Years ago, many companies saw the upside of successful project management (PM) and boldly hitched their wagon to that star, while others have yet to leverage PM’s power — or to even recognize that it merits being more than an occasional assignment putting somebody in charge of a project. Far from actually empowering anyone, companies that espouse the latter belief just meet expectations about needing someone who shepherds the herd and can be blamed when things go wrong.

Defining PM is the first step. Is it (a) as integral to companies as a financial balance sheet, (b) a low-value role performed by ad hoc players, or (c) somewhere in between?
Changing corporate culture

At best, most companies are still thinking about PM only casually when each new project comes along. With an eye to profitability, companies can and should change this thinking because it’s decidedly to their bottom-line advantage. That means tackling major issues head on, including working toward having PM viewed as a core work process and skill set and making both the necessary investment in and commitment to PM.

Overall, for those companies lacking a genuinely viable PM system, the idea that must be “sold” internally is that formal, organized PM adds concrete value by bringing in projects on target, on time, and on budget (i.e., PM is not merely an abstract concept for which only lip service is expected).

Essentially, two factors have mired PM in a rut at many companies. The first is that nobody recognizes the project manager job as being a worthy position. The second is that nobody has time to develop coherent PM processes and tools. The consequences can be severe. Consider what occurred with a major oil company’s platform offshore the west coast of Africa. The operator launched the project believing it knew when it would get first oil, and the company counted the anticipated oil revenue in its business projection to Wall Street. However, the revenue was not there in the anticipated timeframe (or even in twice that amount of time) because of a PM breakdown.

If PM is the proverbial problem child when companies attempt to take projects of all magnitudes to successful outcomes, what’s the solution?

In fact, the answer is fairly straightforward. The organization must focus on developing PM competence, which can be achieved by doing the following:
• Defining PM competence expectations in detail;
• Employing a solid PM methodology incorporating critical success factors;
• Executing a well thought out plan for building PM competence; and
• Installing a system for monitoring PM performance.
Companies should probably memorize several key points.

First, industry best practices, company best practices, and PM professional standards must be anchors for the PM methodology adopted. Second, the PM methodology must be baked into the corporate culture. Third, PM methodology must use industries’ most well-established open source PM software applications. Fourth, no “one-size-fits-all” solution works. And finally, no “single-vendor approach” works.

Building competence

Expanding on this framework, any company can best serve its own interests by following seven steps for building PM competence throughout the organization:
1. Provide the vision for the targeted PM proficiency level.
2. Make the business case for moving to the targeted level.
3. Alter work processes in and around PM (including designated PM methodology).
4. Alter information/data systems supporting PM.
5. Modify worker roles for project management performance.
6. Train to meet established PM competency levels.
7. Adopt rewards for PM compliance.

At companies successfully using PM, the ways to achieve competence (and the reasons for doing so) have become second nature and are ingrained in company culture. So for each project that appears on the horizon, there is a competence, a discipline, or a skill set that typically works just as certainly as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Their projects come in on time and on budget because these companies do not re-invent the wheel ad infinitum, with two-thirds of the new wheels turning out square.

For those who do not know where they are going, any direction can look like the right way. But organizations with capital budgets that dwarf those of the average business in other industries, better navigation makes a world of difference both in the short run and long term.

Just talking about “vision” is of limited value. From offshore rigs to information technology, a company must have a capital strategy working in support of its corporate vision. In other words, the company must determine what projects need to develop for the business to achieve its objectives.

The ‘right’ way

How does a company recognize that it is on the right path to successful PM? A good barometer is often provided by answering three key questions:
• Does the company have competent and empowered project managers?
• Does the company have firm project objectives?
• Does the company have effective steering committees/gatekeepers to audit methodology compliance?

Delving deeper into those questions provides new insights. For instance, if the project manager is not empowered, it is probably because the sponsor kept the power and is micromanaging the project, which inevitably results in problems. It is the sponsor’s job to set objectives, not manage the project. Finally, if gate-keeping fails, it is often because gates are treated like “another communications meeting” instead of recognizing that hard decisions must be made, which sometimes mean stopping a project in its tracks.

Bogged down by various factors on a given project, PM has not always been a champagne-toast success, but for every company that looks for solutions it can take to the bank, other companies still have not even ventured in the direction of striving for PM competence. Some companies continue to treat PM as relatively unimportant, to be handled arbitrarily. Other companies are intimidated by the PM “mystique.” The fact is, however, that PM usually is not that exotic.

In one case, a Canadian company’s PM was handled as a hobby by its electrical engineers who did not nurture the skill set. It is not surprising that this company had bad results. However, a consultant made a big difference by simply changing the organization into two groups, engineers and project managers, establishing two centers of excellence that could be directed by different criteria and competencies.

Companies have to begin somewhere to get where they should be going to achieve PM competence. And there is no time like the present to get started.