Smoothing the turbulence: Project Management strategies for the changing workplace.

• Author: Dearstyne, Bruce W.

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Shifts in workplace culture, technology, and legal and regulatory requirements, along with diminishing resources, create pressure for organizations to change* Because projects can be brief and focused toward a particular change, opportunity, challenge, or problem, they are a good strategic tool for such turbulent settings. Here are several strategies for managing projects to success.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result." Many records and information management (RIM) professionals are involved with projects as sponsors, managers, or participants. There have been projects as long as there have been organizations that undertake deliberate, results-and-outcomes-oriented work. But in recent years, the number and importance of projects seem to have increased. Why?

Organizations experience a constant state of flux and change. Traditional organizational structures and management approaches are typically geared more toward steadiness and continuity than toward change and innovation. More reliance on projects can help address this situation projects can be focused, time-limited, and geared toward a particular change, opportunity, challenge, or problem. They are relatively quick to organize, get their assigned work done, and then disband--a good, economical strategic tool for turbulent settings.

Projects can be used to move programs into new areas. For example, they can probe new customer or service areas or develop and test new products. This is an important strategy for dynamic businesses in fast-changing environments.

Executives have rising confidence in project management. This is partially because of the work of the PMI in producing standards and solidifying the status of project management as a professional calling.

Projects are consistent with newer styles of management. In particular, these include:

* Matrix management, where employees report to more than one boss simultaneously

* Employee empowerment, which gives lots of leeway and room for initiative in getting things done

* Knowledge management, which includes emphasis on intellectual capital and creativity

These management styles tend to bring together people with different backgrounds for intensive work that requires creativity and aims to produce something new.

Projects may be suited to hard times. They work well when organizational capital is scarce, the need to move forward and try new things is urgent, and temporary ad hoc procedures are employed as expedients.

Projects are becoming increasingly complex and challenging to manage. Stakeholder expectations may be difficult to define, unsettled, or subject to change while the project is underway. Shifts in information technology, new ways of networking, such as social technologies, the changing workforce, and changing legal and regulatory requirements, all introduce uncertainty. The fiscal climate and tight resources produce pressure to carry out project work quickly and economically.

At the same time, the stakes are high. Projects carried out more or less unilaterally by the RIM program determine new dimensions and directions for its future. Projects carried out in partnership with offices (e.g., corporate counsel or chief information officer) affect the management of information resources generally, including records. Executives monitor projects closely and are particularly concerned with ensuring they come in within budget, on time, and with the features specified in the project plan.

Strategies for Success

RIM professionals involved with projects should expect positive reactions when they are successful, but negative reactions to those projects that come up short, particularly if they finish long over deadlines and beyond their budgets. The following strategies will help ensure projects fall on the positive end of that spectrum.

Align Projects with Business Objectives, Priorities

Projects need to be aligned in some obvious ways to the organization's goals and priorities, a particularly important factor in getting resources and support in tight financial times. This is true even for small or modest-scope projects which, in times of more resources and less scrutiny, might have been planned and acted on without a need to make this...