Productivity - ITM Platform | Projects Programs Portfolio

Is your business following a more traditional, predictive methodology or maybe seeking an alternative through the agile movement? There’s no reason to choose between the two because today’s the day you’ll learn how both methodologies can exist together.

First we’ve got to backtrack and think back to things we’ve learnt in the past. Let’s start from the basics and define what exactly a project is. A project is as simple as reaching all of your objectives by having a well defined budget and timeline. You can think of a project as having 3 key components: scope, cost and time. Each of these components is crucial to the success of your current and future projects. Take the time in understanding the importance of each of these factors and how it may impact your business.

Agile vs. Predictive - ITM Platform from ITM Platform

Essentially, the project scope encompasses everything that has to do with the project itself. This includes all of the content within the project and the expected outcomes/results. As it has a huge impact on your business, the project scope needs to be managed carefully and diligently. Cost and time are also extremely important factors as they measure the total cost or the estimated time it would take for complete each individual scope.

Apart from understanding the different factors that impact your project, you must know how to plan them as well. It’s important that you successfully organize all of your tasks based on the different departments you have and the resources currently available to you.

While it may all sound like simple definitions, easy to comprehend and implement, the reality is that it actually isn’t so simple. A study done in 2014 by the Standish Group proved that only 16% of IT projects and objectives had been successfully completed that year.

Which meant that over 53% had not been delivered because of monetary shortage; in some cases projects exceeded their project budget by 180%. Furthermore, there were approximately 31% of projects that didn’t make it into their project cycle.

Even with all the downfalls, project manager professionals have made progress all over the globe. With their new found status, teaching books such as PMBok have arised and allowed millions of new workers in the field to become prosperous individuals, reducing the risk of project failure.

Looking past our newfound data, we can see how management methodologies are new solutions that should be utilized. Unlike what some may think, agile methods don’t simply get rid of predictive projects, in fact they change the theoretical model being used. Agile project management involves flipping the problem by defining the cost and time but not the scope. In this case, the scope may not have been defined or considered to be very critical. During the business process it would need to be discovered because it is considered to be a variable. Furthermore, it’s crucial that all of the different aspects of the project are measurable because they have a significant impact on the project and can’t be done without having good control over them.

It’s easy to understand the concept of the agile model by thinking about scrum. Scrum defines a series of roles which help all team members to understand the methodology as well as how to use it successfully. Along with this, scrum can help to define lists of things needed to be completed if backlogs occur or how project objectives can be achieved.

An important factor to the Scrum methodology are sprints. They often last between 1-4 weeks and in the end of that time frame they deliver a final product. Sprint helps to ensure that the products delivered are of good quality, allowing the company to win at accuracy. Scrum can also be paired with Kanban, a Japanese visual card which includes all of the different tasks needed to be completed in the following stages.

On the other hand, when managing predictive projects, the roles are well defined and communicated to all of the different team members. This can cause tension between individuals throughout the first few projects because they’ll often have to share resources such as post-it’s or Kanban since everyone must be able to visualize the project goal. Not only does this impact the participants within the project but the entire management of the organization as well, making it much more decentralized.

It’s necessary that we understand that agile and predictive project methods both work well but in different situations. For example, if you were to develop a new line of business or if you wanted to include more creative features within your project, you would use predictive projects. Why? Because they are great if you know a lot about the project itself and your target. Another thing is that it’s very important that you clearly define your expectations for both agile and predictive projects. This will help to create a unified vision amongst all the employees, key to keeping your projects organized and within a single portfolio.

Lastly, if you ever come to a point where you wish to use agile methodologies for a specific activity and predictive for another it’s best that you divide the two into separate projects. This makes it much more convenient if you are able to dissociate the two.

Top 5 most read blogs on ITM Platform:

The Monte Carlo Method in Project Management

Extra Extra Extra!

Three disastrous project management failures

The project in the face of adversity: what should a project manager do?

What is the Virtual Sock Management or Periodical Online Management?

Isidora Roskic-Blogger ITM Platform

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Is 6 seconds is enough time to judge a resume?

According to experts, that’s all it takes! That means you have 6 seconds to prove why your CV is worth an interview or else it’s just another trip to the trash.

Project management jobs can be very competitive and difficult to get into. The first thing you must do is stop focusing on the standard qualifications needed for the job. Recruiters have seen it all before; the business degree, the perfect GPA, valedictorian, etc. The best way to really grab their attention is by giving them something unexpected.

Include these 4 things to set yourself apart from the rest and land the job

International Experience

There’s nothing better to boost your resume and leave a lasting impression than showing you’ve worked abroad. Living and working in a different country than your own is truly a challenge. It demonstrates you’re ability to adapt to new environments, take on responsibility and be independent. Furthermore, it shows that you have a genuine will to learn new things and broaden your knowledge. These are all key attributes associated with great project managers!

Use this experience to your fullest advantage. Try to master a new language during your time away. Bilingual and multilingual employees are key assets for companies, especially for those looking to expand globally. Understanding how your country’s work cultures and business interactions are different than those around the world will also help to give you a competitive edge. Employers value individuals who have had first-hand experience and can help them understand how to effectively target different markets.

Volunteering

This means more than just donating some money to a local charity fund. Prove to be the ambitious and caring individual we all know you are by participating in community events or mission trips around the world. Exemplary project managers treat their team members with the utmost respect and genuinely care for the work they are doing. By supporting non-profit organizations you prove to recruiters that you have good values and can remain loyal to a company even without the promise of a high pay – and that is priceless.

Entrepreneurship

Resume’s are professional pieces of work but it’s important to add a personal touch to them as well to help show your individuality and unique character. Including side projects or ventures you have passionately invested your time and effort in will demonstrate your drive and dedication to completing future projects. Moreover, this will back up your claim of always wanting to learn and improve yourself. Remember, these don’t have to be professional projects!

It’s perfectly acceptable to include things unrelated to your field or things you’ve done for fun. It will still show that you are an ambitious individual and you’re committed to the work that you do.

Leading a Team

You can’t be a great project manager if you’re not a good coach. Employers look for candidates who they think are capable of managing and leading large teams. Using your spare time to coach a community swim team gives you an opportunity to develop valuable skills employers look for. Coaching a team requires coordinating practice schedules, developing strategies, evaluating individual players and providing them with feedback. Each of these tasks will appear throughout your career as a project manager and having this experience will be useful. Don’t undervalue being a team coach, learn how you can get involved and include your experience in your next application.

Lastly, it’s important to get a head start and learn how to use project management tools before your first day on the job. This is where ITM Platform comes in to help. Click on the link below to register for a free trial, and start learning all about project management today!

Top 5 most read blogs on ITM Platform:

The Monte Carlo Method in Project Management

Extra Extra Extra!

Three disastrous project management failures

The project in the face of adversity: what should a project manager do?

What is the Virtual Sock Management or Periodical Online Management?

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Why does ISO have two sets of standards on project management?

These two sets of standards are complementary, not interchangeable. There is one set for project management (21500) and another for quality management systems in the field of projects (10006). Neither of them is subject to certification. ISO 9001/2008 provides certification on issues corresponding to these standards.

Implement ISO-based project management with ITM Platform

Now we are going to explain the difference between both:

ISO 10006/2003: is not a set of standards on project management. It is a set of standards on quality management systems in projects. The purpose of these standards is to offer additional guidelines - not requirements - to companies that clarify issues related to technical management. ISO 10006/2003 focuses on the management system used to manage quality in projects and is very useful for strong parent companies that wish to adopt ISO 9001/2008 standards and obtain certification.
ISO 21500/2012: is a specific set of standards for project management. It offers a guide - not a series of requirements - and is therefore not subject to certification. ISO 21500/2012 focuses on project management, processes and management areas, and coincides with such bodies of knowledge as PMBOK. It is useful for companies that wish to standardize and improve their project management. It is interesting to note that the two sets of standards do indeed overlap at certain points - hence their complementary nature - regarding the manner in which a project should be managed (‘best practices’ under 21500 and ‘quality management system’ under 10006). By applying and putting these standards into practice, all project-related work undertaken by an organization can be significantly improved.

The most immediate effect of ISO in project management is an emergence of global standards in this market due to an international agreement on project management principles and guidelines; in other words, organizations and professionals that manage and run projects are now able to use the same concepts and structures in their contractual and working relationships with clients, partners, suppliers and other stakeholders. This is facilitating the expansion of project-based businesses worldwide. Hence, ISO-based project management provides companies with a strategic advantage.

Another very important effect can be found in employment-related issues, because project management teams can be created or assembled under a contract that will comprise the definition of a scope or certain requirements, a set deadline, a forecast cost, a geographic area and the stakeholders involved. This implies the involvement of professionals from numerous specialized field and nationalities, requiring swift and temporary collaborations between groups. The flexibility, effectiveness and efficiency of these groups will depend on knowing and applying the management processes agreed upon globally under the ISO international standards on project management. In this regard, the education and training of professionals in project management skills gains additional importance as this might now refer to such professional certificates as the PMP® from the PMI® based on knowledge of the PMBOK Guide (Chapter 3 of which coincides with ISO 21500 by over 90%). ISO-based project management is an executive advantage for professionals who manage projects.

ISO Standards 10006 and 21500 relate to international knowledge, such as PMBOK, PRINCE2 and ICB3.0 on project management. They are not subject to certification but have also been included in knowledge standards that are subject to certification, such as ISO 9001/2008 and the PMP® from the PMI®.

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Whether you are a project manager of a small, up-and-coming business, a multi-national firm or anywhere in between, you are all alike in the sense that you are continuously striving to complete projects on time and on budget, keeping staff and stakeholders happy. However, it’s time we take a step back from looking at all of the “right” things that must be done to achieve this goal, and rather look at the wrongs that must be avoided.

“The “P” in PM is as much about “people” management as it is about “project” management” – Cornelius Fichtner.

Assigning the Wrong Person to Manage the Project

Typically, the primary focus of resource allocation is finding the right facility, equipment or funding needed to successfully complete the project. Too often, choosing the right project manager or employee to manage the project is brushed off and treated with less importance. Individuals will get chosen based on their will and availability to take part in the project rather than the skills they may require to successfully complete it.
Solution: Don’t rush through choosing project managers. Look over their previous performances and skill sets to make sure they truly match the project requirements. Here in another article we discuss what makes a good project manager.

Resource Deprivation

Not enough ink will make the pen irrelevant. Effective project management isn’t merely based on finding the right resources but also maintaining them. A project will fail to run smoothly and may even come to a halt if there are insufficient resources.
Solution: You must calculate and then indicate what resources need to be obtained before the project can begin. It’s extremely important to get approval upfront for facilities, materials, staff and money before you begin any processes.

Inconsistent Communication

Sounds familiar? Well it can’t be stressed enough- it’s all about effective communication. Without clear and continuous communication between project managers, suppliers and staff, the project is bound to fail. According to the Forbes Insights 2010 Strategic Initiatives Study presented by Project Management Institute, companies with little communication had a project success rate of only 52% in comparison to those with strong communication which had 80%.
Solution: Find a specific day and time when you’ll meet with the project team to discuss the flow of the project. Also, take time to personally check up on individuals every once in a while to show your support and give them an opportunity to talk to you one-on-one.

Frequently Changing the Scope

“Scope change is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to your project,” stated marketing manager Oz Nazilli, “if not handled properly it can lead to cost and time overrun”. Even small adjustments, such as displaying a new company logo, can have repercussions, creating unexpected delays and money loss.
Solution: Continuously monitor the project to make sure it is still following the scope. Don’t agree to project changes (no matter how small they may be) before thoroughly evaluating the effects they will have on schedules and budgets.

Overly Optimistic Timelines

Take home renovations as an example: while it may be appealing to hear your kitchen will be done in less than a month, there’s nothing worse than suddenly hearing you have to eat out of paper bowls for an extra 3 weeks. It’s understandable that project managers strive to keep clients happy but missing deadlines can result to declining trust and increased aggravation.
Solution: Don't create unrealistic goals that will leave employees rushed, inefficient and unproductive. Try to be practical and give yourself some buffer time to complete projects.

Top 5 most read blogs on ITM Platform:

The Monte Carlo Method in Project Management

Extra Extra Extra!

Three disastrous project management failures

The project in the face of adversity: what should a project manager do?

What is the Virtual Sock Management or Periodical Online Management?

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Time is gold. This phrase has even more meaning in the field of project management.

Technology should provide tools capable of making projects more efficient. Nowadays, collaborative platforms should not only allow task status information to be shared between team members and clients or offer instant messaging and videoconferencing services.
They should go a step further and seek more functional and time-monitoring roles.

Those companies that switch from a more classical system to a more modern and functional system notice the difference; even if they were already leading companies in their sector. This is the case of an Australian company that uses cloud-based IT systems. In 2013, this company had developed approximately 600 websites and created approximately 100 applications for companies. If there was one word to define the development of this company, it would be “success”.
In 2012, with 12 years of experience, its client portfolio included major companies in all sectors - both national and international - and it had become a benchmark in its industry. However, economically-speaking, the situation was not so wonderful. When the CEO checked the company budgets, he realized that profits did not match the number of projects or the quality of the clients in the company’s portfolio.

While trying to analyze the reasons for this, he discovered certain periods of “dead time”. In other words, despite time being clearly distributed on tasks, there were many time periods that were apparently not allocated to any work and there was no way of knowing what had been done during those periods.

Besides this wasted time, there was time supposedly used for tasks that proved useless. It could therefore be considered that this time had also been wasted. In other words, many employees - while thinking they were doing their job right - were actually wasting time on paperwork or “fighting” with the software instead of applying their skills to genuinely productive tasks.

In the case of the company in question, most of its work plans were being created in Excel spreadsheets while ignoring the possible use of more advanced and specialized project management software.

To begin with, considering that the company was small and only had a few clients, it was able to complete all its projects in spite of the fact that the tools being used were unproductive. Nonetheless, as time passed and the workload increased, the company realized it was often unable to deliver projects on time. When completing a project behind schedule, payments also arrived late. This began to create budgeting problems and complicated the employee remuneration policy. Furthermore, the accumulation of delays prevented more orders from being accepted that could have been carried out if the previous projects had been delivered on time.

Faced with this situation, company executives decided to seek new IT solutions that would enable more streamlined development of the company and began to gradually implement their discoveries.

The first few months were tough. Not only did employees have to get the work done but they also had to learn how to use the new tools. However, following an initial period of adaptation, everyone was satisfied with the results. Productivity had increased, projects were being delivered on time, employees felt more fulfilled and wasted less time on useless tasks, and the company was obtaining much larger profits.

According to the CEO of the company, the result was a reduction in total project cycle duration from approximately 60 days before the two systems were implemented to approximately 18 days.
One of the main challenges faced by the company was monitoring the time spent on each task, which was unusual at the time for the sector in which the company operated. Time monitoring provided information on which tasks were inefficient and also allowed the holes through which time was “leaking” to be plugged.
Prior to implementing the new software tools, company executives could only monitor 36% of the time worked. Only one year later, with the tools partially in place, they were capable of monitoring 62% of the hours worked.

Returning to that phrase at the start of this article, time is golden. The executives produced an estimate of the economic impact caused by the loss of these hours. The result was between 30,000 and 50,000 dollars in one month.

The Australian company is now a staunch proponent of new technologies. It uses them every day for everything it does: it works in the cloud, it monitors its projects and its employees stay in touch via IT platforms.

This new management method is not only supported by inferred results but by the statistics and actual results obtained in recent years.

At ITM Platform, we offer you a cloud-based system for managing your projects. We include features that allow collaborative work and instant communication between the various members of a project. At the same time, we are a flexible platform that can be run from multiple devices. This means we can accompany you at any time and in any location.

If you seek the best for your company, go right ahead and commit to technology. Commit to ITM Platform.

Article written by: Juan Delgado, Blogger at ITM Platform

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Perhaps the most important part of project management is that of control. Once the decision has been taken to launch and implement a project, the project manager must assume the responsibility for ensuring that each person involved completes their assigned tasks in order to thereby guarantee that the project runs according to plan.

The concept of project control is very simple: a project is created with certain targets after studying the resources available and drawing up a schedule to reach those goals. Control is what ensures oversight of these plans, ensuring that no team member deviates from the course set. The completion of control-related tasks will ensure achievement of the targets as they were defined in the planning stage.

After planning a project, it is recommended to implement a control system. The main requirement to begin with will be for the project to be fully defined and approved by the steering committee or shareholders’ meeting and, as appropriate, by the sponsor of the actions to be carried out.

These lines of action will indicate the costs, the scope for the project and the schedule to be followed for meeting the targets:

Cost base: this specifies the costs to be incurred by the project, with a distribution over time that will be coherent with completion of the tasks over time. This is very useful when wishing to compare estimates with actual cost.
Schedule base: a timeline with the targets set for each stage of the project will be created.
Scope base: formed by the various activities that comprise the project and that will enable the deliverables to be produced. All this is reflected in the WBS that was approved. The scope base allows the progress of each activity and each deliverable to be known.

Once these baselines are defined, it is time to get to work on project control. Of course, it is very important to consider certain factors when doing so.

Scope: This will control the tasks that should be carried out by each member of the project and that the result meets the requirements initially stipulated. Whenever a task fails to meet these requirements, it is considered as incomplete.
Deadline: Within project control, it is essential to monitor compliance with agreed deadlines. It should be noted at this point that the first schedule is drawn up without considering a margin for risks. This is because if these margins were to be considered at that point, they would end up being used to cover other issues that are not strictly considered as risks.
Cost: Two factors require control in this regard: the total cost of the project and treasury control.
Risks: It is important to keep risks under control because, in the event of an unforeseen eventuality, this will have an immediate effect on the achievement of project targets.

Professional help for projects: Being able to undertake large-scale projects and fully control them is a process that can sometimes prove rather complicated. It is therefore necessary to have software such as ITM Platform that incorporates the flexible management methods used by major corporations into your company. It is a great tool that will facilitate project implementation and delivery within established deadlines, and that offers advanced solutions to business.