The Fundamentals for Project Success

In today's competitive business environment, organizations need to ensure their project management processes and practices follow best practices to maintain a source of competitive advantage. Through extensive project benchmarking outcomes, studies of various companies' processes and systems, and real-world experience, seven fundamental principles have emerged that apply to all types of projects - from developing physical facilities to implementing new systems or business changes.

Single Point Accountability for Business Outcomes

It is crucial that one identified person is ultimately accountable for the direction of the project – for both the business and project outcomes of the investment. This individual bears the responsibility for implementation decisions and fulfilling the promises made at the time of authorization.

Continuity of Key People

Experience from numerous projects demonstrates that maintaining continuity of key personnel across the definition and implementation phases delivers measurable improvements in project outcomes. This emphasizes the importance of identifying the right people early and involving them in a project's development from the beginning.

Benchmarking conclusively shows that turnover of key people has a significant detrimental impact on both project execution and business outcomes.

Applicable Project Experience

Projects vary greatly in shape, size, complexity, and maturity. Different skills and experience are required depending on the project circumstances. Project success depends on ensuring team members possess the necessary skills and experience for the particular project at hand.

Front End Loading

Front end loading involves undertaking sufficient detailed studies, design work, estimates, and analysis associated with a project so that a significant level of accuracy can be achieved before a project is submitted for authorization.

Benchmarking indicates that when sufficient quality front-end loading is performed, organizations enjoy significant savings in both time and costs – along with quicker production and operations ramp-ups.

Investment Optimization

A key focus must be on optimizing the level of investment on all projects and minimizing non-value-adding expenditures. This approach provides the immediate benefit of increasing the net present value (NPV) of a project proposal. The emphasis should be on achieving the best business outcome for the organization.

This can be viewed as a questioning process: Do we need this project? Do we need this component? Is there a better way? Do we have to invest capital to achieve our desired outcome? Is the balance between capital expenditure and operational expenditure optimal for the project life cycle? Both business leaders and project managers should contribute their skills and experience to this critical debate.

Minimize and Manage Change

By adopting front end loading to improve the accuracy of project definition, authorized projects should be well-thought-out in business terms and well-engineered. Once defined prior to authorization, these outcomes should be delivered without further change.

In other words, a "minimal changes" philosophy should apply to all authorized projects. If events significantly impact a project's net present value criteria (or other key business measures or project KPIs), any remedial changes should be approved by the authorizing body. Locking in quality and accountability early, with an overlaying "minimal changes" philosophy, has the capacity to provide improved business and project outcomes.

When changes do occur, a disciplined process must be in place to manage them tightly. This process must include analysis of both direct and indirect impacts on the basic project parameters of scope, quality, cost, and schedule, followed by a review of all relevant project KPIs.

The Change Management process must clearly spell out the necessary levels of authorization required prior to implementing any change.

Independent Reviews

Finding the best people and processes for the task at hand is central to any project. A process of regular independent reviews is a powerful way of tapping into organizational knowledge. Reviewers should be experienced professionals within their area of expertise, and all project teams should openly engage with them at key stages during the project life cycle.

Tollgate reviews by a Project Review Committee provide the opportunity for independent assessment during project definition. Post-Implementation Reviews offer an opportunity for independent evaluation following project completion.

By adhering to these seven fundamentals, project management professionals can significantly increase their chances of delivering successful projects that meet business objectives and provide lasting value to their organizations.