Project Management Excellence

While the day-to-day operations of a company ensure that the company is kept alive, projects serve to secure the future, as they drive corporate change and are characterised by innovation, agility, transformation and a longer-term perspective. Projects are always in conflict with time, money and quality.

Figure 1: Projects and conflicting goals

Projects are subject to numerous risk factors. There are many reasons for this, ranging from unclear objectives to a lack of communication or a lack of competence in the team. A central challenge lies in project management itself. Project managers and executives use project management methods that are too complex and too inflexible. Projects are worked through in phases and the completion of the last phase leads to the end of the project. It is actually more than obvious that this does not correspond to reality – especially for tasks that are being carried out for the first time in a company. There is a lack of trying things out and acting flexibly in the project phases.

Figure 2: Challenges in projects

Especially against the background of the countless challenges and the fact that only 35% of all projects worldwide are successful, the focus should be on qualified and structured project management. Project management ensures that the result delivers added value for the company. It leads the project team and develops project plans to provide the individual project members with tasks and work towards the project goal. In order not to neglect the quality aspect in the face of budget and time pressure, project management is responsible for quality controls, identifies potential risks and ensures transparent communication among all stakeholders.

Figure 3: Importance of project management

Successful project management thus becomes a differentiator for outstanding companies. For this, project managers and executives must have solid project management skills and the added value and benefits of the project must be clear, as well as the link to the company’s goals. Skills in leadership and change management as well as agile and adaptive techniques are prerequisites for successful project management.

Figure 4: Project management as a differentiator

With many years of experience in project management, FOSTEC & Company supports companies in the implementation of growth and efficiency projects. The experts at FOSTEC & Company take over the tracking of project progress, initiate change management processes, control communication flows and ensure compliance with quality levels, among other things. They bring their technical and methodological knowledge to the organisation and teams as enablers so that they can continue to act independently after the project has been completed.

Figure 5: Project management with F&C

A supporting element in project management is the project canvas. It ensures that the added value and benefits of a project are always in the foreground. The Project Canvas can be used with all project management methods and can be applied in every project phase. At the beginning of the project, it provides clarity that the project is defined in sufficient detail. During the project work it can be used to monitor the progress of the project and at the end of the project it can be used to assess whether the hoped-for benefits have been realised.

Figure 6: Project Canvas Tool