Methodology Design

The focus of this section is how project methodologies can be developed to support projects in a company. Developing a project methodology and adapting it to the situation often deal with changes on many levels changes in culture, processes, and information systems. A culture can provide project teams with a shared frame of reference and facilitate communication. The processes can provide a structure of activities in the projects, which helps new employees and can provide a common language. Information systems may be linked to the process and provide the tools that influence the daily work.

The research is based on active participation during the development of a methodology for product development. The case illustrates the tendency to focus on the process level and underestimate the importance of influencing the culture and adapting the current system to the new envisaged processes. The results are analyzed to provide

increased understanding of the success factors when new project methodology is to be developed. The aim is to create a framework that can be used by companies that want to develop a project methodology or improve their existing project methodology.

With any new process, the way an organization works and its entire culture changes. Hence, it becomes crucial that the project manager not only develop the project management processes themselves but also create:

Deployment plans.

These elements facilitate cultural change in a company and are fundamental to a successful project management deployment. You should not reinvent the wheel for each client engagement. Tailor project management processes that best suit your needs. The project manager should understand business processes and be able to merge them with current and tested best practices to quickly and effectively produce a tailored, client-specific set of project processes. Its not easy developing processes is a science in itself. The question is: Do you have time to implement these processes on your own? Or, is your time running out? How much help is needed to design these processes to support your project framework?

Support plans.

Communications plans.

Project Methodologies Demystified

We now examine the relationship between methodology size, project size, and problem size. This discussion can be tricky because there is a tendency to think that more people must solve larger problems.

Project size and methodology are connected by a positive feedback loop. With relatively few people, relatively little methodology is needed. With less weight, they work more productively. With greater productivity, they can address a larger problem with their smaller team and lighter methodology. On the other hand, when more people are assigned to a project, they need more coordination (i.e., more methodology). The heavier methodology lowers their productivity; therefore, more people are needed to accomplish the same work. Methodology grows more slowly than project size, so eventually they get to a point where they can solve the problem and manage the coordination activities (assuming sensible management).

Therefore, for a given problem, you need fewer people if you use a lighter methodology and more people if you use a heavier methodology. However, there is a limit to the size of problem that can be solved with a given number of people, and that limit is higher for a large team using a heavier methodology than for a small team using a lighter methodology (i.e., at some point, you will need both a large team and a heavier methodology). The difficulty is that there is no reliable way to determine the problem size at the start of a project and no way to know the minimum number of people needed to solve it. The number of people varies with the people in question. Finally, as the project grows in size, a different combination of methodology and project size becomes optimal.

To begin to consider what constitutes a good and effective project management or development methodology, you need to clearly understand what phases are available to use, within all the project and development methodologies that face you as a project manager. The most common phases you would likely encounter when discussing or designing a methodology are discussed in the following sections.

Discovery/Concept/Idea

A well-conceived idea is the creative stuff that makes everything important. Its why the project started in the first place. There is no launch if there is no acceptable initial idea. Brainstorming is an effective technique to help you develop a prime idea. Be aware of the effect that the external environment (customers, competitors, market, etc.) has on the idea. In the concept stage, the exact definition of the idea and strategy is derived. The objective is to develop a protocol with defined target markets, product concepts, and attributes.

Engagement/Concept

Because each project is unique and must be approached very differently from the next because of client requirements and demands, in the engagement or concept phase, the project manager and sales executive actually meet with the client and discuss possibilities and begin to extend the communications process between the parties involved. This is often the most important phase as it sets the standard going forward. This can initially be a single occurrence or a series of meetings that brings the stakeholders together. It identifies key role players in the project and starts setting responsibilities.