Do your projects get bogged down by constant revisions? Do your teams regularly fail to meet project deadlines or beg for extensions? Do projects go over budget more often than you’d like? If you answered yes to any of those questions, it might be time to reevaluate your project workflow. How can you find the thorns in your project’s side? Consider some of the common areas where problems arise and how PMO methodology implementation can solve your problems.
How to Identify the Weak Spots in Your Project Workflow
Where Do Delays Occur Without PMO Methodology?
It’s vital to track your projects: you should know whose court the ball is in at all times. Since projects involve multiple departments, it’s possible that one department, in particular, is causing most of your problems. Track your projects and pay attention to delays. Log those delays by recording when a deliverable was due, whose responsibility it was, and which department failed to meet its deadline. It won’t take you long to spot patterns.
Once you have a clear idea of where delays are coming from, zero in on the department that’s lagging the most. Talk to project leaders in that department to analyze the situation. A common problem with projects is that employees have other responsibilities, so they may not have enough time to prioritize the project. Alternately, there could be communication issues. Perhaps the project’s urgency wasn’t clearly explained. You won’t know until you find out who to ask!
Focus on Back and Forth
Ideally, projects should follow a set path from one department to the next. If you’ve mapped this out in advance, then you already have a measuring stick to use. Compare your ideal workflow with what’s actually happening in the company. Does your project take unexpected detours to other departments that weren’t in the original scope? Does it ping pong back and forth between two departments more than anticipated? Every time your project changes hands, it slows down the entire project.
You have to plan these exchanges in advance and take note of any deviations. Perhaps one department is being too strict and insisting on unnecessary revisions. You can minimize back and forth with a PMO approach. Having a single project management office facilitates communication between different departments and speeds up project transfers. Instead of one department passively receiving instructions from another, you can actively assign tasks across departments by using the PMO as a middleman.
Individual Vs. Group Responsibilities
Another way to examine your project hiccups is to examine whether you’re dealing with individual issues or group failures. On smaller project teams, individuals bear more responsibility for making progress. You can dissect a project’s advancement down to the individual level and see which employees are struggling to move the project forward. They might just not be very interested in the project. Perhaps they’re overwhelmed with other work. Maybe they lack confidence in their skills to move the project along.
When a group of people within a department is in charge, communication breakdowns tend to be the cause of your problems. Internal power struggles can also pose a threat to your projects. Sometimes, it’s best to bring in external help. Reach out to Project Genetics if you need a PMO to step in and get your projects back on track.
