Driving Project Management Success: How to Steer Towards Visualisation and Collaboration
Ongoing change is a challenge faced by most businesses. Whether it be improving current systems, adapting processes, launching new services or upskilling team members, change is fundamental to organisations meeting their strategic goals. However, organisational change does not happen overnight: it requires successful and effective project management.
Globally, just 46% of organisations ensure that project management is an embedded cultural priority, despite research highlighting that mature project management processes make an organisation far more likely to deliver on time and under budget [1].
Project management success can be defined as whether a project has fulfilled the goal it set out to achieve. Key stakeholders play an important role in determining whether a project has added value and met its strategic goals, which is why stakeholder buy-in is essential in achieving project management success.
This is not always as straightforward as it seems. Throughout the evolution of a project from initiation to close there is a balancing act of competing demands of quality, scope, cost, and time. This inevitably requires ongoing adaptation of specifications, plans, and approaches to ensure that the expectations of all key stakeholders are met, including the client and the end-user.
Why Do Projects Fail?
To understand how projects succeed, we must first consider why they fail. When building the Airbus A380, multiple production teams across the globe were required to build individual parts of the plane. However, these teams used different computer-aided design programmes. Due to this lack of team alignment and coordination, there was a miscommunication of task requirements and Airbus ended up spending $6 billion to fix the project after they discovered the individual parts did not fit together [2].
Even though projects are set out with the goals and intentions to drive organisations forward, without the correct management structures, these projects do not always succeed. According to a global survey of 1,000 project owners and managers (from client organisations, contractors and project management consultancies), 66% of large construction and engineering projects are unsuccessful. These projects did not fulfil at least one of their time, cost, or quality objectives [3].
Project success is measured by outcomes – did the project get delivered on time? Within budget? To a satisfactory level? But in some instances, a 100% success rate is not necessarily ideal, since it may mean that the challenges the project initially set out to accomplish are not ambitious enough . Failing for the right reasons, such as setting stretch goals (high effort and high-risk to attract exponential rewards and experience) to inspire forward momentum results in an opportunity to learn and improve. Analysing these lessons learned is critical in the project management process and helps ensure future successes.
Collaboration and Efficient Communication
As per the Airbus A380 project failure example, team collaboration and effective communication are fundamental to the success of a project. This is of particular importance today due to the increased prevalence of hybrid working and the possibility of conducting entire projects remotely.
Most projects rely on a combination of communication tools such as Teams, Zoom, face-to-face meetings and live document sharing and storage. This makes it even more important to align on which communication channels will be used in a project, the frequency of reporting and communication governance and cadence. A survey of 1,000 US Employees found that 63% of workers do not think they have enough chance to complete their project activities to a high standard and that 41% felt that message notifications from platforms such as Slack or Email are an obstacle to productivity. Having a clear communication plan enables project managers to redirect their time from chasing information to tackling their project objectives. Within the communication plan, it is important to determine the frequency, channel, owner and audience for each communication type (i.e. working team touchpoints, project status updates, executive-level updates). Stakeholder buy-in and reinforcement can be achieved through solidifying a communication strategy. Being able to effectively relay the objectives, updates and benefits of a project to key stakeholders is important and can help drive project success.
Visualisation and Digital Tools
Using tools can be an effective way to enhance communication and collaboration capabilities within projects. There are a plethora of digital collaboration tools that allow for live planning, tracking (task and resource) and enhanced governance. Intuitive tools and software minimise the risk of mistakes and, if set up correctly, can create visual overviews of all relevant KPIs, milestones and timelines at the click of a button. Project Management Visualisation is transforming projects into highly visible processes to help drive their success. This is of particular importance when a project encounters a requirement for change. For every new scenario the project encounters, the better the various stages of the project management process can be visualised, providing greater clarity into what is driving your project forward at any time.
Visualisation allows for fluidity in management and enhancement of outcomes by making projects accessible. Manipulating real-time information graphically and emphasising beneficial features in a visual context can be highly beneficial. This level of visualisation facilitates the process of securing stakeholder buy-in and enhances collaboration by bringing all group members and stakeholders onto the same page and breaking down key project components into manageable pieces of information.
Visualisation and digital tools can be used in the initiation and project planning phases of a project. For example, building out a Gantt chart is an effective method to demonstrate deliverables, tasks, subtasks, milestones, deadlines, and resources.
Evidence suggests that project success is synonymous with the implementation of emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools. In the construction and engineering project management sector, projects that have started using artificial intelligence to automate processes have shown improvements in meeting time (61%) and quality (79%) objectives [3].
What should not be underestimated is the value that people and conversations can bring to project management. We cannot simply rely on AI, digital visualisation and tracking tools to run the project for us. Project management success lies in the hands of those managing and delivering the project.
With this in mind, Deecon prides itself first and foremost on the knowledge of its experts. Our project management expertise combines technology with communication and collaboration to ensure our client’s projects are delivered to the highest quality, on time, and on budget.
Nick Ralph recently joined our Senior Leadership Team. Nick is a Project and Commercial Director with 30 years of experience in the Construction and Utilities Industry. Professional qualifications in both quantity surveying and project management have enabled Nick to provide expert advice and guidance across all aspects of project delivery, providing value to the client and assisting in key resource management and development.