Where Do Organizations Struggle? Part 1

OK, so organizations struggle with project management software. How? What situations do organizations typically find themselves in, so that we can then address topics to deal with those struggles? I am going to attempt to categorize typical scenarios that I have found.

The first scenario are those organizations that have no project management tools right now. When I have given talks, in order to interject some fun, I have labeled this category "Cucumbers". Why did I pick cucumbers? Because I was looking for something that signified not having much going for it, and I happened to see "Larry the Cucumber", one of my kid's stuffed characters. A cucumber has no arms, no legs, no hair...there's just not much there, with all due respect to Larry.

Similarly, organizations with no project management tools don't have much to work with. Now for some organizations that's ok, because they don't have many people or many projects, or there just isn't any level of complexity. But for most organizations in this scenario issues pop up in different forms. Perhaps "Susan" is walking down the hall and gets asked "How are we doing with Report XYZ for Company ABC?" Susan may say something to get herself off the hook initially, but then rifles through her pads of paper trying to find the notes because she cannot remember. Or perhaps she walks through the office asking people what is going on. Missing deadlines, deliverables slipping through the cracks, no one really knows what's going on or what people are doing are all symptoms.

Is this you? Do you experience anything like this in your own organization?

Next, we'll look at the second scenario. Later, we'll begin to look at ideas to address issues that these scenarios represent.

Comments

[Mike C]

Hi,One of the key issues when adding project management into a company is to make sure it fits into the culture and existing processes as much as possible. The other important thing to remember is that this is a change and requires change management skills.Most senior managers understand the need and the value, but not everyone is willing to adapt their behavior to fit with the new process.Mike CrockerDepartment of Doing

[Project Management Software Blog]

Mike,I agree! Were dealing more with the software / tool side of things but they obviously all interrelate. Organizations that deal with the culture and existing processes to incorporate good project management are much more successful at implementing tools, because the tools are simply supporting the organization, and are not the focal point. Although I have seen where sometimes the tool can be used to expose, identify, and help people engage in the process of defining processes, etc.