TAILOR BASED ON CONTEXT

Figure 3-8. Tailor Based on Context

Adapting to the unique objectives, stakeholders, and complexity of the environment contributes to project success. Tailoring is the deliberate adaptation of approach, governance, and processes to make them more suitable for the given environment and the work at hand. Project teams tailor the appropriate framework that will enable the flexibility to consistently produce positive outcomes within the context of the life cycle of the project. The business environment, team size, degree of uncertainty, and complexity of the project all factor into how project systems are tailored. Project systems can be tailored with a holistic perspective, including the consideration of interrelated complexities. Tailoring aims to maximize value, manage constraints, and improve performance by using “just enough” processes, methods, templates, and artifacts to achieve the desired outcome from the project.

Together with the PMO and considering governance, project teams discuss and decide on the delivery approach and resources required for producing outcomes on a project-by-project basis. This includes the selection of the processes to use, development approach, methods, and artifacts needed to deliver the project outcomes. Tailoring decisions can be an implicit action of accepting an established methodology. Conversely, tailoring can be an explicit action of selecting and mixing specific elements to suit the unique characteristics of the project and the project environment. Tailoring is necessary to some degree in every project, because each project exists in a particular context.

Projects are often unique, even when the deliverable of the project does not seem unique. This is because project contexts differ in that the organization, its customers, its channels, and its environment are dynamic elements. Those changes and ongoing learning may cause project teams to use or develop different methods or approaches in pursuit of success. The project team should examine the unique set of conditions for each project, so that they can determine the most appropriate methods of producing the desired outcomes.

An existing methodology or common way of working can inform the way in which a project is tailored. A methodology is a system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline. Project teams may be required to assume the methodology of the parent organization. That is, the project team adopts a system of processes, governance, methods, and templates that provide guidance on how to run the project. While this provides a degree of consistency to projects within an organization, the methodology itself may still need tailoring to suit each project. Organizational policies and procedures prescribe authorized boundaries within which the project team can tailor.

Project teams can also factor in the time and cost of project management processes. Processes that are not tailored may add little value to the project or its outcomes while increasing cost and lengthening schedule. Tailoring the approach along with appropriate processes, methods, and artifacts can help project teams make decisions about process-related costs and the related value contribution to project outcomes.

In addition to deciding on how to tailor an approach, project teams communicate the tailoring decisions to stakeholders associated with that approach. Each member of the project team is aware of the chosen methods and processes that relate to those stakeholders and their role.

Tailoring the project approach to suit the unique characteristics of the project and its environment can contribute to a higher level of project performance and an increased probability of success. A tailored project approach can produce direct and indirect benefits to organizations, such as:

• Deeper commitment from project team members because they took part in defining the approach,
• Reduction in waste in terms of actions or resources,
• Customer-oriented focus, as the needs of the customer and other stakeholders are an important influencing factor in the tailoring of the project, and
• More efficient use of project resources, as project teams are conscious of the weight of project processes.

Tailoring projects can lead to the following positive outcomes:

• Increased innovation, efficiency, and productivity;
• Lessons learned, so that improvements from a specific delivery approach can be shared and applied to the next round of work or future projects;
• Further improvement of an organization’s methodology, with new practices, methods, and artifacts;
• Discovery of improved outcomes, processes, or methods through experimentation;
• Effective integration within multidisciplinary project teams of methods and practices used to deliver project results; and
• Increased adaptability for the organization in the long term.

Tailoring an approach is iterative in nature, and therefore is a constant process itself during the project life cycle. Project teams collect feedback from all stakeholders on how the methods and tailored processes are working for them as the project progresses to evaluate their effectiveness and add value to the organization.