How to Implement Project Management Best Practice

I shivered in the cold air as I watched Nick Faldo swing back the golf club, pause for an instant, then uncoil his body to whip the club round and hit the bright white ball, which flew off into the grey morning mist. He had been repeating exactly the same shot for the last twenty minutes, as he prepared for the first round of the Open Golf Tournament. Each time the ball had followed the same perfect trajectory. As I was herded by a steward towards the spectator stand, I began to think, if only I could manage my projects at work with the same ruthless, repetitive efficiency.

The pro’s perfect golf swings are, in effect, a best practice. In theory, anyone with reasonable dexterity and physical prowess could be taught the same sequence of movements. In practise, as any amateur golfer knows, this is very difficult to do. No matter how much coaching you have, it still takes enormous dedication to consistently hit the perfect shot.

And so it is with our project management methods, whether they are Prince2, the PMI’s PMBOK, or any of the other recognised approaches. On initial inspection the theory looks easy to apply.  Prince2, for example, tells us that our projects should have a controlled start and end, that we need a business case to justify them and after things have finished we should review the outcome to see if we have achieved the benefits we expected.  This seems easy to understand, so why is it then that we see best practice often implemented badly? Why is best practice so hard to practise?

In my own experience with Prince2 and the PMBOK I have seen some places really boost project performance by using the methods. Other places have used them in a way that has not helped at all and even been detrimental to the outcome. Why should that be? In my opinion this is because in the former case the organisations have taken into account key guiding principles in the application of the methodologies. I think exploring what these are is an important area for project management. Over the next few paragraphs I have highlighted four points I have found useful.

One of the first challenges for the project manager, when implementing the theory, can be the attitude of the senior management above them. Too often I have seen project management methodologies disregarded by directors. On reflection this seems strange; surely senior management want profitable projects that achieve their aims. Best practice should ensure this happens. The problem is frustrating for new project managers, but with the benefit of experience I think it is caused by a lack of understanding within senior management on how to use these approaches within their departments. The solution may be to educate them on how the methods can improve their organisation’s project performance.

A good start is to arrange a short training session with the senior managers involved. Obviously they do not need to be taught the whole method.  But they do need to understand when their involvement is needed, what information they should expect to see and what are their responsibilities. They also need to “buy in” to the best practice, so part of this session should focus on how the approach will help the project run smoothly and how they can control things without the need for a lot of their time.
So guideline number one is:
ENSURE SENIOR MANAGEMENT UNDERSTANDING AND INVOLVEMENT

One of the other major challenges with Prince2 is its complexity: the manual is four hundred and forty pages long and this is typical of many of the methodologies. I am a Prince2 trainer and during a weeklong course I see the pain on the delegates faces as they realise how much they have to know to pass the exam. During the five days most of them do gain a good understanding of how to apply the theory but the problem really occurs when they get back to work. Within several months the information, unless used immediately and rigorously, is gradually forgotten or confused.

Making sure that those using the methodology have the opportunity for regular coaching is critical. Nick Faldo would not dream of having a week’s training on his golf swing and then have no follow-up coaching. Most of the top golf professionals will have daily instruction. Daily Prince2 courses might be a bit much, but scheduling in regular sessions can be of enormous benefit, especially when they allow project managers to talk through the difficulties they might be having in applying the methods.
So guideline number two is:
REGULAR COACHING ON HOW TO USE THE BEST PRACTICE

Many of the people working on the project will not have done any training at all in the best practice. Indeed it is usually only the project managers who will have been taught. Team members, who do not know why the approach is being used, particularly if they are only a small part of a large project, can view the method as an irritating overhead on their time. They may question why they have to fill out all these forms or produce these reports and stop doing them.

So we need some tailored training for all those who will work within the methodology. This does not have to be a big event. It might be just a half hour chat with a handout. Also people are much more likely to do something if they are motivated by self-interest, so we should show them how they will benefit from using the approach. So guideline number three is:
TAILORED TRAINING AND SELLING OF THE BENEFITS TO ALL THOSE WHO WILL BE WORKING WITHIN THE BEST PRACTICE FRAMEWORK

Perhaps one of the biggest misunderstandings of best practice approaches is the fact that they can be flexed depending on the situation. An example of this confusion is when, on a small project, reams of management documentation are produced and people are constantly going to interminably long meetings. What many organisations fail to count is the cost of actually implementing the method itself.

Think back to the golf analogy: if Nick Faldo were playing in a friendly match, each time he played a shot he would probably make a quick estimate of which club to use and bang, the ball would be next to the hole. However, take the same shot if he was playing in the Open. Firstly the caddy takes out a sheet of statistics showing what clubs Faldo has used here before, they look at the course map for an estimate of the distance to the hole, Faldo picks up some grass and throws it up to estimate the wind strength and direction and so on until eventually the process produces a club selection.  Then Faldo makes a practise swing and finally hits the ball. The risks and benefits are higher, so the best practice is applied to the full.

So the key here is to apply the best practice to the extent that makes sense for the situation. Be flexible in your approach and understand how the method can be tailored to the size, complexity and importance of the project.
So the last guideline is:
ALLOW FLEXIBILITY IN HOW THE BEST PRACTICE IS APPLIED

For me following these simple guidelines has helped to take the theory of best practices and use them pragmatically to make a significant contribution to projects. Gary Player once said about golf, “Its funny the harder I practise, the luckier I get”. Well maybe the more best practice we can implement into our projects the luckier we can become as project managers!

© 2008 David Hinde