ProWerk consultants have so far worked in over 150 projects by assuming project management responsibilities. Depending on the company, different methods will be employed. All of these methods have one thing in common: Outstanding outcomes will result from a strict project management. Naturally, we have clear tasks, responsibilities and deadlines.
Classical Project Management
We apply a classical project management for well-defined project objectives and elaborate a plan for the overall time of the project consisting of tasks, time periods, responsibilities and milestones. We involve each employee participating in the project and staff from the procurement, controlling, IT and sales if required. The project progress will be reported in regular steering committee meetings.
Complete transparency constitutes an essential feature of each of our projects. Each team participant knows his tasks for the following work step and is aware of the activities of the other participants. By this means, our projects gain in momentum leading to an outstanding success. Since the project plan is extremely vivid, the project’s progression is not rigid, but flexible and will be adjusted frequently.
Agile Project Management Methods
In many projects, the target is not defined in detail or objectives change during the project progression. The reasons for this are, for example, altered costumer requirements or technical possibilities that were unknown at the time of the project start. Especially the latter point is of importance in manufacturing. Additionally, agile methods help even if the solution is not yet completely elaborated and the time effort is not yet assessable. In this case, we employ the SCRUM method. This method is characterized by the fact that not the overall project is planned in detail, but merely tasks for the next weeks – the sprint time period. During a sprint, no adjustments of the task are being formulated, thus leading to an independently exploitable result. Consequently, potential requirement changes can be included in the next sprint. This method provides the employees the means to estimate their work effort on their own. Our experiences show improved results in a shorter time period compared with classical project management methods.
The SCRUM method has to be adjusted to company specific requirements and requires a rethink on the part of the management, since the project progression is not planned as a whole implying that no outline exists for the overall project. Additionally, responsibilities have to shift or have to be reconsidered.
The SCRUM method derives from software development and, therefore, focusses on a strict product development. We combine the method with our target costing management, which additionally, deals with manufacturing costs of the product.
Do you have questions regarding ProWerk’s project management service? Contact us at info@prowerk.eu