Project Businesses: Work Smarter, Not Harder

No matter what type of project you do, if the core of what you do are projects, you are a Project Business. And as a Project Business, how productive and successful you are depends on how you structure, organize, and support your business processes.

As mentioned in a previous blog, once you identify as a Project Business, it’s easier to see how you can improve, and identify what solutions are possible.

This is the fifth blog of a seven-part blog series (see the fourth blog here) that discusses why productivity in Project Business has flatlined by addressing the seven challenges of a Project Business.

Challenge #5: Optimization of Project Management Silos Has Maxed Out

Over the past 30 years or so, there has been a lot of effort in trying to squeeze as much efficiency out of what we call silos. These silos include the different aspects of project management that are managed in spreadsheets and point solutions that make up the fragmented data landscape. For example, there have been lots of bells and whistles added to project management apps to make a process a step shorter or automate one thing or another. However, these improvements are limited in scope to that silo. As a result, the business overall doesn’t improve that much.

Oftentimes, Project Businesses put a lot of effort into seeing improvement in their planning accuracy or budget management. And while there are different ways of doing an earned value analysis that provides you with a metric you can use that’s better than the last, many Project Businesses are conducting calculations in different systems completely unrelated to each other, causing delays and errors.

It’s a waste of time and effort trying to optimize these individual silos, according to Henrik Lerkenfeld, VP of Engineering at Adeaca. Rather, it’s time to focus on optimizing the net total of all the silos and think of the enterprise as a whole.

“Instead of thinking of project planning, project reforecasting, and project estimation, think of managing projects as an enterprise, as an organization,” he said.

When all your prerequisites for Earned Value Management (EVM) live in a single integrated system, you are not only able to access earned value data that is readily available, but also EVM data that is generated by and maintained within transparent, auditable, and managed processes. Essentially, everyone works off one source of truth, which puts everyone on the same page.

Demand More, Do Better

Change can be difficult, especially if you have continued to do the same thing for decades. But when the goal is to complete projects on time and within budget, ensuring your Project Business processes are as efficient as they can be is key. Don’t waste time trying to optimize your different project management applications. Implement a single integrated solution that manages all your different Project Business processes and your gains will be significant.

Download the Project Business Automation Blueprint to learn more about creating a comprehensive business system for your Project Business.