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Project
Management Excellence – Changing Behaviours
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Project management
has become a key skill in these times of great change. However there
is a difference between employing a few good project managers and
building a complete project management competency for the whole
organisation. Good project managers can battle against all odds
and still deliver, but at great cost to individuals. Projects in
organisations which embrace and support project management are delivered
with less drama and disruption.
I was assigned
to be the change agent for improving project management in a business
unit.
I used a classic
change management model. I developed a high-level vision, secured
the buy-in of the executive team then set up a stakeholder group.
This group included sales and account management, procurement and
finance people, as well as project managers and professional services
leaders. At the time there were two entirely different delivery
groups with their own distinct and different project management
approaches, the first task was to get everyone to buy into the advantages
of a single common project management framework.
The stakeholder
group developed goals and objectives. To meet them we developed
outline programs, and then selected the critical and quick payback
projects, such as:
- Website
portal for access to processes, tools, project stories, etc
- Practitioners’
career framework, training requirements and professional qualification.
- Work on
corporate business processes to ensure effective involvement of
project managers.
- Complete
listing of projects and contacts.
- Scheduled
reviews of projects by executives and stakeholders.
The program
progressed with some good wins against the objectives, but what
was more important was the change in culture. The status, importance
and effectiveness of project management rose, worthwhile project
reviews were started, which supported Project Managers instead of
hounding them. There emerged a consistency of approach enabling
a consensus on a new organisational structure for project management,
under which a new Program Management Office (PMO) would be set up
to carry on the work of the change team.
Line managers
were able to assume responsibility for setting up the PMO because
the framework and operational processes and procedures had been
defined and would reinforce the required behaviour.
The changes
in behaviour happened by involving the right leaders and professionals
in the journey, by the time we reached what would have been considered
a formal handover point it had already happened. Good line managers
will pick up the ball and run as soon as they know the answers,
the problem is to keep everything synchronised so that all that
needs doing gets done.
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