation scheme will look more loyal. The client will see the overall progress and plan further actions and expenses based on it. However, in this case, the full responsibility for the result is usually transferred to the customer, not to the team, which can disrupt the deadlines of the tasks.
Similarly, the client can quickly build their own project team by bringing in ‘in house’ specialists.
Project management tools
The project management methodology or practice itself is doomed to failure if you do not implement a quality control and tasking system. There are various software tools available: professional, tailored to a specific set of tasks and compatible methodologies, universal, cloud-based and offline installation, with or without subscription, etc.
The best solution for small teams and projects is a cloud-based system with a subscription based on the number of people. For example, our Projecto service.
This is a universal project management system that can be easily adapted to almost any modern practice or methodology (Kanban, SCRUM, Network Model and others).
