Trans-method Project management (Part I)
Standard and Freestyle in Project Management
In dynamic market environments the competitiveness of a company often has a lot to do with its ability to respond to unexpected events. Projects are an important tool for achieving this. Traditional methods alone do not however suffice for the successful implementation of projects in such a dynamic environment. Supplementary modern management tools which have been designed with dynamics in mind are necessary. We call the methodical approach to the project the ‘standard’ part, the dynamic part is the ‘freestyle’. Just why this combination is necessary and just exactly what it means is the subject of this article.
Dynamics in Project Management
Globalization is tightening up markets and thus increasing dynamics. Companies are giving each other less and less time for decision-making. This increase in dynamism affects all parts of the company, including its projects.
The term „project" is widely defined. Our work is based on the following understanding:
> A project is a temporary special organization which is set up alongside the line organization. Its aim is to solve problems which cannot, or only with losses, be solved by the line functions.
>The project team is a group of those people, who are best suited to solve the problem. For the duration of the project they are solely occupied with this task.
> A project can only provide maximum benefit when it is able, within a previously set framework of, for example, task and resources, to react autonomously (i.e. without external influence).
> Due to this autonomy a project should not be part of the line organization. Instead there are numerous links with the line; the most important of these is the so-called steering committee.
Projects, as temporary special organizations, are by nature more flexible than the parent line organization. This does not make a further increase in flexibility easier. In order to increase the dynamics of a project those internal and external factors which could cause an unexpected event have to be dealt with. Examples here are the often conflicting interests of involved parties, or the legal and economic environment. We call the potential for unexpected events in a project’s environment its complexity (see figure 1).
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