Project Management

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Innovation is the key to staying ahead of the game in e-commerce, and successful companies continually engage in new projects, whether to design a new product, to implement a new business practice or operating procedure, or any other new endeavor. Project management is the science of keeping projects focused, on schedule, and profitable. Project managers are charged with keeping costs down and logistical problems under control, reinforcing the project's goals, keeping all those working on the project motivated and focused, and seeing that the project reaches its ultimate goals.

The research firm Gartner Group reported in 2002 that half of all information technology projects failed to meet their objectives, while Boston-based Aberdeen Group Inc. estimated that fully 30 percent were abandoned before completion, and 90 percent of those completed were delivered behind schedule.

MAPPING YOUR PROJECT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Without clearly defined project management processes and procedures, a series of slight inefficiencies can quickly add up and send a project's budget spiraling out of control. Thus, clearly codified processes need to be implemented and enforced from the outset. These codes can include everything from the format and direction of communications within the project to the operating rules of meetings.

The discovery process is the initial stage of the project. During discovery, you find out exactly what it is you have to work with, what needs to be done, what obstacles might be in the way, what support you can expect, what resources are at your disposal, and what kind of people and expertise will be available for the project. In the discovery process, you also begin building relationships between all the parties, outline the criteria for the project, begin delineating strategies and processes for setting the project in motion, and getting a feel for the overall environment within which the project will be conducted.

Over time, your projects need credibility if they are to gain the team's buy-in, and, ultimately, if they will succeed. To achieve credibility, you need to demonstrate that your project is worth doing, will add value to the firm, is well-grounded, well-planned, and well-executed. At the outset, you should spell out for all project stakeholders what a successful completion of the project will look like and what it will do for the firm.

A few staples of project management continue to flourish in the e-commerce era, including daily progress reports; continuous feedback; strictly codified routines, processes, and methodologies; and strict, inflexible budgeting. Techniques like these allow project managers to keep a close eye on the project team's progress, and ensure that their work doesn't stray too far away from its intended purpose. Because individuals working on disparate, narrowly focused problems tend to break off onto their own paths, it's important to assign a taskmaster to oversee the project and make sure each individual keeps their work directed at the project's goals.

A good project manager is close enough to the project's demands and employees that he or she can have intimate knowledge of the process and of the employees' concerns. On the other hand, the project manager should have enough familiarity with larger company priorities—and a stake in the firm's success—to keep the project on track without pitting the team against the management.

The organized flow of information through the project team is a final key element in successful project management. Knowledge management is sharing knowledge and information in an efficient and productive manner, and aims at the elimination of redundancy within the project. Employees can build on accumulated knowledge to devise solutions to new problems, rather than continually starting from scratch. To aid this process, you may wish to quantify and classify your firm's problem-solving techniques and approaches to various business situations, and take an inventory of the expertise existing among its employee ranks.

SOFTWARE

A bevy of software packages to aid in project management are available. These packages can assist managers in keeping tabs on and organizing all the processes and concerns involved in the project. Project-and resource-tracking software, for instance, lets you organize tasks in a hierarchical list, and under each task and subtask you define the resources, budget, employees, and assignments. In addition, you can enter priorities for which tasks need to be completed first, and then configure how best to allocate all available resources toward that end. Time-tracking software allows for detailed overviews of where time is being spent and lost on your project, so you can spot and weed out inefficiencies. Bug-tracking and version-control software helps you keep track of all the software and hardware being employed in by all members of a project team, so you can coordinate your systems and applications for the greatest efficiency. This can, for instance, ensure that all members of one committee are operating with the same version of a particular software application, and that no one is using equipment that is incompatible with the project needs.

But as analysts repeatedly point out, project-management software does not make for good project management. Rather, they are mere tools that, in the hands of a strong project manager with a sound strategy, can help generate increased efficiency and meet goals.