The sooner you determine that failure is staring you in the face, the better off you’ll be because you’ll lose less in the process. Aim to determine whether a project is going to fail as soon as possible by experimenting and performing risk analysis. Working in small iterations allows you to do this. Plus, it will help to limit what you'll lose if you wait to assess the outcome at the end when your only options are giving up or staring over.
If you’re familiar with project management principles, what you’re reading about is known as agile project management. Agile project management is an iterative method of determining requirements in a highly flexible and interactive manner. The methodologies and concepts behind agile project management come from IT development and engineering, but they can be applied to any project you might be involved with. Introducing an agile mindset into your project management tool-kit will allow you to adapt and overcome when the inevitable failure creeps into the room.
Some of the more basic agile project management concepts include:
- Avoiding inflexible processes that can't be changed
- Using short iterative processes allowing for improvements to be quickly implemented or failures to be identified before the end product
- Emphasizing learning and continuous improvement (Kaizen)
- Identifying issues and weaknesses as soon as they occur
- Implementing root cause analysis to determine the cause of problems
- Changing processes to suit specific projects, goals, or alterations in requirements or user-requested adjustments
- Focusing on continuous training and mentoring
Being agile in your project management allows you to be better able to handle the unknown risks that will confront you. Rather than being dogmatic in your approach to a project, entertain flexibility. You’ll find that it makes life a lot easier to live when you know you can adjust as needed to the turbulence you’re facing.
Christian Knutson, P.E., PMP is a leader, civil engineer, and author. He’s an accomplished professional specializing in A/E/C work internationally and author of The Engineer Leader, a recognized blog on leadership and life success for engineers and professionals.
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