Lean Project Management

Abstract

Many companies fully or partially live in a project world, although most of them do not act as project-driven companies. Competition in our industry increasingly makes more important the desire of optimizing what leads to provide our customers better service or product, within the time and cost agreed, and to the extent expected by them. Lean Project Management seeks precisely that goal.

The purpose of this article is to explain how the Lean principles can be applied to make project management more efficient. Lean Project Management guide organizations toward a model of high productivity management at all stages of a project. The procedure used to analyze this issue throughout the article is the following. First, the causes of projects failure are identified, clarifying the room of improvement. Second, the objectives and principles of Lean Project Management are defined. By recommending tools and techniques it is shown how to manage projects in a Lean way. Finally, the benefits of Lean Thinking in Project Management are concluded. A collection of articles and papers will support these ideas.

Current status

According to several studies from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and others that look into the success/failure rates of projects, only 40% of projects met schedule, budget and quality goals. The rest were aborted or completed unsuccessfully. This means that more than one out to three projects fail. Also, there seems to be evident that the longer the project and the team size, the harder is the failure. The studies reveal that the main causes for projects failing are breakdown in communications, a lack of planning and poor quality control. As a consequence, the root cause for project failure can usually be tracked back to a lack of proper project management. So, there is a room of improvement, especially in a fast-changing world in which the quick adjustment to dynamic environments is essential.

Principles of LPM

Main principles of Lean Project Management are defined.

Tools and techniques

Based on the principles of LPM, it is explained how to manage a project in a Lean way. Some specific tools and techniques are proposed in every stage of the project process.

Benefits of LPM

Clarification of the benefits of LPM in current projects.

Typically in the last decade, delivery times have been cut by 50%, productivity increased by 30%, and quality improved by a factor of 10.