Selecting A Project Management Methodology: Challenges And Solutions

Proposed Methodology

Discuss about the Capability Maturity Model Integration for Proposed Methodology.

Introduction: Organization A is a manufacturing organization that manufactures high tech memory chips. It is headquartered in USA and has 2100 people working for it. The objective of the organization is to develop new markets in North and South America. The organization is already using Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for managing is IT and has received a certification for the same. The company is now in the growing phase and is expecting more IT projects coming their way. To management these projects better, the organization wishes to adopt a professional project management methodology considering the variety of benefits they have to offer. However, while adopting a new methodology in the organization, the company is likely to face many challenges that the company would need to overcome. This report would explore those challenges and adapt to the new methodology  (Karaman & Kurt, 2015).

Proposed Methodology: Considering the fact that the company already has CMMI certification, it has a process already set for managing its IT projects. Thus, if the company has to adapt to a new process, the new methodology needs to be able to complement this and easily integrated with the CMMI processes. The adoption of new methodology should not result into conflicts in management while integrating the two methodologies. PMBOK is a methodology that is easily adapted for any IT projects and as it is a guideline, it can easily be integrated with any other existing methodology that an organization  may be using. On the other side, PRINCE 2 is a framework which would need adoption of a new culture and it cannot be integrated easily with the CMMI methodology. Thus, PMBOK has been chosen as the right methodology for the Organization A  (Measey, 2014).

Introduction: Organization B is into a construction business and mainly works on government infrastructure projects from European region. It has 300 employee working for it and the company is headquartered in Paris, France. The company wants to increase the number of projects it is taking. The Director of the organization wants its team to present a business case for every project under consideration so that right projects can be selected for the growth. However, this needs the organization to have a proper framework for project management. Currently, the company is only following the Euro codes for its construction work and have no other formal standard. If the company can adopt a project management framework, it would be able  to use the same for planning, executing, and controlling its construction projects in an organized way which would help improve the project performance  (Karaman & Kurt, 2015).

Challenges Faced in Implementing PMBOK and PRINCE 2

Proposed Methodology: The organization has never adopted any formal framework for managing its projects and thus, it has no people who could be aware about how project methodologies work. In such a case, the organization would need a framework that comes with an extensive usage guideline which can make it easy for the teams to follow and adapt. PMBOK provides a very exhaustive guideline for project management and thus, can be used here. PRINCE 2 would make a more complex methodology that would be difficult for the first time users to understand  (PMI, 2010). 

Introduction: Organization C is an 11 year old financial services organization located in Australia and has 800 employees working for it.  The company already has rich experience of delivery services and has attained a level of maturity. However, the organization needs to improve its project delivery capabilities for which it is looking for  a professional project management framework. Currently, the company makes use of Regulator Performance Framework that has been defined by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. While managing projects, the company gives complete authority to the project managers and thus, they have a structure supportive for adopting any project management methodology from PMBOK and PRINCE 2 (Court, 2006).

Proposed Methodology: The organization already uses a project management methodology which only needs an enhancement in terms of its capabilities. A way to do this is adopt the best practices of project management that can be used for enhancing performance of company projects. PRINCE 2 framework can provide guidance on best practices as well as can be adopted easily for the company through tailoring. PMBOK on the other side would make  more exhaustive project management methodology that may not be needed as the organization is already mature enough to handle projects  (Ferguson, 2011).

The would be able use the methodology to formalize its project management process. The projects would be managed in five stages including start-up, initiation, control, stage boundary management and project closure. In the first stage, all the needed information for the project plan development would be collected and using the same, an initiation document would be prepared. This document would be approved by the management after which work packages would be identifies and a plan would be developed (Turley, 2012).

A control process would also be established at this stage. In the next sage, boundaries of each stage would be identified and managed. The last stage of this project management approach is project closure in which the final delivery of the project is made and a closure documentation is done which includes lessons learned document, project review report, and project acceptance. Once the project deliverables are accepted by the client, a final sin-off would be done by the project owner which would mark its completion  (Hinde, 2012).

Solutions to Overcome the Challenges

Implementation of PMBOK project management methodology would require an understanding of the knowledge areas defined in the guide. It would also need exploration of the 47 processes that are covered in the guide. To gain this understanding, a project manager can have discussions with the staff and identify what processes should be used for the organization projects. Once the project manager is able to identify the needed activities that would be adopted, a detailed plan for managing the project would be created. As the organization uses CMMI methodology already, the processes would be chosen based on the existing framework so that the integration between CMMI and PMBOK can be made smooth without any conflicts  (Williams, 2014).

PMBOK is more of a guide than a methodology and thus, it does not have specific steps to implement. It has ideas and principles that can be used for managing projects for the better outcome. It has a global library that includes best practices to study. The processes defined in the guide can actually be customized to deal with the current needs of the real estate organization.

Figure 3: PMBOK Processes (Vargas, 2015)

The guide would have an inventory of project activities that would be executed in different stages of the project management including initiation, planning, execution, control and project closure. These stages would have activities around 10 knowledge areas each of those containing some of the 47 processes defined in the PMBOK project management framework as identified in the picture above (Wojnar, 2015).  

PRINCE 2 methodology would be implemented in the company with the help of the top officials of the company including CEO, COO, CFO and VP who would have to approve and give commitment to extend any help needed to make its adoption a success. The employees of the company would then be trained on the methodology and its practices. These employees can include project manager, IT manager, sales staff, operations manager, procurement manager, and pre-sales staff. Once the training is completed, the employees would be ready to adopt the management processes defined in the PRINCE 2 framework and they have to be guided by the project manager (Kirwan, et al., 2008).

While adopting to this new methodology, the company staff would need to follow certain PRINCE 2 principles such as:

• creation of a business case that gives a strategic justification of the project(Saad, et al., 2012)
• Lessons to be taken from the past projects that were similar and had been successful in achieving the strategic goals of the organization(Siegelaub, 2009)
• Project implementation to be divided into manageable stages that are periodically assessed against the project plan including negotiation, funding, system development, training and closure (Murray, 2009).
• Staff to be made accountable for deliverables and for the control of the project considering its cost, quality, risks, and time
• Tailoring to be done on every project to match the deliverable requirements and processes to the project objectives and capacities(Siegelaub, 2009). 

PMBOK adoption and its integration with CMMI methodology would bring up certain challenges for the IT organization and these include:

• Understanding of the methodology could be challenging for the people as it is very lengthy and need a lot of study
• Commitment is needed from the top management as their inputs can help support the project management methodology adoption as well as establish control over the projects that are managed using PMBOK
• For using the methodology, the staff would bed to create a significant number of templates and documents for adopting new processing which can consume a lot of energy as well as time for the staff and thus, can make them resist the adoption(Rowley, 2013).
• As the organization need to use two methodologies without facing a conflict, they have to be coordinated which would need creation of a suitable infrastructure. This would require people to be trained on PMBOK that can provide them an understanding of how it can be used along with CMMI framework(Business Solutions, Inc., 2015).
• The company may need to use performance metrics for measuring project performance and two methodologies would have two different sets of such measures that can be confusing unless they are aligned(Ghosh, et al., 2012). 

Benefits of Adopting PMBOK and PRINCE 2

Challenges that Organization B is likely to face with the implementation of the PMBOK project management are as follows:

• Project managers in the company have a tendency to completely adopt to a framework in which case adoption of PMBOK can become very time consuming and challenging. Project manager and team need to take a selective approach to adoption
• The organization have processes managed effectively and thus, the project manager may work on the PMBOK guidelines and adopt only the processes that are capable of making improvements and are appropriate to the company. However, decision on which process to adopt or which to skip can be challenging with lack of experience of using PMBOK(Vargas, 2015).
• The methodology does have any standard templates that can be used straight for the company and thus, the team would need to understand the guiding principles to come up with the templates which needs a buy-in from the staff as well as time for learning which is another challenge(Siegelaub, 2009). 

PRINCE 2 adoption in the organization C would bring in following challenges:

• PRINCE 2 has the maximum benefit when it is tailored to the company needs. However, proper tailoring would need the team or project manager to have a good knowledge of the methodology and probably a high level of training would be needed to achieve that.
• For PRINCE 2 be success in an organization, a specific style of work has to be adopted by the teams which would need a change in the working culture. This cannot be easy for employees used to traditional practices and thus, the company can face resistance from its employees.
• A high level of coordination is needed too understand and implement the principles of the methodology and thus, it is essential to get the buy-in from everyone including the team and the top management which can be a challenging task
• When the company has not been using similar methodology in the past, the organisation would take time to adopt and the employees would need extensive practical training which is difficult to achieve before its implementation. Thus, the teams would have to learn on the go while the methodology has already been adopted (Turley, 2012)
• Certification may be required for some of the team members before the methodology is completely adoption to ensure that its processes and principles are understood sufficiently by at least some who can guide the teams into implementation. This can be time consuming as well as would add the cost to the company
• The methodology does not have specific provisions for knowledge and procurement management that may be needed by the company (Saad, et al., 2012). 

The organization would require an infrastructure that supports the new processes and brings improvement with CMMI also used in the system. The common roles of the staff using both methodology have to be determined so that there are no resource conflicts when the new methodology is getting implemented (Fritzsche & Keil, 2007).

To overcome the challenges discussed in the previous section, following steps can be taken by the company:

• A strategic direction should be provided by the top management to the team to make way for improvement
• Project manager and some of the team members can be trained on the methodology so that they could be mage facilitators and coordinators who can help the team bring good results
• A temporary person or a consultant who is an expert of the methodology can be hired to help n the implementation of the methodology as well as in the integration of the same with CMMI (Valek, 2014). 

The organization B can use following steps to overcome the challenges:

• A project management consultant can be involved to provide guidance to the company for an effective adoption of the new methodology
• The key personnel or team members of the company can be provide with extensive training by project management consultants to make them prepared for the changes
• Instead of adopting the complete methodology at a time, a phased approach may be taken such that a few processes are only implemented in one phase and only after the team gets used to them, the next step is taken to include more process such that there is a gradual improvement (Ghosh, et al., 2012).

Following steps can be taken to overcome challenges that are faced by the organization C:

• Employees must be given an extensive training on the principles of PRINCE 2 and some may even be certified on the framework
• A certified consultant may be hired to execute the projects in the initial days of adoption
• Clear guidelines should be provided to the project team while adoption highlighting the changes from the previous practice
• The PRINCE 2 practices can be tailored to the needs of the company to get the best results (Valek, 2014).

PMBOK implementation in the company would give following benefits to the organization A:

• More formal and standard practices would bring improvement in the company performance
• An organized way of planning would allow the company to establish monitoring systems such that project progress can be tracked
• As processes that are used for managing projects would become transparent and everything would be documented, the organization would be able to develop a knowledge base which would be beneficial for the company in the long run
• CMMI practices may have some drawbacks that would be filled by the PMBOK processes so that company can bring improvements (Tutorialspoint, 2015) 

PMBOK implementation in the company would give following benefits to the organization B:

• More formal and standard practices would bring improvement in the company performance
• A detailed guidance given by the methodology would allow for proper documentation of the processes and this would enhance the learning of the staff
• The system would have standard processes and would become more transparent
• With the use of proper communication practices, the coordination in the project management teams would improve(Jarocki, 2014). 

PRINCE 2 implementation in the company would give following benefits to the organization c: 

• PRINCE 2 is a highly flexible project management methodology as different companies can operate in different ways and thus, this would provide the company an opportunity to tailor the methodology t best suit its requirements.
  • Lessons learned would be recorded such that the best practices understood from project experiences are documented and can be used on forthcoming projects by the company (Measey, 2014). 

Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to explore how the project management methodology is selected an implemented in organizations. The case of thee organizations including an IT company, a construction organization and a finance company was taken.  Two of these companies were suggested to use PMBOK while one would use PRINCE 2. The underlying difficulties that would be caused in each scenarios were discussed and solutions were recommended. It was found that PMBOK adoption can be made success with phased adoption wile PRINCE 2 needs an extensive  training to be given to core team before adoption. Both methodologies have their own benefits and challenges  and thus, can be selected according to the organizational differences. 

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