Methodological Management

Methodology Selection

PPM supports different methodologies and allows you to select your methodology based on your specific situation or the following:

• Tolerance level of time-and-cost unpredictability – A new product development project usually has a considerably higher tolerance level of time-and-cost unpredictability than a production project. An internal system implementation project usually has a considerably higher tolerance level of time unpredictability than a client delivery project or a government project. Although almost all methodologies claim that they can be tweaked to fit special situations, you would have the least risks if you select the methodology that was originally designed to match your situation.
• Learning curve affordability – The complexity and learning curves of different project management methodologies can be quite different. Also, some methodologies such as Prince II require more formal certification than others. Of course, there are benefits to extensive training and formal certification. But the important question is whether that is what your project truly needs and can afford. Some projects would give weight to the methodology that some team members had used and succeeded in their previous projects because selecting it would lower the learning curve and also increase the buy-in from the team members.

The most common pitfall of project management methodology is that people are often too obsessed with the chosen methodology and overlook the needed adaptation of the project. In fact, all project management methodologies have to be adapted to the size, the application area industry and the scope/time/budget/quality constraints of the project.

The second common pitfall of project management methodology is the fact that different people would have different interpretations of the same methodology at a detailed level. Leadership is needed in both the planning and execution phases of a project.

The third common pitfall of project management methodology is the insufficient efforts to deal with the weaknesses of the chosen methodology. For example, PMBOK has too many process steps and not all of them are necessary while Agile teams get easily sidetracked due to lack of processes and the long-term project goals suffer.

Data can have a significant impact on the outcomes of a project, which is why it’s important for project managers to ensure data integrity in their projects. Here are some suggestions on how to turn data into business value below.

Assessing Risks – PPM allows management to identify, rank and prioritize the risks such as below in a more informed manner to help mitigate the likelihood of risks occurring:

• Size and complexity of the project
• Client’s risk tolerance
• Competence of the project leaders

Reduced Complexity – Analyzing data can reduce the complexity of a project because the more informed management's decisions are, the less uncertainty there is.

Forecasting – PPM can help project managers to watch for early warning signs in terms of budget, schedule and quality, so they can take proactive action. PPM uses the data to gauge the rate of work so completion of activities can be predicted.

Measuring Success – Gathering time-and-cost consumption and acceptance information is vital to the success of any project and is what drives business decisions. The key to making good business decisions is ensuring the data is relevant. Good project managers are able to see the bigger picture in the data and use it to tell meaningful stories.

Methodological Management At The Right Level

Even if you select the best methodology, you still need to apply the 4-eye principle to ensure the individual activity or deliverable status of your project is true. Depending on the methodology that you choose, PPM allows you to apply the 4-eye principle either in daily stand-up meetings or managed reviews. If you allow unreal status information at the lowest level activities or deliverables, the higher-level activities or deliverables will be even more unreal. PPM helps you perform anti-distortion at the right level.