project management - ITM Platform | Projects Programs Portfolio

Making organizational changes in any process, work methodology or project management system is, in itself, a very difficult project to manage. When it comes to internal management, the cost of a failed project is very high, so the margin of error is small. To make matters worse, the response of the people involved in the process makes it difficult to predict and difficult to design change plans that are followed closely.

In fact, it is common for any change, that is outside the organizations’ comfort zone, to cause diverse attitudes among workers and managers, making it difficult to contribute to change in a coordinated and organized way.

Some of these attitudes could be summarized in the following sentences:

"Our employees are prepared for change in the organization, there is nothing to worry about."

"Our company is different. Team members will be able to follow directions while exercising their autonomy. So it is not necessary to intervene in the management of change. They, know how to act better than anyone else."

"Things are fine as they are. The changes you want to introduce mean an additional workload that adds to what we already have, so the change cannot be positive."

"Workers do not have to be involved in change. We have not even been involved in the choice of new software tools."

All these statements can be refuted with the right arguments. Next, we are going to analyze valid arguments to answer them.

Complementary training programs

Undoubtedly, all the workers in your company are qualified for the work that they perform, so they can take care of it. However, the introduction of new working methodologies requires additional preparation and a strategic vision. So it is desirable to have complementary training programs provided by the company both before the introduction of the changes and during their implementation. These training programs achieve a two objectives at once. On the one hand, they will help the change develop properly, without undertaking useless additional work, since the appropriate orientation will allow for all the efforts and dedicated time to be oriented to achieve an efficient change according to the established plans. On the other hand, providing this training during the change will increase the motivation of the workers.

It is important to learn from real cases in other organizations

The problems that arise in your company have probably been experienced in other contexts, especially if there are similarities in market niche, economic sector, technological development, and so on. Although each company is unique, there are common situations and frequent problems, especially towards certain challenges characteristic of business development. For example, internationalization has very different resistance to change from the introduction of performance evaluation, the opening of a new line of business or the acquisition of another company. In any case, there is no alternative to the analysis of comparable cases. With change management there is no room for experimentation. The successes or failures of other organizations will help avoid mistakes and in turn gain precious time.

Conformity is the main enemy of progress

To be able to improve it is necessary to be open to change. Undoubtedly, at the beginning all changes are an additional effort, but this is necessary to increase efficiency and productivity, essential requirements to remain competitive.

Workers are the main engine of the company...

...Those in charge of taking the company forward. If they don’t feel involved or motivated with the work they do and with the company, it is a serious problem that is above the difficulties to implement a system or project management solution. Regardless of the organizational model, workers must be motivated. Of course, an adequate motivation also contributes to the success in the implementation of any work system.

So what can we do when there is resistance to change management both by managers and employees? Here are some tips:

It directs the change towards a clear improvement

It identifies the main obstacles to growth and proposes a process of change that achieves more mature and robust management, with clear benefits.

Adjust the exchange rate to your corporate strategy and culture

Before any change, it is best to evaluate exactly its magnitude and where the efforts should be directed. There is nothing worse than making "changes in change", on the fly, because it generates a sense of distrust, of not knowing exactly what is being done, and produces demotivation of employees. If they have tried to change something, this change must appear to be definitive, it must seem that it has been done right at first. Improvising will convey a lack of leadership.

Explain what change really means

Probably, in the initial moments there is a certain resistance. It is normal and is simply based on a certain fear of any change that may occur. Explaining exactly the magnitude of the changes will help to reassure employees or managers and will predispose them to accept them to the best degree.

Demonstrates the advantages of new project management systems using data

If they understand that the change is necessary and that the return will be greater once they have been applied, they will be more willing to perform the initial overexertion.

Using these tips, managing change in your company will be much simpler. What are you waiting for to give a return to your project management?

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

One of the greatest challenges of a PMO is to ensure that the experiences generated within a project are extended to the rest of the organization and not lost when the project team dissolves. Even within each project, reaching a knowledge baseline explicitly shared by all key team members can be tricky.

This process of knowledge transfer is specific to project-based organizations and encounters different obstacles to those that characterize the transfer and application of knowledge in the field of R & D, for example.

Unfortunately, Project Management Offices can either leave the functions of knowledge transfer in the background or, when they recognize their importance, often do not take an in depth approa Preview ch. To address the problem in its complexity, we recommend starting from the recognition of the main obstacles that prevent the linear flow of knowledge.

According to B. H. Reich, there are 9 obstacles to knowledge transfer between projects:

1. Lessons Not Learned

The difficulties organizations have in managing their day-to-day projects, starts and ends with this issue. It is true that beyond the records of previous experiences and the guidelines for the project in question, a new and unrepeatable path is undertaken that is not possible to predict, but the lessons learned allow the team to compare and analyze the possible scenarios, as well as Learn from previous situations that made it difficult to achieve the desired results.

Unfortunately, the unrepeatable characteristic of the projects complicates the application of these lessons, which are often transferred through the personal experience of a team member. In order to scale the learning beyond the personal components, it is advisable to:

- work on document repositories that allow for identification of previous similarities

- share the most relevant lessons of projects with characteristics that are going to be repeated, either because they belong to the same line of business, have the same client, or develop in similar markets.

2. Selecting defective equipment

Even if you have a project team with all the necessary competences to deliver a result of sufficient quality, it is possible that there are competencies that are difficult to identify, especially with regards to the accumulated experience, the Know-how of the company and, in the case of projects abroad, the multicultural dimension. Added to this is the fact that whoever carries out the planning will never be an expert in all the technical aspects that must be covered, which may fail to match the requirements with the technical capacity of the team. In this case, even transfer of knowledge internally to the project can seriously fail.

3. Volatile team governance

On this occasion, this is a problem related to project governance. The loss of a member of the governance structure that has a direct bearing on resource orientation and corporate strategies (eg, executive sponsorship or project management) seriously compromises levels of knowledge and stability within company departments based on projects.

4. Lack of function recognition

Project governance is sustained both by management and project sponsors, who must receive the appropriate training to monitor with more discretion. The difficulty is to incorporate top management into the management of knowledge without taking away the authority and the urgency we perceive it in the danger of taking wrong directions because the sponsors may have some inaccuracy or wrong distinction in relation to the project.

5. Inadequate knowledge integration

Large-scale projects require the intertwining of expertise in a number of areas to solve complex problems, to innovate or to transform that knowledge into something greater, thanks to its correct coupling. As we commonly see, there is not a person with the exact key to fit that diverse knowledge appropriately, so there is a risk that the pieces of the puzzle will come together incorrectly, interfering with the result. Given this scenario, project management requires that the directors ensure that effective communication with and among their work teams is maintained, to achieve a successful integration of multifunctional knowledge.

6. Incomplete transfer of knowledge

Often, for the development of a complex and innovative project, that requires the implementation of resources or specialized technical support, project members must go to the suppliers of the organization or interact with a consultant. In such interactions, knowledge transfer should strive to be as transparent as possible, but fears and conflicts of interest between the project team and their knowledge provider often interfere with the process.

Most of the failures that undermine the completion of a project occur because of incomplete knowledge transfer between the team and external consultants or suppliers during design.

This is because the people from the consultancy have the aspiration to receive higher profits, for their intellectual property and recognition of value, so in the first instance they will refuse to sell their knowledge.

Consequently, during the transfer of knowledge, information that is often crucial for the success of the project is omitted and this is not usually discovered until it has failed, which encourages us to go back and evaluate the failure. It is therefore of paramount importance to ascertain the quality of the documentation received by the knowledge provider and to evaluate its quality so that the project manager can make the most appropriate decisions.

7. Loss of Team Members

The fact that a member of the team may leave due to planned or unforeseen circumstances is an intellectual leak of great value for the project, since the time that person has dedicated to the planning and / or design process involves the accumulation of knowledge and skills related to the project and that are irreplaceable. This knowledge disappears once the person leaves.

In order to protect ourselves from the knowledge gaps created by possible losses of team members who are key players for the project, preventive measures should be taken to document knowledge, in order to continue the project with new members. Of course, there will always be some knowledge that stays with the person, which will be irreplaceable.

8. Lack of a Role Awareness Map

As part of the project management, we highlight the creation of a knowledge map, grouped by role, to serve as a tool so that all members of the team (including the senior positions) can identify who knows what and what skills the team has for the project.

The knowledge map allows us to facilitate the efficient and effective approach to complex problems. Not having one translates into greater difficulties in finding the solution to a given conflict, since it involves the risk of assigning decision making to people whose knowledge is not the most suitable for the type of problem.

Theorists on the subject, such as Crowston and Kammerer, and Faraj and Sproull, have concluded that project teams with a knowledge map can be more effective, focusing mainly on the integration of knowledge.

9. Loss between phases

During the operational processes of the project, the structure and integration of the equipment varies with the passage from one phase to another, so we run the risk of losing valuable knowledge in those changes in composition or transmitting knowledge inadequately. For these cases, traditionally, one uses the techniques of written or graphic documentation, to record the knowledge of a previous phase, useful for the operations of the next phase.

However, in the written record, we often overlook data of great relevance for the optimal development of the new operational phase, such as the rationale of the design or its options. In turn, the interpretations that each team gives to documentation may be altered by the subjective criteria of its members, which leads to errors or delays, while trying to understand why certain decisions were made in the previous phase.

Therefore, as a method of knowledge management within the project management, we recommend integrating multimedia records in the documentation that complementcrucial aspects of the decision making of a phase, as well as manage mining data and networks of experts, so that it is as specific and clear as possible.

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

Even in a specialized world like project management, there are current trends and popular kids (often newcomers), while other issues, skills and areas are relegated to a second row or altogether ignored. Here are ITM Platform’s candidates to those second row components in project management that are worth discussing more in-depth.

1. Project Evaluation

Project Evaluation should be a methodical and un-biased assessment of your projects, both completed and ongoing. Post Project Evaluation completes the project management process once the product is in use. It provides feed-back in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, etc. in order to learn for the future. There are two main stages:

Immediately, evaluation seeks to identify isolate learning moments, transform them into lessons so that they can be applied to the next project – that’s the moment they turn into lessons learned
A longer term review to determine what, if any, adjustments should be made to company policies and procedures

2. Project Integration Management

The objective of Project Integration Management is to co-ordinate the diverse components of the project by quality project planning, execution and change control to achieve the required balance of time, cost and quality.

Project integration management ensures the effective integration of a project into the organization’s total business and co-ordination of the diverse components of the project. This includes setting up the planning and control systems for project selection, planning the total project and co-ordinating the activities in the other eight knowledge areas. It also includes working with everyone in the organization who is involved in the project, not only the immediate stakeholders.

3. Management tools and techniques

The objective of using management tools and techniques is to optimize specific activities in the development of a system. Although much of the attention is paid to the selection of planning tools, some areas that are often neglected from this point of view are:

Growth Management. Beyond the adoption of prediction metrics that can measure the growth of an organization, it is essential to have scalable tools to accompany an organization when it goes through a transition between different maturities. By combining ease of use with the full benefits, ITM Platform is specifically designed to support these processes.

Using Project management tools such as ITM Platform will help automate management processes and make your company more efficient.

Talent development should go beyond measurement and remuneration by objectives, seeking to introduce a learning loop between project performance and work performance of team members.

4. End-customer orientation

Although this is the fundamental focus of agile philosophy, putting yourself in the place of the end user is a form of empathy that is always lacking and which there are few formative options. Here are some strategies that demonstrate customer orientation:

Work in startup mode beyond the initial phase of creating an organization: the business orientation is to respond to what the customer is looking for.
Responding swiftly to customer complaints and questions.
Dealing respectfully with community issues.

5. Creativity

Essential to conceive solutions for customer problems, they are typical of engineers and product owners, but obviously extend to project managers. In one way or another, creativity is an essential skill in project management. As opposed to the regular and standardized world of operations, there is no one-size-fits-all for projects.

But creativity in project management is not a voiced desired for the extremely original or the never-seen-before. It’s, put simply, the ability to identify what’s should be happening when placed under a new situation.

Project managers require a taste for recalling their past experiences, and those of the projects they interact with, to come up with a combinatorial solution that applies to the current context. That’s creative project management.

6. Coaching and Development

By employing their coaching skills, supervisors assess the training and professional development of team members with the aim of offering them opportunities for improvement, such as new experiences that allow them to develop new competencies. Although project management certification is a recognized goal, it is often important to be able to identify intermediate training and experience objectives.

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

You don’t even need to be able to measure the value.

But imagine if you could.

Imagine that you could quantify the value that collaboration contributes to your projects. If you could add a few cents (or a few dollars) to your "collaborative balance" every time someone makes a constructive comment, warns of a problem in time, makes an innovative proposal outside the scope of their responsibilities, share experiences of other Projects that can save hours of misguided execution.

Try ITM Platform and start integrating PPM capabilities and powerful communication across projects.

You could show the results to top executives, including shareholders and customers, and defend the profitability of investing in strong internal communication policies.

In reality, you don’t need to measure the value at every instant. It is enough to make sure that in your organization there are solid channels for communication to flow. You may need more than one technological solution to support the entire flow. Oh, and remember that email stopped counting as collaborative technology back in 2006.

Collaborative tools

It is convenient to distinguish between channels for internal communication (within the team of each project) and external communication, or between projects.

Communication between projects

The business chat or intranet services are excellent for removing watertight drawers, but they live far from the technical planning of the projects, so they are difficult to integrate with the daily management of them. They are excellent for cross-cutting issues affecting all departments.

Internal communication

By contrast, internal communication to a project team will be better supported through management software such as ITM Platform, which integrates social networking features within each project.

Creating the Right Portfolio

No tool can communicate between projects and connect to the equipment of each project without generating noise. Therefore, it is essential to be able to find a good internal technology portfolio that maintains governance criteria.

The combination of ITM Platform with Slack is a great example of a portfolio of communication tools. Within each project, the owner is ITM Platform, while Slack is unbeatable as a business chat between teams. Thanks to the ITM Platform Teambot app, you can also connect both tools so that the members of your teams can work with the ITM Platform from Slack.

This way you can get all the benefits of a communication policy as well as improving the quality of your projects and learning between teams.

Do you still want to measure your ROI of collaboration? Subscribe to this blog and you will get the answer.

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

Sometimes we can't start all the projects we would like to. This often happens with internal projects: how many CIOs will undertake all projects that are demanded by the heads of each department? And how many find solid reasons to explain which projects are initiated, in what order and why?

Whenever you have a hard time deciding which projects you should run, you can base your decision on the evaluation of different scenarios. Here's an example.

Try ITM Platform for free and start to prioritize your projects strategically.

An example of using scenarios

Imagine that there are three internal projects that are difficult to compare: the implementation of a new document management system (DMS), the development of a new product and the internal training of the entire sales force. And also, as we said, we do not have enough capacity to finance them all.

Estimation of cost and importance

The first step in setting the scenarios is to assess their cost and importance:

Number	Project	Importance	Cost estimate
1	DMS	17,73%	$15,777.00
2	New product	47,05%	$90,091.00
3	Training	35,22%	$64,144.00

Suppose that the maximum budget that can be allocated to these projects is $150,000, less than the total of 170,000.

How to value a project

With ITM Platform, the value of a project depends on how much it helps to achieve a business objective. This criterion allows you to group very different projects by programs and to develop scenarios more complex than the one of this example.

Test yourself on how to generate scenarios linked to your goals with ITM Platform.

1. Count Scenarios

The next thing is to know what all the alternatives are. In this case, there are 8 scenarios or possible situations considering that we can choose (blue) or discard (red) each of the projects.

123	123	123	123
123	123	123	123

2. Quantify the scenarios

What is the investment required for each of the scenarios?

0.00	$64,144.00 $	$90,091.00 $	$154,235.00
$15,777.00	$79,921.00 $	$105,868.00 $	$170,012.00

As we know that the investment limit is $150,000, we can rule out the two combinations that exceed it.

0.00	$64,144.00	$90,091.00	$154,235.00
$15,777.00	$79,921.00	$105,868.00	$170,012.00

3. Assess the scenarios

What is the value obtained from each of them?

0%	35%	47%	82%
18%	53%	65%	100%

If we did not have limitations, of course, we would choose to launch all the projects. But in applying the financial constraints, we choose the scenario that brings the most value without exceeding budget.

Since two scenarios have been ruled out, it is necessary to choose the combination with the highest value among the remaining ones: 65% of projects 1 and 2.

Is it simple? When you try it on IT Platform you will no longer have doubts when selecting projects.