Using flexible methods to manage your projects can vastly improve your own productivity and that of your company. Which is the best and how do you choose the right one for your needs and your development model?

When embarking on the management of a project, the main difficulty for both those in charge of organizing and distributing tasks and those responsible for completing them is successfully setting specific targets and organizing those targets according to previously establish priorities and delivery deadlines.

The traditional approach consisted of tackling the whole project as if it were a single task, preparing one single and rigid action plan that could not easily be modified in response to the various contingencies that might arise. This leads to numerous logistical and organizational problems. Firstly, a business project cannot be carried out by a single person or a very small group. Furthermore, the business environment, the needs of customers and the economic context, etc. are all in a constant state of flux. Effective and flexible project management should be capable of adapting itself to all these eventualities and should be based on the principle of ongoing improvement.

To be more effective, it is highly useful to divide a large project into smaller tasks that are more manageable, assigning each one to a small group of individuals, establishing short delivery deadlines and applying constant supervision to ensure that targets and actions are adapted to the needs and circumstances at any given moment.

This is the goal of Scrum. A business project is divided into task blocks that can be completed by small groups of individuals with an estimated duration of approximately two weeks, with controls during the course of the task and at the end of the allotted time period.

However, is it possible to be even more efficient?

This is where the Kanban method comes into play. This method consists of breaking up the project still further, dividing it into the smallest and most simple tasks possible and distributing those tasks on a colorful board based on an order of preference.

In this case, tasks can be completed by a single individual in periods as short as a few hours. This not only enables immediate adaptation to changing circumstances but also manages to improve the impressions felt by employees. Far from feeling overwhelmed by an enormous project that might seem unachievable, they are busy on the completion of small tasks and therefore constantly feel the satisfaction of achieving a goal when delivering a result.

This is why the visual distribution of tasks is so important. A Kanban board comprises three columns. One column contains the tasks pending completion, another contains the tasks being carried out at the moment and the third column contains the completed tasks. The satisfaction of moving tasks from one column to another provides a small dose of optimism that can make a huge difference at the end of a working day. Furthermore, the visual representation of tasks provides an immediate overview of which remain outstanding and their order of priority.

In turn, project managers can immediately know the status of each task and steer work by employees towards those goals that require more attention, present the most complex difficulties or need to be completed as a priority.

If you want your company to become a leader in its sector, it is essential to support your ideas with the best project management system. At ITM Platform, we strive to offer a comprehensive, online and easy-to-use application to maximize the simplification of management at your company and make it as efficient as possible.

ITM Platform is an online application for the management of projects, portfolios, programs and services that guarantees alignment with your business objectives.

Furthermore, it facilitates communication and collaboration between team members in a secure, simple and intuitive manner by offering a scalable platform that combines Kanban and predictive models (based on Gantt) in an integrated fashion, in a single portfolio.

What are you waiting for? Try it now!

Article written by Juan Delgado, Blogger at ITM Platform.

Projects in the field of development are ultimately aimed at obtaining specific results to enable the promotion of socio-economic development in a community, region or country.

Results-based management is particularly important in development projects and is based on a series of widely-recognized approaches and tools, such as strategic planning and the alignment of programs with targets, risk management, and the assessment and follow-up of results.

One of these tools - strategic planning - will enable organization of the cause-effect relationships that exist between the targets or goals to be achieved and the programs to be implemented in order to achieve them. It is important to be able to analyze the relationship between the projects and objectives we wish to achieve in different scenarios, as this will enable the prioritization of different targets and the creation of a sufficiently consistent and flexible framework for analysis to establish relationships between each project and each objective. Hence, strategic planning enables a selection of projects to be chosen that will guarantee their contribution to the strategic goals of countries and promoting entities, and ensure that the expected results are defined according to suitable priorities. Strategic planning is one of the tools that enables increased effectiveness to be achieved in development and it is used by the organizations that implement projects and receive financing to justify the steps taken towards development and meet the requirements set by promoting entities.

The importance of results-based management lies in the fact that development project management should not be limited to delivery of the scope of a project within the agreed time and budget but rather aims to ensure that the final goals are achieved, in this case the expected socio-economic impact.

Development projects are aimed at meeting long-term goals, as most of them are focused on enacting socio-economic or environmental change, which does not usually lead to immediate results when concluding the project but rather produces results over much longer timeframes. This means it is necessary to conduct an ex-post assessment after the project is finished. In this regard, successful project management will enable intermediate results to be achieved that will gradually enable sustainable results to be obtained in the long term.

One specific characteristic in the field of development is stakeholder diversity, the various stakeholders have varying needs, expectations, demands, areas of influence and interests in the project. This leads to a need for effective communication in order to reach agreements on economic, social, environmental and gender-related issues, etc. Given that development projects take place in complex environments where there are various stakeholders and limitations on access to certain resources or technologies, there is a need to consider these issues when designing the project and to be able to adapt to the changing conditions of the complex environment without affecting the achievement of expected results.

As is the case in any other project, development projects are subject to restrictions in three areas: scope, time and cost. The success of a project will depend on the ability to achieve the goals while considering these restrictions and adopting the measures necessary to keep them in balance, as changing one the restrictions will undoubtedly have an effect on the others. For example, a change that increases the scope of the project could also mean that costs are increased, the schedule is extended or both.

The goals that justify the project must be achieved within the boundaries set by the restrictions on budget, time and scope. However, the needs and expectations of stakeholders must also be met, which are ultimately responsible for assessing the quality of the project. Management of these factors will require meticulous planning, analysis of the project indicators throughout the implementation period and agreement on priorities for the stakeholders. The implementing organization, the promoting or financing entity and the end beneficiaries may have different priorities and efficient management of communication will be necessary to ensure that the needs and expectations of all stakeholders are known and considered.

In this regard, it is important to understand planning as a participatory process in which the results to be achieved are agreed upon and which considers the interests of both project stakeholders and, in particular, the beneficiaries because, if the expected results do not meet the needs and expectations of the end beneficiaries, it will be hard for the project to be successful even if the planned results are achieved in terms of cost, time and scope.

Communication management plays a central role in ensuring the appropriate generation, distribution, storage and provision of information about the project. Project managers will need to be in constant contact with the team members and other stakeholders in the project, and appropriate and efficient management of communication between stakeholders will enable connections to be made between the various perspectives and interests regarding the development results, as well as information to be provided on performance.

Appropriately managing communication enables stakeholder expectations to be handled and concerns addressed in such a way that the probability of success for a project can be increased to the extent that agreements can be reached between the stakeholders in terms of understanding the resources involved, the goals at which the project is targeted and the expected benefits.

The use of integrated project management tools, such as ITM Platform, allows methods of recognized success to be used and ensures that stakeholders have the tools to manage communications and undertake strategic planning, among other things, which have been shown to be fundamentally important in the management of development projects.

Click here if you would like to try ITM Platform

Article written by Alberto Martín, Support and training Responsible in  ITM Platform

During the course of a project, no matter how good the plan or how skilled and motivated the team responsible for its implementation, it is more than likely that it will become impossible to complete a certain task within the allocated period at one time or another.

When faced with such a delay in a project, the project leader should take the steps shown in the diagram below.

The first step is to assess whether the delay in completing this task has had an impact on the project as a whole. If this is the case, the project manager should examine the causes that led to the inability to complete the task within the allotted time. The next step is to take action and decide which measures should be adopted to complete the task and avoid delays in future projects. Furthermore, the project manager should inform the company directors of the delay and the measures adopted to resolve the situation. From this point on, careful action should be taken to ensure those measures are applied, no further delays occur and deadlines are respected.

Assess the impact of a delayed task

The first step to take when a delay in completing a task has been identified is to study the influence that this task and its delay has on the project as a whole. It is possible that some of the planned tasks are not essential for overall completion of the project or their delay simply has no effect on delivering the project as a whole. In these cases, the task can be cancelled or set aside for a later date.

The cases in which it is important to correct the delay to a task are:

• When the task delay implies a risk to the project as a whole. If the delay to a specific task reduces the likelihood of completing the project or doing so within a certain deadline, the task should be reviewed and lost time should be recovered.

• If the delay to a task could affect other areas of the same project. Not correcting a delay to the delivery of a task will have a knock-on effect on other tasks and lead to a delay to the project as a whole.

Analyze the causes leading to a task delay

The project manager should meet with those responsible for completing the task and analyze the causes that led to the inability to complete the task in the allotted time. The project manager should maintain an open mind and seek causes for the delay, not apportion blame. The delay was probably not caused by a mistake by the employees but rather other factors:

• Delay caused by multitasking: The employees are busy on other project tasks and cannot dedicate their time and attention to the task that was delayed.

• Lack of productivity: Inappropriate tools or methods are being used, which reduces productivity and therefore means more time is required to complete a minor task.

• Starting the task late: It is possible that the a task delay is not due to an intrinsic problem with the task itself but rather a delay to previous tasks, leading to an accumulative knock-on effect on the task in question.

Define corrective measures

These will vary according to the reason for the delay. A few possible solutions to the examples given above could be the following:

• Delay caused by multitasking. Establish priorities and eliminate or postpone those tasks that are not entirely necessary or, at least, not necessary at the present time.

• Lack of productivity. Revise the tools and procedures used, and change those that are least productive.

• Starting the task late. Because it is not an intrinsic problem with the task in question but rather the problem stems from a previous incident, the problem cannot be resolved in this task. However, further delays to the tasks being carried out at the time can be avoided.

Report on the delay and the corrective actions implemented

Company or project managers should be informed of both the delays that have occurred and the measures adopted to resolve the situation. Clearly, those employees involved in the project should also be informed, both those directly affected by the task delay and all those whose tasks are related to the delayed task.

Monitor the tasks

Closely monitoring all the tasks that are being carried out will enable further delays to be avoided. Furthermore, we should study the impact of the corrective measures adopted and apply the lessons learned to similar situations in the future.

Among the skills that any human resources manager should focus on when contracting a professional project manager, communication, organization and experience stand head and shoulders above the rest.

What does being a project manager consist of?

At any company engaged in the implementation of an audit or a company that needs to incorporate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), the figure of project manager is key. This profile has a series of extremely important responsibilities and may be held by a responsible executive, project manager or project leader. In spite of the differences at each company, this person should have strong command and communication skills.

Nonetheless, there are other important skills that should not be forgotten, such as empathy, anticipation, forward-thinking, support and leadership. However, when speaking about corporate management tasks, good communication skills are most important and essential. Correctly conveying the expectations and requirements of other people (such as customers, suppliers or team colleagues) is somewhat imperative. A project manager should surround themselves with people who understand their instructions but who also know how to communicate orders or responsibilities so that the entire group functions as one.

Communication is a fundamental aspect that all projects require. The three main areas when implementing a project are:

1.Initial design and functional analysis. Starting something new is always hard, as it requires meetings with customers to see what they need and how they want the results to materialize. If these meetings take place overseas, the situation is further complicated when talking about outsourcing services.

2.The second stage is implementation; in other words, distributing the workload among the whole group and performing tests for the final stage.

3.Launch. This is the moment of truth. All those hours of preparation should produce results in this final stage.

For the previous stages to be successful, communication must be established before the project begins. The task manager should discuss all aspects of logistics, data, deliveries and, in general, any detail that will avoid problems in the future with suppliers and external companies.

Subsequently, the responsibilities should be prioritized individually. This is the time to delegate to the team and establish the project’s red lines. All sorts of meetings at any time should be necessary. After establishing responsibilities, we should correctly measure expectations - both from the group and from individuals. Furthermore, the right people should be brought into the team and under the best management. If all the above can be managed, success will be achieved at the company; and, if extra help is needed, a software tool such as ITM Platform will make project management tasks easier.

It is the period or method of periodically monitoring assets in which the products and services of a company are counted at regular intervals (for example, at the end of each month).

For the executive subsystem to operate properly, the supply system  -and the stock management system via virtual stock management- is a key solution to the daily resource problems faced by any executive.

The periodical management method

The periodical management method allows companies to analyze how many periods they have available at the start and end of the project management process. In turn, this helps analyze and plan resources (inventory control, stock level and order points).

Given that this monitoring by management only takes place at certain times, the virtual periodical management method does not require the services of a company to review how many measurements for stock an executive has available nor does it require knowledge of how many will be taken on a day-to-day basis.

By periodically managing production and manufacturing times, company procurement, the cost of sold products and the stock in physical storage, a count is not usually made until the end of the accounting period (for example, at the end of the month), which is when the countable physical stock has been transformed. Once the final stock has been determined, its value can be calculated using one of the standard validation methods, such as FIFO, LIFO or Weighted Average Price.

By using combined tables that organize weeks, product lines, outputs, inputs and schedules (What is a Schedule?) and diagrams, a highly visual comparison can be made of final stock against initial stock plus new procurement.

Finally, the output of products or services in stock will be automatically cross-checked against the other variables for each product quickly and easily.

Risks and limitations,  Spend Time considering the Project Risks

Given that virtual periodical stock management allows a company to know its initial and final stock but not monitor actions on a daily basis, there is a risk of information loss. Company CEOs will be unable to monitor stock according to each item and will be required to make assumptions on which of them have been sold.

This risk is especially magnified in cases where management is undertaken using older and more traditional methods without the support of next-generation project manager support tools.

Online project, program, portfolio and service management software guarantees absolute alignment between periodical management and business targets. ITM Platform enables all your tasks to be managed. Try it now for free here and enjoy a free 30-minute demo with one of our professionals.

Once the risks have been identified, it will be easier to classify them, document them and implement corrective measures. Above all, stock management will be easier and this will also help create synergies with all the other subsystems within the organization.

From the moment we gain the ability to reason, all of us start to imagine, plan, get excited about and launch new ideas and projects. These range from long-term life projects to short-term weekend projects. They might be solo projects or projects in which we involve a colleague or an entire community.

All this comes naturally to us, requires no methodological approach and, although some of us obtain better results than others, generally-speaking we all implement projects freely and almost without realizing.

That said, things change when we take these projects away from personal affairs and into the business world. It is only natural for an organization to require actions to be taken in a standardized manner. Just imagine if everyone arrived at the office, thought of an idea and put everyone else to work on it, who in turn had their own way of doing things. It would be chaos; to a greater or lesser degree depending on the personalities of the people who make up that organization, but chaos nonetheless.

It is no secret and should come as no surprise that many organizations in every country around the world operate like this; they are not accustomed to project-based management and apply their common sense. “If I can create a family, buy a house and organize summer camp, I can certainly deal with this project at my organization”. Sometimes, the results are reasonably good, although they are usually inversely proportional to the complexity of the project. The larger the project - with more people, risks and budget costs involved, the greater the chances are for failure.

The Standish Group demonstrates this each year with its Chaos Report. Whether or not its figures truly reflect reality, it seems clear that the majority of projects fail to meet one or more of their targets in terms of scope, quality, time or cost.

If that were not enough, organizations generally tackle more than one project at a time. They usually have several on the go at once, which might range from a few units to thousands. Furthermore, they all share a number of characteristics in common: people, budgets, assets, stakeholders, customers, suppliers, etc. All of them are affected by various projects at the same time.

Complexity is not only to be found within a single project but also in the relationships between the project portfolio and the other factors at and beyond the organization.

This is where project management tyranny begins. Someone - quite rightly - thought “we cannot keep letting everyone here do what they want; we need to create some order, otherwise we will fall apart”. This was the beginning of international organizations, methodologies, methodological brands, certifications, best practices, tools, conferences, specialized departments, consultancy firms and a seemingly endless vocabulary of terms.

It is all necessary and positive. However, when administered axiomatically, it can lead to an organization that becomes a slave to its own processes and tools, which to a great extent will inflate the problems rather than make things easier.

Methodologies, specializations and tools are positive, but lead to process tyranny when applied axiomatically.

One major step forward in this regard was the incorporation of flexible methods for managing certain types of projects, which although not entirely procedure-free (be careful: flexible does not necessarily mean democratic) have indeed managed to eliminate a number of restraints.

Now, whether with tyranny or without it, all major organizations have generally passed through all these stages: they have a PMO (Project Management Office) with professionals who know what they are doing and have tools capable of transforming chaos into structured information.

That said, this means the organization must be “subjected” to strong procedural requirements, which comes at a very high cost. So much so that professionalized project management may be inaccessible to the majority due to the money required for salaries, consultants and tools. It is costly in terms of organizational effort and stress because procedures need to be designed, compliance with certain steps must be enforced and the already difficult executive profiles must be synchronized. Finally, and above all, it has a price in terms of opportunity cost: all the money and effort being spent on project management (and, above that, on project programs and project portfolio management) is not being spent on anything else. Professionals see themselves forced to set aside a part of their work to focus on administrative tasks.

The price of having a highly professionalized organization in terms of project management is only within reach of very few.

There are some organizations that implement all the above with exemplary maturity and fluidity. But they are not many. At least, they are not many compared with all the organizations that keep trying to complete their projects without jeopardizing their existence.

And this is where our concept of project management democratization comes into play. It is the idea underpinning ITM Platform and with which we wish to do our bit to ensure that professionalized project management is no longer a privilege available to only a few.

The democratization of project management is based on providing access to all organizations - regardless of size - to professional, organized and simple project management. It must be equally accessible to a certified specialist as it is to someone who has never heard of PMI, for example.

The democratization of project management consists of bringing to everyone what was previously only accessible to the largest players.

How does ITM Platform differentiate itself from its competitors?

• We facilitate use of the system by everyone involved in the projects. Clarity and ease-of-use are not incompatible with a system that offers comprehensive features. The market contains some very simple and visual tools, but they fall short in terms of functional characteristics. Others are highly comprehensive but entirely unusable. Our efforts are focused on offering a complete and user-friendly system that adapts to your company and product.

• We offer deployment periods for our solutions that range from five minutes to four days. Other solutions with comparable feature sets range from six months to one year (that is indeed tyranny). We achieve this with a native cloud-based model, a series of predetermined configurations that facilitate start-up and user-friendly and easy-to-understand training materials.

• We provide the complete freedom to complete a deployment without the need for consultants. Having to contract another organization to launch a tool at your own imposes limitations. Consultants should only be necessary when they are going to provide methodological value, when they are going to help transform the organization or transfer knowledge.

• We offer all the features you could wish for, but delivered in an intelligent fashion without requiring clients to follow steps that are not natural for their organization and without restrictions that add nothing to the project.

• And, above all, we are accessible in terms of price. We have made great efforts to create a “fat-free” company with only what is absolutely essential for delivering what our clients need. Hence, we can ensure that the price is as absolutely unbeatable as it is: five times lower than our closest competitor.

  This is how to make project management accessible to all.

The concept of project management democratization goes beyond the tool itself. We have the power to make ITM Platform accessible, to communicate all the knowledge we have and that we gain every day via our publications and webinars.

If you would like to try ITM Platform for yourself, you can do so at here.