Advisory & Coaching Implementation & Control Review & Assessment Projects are unique by definition. They have a start and an end and have a certain complexity. In a project, a project team solves or develops something that has never been done before. Something in the future, and who knows what the future will bring.
These are factors that tend not to promote the success of the project. Actually, the project management would have to have a crystal ball to see the future in advance.
By Peter Roth, March 16, 2022
A project is unique as a whole, but fortunately not everything in the project. In most cases it is the problem in this context that is special. A project can draw on proven methods and techniques. Methods are procedures that have mostly been developed scientifically and have already proven themselves thousands of times when used correctly. However, methods also support the management of expectations and transparency for all interest groups by providing logical structures and making it clear to everyone what the common approach, the requirements for this and the next steps look like.
It is now the task of the project to select, adapt (Tayloring) and adequately integrate and apply the methods and techniques that are suitable for the problem. This requires methodological and specialist knowledge of the problem, but a whole lot of experience in similar problems and projects is essential, and an open attitude to new things promotes the whole thing.
In a project, the methods and techniques can be roughly divided according to the three project dimensions of systemic project management:
The first two disciplines are clearly within the competence of the project manager. Project management requires leadership skills and leadership awareness, project management requires contextual, social and technical project skills. Product development, on the other hand, lies primarily in the competence of the specialists who know it best and know exactly what and how something is to be done.
Now the next challenge is merging and adapting several selected methods in a single project. This also allows a targeted combination of agile and less agile approaches. Modern project methods such as PMI PMBOK Edition 7 already support a modular approach, where further standard methods for product development, but also moderation techniques or planning techniques can be integrated. Tayloring is also another important part of the latest version. During integration, the interfaces where the most problems arise must be analyzed carefully and adjusted if necessary.
Consequently, not only one (project management) method is relevant for the project, but a colorful bouquet of methods, models and techniques. The result is a modular kit with suitable approaches, which were selected and integrated in the team, used and applied in a targeted manner, and thus lead to the desired project success more efficiently and effectively. Due to the close cooperation between project management and specialists, the acceptance by the project participants is higher and the practical application is much better, which also contributes to increasing the chances of project success.