METHODOLOGY

Don’t let chaos and confusion doom your projects

Projects are hard enough on their own but without a plan they can be chaotic. I once worked with a company that had just signed three large work contracts. These new contracts were going to improve the company’s revenue stream and that meant additional work and a number of radical changes in the company’s operating approach.

One of those changes was adding significant space to their warehouse. And so, a construction team was brought on board. Among the changes to the warehouse that needed to be made, was the addition of customized equipment. After scrambling to understand what equipment was needed and how to best acquire it, there was operational technology that needed re-working, and hiring, on-boarding and training that needed to be done.

All of these tasks were being worked on by their respective departments and needed to be completed in-order to prepare for the new work. Here’s how it panned out.

Gradually, the customized equipment arrived, but it didn’t work as specified. This major issue resulted in arguments and finger pointing between the different manufacturing companies used and the technology team. All the while, the hiring was completed but training was inadequate and the on-boarding process still wasn’t done. Needless to say, tensions were high, complaints were increasingly vocal, and the new employees felt inefficient and unable to help.

It’s not an unusual scenario in the business world. But many of the problems could have been avoided by using a consistent methodology and language. The technology team was complaining about poorly defined user stories. The manufacturing companies were clueless when the technology team started talking about user stories. The contractors claimed to be on schedule, but a number of deadlines had been missed and the warehouse was not ready when the equipment began arriving. The people in human resources were being incredibly agile, and had no timeline for when new hires would be trained.

This is where the Smart Projex Methodology helps. We teach your teams to create project processes and follow a methodology that works during chaotic times. We teach your teams to speak the same language to improve your communications.