Project Initialization

Choosing the best methodology

When initializing a new project, choosing the right project management methodology is critical for your team’s ability to successfully deliver projects on time and on budget. From Critical Path, to Critical Chain, to Agile, there is a wide range of project management methodologies and practices that can be leveraged to maximize success.

The key factor to determine the right methodology is the type of project or process that you manage. With a vast array of frameworks and methodologies, narrowing down the approach based on specific criteria is critical. These factors include:

  • Project focus (e.g. task activities versus final product)

  • Customer and stakeholder involvement

  • Industry

  • Flexibility of timeline

  • Allotted budget

  • Number and type of teams working on the project

  • Complexity of projects

  • Resources needed versus resources available

  • Scalability of project

  • Resistance to change

  • Rigidity of structure

  • Specialization of roles

  • Set start and end dates

A project management methodology standardizes how teams work on projects. It functions as a roadmap, and if used properly, organizations stand to achieve greater project productivity.

Each project is unique. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to project management. The challenge is finding the methodology that best fits your project and your organization.

Choosing your project's nature

Managing a project, a product, a program, or a business case does not involve the same skills and processes. That's why it will be crucial to choose your project's nature when initializing it.

A Project refers to the temporary activity, which is undertaken to create a distinct product or service, that has certain objectives. A project has a defined beginning and end in time and is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal and often includes people who don’t usually work together. At the end of a project, the team is usually disbanded and assigned to new projects with new team members.

A Product is designed to continually create value for customers. It has no end date. It’s simply a life cycle of iteration and evolution over time. The Product life cycle may include a number of projects for building and developing it further.

A Program can be defined as a framework of plans of work, which comprises a set of projects that are complementary to one another and aligned in the proper sequence to achieve economies of scale.

A Business Case provides justification for undertaking a project, a product, or a program. It evaluates the benefit, cost, and risk of alternative options and provides a rationale for the preferred solution.

Choosing your project's features (Setup Options)

Project management deals with various aspects of a project such as dividing the whole project into smaller sub-projects, allocating resources to tasks, assessing risks that can cause delays, communicating project status with clients and stakeholders, etc. that collectively decides the success of the project.

Sciforma aims at providing all the tools needed to select and adapt the features to be used in the project, allowing the user to precisely tailor the experience as close to his/her needs as possible.

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