Project Excellence as a lever for sustainable growth

The need for digitalisation, automation, AI implementation, process optimisation and sustainability initiatives continues to grow. This means there is a constant stream of ideas and changes required to remain successful and meet the expectations of both internal and external customers. These ideas are increasingly being channelled into project form.

Nevertheless, Project Management remains a significant challenge for many organisations. This is almost never down to a lack of commitment or domain expertise, but rather to the absence of a supported, integrated approach that links projects to the organisation’s strategy, priorities and day-to-day operations.

At Stanwick, we have noticed that our clients’ projects are often managed based on gut instinct. The advantage of this is that it allows for a rapid response and gives the project manager a high degree of autonomy. The downsides, however, are that objectives become blurred, budgets are harder to stick to and deadlines are invariably missed. In addition, both project team members and other stakeholders report a lack of targeted communication and clear role definition.

The Key to Project Excellence

We are often asked to deliver a Project Management training course, as this lays the foundations for the insights and skills required of your project manager. Our participants learn to strive for a clear scope and realistic planning, and are given practical tools to organise and monitor their projects whilst aligning their project team with the objectives.

However, simply enhancing the insights and competencies of project managers is not enough. Organisations that are truly proficient in Project Management look even further ahead. They link project management to portfolio management, programme management, leadership, budgets and the culture within the organisation. Only then can one speak of Project Excellence.

Such companies have found answers to the following questions:

- How do we ensure that the right projects are selected?

- What approach do we, as an organisation, need to support our projects?

- How are we going to support this approach from within our organisation and ensure that it becomes embedded?

- How do we define the roles within the project team?

- What other tools and templates do we provide?

Simplicity over complexity

Project Excellence does not require heavy-duty methodologies or extensive reporting structures. It must not become an administrative burden on top of the project’s challenges, as this risks demotivating staff and causing them to quickly revert to old habits.

Instead, you ensure simplicity in your approach by defining clear objectives, establishing unambiguous roles and responsibilities, and ensuring transparent communication. In addition, it is best to provide visual management in the form of dashboards and practical (reporting) tools.

Furthermore, you mustn’t forget, of course, that the success of projects is not achieved through processes and tools, but through people. Project Management training will therefore undoubtedly add value by increasing adoption by your project teams. The tools, combined with the training, demonstrate that your organisation supports this approach both top-down and bottom-up.

In short, Project Excellence is an integrated way of thinking and working to drive change in line with the organisation’s strategy, whereby people, processes and tools do not work against each other but actually reinforce one another.