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Tag: Technical Project Management

To-Be or Not-To-Be AGILE!

Written by Nehal Padia on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on To-Be or Not-To-Be AGILE!

If you are one of the ones that face this unusual predicament when embarking on a new project to figure out if you can deliver

all the way using Agile or to go complete Waterfall (Predictive), this article might help you get some headwinds.

I have been managing and executing projects of various scales for the past 17 years and frankly the project management landscape has evolved so much during this time with various new Agile methodologies emerging helping us all make efficient use of resources and time. However, with so much choice it has also made it equally difficult to understand which project management life cycle to use when in order to get the most optimized results. Thankfully for us, PMI has identified four different distinct project management life cycles and with guidelines on which one to use when.

The following sections will review the four different project management life cycles, their advantages and when to use them with an example inspired from food.

Project Management Life Cycles

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Predictive

Predictive project life cycle takes advantage of things that are known and proven over time and hence help reduce uncertainty and manage overall cost.

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Advantages

  • Requirements are fixed.
  • An activity is performed only once for the entire project.
  • Single delivery at the end.
  • Effective in managing cost.

Example: Packaged Food

Packaged food process goes through a very predictive life cycle wherein the product, their recipes and ingredients are fixed which go through a standardized conveyor belt predefined process that is expected to yield the same output for each food packet with the same recipe. The entire process is designed for cost efficiency.

Iterative

Iterative project life cycle allows for feedback on partially completed or unfinished work to adjust for a desired outcome at the end.

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Advantages

  • Requirements are dynamic.
  • Activities are repeated until correct.
  • Single delivery at the end.
  • Effective in getting the desired outcome.
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Example: Developing a new food recipe

The food research and development (R&D) process that is working towards building a new recipe falls under this bucket. In the process a combination of new ingredients and different quantities are tested several times before the final optimum recipe is discovered. The entire process is designed to help discover that optimum recipe at the end.

Incremental

Incremental project life cycle provides finished deliverable that the customer may be able to use immediately.

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Advantages

  • Requirements are dynamic.
  • Activities are performed once for a given increment.
  • Frequent smaller deliverables.
  • Effective in speed.

Example: Restaurant Food

The restaurant process falls under this bucket wherein a customer could potentially order any dish from the menu which needs to be served in the next few mins on the table. The order is prepared only after its been placed and the chef would use a predefined restaurant recipe to prepare the dish.

Agile

Agile project life cycle leverages both the aspects of iterative and incremental characteristics. In this approach teams iterate over the product by getting periodic feedback from the end user. Also, teams prioritize the most valuable changes first providing an immediate return on investment.

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Advantages

  • Requirements are dynamic.
  • Activities are repeated until correct.
  • Frequent smaller deliverables.
  • Effective in getting customer value via frequent deliveries and feedback.

Example: Home Cooked Meal

This one is my favorite, for a home cooked meal no two requests are the same as it could be a Pizza one day and Pasta the other or you might be cooking for a completely new cuisine altogether. Everything is variable for each home cooked meal you prepare, from your number of guests to ingredients and recipes that are influenced by the cuisines and prior knowledge or experience on them all with a singular goal to prepare that most delicious meal for the entire family.

Conclusion

In my experience, most projects fluctuate between Predictive and Agile life cycles primarily due to the nature of all the complexities that go into delivering that final finished outcome for a specific industry, sector or type of product. There are also times when you could have a largely Predictive project with components of other life cycles within it. For instance, drug manufacturing could use Iterative cycle life for R&D portion however overall still be Predictive as it requires funding process in the beginning and FDA approval at the end which are more linear in nature.

Personally, I don’t think there’s a single best life cycle, they all have their pros/cons and there’s a time and place for its most effective use. However, I sincerely hope this article was able to at least help solve that predicament we started with, which is to-be or not-to-be Agile for your next project.

The AGILE approach in project management

Written by Léo Garvey on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on The AGILE approach in project management

Whether you are a project manager or involved in the field of project management, you must have heard or applied the Agile method.

If it is the case, the subject of this article will seem familiar to you. If you are not familiar with the subject, don’t panic! This article will explain this approach to you in a simple way so that you can tame it.

Are you ready? Then let’s do it!

The Agile approach

When talking about project management it is common to think about planning. This is indeed an essential point in traditional project management methods. It is often said that 20% of the project’s time should be devoted to planning and that project that is not sufficiently planned is more likely to fail. On this point the Agile method differs. According to the Agile approach, too much planning in the long term would be counterproductive. Especially since a project generally never goes as planned. Imagine planning a vacation for a month an unexpected event disrupts everything, or even makes the planning obsolete. Frustrating, isn’t it?

The second major difference is in the reasoning. In an Agile approach the reasoning is more in relation to the product than to the project. The goal is to deliver the most accomplished product as close as possible to the customer’s expectations. With the Agile methodology, the place given to the customer is not the same as in traditional project management because the project team maintains a close collaboration with the customer. In a traditional project management approach, the customer is mainly involved at the beginning of the project when he gives his expectation and at the end, when the product is delivered. In an Agile approach there is an ongoing relationship with the customer in the development of the product. He is involved from the beginning to the end of the project and is in direct contact with the collaborators of the project. Customer satisfaction must be the first concern of the team.

Another element of differentiation is the special concern for communication. Indeed, face-to-face interactions are preferred to other means of communication. This allows a better transmission of information between the different parties and therefore, more efficiency.

Finally, unlike traditional project management methods, the Agile approach accepts the unexpected as well as requests for changes encountered along the way. This is one of the main principles of this method: constructive changes must be accepted, even if they arrive late in the project or at the end. They represent an added value that will bring the product closer to the customer’s expectations.

The Agile way of working

Let us now look at how it works in a little more detail.

At the start of the project, the project team meets with the customer to discuss their expectations regarding the product and the specifics to be brought to the table. The goal is to understand what the customer wants to achieve and to determine the tasks to be carried out.

From there the project will be broken down into several short-term cycles called iterations. The project team sets a first objective to achieve for the first iteration. Behind this objective is a set of tasks to be accomplished. These tasks are selected in order of priority in the product development. The team then launches directly the development by self-organizing itself to gain even more efficiency.

Once the first objective has been reached, a first version of the product is ready to be presented to the client. Of course, the product is only partially realized, but it is already in working order. At the end of each iteration a new version of the product is presented, either with new features or with improvements. This way of working allows to progress step by step in an empirical way, to reduce the risks linked to the project and to have a feedback from the customer throughout the development. The customer gives feedback on what has been achieved, he can also ask for changes to be made or make some adjustments if necessary. The project team also meets following every iteration to look back on what has been done to improve the product for the next iteration. The Agile method is a race for efficiency.

Operating by iterations has another advantage. It makes it possible to put the product into production, even partially finished, in order to collect first opinions and feedbacks from users. Because the opinion of users is essential in the design of a product, this way of proceeding makes it possible to best meet their expectations.

Another specificity of this method is that it is possible to stop the project at any time. If at the end of an iteration the product is suitable for the customer, it is possible to stop the project development and deliver the product definitively. In this case if there are no financial means to continue the project, the product will not be completed but will still be functional in a partially finished version.

Project management tools compatible with the Agile approach

To accompany you in your Agile approach, web-based project management software such as Gouti are available. A tool like Gouti offers you a way to be in direct contact with the customers of your projects but also a method to be able to fix your projects on the short term as well as on the long term and an efficient and flexible way to manage your changes.

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Project agility

Illustration of Agility in Project Management

An example is better than a long speech, let’s illustrate roughly (I insist on roughly) the Agile approach through an example that will speak to everyone: the design of a classroom.

  • During the product meeting, the client explains that he wants a square classroom, with a door, 20 tables, 20 chairs, a chalkboard, carpet on the floor, 10 lamps on the ceiling and a light switch.
  • The project team meets. The priority is to deliver the classroom structure at the end of the first iteration. The first iteration begins, and all four walls are installed. A door is added, then the lamps, the switch and finally the carpet. It took three weeks. The classroom is presented to the client, he is satisfied with the result and adds that he would like to have four windows in the room.
  • The project team gets together, and the second iteration begins, the goal is now to install the windows and set up the room. The team starts by installing the windows, then they set up the board, the 20 tables and 20 chairs. Two weeks later, once the iteration is completed, the classroom is presented to the client again. Finally, the chalkboard no longer suits him, he would like to replace it with a felt board. On top of that he would like to add 10 tables and 10 chairs because there will be more students than expected in the room.
  • The team meets again, one of the skills of one of the team members has not been well exploited, they could have been more efficient on the installation of the tables. For the third iteration this skill will be highlighted. The goal this time is to add 10 tables, 10 chairs and replace the current table with a felt board. Once this is done the objective is achieved and the room is presented to the client. The client is satisfied, and the room can start welcoming students, nevertheless he would still like to add a video projector with a projection screen…

The project will go on and on until the final validation of the product.

The advantages

Compared to traditional project management methods, the Agile approach has several advantages that makes it attractive.

One of the most important is the flexibility brought to project management. By following iterations, the project team becomes more responsive to unforeseen events and change requests. This reduces risks as the project progresses step by step. It also allows the quality and reliability of the product to be enhanced by additions and improvements made gradually and according to feedback from the customer and users.

Iteration operation provides several additional benefits for the customer. He has continuous visibility on the project and can request adjustments and changes along the way before final delivery. He can also decide to put the product into production before it is completely finalized, because even if some specific features or functionalities are not yet present, it can already be used. By making the product available to users before it is fully completed, he can get feedbacks for possible additions or simple adjustments of the product.

A final advantage is the cost control. By moving forward step by step, it is easier to follow the evolution of your budget throughout the project. However, the Agile method is not necessarily the best when it comes to staying within a budget.

Disadvantages

Since Agile is based on planning by very short-term objectives and opens the door to requests for change, it is not the safest approach when a certain budget has to be followed. At the beginning of the project a provisional budget can be evaluated but it will vary throughout the life of the project. With each request for change or new addition desired the budget will change. This is a fact that can be unpredictable.

Another disadvantage can be the importance given to the customer. The fact that the client must be available and involved throughout the project can be problematic because they might not always be available.

Also, the emphasis on interaction and direct communication rather than written documentation can be a problem. Direct communication usually takes more time and means that the collaborators must be there in person to communicate which can sometimes be difficult or even impossible.

To summarize

This new approach to project management greatly differs from more traditional methods. It proposes a more autonomous and collaborative organization, with a focus on interactions and the human factor. The skills of each team member are used to the best of their abilities in order to become more and more efficient in the realization of a project.

The main preoccupation is refocused towards the satisfaction of both the client and the users, with a concern for reliability and quality.

Embracing technology to become a pandemic resilient team

Written by Dr Gennadii Miroshnikov on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on Embracing technology to become a pandemic resilient team

How technology could help project management teams to succeed in the unprecedented global remote working experiment during coronavirus pandemic.

The novel coronavirus is posing one of the greatest challenges to organizations around the globe. And the mitigation of its negative impact depends on how fast and effective the response is. The pandemic has already triggered the greatest remote working experiment in history. Therefore, smart adoption and use of technologies are critical for the appropriate response. The main characteristics of this approach are adaptability, agility, and learning.

Starting with inventory

A good starting point is to do an inventory of the existing IT infrastructure of your company and to understand what is already available across the organisation, what systems, apps, and tools are already being used by teams and how they feel about them. The resulting list should include not only the names of the systems recommended by other teams, but lessons learned, tips, and best practices for roll-out and examples of the usage. Focusing on already utilized systems allows you to significantly speed up the process of mass adoption, as the systems are already familiar to some teams and some volunteers will be ready to share their experience.

Digital Champions

The next step is to form a team of digital champions, enthusiastic early adopters who are happy to volunteer to share their knowledge. There are different possible ways to conduct knowledge sharing. It could be regular short walk-in show and tell sessions for example in the lunch and learn format, or it could be more detailed sessions by request. Running short webinars with demonstrations and screen shares could be another way and, in this case, it is always useful to record sessions and share the link with those who could not attend. It would be also helpful to create an e-hub, for instance in a form of a classified discussion forum, where anyone could ask questions and digital champions would be able to respond. A further development of this e-hub could be the growth of a knowledge base, which also promotes peer-to-peer learning across the organization.

Systems most commonly used to maintain the viability of remote teams include the well-known email systems, teamwork collaboration spaces, cloud storage, and video conferencing services.

Collaboration space

Chat-based workplace communication tools such as Microsoft Teams or Slack are designed to keep conversations organized and work collaboratively on documents. An important feature of the functionality of such systems is the ability to integrate with other applications that are necessary for the team to work, such as task management, project management tools, file sharing etc. Despite the popularity of systems like Microsoft Teams or Slack, it might be worthwhile for small teams to check alternative systems (e.g. Workplace from Facebook, Flock, HeySpace), some of which have free plans and are easier in deployment.

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Cloud Storage

Although teamwork hubs typically provide cloud storage and file collaboration capabilities, there are cases when a team will benefit from having separate cloud storage. As one example, this could be if there is a need for sharing files with external people. Having a transparent structure of files and folders with clear rules for ownership and granting access has a positive impact. Among the most popular solutions are OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox, and for small teams, it is quite possible to get a free tariff plan with limited disk space.

Virtual meetings

Many organizations have already been using Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, or Webex for virtual meetings and video calls. However, as a result of this pandemic, they have completely replaced offline meetings. Even a new term ‘over-zoomed’ has emerged demonstrating fatigue from the rapidly skyrocketing number of virtual meetings. When planning a virtual meeting, it is useful to think through its format, which will depend on the topic, the number of participants, and other factors. Meetings with a large number of participants will benefit from the appointment of a Chair or moderator and a notetaker. It is also important to build five minutes of chat into virtual meetings to ensure your team doesn’t lose “high touch”. Another approach to avoid or at least mitigate “over-zooming” is to implement interactive tools such as voting, whiteboards, non-verbal reactions, etc. For example, for a brainstorming session, the use of a free tool Padlet during meetings allows the posting of notes on a common page.

Don’t forget about fun

Another small tip is not to forget about fun and find time for informal communication with your colleagues. Friday’s evening quiz in WhatsApp, Jackbox over Zoom or a lunch-time 15 minutes HIIT workout over Skype, Slack or MS Teams with your colleagues are great ways to keep your team engaged and in good spirits.

11 lessons learned from automation rollouts

Written by laura robertson on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 11 lessons learned from automation rollouts

It is written based on my RPA project and programme experience over the last 5 years rolling out RPA with vendors such as UiPath, Pega Open Span and Thoughtonomy.

It is intended to give both higher level and more detailed lessons of what can go wrong (and right) in automation/RPA rollouts.

Lesson 1

Prioritisation and choice of the right process is key

This means a definitive Process description, plus the formulation of a questionnaire to assess automation feasibility using higher level and lower level questions as you go through the automation lifecycle. This evolves as more becomes known about the process. If the process to automate has not already been chosen this helps assess viability, but even if it has been chosen, this step can assess how appropriate the “as is” process is for automation

  • Process assessment Roadmap leading onto an automation plan should follow. This should help embed the changes for the longer term and lay the building blocks for building a Centre of Excellence, which is where RPA, along with other initiatives can be done at scale
  • Most importantly: Celebrate successes and build RPA from there – don’t start with the most complex process just because this has highest ROI – you will fail!

Lesson 2

Ensure you are solving the right problem, with the right toolset.

To be successful, you must first understand your success criteria. There is more than one reason to perform an automation project – to achieve better transparency of work in progress, to automate hand-offs between teams in an end to end process, to improve consistency and quality of processing, to increase capacity or to reduce cost. Understanding the outcome desired, and how this will be measured, is critical.

If you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail[1]. RPA is not the only automation approach available and will not always be the most appropriate. However, where legacy systems are involved, which do not have easily accessible APIs, where people play an essential role as the ‘glue’ between a number of systems, RPA may provide a quick and cost effective approach to automation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument

Lesson 3

Don’t do change management as an afterthought.

I have developed a “5R model” for this purpose based on my experience and learnings. The model looks to not only assess if the organisation is ready for change, but also whether reverting back to old habits/bad processes might occur. Are you really ready for this?

Lesson 4

RPA is rapid but it is not a miracle worker

You don’t have to have all the answers as an SME, but it helps to bring in an Automation Expert that does have the practical experience. Understanding RPA and its benefits will not turn a PM or a technical domain expert into an overnight developer. Get R&R quickly defined up front, a lot of the vendors suggest templates for that very reason. Ensure the training plan is clearly defined and realistic in the timeframe available

Lesson 5

Re-engineer first, if you can, but there is still a role for tactical initiatives

In the words of Michael Hammer, “don’t automate, obliterate”[2]. The greatest value comes from considering the end to end process – what changes upstream can eliminate the need for downstream work altogether. Indeed, automating just one isolated component of an end-to-end process might actually lead to ‘sub-optimisation’ problems. Ideally then, before considering automation we should take the opportunity to re-engineer our processes. The trouble is, process re-engineering and process improvement projects are most effective when they have access to objective process data. This may not be available. There is an argument to performing a tactical process automation project, perhaps implementation of BPM software for an existing process, to help gather empirical data about current process performance. This can provide the objective data that will facilitate future process improvement projects. A project may implement something “throwaway”, and still add considerable value.

[2] Michael Hammer, “Reengineering work: don’t automate, obliterate.” Harvard business review 68.4 (1990): 104-112

Lesson 6

Where possible become involved right at the start of the sales process.

  • Ensure you have a very clear understanding of how the project has been sold by the sales lead or the consultancy itself including timeline promises, deliverables, different pricing models offered and quality metrics
  • You need to get past the sales speak of the automation vendors and understand exactly what type of documents can be read and interpreted and which cannot. There is still a lot of development going on in this area and still a lot of over selling, not always by the vendors themselves

Lesson 7

Ensure you are aware which vendors operate at enterprise level versus those that are better catered to smaller offerings/SME.

Make a decision as to whether this digital initiative is a one off or something longer term and chose the automation vendor appropriately. Likewise does the vendor have extensive experience of enterprise applications like SAP. Is there agreement on how will changes in upstream systems be managed?

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Lesson 8

Beware of averages and snapshots; choose effective metrics

How long does a task typically take, how much effort is typically involved? Averages provide a convenient summary descriptive statistic, but they may hide interesting aspects of process performance. Rather than presenting averages, understand the distribution of your values. Boxplots provide a useful way to graphically summarise a distribution of values. When trying to understand why current performance of a process is unacceptable, you may need to examine the distribution not just the average.

How does the performance of your process change over time? Too often we think an increase or decrease in performance is noteworthy. Too often, managers provide commentary around things they really have no control over. A simple ‘run chart’ or ‘control chart’ helps you distinguish the true signals in your data, from normal process performance as a result of inherent variation.

This leads to the subject of metrics. The most useful process metrics are those which are leading, measure causes and are controllable. This is because they are measuring things which have an impact down the line, can be controlled/manipulated, and let you find out about them in enough time to be able to do something. In contrast, the very worst process metrics are those that are symptoms that you could never control in the first place, and which you find out about far too late anyway[3].

[3] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-bad-ugly-kpis-ian-g-macleod/

Lesson 9

Build a digital culture.

This means a shared ownership and prioritisation of the automation pipeline. Consider whether your business want to have a name for the new user id (ie the automation id) that will work alongside the human, or if you should choose this. Treat this as a hand off point to more skilled workers when the automation cannot resolve an issue, rather than an “us and them” worker scenario

  • Start a competition for the best automation name!
  • Ensure there is sufficient technical aptitude – plus interest – in your digitalised business to support it for the longer term. Spend time to define back up plans
  • Secure trailblazers and champions who will also come to present their positive experiences to senior management once the proof of concept is complete. These trailblazers should be carefully chosen but as an example could be secured from larger processing areas who are in a lot of pain with multiple customer complaints and potentially flailing SLAs

Lesson 10

Full understanding of automation service support model to ensure longevity and ROI is key

  • Ensure clear understanding of exceptions handling- or the business will make up their own exception rules with little to no technical expertise nor understanding of vendor technical constraints. Best practice (and to ensure proposed ROI) is to ensure a retry at least once by the automation OR to reassign the same transaction to another robot for retry; if the retry is unsuccessful, the task is assigned to a human and a level 1 alert is raised to report the exception.
  • Define your service support model and level 1-3 SLAs with a full understanding of the technical constraints of the vendor, working together with the relevant internal technical architects and IT support teams AND the business.

Lesson 11

Take security requirements into account upfront.

Are credentials stored in a secured repository and available to deployed robots via encrypted channels? Confirm all channels between deployed robotics, UI automation, linked applications and system servers are protected by high level encryption and SSL protocols. Ensure these match your own internal policies and procedures and no additional kit is required to have that security

And finally don’t try to do it alone! Some other articles and thought leaders are:

A bit more about Ian:

Ian is Head of Process Engineering at Insight Investment. He has a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science (AI), and a master’s in Technology Management. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Data Science, and his research relates to the application of agent based simulation to organisational and process modelling.

Ian’s career spans technology development, consulting, programme management and process improvement roles, in Defence, Investment Banking and Asset Management industries.

Although trained as a lean six sigma blackbelt, Ian’s approach is to adapt and use whatever proves to work. Ian does not believe in ‘cook book’ methods for success – since all organisations are different. Trial and error, systematic use of data, quick feedback cycles and a willingness to admit when you’re wrong, will help you find what works best for your particular organisation.

A bit more about me:

As an Investment Banking Operations SME for 10 years I had always been au fait with algorithmic trading and the benefits it provides through automation. Since 2014 I have been an independent Automation consultant: RPA has impacted my career and the evolving technology around it exponentially. I have recently completed a part time MBA in Technology Management through which I have been able to add even more value to my RPA rollouts. Soft skills are essential in RPA delivery and those who possess both technical and change management skills will feel right at home in this environment. This technology really does have the potential to changes lives. It allows you to partner with some cutting edge companies who are at the forefront of the digital revolution and take ownership of programmes, due to their initial small size, right from the start.

Yes there are still some industry pain points around over selling, security and scaling up, along with media negativity, but hopefully some of the above lessons will help navigate through the fog of information out there. Nobody lost their job due to the proliferation of mobiles – and in my experience to date – automation is no different.

Automation, if done correctly, really does free up humans to do what we were built for – creativity & innovation

4 Ways to Improve Your PM Efforts When Expanding Your Business

Written by Jacob Wilson on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on 4 Ways to Improve Your PM Efforts When Expanding Your Business

Running a company nowadays has become a fairly seamless process, especially if we rely on a number of digital, automation tools that help us stay on track with our chores and responsibilities.

We have email notifications, alerts for social media, analytics and reporting tools that collect and analyze relevant data for us, and we use cloud-based storage solutions to share data across borders with all of our clients and employees. When it comes to expanding your business, however, even with access to a vast number of tech tools, your ability to put them to good use will greatly shape how successful you’ll be in the process. 
Too many growing businesses fail to contain and streamline their growth and development through proper project management systems, and end up returning home defeated and wondering what went wrong. Sometimes, your local operations will suffer when the time comes to allocate funds and expertise to a new market, while at other times, you take a leap of faith without fully understanding the legalities and intricacies of any new market you’re about to penetrate. This is where optimal project management can make all the difference, when you know how to utilize it to your advantage.

Define your projects based on the market

No business chooses its new targets haphazardly. You already know how to recognize markets with great growth potential and spot where your brand fits well so that you can have a strong position in that new market. However, your projects will not be defined in accordance to the same old goals and key metrics you’ve automatically used for your local endeavors. It’s time to do some research and understand what makes this new market tick, and treat it like a unique project that it is.
Perhaps a project located abroad will require a greater budget (or a smaller one, for that matter), or maybe you’ll need to go through a series of projects before you can even start launching your business abroad. Have you adapted your logo and your brand voice to the new market? Is your team ready and trained to deliver work based on these new parameters? Expectations change based on each new market you wish to enter, so it pays to understand all the fine details you should take care of before you start creating automatized projects that have worked for you in the past. 

Choose the right tools for international operations

Not all project management tools are created equal. They might not be inherently better or worse, but they do fit certain criteria and certain business models, depending on your needs. In the case of companies looking to expand into new markets, you should look for scalable project management solutions that are easy to integrate with other technology you use. Not sure where to look for reliable PM tools that fit your needs? You can follow in the footsteps of companies that have similar needs and priorities. 
For example, Netflix uses Confluence for their project management needs, and we all know just how vast this content platform is, and how many ongoing projects they have on their plate. Maybe this particular example is too expansive for your taste, but researching what the world of PM has to offer will greatly help you find the finest solution for you. 
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Include your local partners

Expanding your company often means that you need to find and work with on-site partners of those new markets you wish to impress. Whether for legal, organizational, or resource purposes, partnering up entails changing your own internal structure so that you can exchange relevant information and collaborate effectively with your new partners scattered across the globe. 
For businesses eager to enter the Asian Pacific market, wanting to set up a local office may pose unique challenges from the perspective of legal ownership. In such instances, working with partners such as Invest Islands means you can get the right information on available real estate options, your legal rights, and how to proceed in terms of establishing yourself in Indonesia. In order to avoid delays in communication, missing files, and misunderstandings, using scalable PM tools in which you can include at least one representative of your partner can be useful in your endeavors to expand your business abroad. 

Monitor and reallocate your resources on the go

Although most well-established companies focus on deliverables almost exclusively when working on their projects, entering a new territory means that you cannot be certain your old project management approach works best. A certain level of flexibility within your project plans is a must. As the project unravels, you can see which teams need more resources, intellectual as well as financial, which deadlines are breached, and which tasks pose the greatest challenge for your employees. 
  • Refine your project goals depending on the market needs and your resource capabilities, and leave some “wiggle room” to make changes as each project moves forward.
  • Empower your employees to make changes when they see an opportunity, since micromanagement will not work in a growing business environment much like it never did even in a smaller business you once started.
  • Consider adding certified project managers to your teams, since running an international operation will always pose a far more complex challenge. 
  • Add post-project assessment, so that your analysis can benefit your future projects within the expansion. That is the only way you can tweak your PM efforts and educate your employees on how to be more productive and more efficient with their work. 

Project management may be an established, well-oiled routine for your existing structure, but when the time comes to penetrate new markets and expand your reach, you’ll need to think beyond your current scope even in terms of project management. Use these tips to improve your PM skills and your expansion will be much more efficient and streamlined for it.