8 Project Processes to Amp Up Performance
Large projects with many steps and multiple teams performing the work can quickly devolve into a mire of confusion if managers aren’t careful. That’s why project processes are so important, because they keep everything on track, ensure employees are accountable to their superiors and the work that is expected of them, and provide valuable tools for oversight, communication and documentation. Below are some of the best project processes to take your organization’s performance to the next level.
8 Project Process To Amp Up Performance
1. Define the Project and Project Processes
Everyone must be on board with the project, including managers, team members and clients. You can help ensure that everyone understands what’s going to happen by defining the project and the processes you will use well.
2. Plan the Work
Once you’ve defined your project, you need to break it down into manageable pieces of work according to their completion date. This is one of the most important project processes, and you should not just assume that “everyone will just know what to do.”
3. Manage Risks
Good organizations assess risk, the likelihood it will occur, its possible impacts, and the best ways to reduce it before the project even starts. By doing so, they reduce the chance a problem will occur and know how to deal with it if it does.
4. Manage Scope
Scope can get wildly out of control if you do not put strong parameters on it from the beginning. Define what the project covers, and what will happen and how much it will cost if the client wants to change the terms of that project.
5. Manage Issues and Change
When problems or the necessity of change crops up, you must be ready. Define how you will deal with changes and problems before they crop up.
6. Manage Communication and Documentation
Your organization should have a specified approach to communication and documentation. This allows you to keep tempers in check, manage disputes, solve problems and create audit trails.
7. Form Quality Standards and Protocols
Quality standards keep the work up to par, reduce the chances of problems and maintain your image.
8. Track and Analyze Data
Data is the gateway to more efficient project processes in future, as well as your current ability to stay on track. Regularly harvest data to ensure you’re approaching projects appropriately.
Key Takeaways
- Project processes streamline work, keep people accountable and protect the timeline.
- They give managers a bird’s eye view throughout the life of the project.
- Project processes enable organizations to manage issues, change, risks and scope that might otherwise endanger the project.
- By enabling better communication and documentation, the project functions more smoothly and creating audit trails becomes much easier.
Of course, learning new project processes isn’t simple, but by implementing the ones listed above, you will enable your organization to work better and smarter, with fewer interruptions, problems and risks, and less danger of the project falling apart when you do encounter them.