Project management is often a difficult topic to grasp. Project managers, like me, are always learning and adapting in order to improve the way they work. Adaptive Project Management (APM) is one of these methods that has been gaining popularity lately for its core values.
APF is a new approach to project management that takes into account the changes in work environments and technology. With APF, you can be confident that your projects are being managed effectively. Because it’s based on a set of principles that have been tested by time.
In this blog post, we will explore APF’s core values and how they can help you become a better project manager.
What is Adaptive Project Management?
Adaptive project management is a methodical and systematic technique for learning from the outcomes of your decisions at earlier stages in the project. This approach adapts and evolves to meet the requirements of the company, resulting in increased business value. It enables you to establish a clear link between the project management process and business strategy.
With this process, project managers can:
- Reduce the risk of project failure by adapting as learning opportunities.
- Increase business value with a focus on results rather than effort.
- Increase the probability of achieving project objectives by consistently making correct decisions.
APM allows companies to achieve their goals faster while reducing business risks by adapting as they go along. Because every company has unique needs that will change over time.
Characteristics of the Adaptive Framework:
There are three main characteristics of the adaptive framework that distinguish it from other project management methodologies.
- Thrive on change
- Learn from discovery
- Customer-driven
Thrive on change:
Project management requires adapting to changes in the work environment and technology. Project managers should take into account that everything is always changing and continuously improve their processes accordingly. They shouldn’t rely on a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather adapt as they go along with each new project or even task at hand.
Learn from discovery:
Project managers must be able to measure how well they are doing throughout the process of managing projects by finding out if their decisions lead them towards success or failure. This way, you can learn from your mistakes so you don’t have to make them again.
Customer-driven:
The project manager needs to understand customer requirements before implementing any solution for better results while involving customers during every step of the project life cycle since it’s the customer’s needs that will ultimately drive project success.
Why Adaptive Project Management is important?
Project management has been around for some time now and there are many methodologies that can help you to be more efficient. Project managers need to understand the project’s goals. They need to know what it is trying to accomplish, as well as its benefits in order to provide better results at every stage of the process.
There are several reasons why APM is a superior process:
Project managers can learn from their mistakes and improve over time.
Project managers can be innovative during project development. Work projects are not too complex to manage and don’t require a huge amount of effort in order to achieve desired results.
APM is a successful approach for managing projects because it’s based on the core values that have been tested by time. Learning from past mistakes allows you to make better future decisions which ultimately leads towards more positive outcomes.
This also encourages creativity so you can find new ways to improve upon existing techniques. You’ll not have to reinvent the wheel every single time.
How does APF work?
APF is a Project Management Framework that comprises five key components:
Planning: Project managers must fully understand the project’s goals and what it is trying to accomplish. It helps you determine your objectives, set a baseline for measuring performance. So you can track progress throughout the process of managing projects.
Execution: This means everything that needs to be done in order to complete tasks on time. So they meet their milestones along with specific deadlines. Project managers need to have all required resources available when needed at each stage of the life cycle. Communication also plays an important role in this phase.
Monitoring & Controlling: Monitoring and controlling refer mainly to two things. Assessing whether actions are moving us closer toward our goals and correcting problems as they arise. Project managers need to know what is going on at all times. So you can make the necessary changes when needed in order to adapt quickly to each new change.
Evaluation: It is used to determine whether they should continue with the same goals and objectives or modify them in order for better results. Project evaluations will help you know what works and what doesn’t so you don’t have to make mistakes over and over again.
The core values of APF:
Project management is a lot more than just “making sure things get done.” You need to hold true to the core values of APF in order to avoid conflicts.
The APF core values include;
Customer-focused:
This means understanding the customer’s needs and delivering value in order to be successful. You need to consult with customers and make them a part of the process. So you can get more support and better results at every stage of it.
Client-driven:
It refers to supporting and empowering the clients to provide the best results. You need to maintain strong relationships with clients so you can keep them satisfied at all times.
Introspection and continuous questioning:
Project managers need to ask themselves if they are doing things the right way. So you can make changes along the way in order for better results at all times. They also need to be introspective about their own behavior too. Since it will have an impact on how other people perceive them and relate with each other during every stage of project development.
Change is the progress to a better solution:
As a project manager, you need to embrace change since it will be the key to success. They are responsible for leading their team members through every phase of project management. So they can meet each milestone with ease and overcome any obstacle that gets in their way.
Don’t try to predict the future:
Project managers need to take a step back and focus on what’s going right instead of what could go wrong. Project management should be based more on the present state rather than an uncertain future outcome that may or may not happen for better or worse.
Traditional vs Adaptive project management:
In traditional PM, Project managers rely on past performance to predict future results. They focus more on completing deadlines and consider a plan as rigid that is hard to change in order for better outcomes.
However, APF Project Management focuses more on the here. Now instead of relying too much on what happened in the past or predicting how things will be tomorrow.
Traditional project management is better for projects that have a lot of variables involved. Project managers need to work with their team members and customers. As well as manage the project from beginning to end using traditional PM techniques.
However, APF Project Management is better suited for those who want more flexibility in achieving results. Since it also takes into consideration human behavior which can be unpredictable at times.
