Going into project mode means going even further by rethinking your entire organization: from the definition of the joint project, to its communication, to the structuring of teams and their leader!
Find out here the good reasons and the keys to adopting this way of working.
Operation in project mode can be described by three main characteristics:
The whole team and the methodology put in place must be designed around the project., whether in terms of the budget, the time limits assigned to each task or the working methods chosen. The entire organization must be focused on a specific objective: the optimal realization of the project.
One of the main challenges of project mode is to set up effective collaboration between all the people involved in the project, taking into account in particular the missions that each person has to carry out in parallel.
The ideal team to carry out a project is made up of people with different profiles: their skills, qualifications and expertise must be complementary and cover the entire spectrum of the project.
Choosing the team is therefore one of the most important steps in order to really work in project mode.
In order to successfully recruit all the profiles necessary to complete the project, the teams that work in project mode generally come from different departments. They can usually work in different departments within the same company.
While this transversality of teams is practical for composing the ideal team, it also has consequences on several aspects of your organization:
Finally, for unite the members of your team despite their differences, it will be essential to structure your team around the common interest that each of them shares. You will have to remember to communicate continuously about the impact that this project can have on the company and customers.
To unite your team around the project, it is essential to appoint a project manager.
Its role will be to ensure the implementation of the project through various functions:
The project manager must therefore be with a strong personality, in order to succeed in winning over his team when necessary, to remobilize them in the event of a drop in speed and more generally of their sharing your vision of the path towards the common objective: the optimal realization of the project!
If you manage to create a symbiosis between the different members of the team and the skills they bring, then working in project mode has many advantages.
All these advantages of the project mode have two consequences on the realization of your projects. First of all, you can take on complex projects : all these advantages allow your teams to carry out projects that are impossible to execute without this particular mode of organization. Then, your projects are completed more quickly, generally cost less, and are of better quality.
However, there is a price to pay: setting up project mode is complex and requires time. Indeed, if the employees recruited are not sufficiently available, if the allocated budget is not in accordance with the objectives, or if you are unable to gather the heterogeneous profiles you have chosen around a common objective, then there is every chance that your project will fail.
Fortunately, there are best practices for successfully working in project mode.
The first step is to Bringing the right people together around your project. You need to ask yourself several questions:
Once the project team is formed, roles and responsibilities must then be assigned to each member of the group.
This step makes it possible to make each employee responsible for the tasks assigned to them, and to optimize cooperation insofar as everyone has their own well-defined field of expertise.
After the team, you have to find the ideal project manager!
You need to reach find the profile who will be able to manage your team.
It will be guarantor of good execution of the project throughout its implementation: distribution of tasks, planning, coordination of stakeholders as well as group management.
In terms of soft skills: he must be able to federate, bring together, but also to enforce his decisions - especially since he sometimes does not have a strong hierarchical superiority over other employees.
The project manager must therefore have strong managerial, relational and communication skills in order to successfully orchestrate and manage the project mode.
Even if there is no universal applicable model, it is essential to clearly define the boundaries of your project. Without this, the project manager and his team will not have enough information to ensure the achievement of their goals.
There is therefore a list of elements (non-exhaustive list) to be defined before the project:
This content will be used just as much for choosing the composition of your team as for ensuring the management of the project throughout its implementation.
This information must be included in specifications: it will be the common document that will centralize all these elements for all project stakeholders.
Put these things down on paper facilitates Cooperation : this avoids any misunderstandings or overlaps on assigned tasks and thus reduces potential friction in your team.
The specifications may be based on the scoping note written prior to the project and has every interest in being completed during the execution of the project.
While project mode has many advantages, it should be remembered that it is very far from the traditional methods and organization to which your employees are used to.
And like any change in practice, the question of switching to project mode will not fail to elicit reactions from the team you want to build. Potential reactions range from indifference to apprehension to enthusiasm. The important thing is toavoid causing total rejection.
There is no magic recipe: the way you do it will depend on your personality, but it is especially essential that you take the time to raise awareness your employees with the new functioning that awaits them.
No need to panic though! If you present them with the advantages of project mode and reassure them about their questions, there is every chance that you will be able to convince them to take the plunge. To make project mode easier for you, we have grouped 10 best practices below.
You only succeed in relation to your goals. That is the base. And yet, in real life, before starting a project, we sometimes forget to Define clearly the goals and also those who will not be chased! This will help you focus on what you want to achieve, your playground, and ensure that everyone is working toward the same goals, for the same goal. This implies precise specifications and therefore also, to say what the project will not do, its real scope.
One project plan co-created with the businesses and shared with the stakeholders must include timelines, Milestones, budgets, resources, and risks. Since part of your critical resources are made up of your business partners. It should also include a division of tasks and responsibilities, so that everyone knows what they need to do on the road map and what commitment that will represent. Collaborative work between the various actors is the key to project management.
Like the conductor, make sure that everyone knows and understands their place and role and his responsibilities in the project. This will help to ensure that tasks are completed on time and according to the requirements required by the role and through this approach to project management that challenges established management and hierarchies in companies.
There are a lot of project management tools available that can help you track progress, manage tasks, and collaborate with team members. A management tool includes a philosophy, a way of working. For example, sharing a Gantt chart, a burden, for your project management can be counterproductive if you want to convince and communicate well.
Regular communication is essential when working on a project. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and that any issues, questions, or concerns are addressed quickly.
On this theme and these activities, there are methods, in particular the Laswell model : “Who says what, to whom, through what medium, with what result?”.
You must follow the evolution of the project and the achievement of the objectives to make sure it stays on track. Of regular progress reports and status updates can help you quickly identify issues and take corrective action if needed.
A scenario, but flexibility! Projects can change, and you need to be ready to adapt if things don't go as planned. Be flexible and open to new ideas can help you overcome obstacles that may arise in your project management. Become a yogi project! Long live flexibility.
Every project involves risks. Without going into an Excel gas plant, you need to prepare for it. Identify risks potentials early on and put plans in place to mitigate them.
When a project or even a major milestone is complete, successfully or not, take the time to celebrate with your team the positive, of Say thank you ! Everyone has their own way of doing it - but recognizing the hard work and effort of each collaborator will help boost morale and keep everyone motivated.
After completing a project, Take time to think about how you worked. What worked well and what didn't. Agilists have been integrating these retro activities for a long time. These practices will help you improve your efficiency and your processes and ways of doing things, and ensure that future projects are even more successful. Regardless of the type of method adopted, the most important thing is to capitalize.
In conclusion: for take advantage of all the advantages of the project mode, you will have to take the time to think about your project, to find the right project manager, to build a complementary team, and to convince them to follow you in this adventure!
Good luck!
As part of the operation of project mode, many teams use The frame note as tool to support project mode : the scoping note is a summary document that summarizes all the key points of your project.
It can therefore be very interesting to adapt the use of the scoping note to project mode. Remind your teams of all the essential points, to simplify their adaptation and simplify collaboration around your common goal: the realization of the project! For more information on the subject, go to our article on the project scoping note.
