Introducing Project Disciplines is hard work
Lots of companies find introducing project disciplines slow, difficult and not very exciting. Staff often show resistance and it can be hard to get buy in and commitment at executive level where other stuff is seen as more important or pressing.
Well here’s some good news. The best way to get some project disciplines in fast is to buy an on-line project management package.
But before you get too excited and start reaching for the cheque book, you need to make sure that you chose the right package.
Choose the right project management software
Choose the right software and accompany it with a process for running projects and some training and you’re cooking on gas.
If you choose well, your project management package will do all of the following:
- Provide the means for project managers to produce plans and keep them up to date
- Capture time worked and optimise staff utilisation
- Capture and track financials
- Monitor project status and publish project status reports
- Facilitate executive level reporting on all of the above
Greater visibility of Project Performance at Executive Level
The added visibility for executive teams is arguably the biggest gain from buying a project management package. It provides a much greater level of control and comfort at executive level and more importantly encourages them to follow and support projects more closely. Involvement and ownership by company boards in projects is a key components for project success.
This involvement brings immediate pressure to keep the data held in the package up to date, given reports are only as good as the data. This means that Project Managers are pressured to keep plans up to date, employees to promptly enter time and come up with decent estimates. Project discipline immediately improves.
So while it won’t solve all of your problems, buying the right project management tool, combined with a project management process and some training will dramatically improve project disciplines and project delivery in any size of company.
Want to find out more ? Get our free White Paper on choosing project management software
Gren Gale is a Project Management Consultant, author of Project Management for SMEs (and its sister edition Project Management for SMBs in North America), an expert on Project Management Software and owner of PM Results
