Unravelling Tailoring in Project Management
Tailoring in Project Management has really made it possible for any organisation to adopt Project Management as a tool to customise project management principles in order to suit the objectives of the project that they have at hand.
Project Managers, in carrying out their works always apply methodologies in order to have a successful Project. A Methodology can be seen as a system of practices, techniques, procedures and rules used by those who work in a discipline. From this definition, it is clear that Project Management Guide is just a guide and not a methodology.
The PMBOK Guide principles are recommended references for tailoring in Project management. What the PMBOK Guide presents are documents that recommend best practices for managing any kind of project.
The so-called “Good practices” does not mean that the knowledge described in the PMBOK Guide should always be applied dogmatically to any project.
It should be noted that Project Management methodologies for projects can be:
#1 Developed by Experts
In project management practices, it is recommended that Subject matter Experts (SMEs) in a given organisation can come up with blueprints that will guide how a project will run in that particular organisation. They can now use the PMBOK guide to tailor it so as to be sure that they are adopting best practices.
#2 Purchase from Vendors
It is also possible for organisations to purchase Project Management tools and templates from Vendors which will also allow them to manage their project successfully. This project management tool or software might be PMBOK/PMI compliant or not. The bottom line is that such tools must assist the organisation to run a successful project.s
#3 Professional Association
When carrying out Tailoring in Project management, it is also possible that one can obtain project management tool from professional bodies. Take, for example, it will be very difficult for a non-Engineer to run a Civil Engineering Project successfully without input from a Professional Engineer. That is why Tailoring becomes necessary.
#4 Government Agencies
A Tailor-made Project Management tool can also be obtained from government agencies. Sometimes due to incessant havoc caused by operations of Quacks, some government agencies have tried to come up with tools that can assist Project Managers in running a successful project in a given area.
To run a successful Project at times, it is important that appropriate processes, inputs, tools and techniques, outputs and lifecycle tool should be selected in order to manage a project successfully. This is what we often call Tailoring in Project Management. The Project manager needs to collaborate with different stakeholders in order to do tailoring successfully. Most at times, it may lead to the adoption of a specific methodology for the project.
There is a need to introduce Tailoring in Project management because every project is unique. You should note that it is not every tool and techniques or processes introduced in project management that are needed for a project. In introducing Tailoring to projects, you have to make sure it addresses the competing constraints of scope, schedule, cost, resources, cost, quality and risk in a project.
There is a need for you to also understand that the importance of each constraint is different for every project. The Project Manager, therefore, needs to approach Tailoring based on the project environment, organisational culture, stakeholders, needs and other variables that can affect the project.
Tailoring a project should also affect the governance procedure in a project. There is a need for the Project manager to also consider the organisational culture in which he founds himself. He also has to consider whether he is dealing with internal or external customers. This will largely affect the decision-making mechanism for the project.
Above all, sound project methodologies also consider the unique nature of projects. Above all, if you are using a tailored solution to manage your project, you still have to consider additional tailoring so that the solution will work perfectly for your project.
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