One size does not fit all

Project management practice is increasingly being used for change and development type projects in many NSW public sector agencies. In the project management field it is commonly held that management of change is central to project management (Yeo 1993; Stretton 2000).  However, there is currently no agreed set of generic process steps to guide people undertaking organisational change initiatives as projects (Stretton 2000), nor are criteria available for measuring and reporting on intangible benefits realised.  In the same way that “one size does not fit all”, traditional project management practice does not fit all types of projects.   Having grown out of essentially top-down “command and control” views of organisations and management, (Costello et al. 2002 (a) p 4), use of traditional “hard “ approaches to managing projects is failing to effectively deal with change programs in public sector environments that are characterised by uncertainty, ambiguity and stakeholder management issues.

Soft projects

Soft projects often commence in the boardroom as ideas or strategies that are designed to bring about a strategic change or benefit to the agency or the community that is unquantifiable.  These projects are not planned with the precision of  “ harder” projects and lack a focus on the business benefits such as enhanced customer service or more effective administrative processes that will result from the change or improvement.  Therefore, at the outset, there is no readily available framework that can be applied for managing business benefits from such “soft” projects.  

Living Planit scores a hit at the AHRI Exhibition

Living Planit Project Management scored a warm welcome on an otherwise cold day at Darling Harbour and the AHRI Exhibition with LP’s exclusive candidate and employee online assessment tool Rapid Assess. 

Presenting to a number of exhibitors Rapid Assess showed how in less than 2 hours it identifies skill levels of employees online, which of the employee’s project management capabilities need upgrading and how the skills gaps can be filled through additional coaching by Living Planit trainers. Rapid Assess also authenticates the project management qualifications of candidates who are applying for employment roles which require knowledge and skills in project management.

AHRI Exhibitor recruiters such as Seed, Hays and Bridge confirmed that Rapid Assess would help them in the candidate review process and would assist their company human resources clients in being able to evaluate current employees and their suitability to operate effectively at different levels of complexity in company project management activities.