A recent project that comes to mind in the organization that encompasses a large portion of my time is transitioning from using a variety of software programs to get all the daily office tasks completed, including quoting, developing work orders, time card tracking, payroll, accounting reports, inventory management, project management, making documents private, and using one program to do all these tasks.
The problem that needed to be solved was finding a software program to do all or a majority of what took multiple excels and multiple software programs to complete. The overall goals communicated were to find a software program that replaced multiple programs, spreadsheets, and processes. The team involved included the estimating, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, inventory, shipping and receiving, accountants, and shop personal. All individuals who lead or were responsible for the department needed to be involved in the process of evaluation, which required a tremendous amount of time and resources and stretched our team to the maximum. Additionally, we had hired an Engineer to lead the project; however, with limited options, the individual who was hired had little experience in Project Management, later this proved to be a serious roadblock. Our location also did not help with acquiring the skilled and experienced staff we needed to move to the next level.
Some of the changes in planning that could have helped with the barriers and challenges would have been to interview and research companies who have previously taken similar steps of change. Additionally, what may have helped is for key staff to have taken the time to participate in the training instead of having one individual..
The barriers came down to experience of the project lead, time, and having a member of the team not on board, who made it difficult as a team to progress forward. I would suggest overcoming the barriers by paying more of a wage for a project lead with the experience, drive, and education. Additionally, it may have been the best to replace a Manager who made it difficult for the rest of the team to move forward, continuously having to work through roadblocks caused by one individual who was not a team player.
Methods, upon reflection, that I can see myself using would be thinking of project management as a temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end as described by Knolskape (2013) and establish that from the start. This would assist with also giving the details to the entire team, so all could see the start and the end and know that as a team, we are all responsible to get to the end together.
References:
Knolskape (2013). Introduction to Project Management. [YouTube Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOU1YP5NZVA