Tailoring Project Management

Tailoring Project Management

• Tailoring customizes project management to the specific needs of each project's environment
• It aligns processes, governance, and team dynamics to achieve success
• Key aspects include the development approach, life cycle, deliverables, and stakeholders
• It is guided by principles from The Standard for Project Management and organizational values
• Customer-centric projects require a focus on customer-driven methods for requirements gathering and scope validation
• Risk-averse companies use detailed procedures, while risk-tolerant ones use flexible approaches to "Optimize risk responses"
• An understanding of the project's context, goals, and environment is key for success

Complex Project Demands

• Delivering quickly
• Keeping costs low
• Maximizing value
• Ensuring quality
• Meeting regulations
• Satisfying stakeholders
• Adapting to change

Tailoring Restrictions

• Organizational policies or contract requirements limit tailoring
• Despite restrictions, tailoring aligns team methods to project needs
• Being intentional, adaptable, and strategic creates project success

Tailoring Alignment

• Tailoring aligns the approach with the organization, environment, and project needs
• Project criticality and the number of stakeholders shape tailoring
• High-stakes projects like building a nuclear reactor require more rigor than basic projects
• Smaller teams need less coordination

Balancing Processes

• Too few processes can cause missed activities
• Too many processes can waste time and resources
• The approach reflects the project's unique needs and organizational maturity
• Benefits include increased team commitment, customer focus, and efficient resource use

Project Customization

• Life cycle and development approach
• Processes
• Engagement strategies
• Tools
• Methods and artifacts

Life Cycle and Development Approach

• Selecting the correct life cycle and defining its phases begins tailoring
• Adjusting the development and delivery approach fits individual projects
• Combining approaches becomes necessary for larger projects

Tailoring Approaches

• "Physical construction" projects might use a predictive approach
• "Computing systems" projects might use an iterative approach
• Hybrid strategies blend approaches for efficiency at the project level
• Methods tailor to specific domains at the team level
• All project components need to align for a smooth and efficient workflow

Process adjustments

• Add steps to meet specific needs, like independent inspections for safety-critical projects
• Modify processes to suit your team or reformatting documents for those with vision limitations
• Remove unnecessary steps, like skipping meeting minutes for small teams with strong communication
• Blend methods for more value, like using appreciative inquiry during lessons learned to boost collaboration
• Align Standardize processes across teams to ensure clarity, like aligning risk management practices
• Optimizing efficiency, collaboration, and project success requires customizing the approach

Meaningful Engagement

• People: Assess the skills of project leaders and team members, then assign roles that suit the project’s complexity
• Empowerment: Adjust empowerment based on the team’s abilities and project needs
• Integration: Unite a diverse group into a cohesive team to improve performance and meet goals

Project Tools

• Advanced software or reliable equipment is important
• Choose tools that fit both the project’s needs and the organization’s goals

Project Methods and Artifacts

• Adjusting methods to fit the project’s culture and environment is key
• Customize documents, templates, and other artifacts to suit the project

Project Environment

• Unique context is required
• Tailoring includes: selecting the right development and delivery approach, customizing it to the organization, and refining it throughout the process

Development Approach

• Can make or break your project
• Whether it’s predictive, hybrid, or adaptive, the right approach keeps your team moving forward and productive
• The suitability filter tool sparks meaningful discussions about culture, team dynamics, and project needs

Organizational Guidlines

• Tailoring is custom to each project
• Organizations may give some guidlines, but it’s up to the teams to adjust and adapt

High-Stakes Projects

• Extra oversight might be necessary to manage risks
• Factors like project size, complexity, and maturity influence tailoring
• Tweaking, adding, or even removing elements ensures smooth execution

Project Management Offices

• Approaches often require reviews from a Project Management Office
• Smaller changes might only need a project manager’s go-ahead
• Bigger modifications often require sign-off from the PMO or VDO

Adaptive Organizations

• The VDO coaches teams, mentoring leaders, and focusing on building skills

Project Uniqueness

• Strategy, creativity, deliverable, team, culture, Market, Technology, time and requiremnts are all important factors
• Key is asking the right questions to tailor tools, methods, and processes to the project’s needs

Key Considerations

• Team size: How many full-time and part-time members are involved?
• Location: Is the team remote, co-located, or spread across the globe?
• Experience: Do the team have the skills and expertise needed?
• Customer access: Can you get timely feedback from customers?

Project Success

• Customizes an approach to align with goals
• Overcome challenges
• Deliver results

Key Factors

• Buy-in: Engaged teams perform better.
• Trust: Trust fosters collaboration and confidence.
• Empowerment: Empowered teams innovate and adapt.
• Organizational culture: Does the company culture support the project?

Cultural Elements

• Elements shape how teams engage what processes they choose and which tools they use
• Adjusting workflows by adding and removing elements

Continuous Improvement

• Involves regular check-ins, retrospectives, and phase gates help refine workflows
• Tailoring involves the team, this builds ownership, trust, and a sense of innovation

Four Step

• Choose a framework, adapt it to organizational needs, tailor it for specific projects, and continuously improve over time

Project Flexiblity

• Project management must stay flexible
• Domains should align with the project’s unique needs
• Project management principles allow for customization

Project Success

• Involves evolving, improving, and keeping delivering

Perfomance Domain

• The work in each performance domain should be tailored to meet the specific needs of any project
• Project management principles guide practitioners in adapting to these domains to suit their project’s context

Collaborative Environment

• Is there collaboration between stakeholders and suppliers?
• Are stakeholders internal or external?
• What technologies are effective for communication?
• Are adjustments needed for diverse language groups?
• Is the stakeholder community culturally diverse?
• What are the relationships within the stakeholder community?

Team Location

• Where are team members located?
• Does the team reflect diverse cultural perspective?
• How will team members be chosen?
• Does the team have an existing culture?
• How is team development managed?
• Do team members have special needs?

Product & Life Cycle

• Which development approach best suits the service or product?
• What life cycle fits the project?
• What phases will it take to finish?
• Audit the organization

Project Planning

• How can external factors influence the project?
• What impacts the timeline?
• Should the organization create new policies?
• How does the organization estimate costs?
• Do local laws and regulation affect contract audits?

Management Processes

• Which management processes suits the organizations project?
• Collaboration between the team

Project Tools

• Tools need to capture, store, and simplify project documents
• Does the organization have an easy to use management system?

Project Guidlines

• Is there a requirements management system?
• What guidelines does the organization follow?
• What standards ensure excellence?
• How to manage uncertainty?

Retrospectives/Reviews

• Retrospectives/Reviews can identify risks, issues and quality assurance
• Stakeholder feedback can identify areas needing adjustment

Uncertainty

• Projects risk and uncertainty should be taken into account
• Opportunities can be used to identify and address threats

Innovation

• Project complexity, product innovation or technology can affect success
• Should the project have detailed risk management?

High Innovation

• Involve a strong risk management plan

Definitions

• Define and measure value
• Track financial and non financial benefits

Status

• Monitor documentation and status
• Identify reporting requirements

Key Steps

• Start with an initial approach
• Adapt it to your organization
• Customize if for your specific project
• Continuously improve along the way.

Stakeholders

• Organizational guidelines play crucial roles
• Ensures teams are streamlined and have helpful guidance
• Collaboration is an effective strategy for success