Deploying Project Management in Waves

There are a number of ways to deploy common project management practices within an organization. One approach is to think of everything that needs to be improved and try to deploy everything at once. Instead, our approach is to deploy items more gradually to provide some time to absorb initial changes before others are rolled out.

Like waves rolling toward the beach, you select certain aspects of the new project management practices, and then pause before rolling out the next wave. In many cases, one wave builds on a prior wave. After a period of time, you will have introduced many new skills and new processes, but the staff will not have viewed it as traumatically as if everything came crashing down on them at once. A sample scenario of waves is as follows:

Wave 1:

• Conduct general awareness sessions to explain what is coming and why.
• Introduce basic standard project management processes and templates.
• Perform a "role sort" to create common roles and responsibilities for projects.
• Provide basic project management training.
• Roll out coaching services to help project managers utilize the training and templates effectively.

Wave 2:

• Implement a document repository to hold the common processes, templates, best practices, standards, etc.
• Reinforce management governance processes to ensure that the management team is implementing the new initiative within their organizations.
• Introduce project and organization assessments.

Wave 3:

• Build a PMO to handle the project management practices long-term.
• Teach  project management classes focused on more sophisticated processes such as quality management, metrics management, risk management, etc.
• Support the new training concepts with more sophisticated processes and templates.

The three waves above are for illustration purposes only. Each organization needs to determine the items to deploy, the waves and the timing.

Summary

Deploying project management processes and building project management capability in the organization requires much more than simply training the staff and then walking away. There is a process that must be followed to understand the work required to move the organization to your future vision. Once the work is understood, it should be divided into manageable waves to have a better chance of success. 

Contact us today to help you deploy better project management practices in your organization