Why do project management methodology training?

Project failures are all too common – some make the headlines, thevast majority are quickly forgotten. The reasons for failure are wideand varied. Some common causes are…

• Lack of co-ordination of resources and activities
• Lack of communication with interested parties, leading to products being delivered which are not what the Customer wanted
• Poor estimation of duration and costs, leading to projects taking more time and costing more money than expected
• Insufficient measurables
• Inadequate planning of resources, activities, and scheduling
• Lack of control over progress so that projects do not reveal their exact status until too late
• Lack of quality control, resulting in the delivery of products that are unacceptable or unusable.

Without a project management method, those who commission a project,those who manage it and those who work on it will have different ideasabout how things should be organised and when the different aspects ofthe project will be completed.

Those involved will not be clear about how much responsibility,authority and accountability they have and, as a result, there willoften be confusion surrounding the project. Without a projectmanagement method, projects are rarely completed on time and withinacceptable cost – this is especially true of large projects. A goodproject management method will guide the project through a controlled,well-managed, visible set of activities to achieve the desired results.

PRINCE2® (PRojects IN Controlled Environments)  and Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)   adoptsthe principles of good project management to avoid the problemsidentified above and so helps to achieve successful projects. Somekey principles of these methods are..

• A project is a finite process with a definite start and end
• Projects always need to be managed in order to be successful
• For genuine commitment to the project, all parties must be clear about why the project is needed, what it is intended to achieve, how the outcome is to be achieved, and what their responsibilities are in that achievement.

Nevertheless, experience has taught us that all businesses aredifferent and require their own set of rules.   This is not to dismissthe many methodologies that have been documented over many years but tosuggest you should draw on them, and customise them, utilising them allas appropriate. The outcome in knowledge and base practice is todevelop a process that meets your business requirements a 100%, usingtechnology where appropriate with the proviso that it exists to servethe business not change the business to suit technology.

Related posts:

1. Project Management Training
2. What is Programme Management?
3. Infrastructure Project Risks