Project Success is measured by the actions of the project manager and team, the parent organization, and the customer organization. Each party can experience different variables that ultimately have different appropriate actions to take. As a project manager, it is important to look at all these variables that will be presented for their team, interactions with the parent organization, and interactions with the customer organization. It is important to let the project manager and team perform their jobs without micromanagement. Too much interference from either the parent company or the customer organization can hurt project success and even cause conflict to arise.
The Parent Organization
The parent organization must be willing to: coordinate efforts, maintain structural flexibility, and adapt to change. They must also provide support and effective strategic planning. The parent organization’s first action should be to select a project manager. This project manager must be given authority to make important decisions for the project. Because of this responsibility, a project manager must have a proven record of administrative, human, and technical skills to properly lead a team. It is important for the parent organization to provide clear and detailed guidelines that are realistically achievable. The parent organization should develop a close, not extensive, working relationship with the project manager/team and the customer. Short, informal communication should be developed early on. This will allow a good rapport to be established between all parties and allow for comfortable communication.
Customer Organization
The customer organization must have a willingness to coordinate efforts. It should establish specific goals and criteria, as well as the proper procedures for any changes. Any changes that may arise must be dealt with quickly and appropriately. A means of communicating between all parties should be easily accessible and monitored to ensure prompt and clear responses. The created work atmosphere must promote healthy competition and encourage openness and honesty. The client contact must be given sufficient authority to make decisions that can be promptly approved or rejected. Things such as buy-ins, arms-length relationships, and excessive reporting should be avoided.
Project Manager and Team
It is important for the project manager to maintain a good relationship with the customer, parent organization and the team. A project manager should get to know all teammates on an individual level. This allows the project manager to identify strengths and weaknesses and what jobs will be a good fit for the individual. Project managers should take actions to inspire their team and give them a sense of drive. Planning and control tools should be decided upon before the start of the project. Things such as cost, schedules, and performance goals should be identified and based on what is realistic. The project manager should also take actions to identify any potential problems or changes that may be created, how to avoid them if possible, and how to deal with them if they cannot be avoided.
Best Practices
When all variables are considered and actions are taken, best practices can be developed. Best practices can be anything that works well and benefits the entirety of the company. Best practices can be learned from both successes and failures. Some of the best practices that have been identified by the government from past failures are:
- Use of life-cycle phases
- Use of earned-value measurement
- Standardization and consistency
- Templates for planning, scheduling, control, and risk.
- Integrated personal teams IPTs
- Contractor-generated scope changes control
Best practices can be separated int 5 different levels from lowest to highest which are:
- Professional Standards
- Industry-Specific
- Company-Specific
- Project-Specific
- Individual
The Professional Standards and Industry-Specific levels can be used more for strategy formulation, while the Company-Specific, Project-Specific, and Individual levels can be used for strategy execution.
It Important to note that not all practices are transferable. What works for one company may not work for another. However, best practices can be causally linked to each other. This allows, in some cases, for the creation of an additional best practice. It is possible to create a best practices library. These libraries can provide necessary knowledge that will help achieve project success. This knowledge can be transferred to employees through the intranet, seminars, and case studies.
8 Comments
Brandon Kresge · March 2, 2021 at 11:59 am
Great job, Sean! Well-written! This really ties together that the project manager needs technical and people skills. Everyone has their own expectations, and it is up to the different groups and members in them to keep communicating and work out problems. I really like the point that the project manager should get to know everyone so they can determine their strengths and weaknesses. I feel that’s really helpful and can lead to more success in future projects. Another good point is that best practices are not transferable. I feel like some companies are open to trying them, while others stick with what they have and nothing else.
Trisha Badlu · March 2, 2021 at 3:22 pm
This was a really well-detailed post! I like how you went through the different organizations and provided an explanation of their responsibilities. Each organization should definitely be willing to coordinate with each other to ensure project success, otherwise the project is likely to fail. Compromises are necessary, especially when there’s a budget and time constraint involved, so the customer and team need to be willing to adjust their expectations of the final product. You also made a good point in saying that practices that work for a company may not work for another. Each company should work towards finding what works best for them and their teams so that everyone can work in an environment that’s both productive and friendly.
Vivian Azar · March 2, 2021 at 4:27 pm
Nice job explaining how best practices can be learned from successes and failures. That’s why it’s also important to hold debriefs / post implementation meetings to document the lessons learned from each project, so that everyone can reflect on what did and didn’t go well during the project’s lifetime. Documenting that will offer better guidance for the team on future projects.
Brandon Sutton · March 2, 2021 at 4:39 pm
A successful post on how to be successful, Sean. I think the subsections for each level of organization display both the many actors that are a part of any project and the various ways they all interact. I like the importance you attribute to communication at the differing levels of organization. Communication is without a doubt on of the true linchpins in a team that achieves their goals and one that scratches their heads.
Autumn Coulton · March 2, 2021 at 5:26 pm
Nice post Sean, it is important to learn from each project and understand what lead to a success or failure. As you said, these practices can differ between companies but they are still important lessons to help accept the results of the project. If a project fails the project manager should recognize where the failure came from, such as poor communication throughout the team. With an understanding of the problem, the project manager should attempt to improve this for their next project and effectively showing growth.
Connor Ellis · March 2, 2021 at 5:29 pm
There are a lot of moving parts to play with as a project manager. You explain each of them well! This blog post reminds me of mine because of the distinction of the expectations of your parent company and your customer. All those expectations are hard to keep realistic. The best practices that you list line right up with the other two posts today, good job!
I do wonder the weight of each practice. For example, when is it ok to trust your gut rather than listen to the “higher-ups”? Is there ever a time where there is some kind of “light whistle-blowing” about practices?
Manogna Pillutla · March 2, 2021 at 5:46 pm
Nice work Sean! The post is well organized. Project manager roles have been explained very well. It is important that we understand how it goes holding this role. The best practices was a good section to know how things should be handled from the beginning to make a project successful.
The picture is slightly unclear to me. Small text is not visible on the left part of it. Is it the same for all or just me?
Griffin Nye · March 2, 2021 at 5:57 pm
Very well-written post Sean! It is extremely important that a project manager develops a good rapport with their team, as communication seems to be the biggest factor in determining the success of a project. Without good communication, the team will not be able to make sufficient progress or even be on the same page of what the primary objective all team members should be working towards is. Communicating and cooperating with the client is also extremely important, as without properly understanding and defining the clients specifications, the team will ultimately waste a lot of unnecessary time planning and implementing features in the system that will eventually need to be reworked and altered if these client specifications are misunderstood or poorly documented.