On a mission to help executives understand what project management means

Project management is a professional domain defined by timely actions and appropriate practices. The domain is similar to the event management body of knowledge (EMBOK) because project management can be highly complex in volatile and government regulated cybersecurity environments. A great overview of the overlap between event and project management can be found here: https://slideplayer.com/slide/3917611/. To improve the understanding of project management, executives can begin by understanding basic project concepts and seeing the up front practices that expose project management benefits. Below are a few ways to uncover project management benefits that may be hiding within your organization.

Do’s:

1. Identify the purpose of the project, initiative, or undertaking. (What is the project context: how will we know if we satisfy requests, needs, implement change or technological strategies, create, integrated change control improve, fix products, processes or services, meet regulatory, legal, or social requirements). Identifying the purpose will help the team to fall in love with the problem the project is trying to solve, not just the solution. Moreover, projects can be defined differently at each level of the organization or among different departments as is true with some SAFe organizations.

2. Create a needs assessment (This will help you as the project manager and the team understand the market sphere and economic climate of the business). Needs and risk assessments make tradeoffs explicit and expose assumptions that The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) models certification may address.

3. Create a Business Case (links business outcomes and values to project work objectives)

4. Create a Benefits Management Plan (explanation defining the process for creating, maximizing and sustaining the benefits provided by a project the template is found here: project-management-tools-for-fashion-industry-business-pains)
5. Involve the customer, sponsors, and other stakeholders to create a shared understanding of success criteria (Best to do this as early as possible)

Don’t:

1. 1. Try to over detail the activities of the project (This misleads the team into thinking we have all the risks and unknowns unknowns and can distract from the mission  of the project)
   2. Let “common practice” replace common sense (Stakeholder engagement and environmental considerations are important and will always be important- Context matters!)
   3. Assume getting to know your remote team members is not important! (Creating a sense of camaraderie is important and knowing how they work best can help to create a shared sense of success on) Try to write 2 things you know about your team members outside of the project work they contribute. If you can’t try to get to know them just a little!
   4. Rely too heavily on written communications and emails. Create ways to mitigate risks by having follow up discussions; especially with remote teams!
   5. Try to retroactively work project management activities into the project when those  planning activities may have already taken place

Written and curated by Emi Akiode, PMP

Emi Akiode is a certified and licensed project management professional with 13 years of experience in data analytics, nonprofit, government, software, engineering, information technology, retail, and creative design industries. Emi Akiode is available for consulting and private projects through her privater LinkedIn private profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/emiakiode.