Lean Project Management

1. Lean Project Management Creating and Managing Flexible Projects in a Lean Environment www.uttana.com

2. The Traditional Office, Cont. • In a traditional office environment, these projects are assigned to teams of people and are managed by a single individual who assumes the role of Project Manager. • The Project Manager is responsible for deadlines, asset acquisition and organization, and the management of resources. www.uttana.com

3. The Traditional Office, Cont. • In a Modern, Lean Office, the topic of project management is thought of differently. Whereas a traditional office looks at project management and sees the need for delegation, a Lean Office looks at project management and sees the opportunity to engage individuals, and foster a community built on creativity and improvement. • Creativity and improvement are the cornerstones of Lean change. www.uttana.com

4. The Modern Lean Office • A Lean Office lends itself to multi-skilled self-managed individuals and teams’, using what is known as a 'flat', or horizontal, management structure. • These structures often use cascading policy deployment principles, where each department is able is able to determine its own methods and goals for achieving the overall objective of the organization. www.uttana.com

5. The Modern Lean Office, Cont. • This sort of structuring allows people the flexibility to shift dynamically between roles and positions, assuming as much responsibility as is necessary for a task, and then transitioning to other teams when finished. • The associations of relationships are more temporary, but also more flexible for each person. www.uttana.com

6. Project Management Software • Project management, traditionally, has been done through a number of different enterprise software. • This type of project management software may seem enticing in its ability to organize and structure timelines, but in actuality, can be rigid and linear in structure, and can impede both efficiency and effectiveness within a project. • This is considered 'one-person thinking' and doesn't allow for creativity or innovation within a project's processes and dynamic life cycle. www.uttana.com

7. Project Management Software, Cont. • In a modern, Lean Office new project management tools that are flexible and agile are being incorporated to help track resources and assets. • These applications exist both offline and online, and can easily be made to suit the needs of most organizations. • To be most flexible, however, use an online project management platform that is accessible by every employee within your company. www.uttana.com

8. Examples of Project Management • For example, using an online project management solution allows any number of people to access data pertinent to the project. It also allows everybody to make changes and inform the process simultaneously. • This is in stark contrast to other, linear project management software, wherein a project’s control is restricted to only a few individuals, who dictate the overall flow of the project. www.uttana.com

9. Living vs Static Projects • The definition of ‘project’ now becomes much more broad. People coming together for four hours in the morning can now be considered a project team, and should be given the support and assets necessary to achieve relevant goals. • This extends to teams that exist across multiple locations, and even time zones. • A static project is unable to be influenced or changed. A living project, however, is shaped and given life by individual team members, and it is ever-changing as circumstance requires. www.uttana.com

10. Project Communication • Communication in these sorts of online platforms is also entirely streamlined, compared to more traditional methods of emailing or phone calls. • Instead of requesting information for a necessary asset to your process, it is often possible to create tasks that can then be assigned to whomever necessary. www.uttana.com

11. Project Organization • The creation and assignment of tasks allows for a quick and easy visual understanding of what is currently taking place within an organization. • As days and weeks progress, tasks will be completed, new tasks will be created, and a consistent history and archive of process achievement will start to be generated. • These tasks are also often associated with assets, and as a result, communication and assets become intertwined. www.uttana.com

12. Project Organization • This is very useful in terms of both version control and revision history. • If it becomes necessary to rollback a file to an older version, it will already exist in some form in an online system. This sort of platform serves as both an archive, and an online backup for important files. • This creates flexibility, since each task can be easily viewed by anyone within an organization when necessary. If a task is created that one believes they can add value to, they can contribute as quickly as they want. www.uttana.com

13. The Road to Success • Lean Project Management is not just tools, offline or online. It's about creating an organization that is self-organizing and driven. • These sorts of organizations are the ones that innovate, and continuously improve their processes. • Modern project management is about being inline with the changing skillset of the workforce, and market demand. www.uttana.com