Having a skilled project manager is the first step to true project success and thriving business. Careful planning, timely execution, and applying effective leadership skills to motivate teams to accomplish project objectives are just a few of the most critical factors in achieving project goals.

Successful Projects: Which Project Methodologies and Management Systems Should Businesses Use?

However, in today’s fast-paced business world, forward-thinking managers and leaders don’t rely solely upon their talent and knowledge. They use different management systems and project management methodologies to upgrade their work, ensure quality and efficiency, and achieve superb results.

That said, this article will explore the most popular systems and methodologies that managers and leaders can bring to their practice and deliver projects effectively in their work.

Electronic Data Storages and Risk/Quality Management Systems

Today, successful businesses rely heavily on digital technologies and data to create revenue, improve the market, and transform business processes. Consequently, first-class electronic data storage and risk and quality management systems are a must!

For instance, management system standards like BS 10008 (the British Standard on Evidential weight and legal admissibility of ESI) handle the risks to the authenticity, integrity, and availability of electronic information.

That means that it enables companies and organizations to go beyond simply storing different data information. It provides them with a means to prove that their electronic records are trustworthy.

Risk and quality management systems also help companies ensure product quality, identify and anticipate risks through an analytical and data-driven approach, manage portfolios, improve their performance, and ensure that products meet the expectations.

Five Most Popular Project Management Methodologies

There are many project management approaches. The best methodology for managing a successful project will be the one that makes the most sense and is most suitable for the specific project, team, and client. But to make the right choice, managers and leaders must be knowledgeable of at least the most popular ones.

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 is a methodology created by the UK government in 1996 for IT projects. It is a process-oriented methodology that divides projects into multiple stages, each with its plans and processes that need to be followed. Inputs and outputs are planned carefully for every phase of the project, and nothing is left to chance.

The first step for a business is to identify a clear need for the project, target customers, tangible benefits, and a precise cost assessment. The best thing about PRINCE2 is that it is comprehensive and gives an excellent framework for how to run large, predictable projects.

Agile

Agile is a set of principles (more than a methodology) for developing software. It relies on a set of values rather than a process that can be directly applied to a project:

• Individuals and interactions are more important than techniques and tools;
• Working software is better than comprehensive documentation;
• Customer collaboration is more valuable than agreement negotiation;
• Reacting to change instead of following a plan.

Agile projects are identified by a series of perceived, executed, and adapted tasks that respond to a situation’s demands rather than a pre-planned strategy.

This methodology supports teams to respond to unpredictability through gradual and repetitive work processes, which means they cycle through a process of planning, executing, and evaluating as they go along.

Adaptability to changing situations, adequate and ongoing communication among the project team and the client are Agile’s most favorable aspects.

Scrum

Scrum is a project management methodology which offers principles and process to improve delivery. It is, in fact, a sort of framework for the ongoing development and maintenance of complex products. Scrum’s goal is to enhance communication, teamwork, and speed of development.

Fundamentally, this methodology is about empowering a self-managing team to deliver and defines roles and responsibilities to create a healthy balance between providing the right thing, the right way, as fast as possible.

As it was initially designed for software development, it doesn’t fit agilely into projects with fixed budgets and timelines. However, that does not mean that development projects can not utilize some of their unique aspects.

Kanban

Kanban is a project management methodology focusing on strategy, flexibility, and team (with no prescribed roles). The core practices are visualizing the workflow, limiting work in progress, measuring the lead time, making process policies explicit, and continually evaluating improvement opportunities.

It is excellent for operational or maintenance environments where priorities can change frequently but with steady output.

Scrumban

Scrumban is a relatively new hybrid project management methodology that combines Scrum’s structure and Kanban’s flexible approach to project management to create a new way to manage projects.

Importantly, it allows an adaptive planning approach. Scrumban can be suitable for product development where there is an unclear vision, evolving requirements, or no clear roadmap, and if the process needs to include support and maintenance work.

Choosing the Right Project Management Methodology

The concept of project management is a requirement for companies that want to increase efficiency and build stronger ties with clients.

The variety of existing methodologies give managers and leaders the possibility to choose the most suitable method for any particular project. However, when doing so, they must consider a few aspects.

First, estimate the project itself, the client, available resources, the project constraints, timeline, tools, and people. According to their simplicity or complexity, managers should list all these factors to have an objective overview of the current situation.

Second, determining the work environment’s flexibility is another important aspect. If projects work in a rigid environment, companies benefit from methodologies with pre-defined timelines like Prince2.

Or, if they work in a flexible environment, they can use Agile. Third, reconsidering constraints and looking at how key risks can be minimized helps teams fit their projects neatly within existing organizational constraints.

Furthermore, understanding what delivers the most value to the client helps managers pick a working way to meet those needs. Using the goals or project objectives that are already created in a team or organization should also guide the project methodology selection.

Lastly, the organization’s and team’s values can shape a genuinely sustainable methodology that systematically produces living processes that are easier to sustain long-term tasks.

Therefore, businesses should use the existing structures – ways their people think, relate, and work to build a natural fit method instead of taking a trending methodology.  

The Bottom Line

The management systems and projects methodology businesses choose have a profound and ongoing impact on how companies and teams work. Implementing risk and quality management systems positively affects every aspect of an organization’s performance.

Moreover, adopting different project management methodologies, each of them with its strengths and weaknesses, will make running projects faster, smoother, and more efficient.