By Linky van der Merwe

This is the story of a project manager, Heinrich Kruger who worked on a complex set of projects in a business startup environment in the short-term insurance industry, within a large corporate.

The projects consisted of a mix of IT and operational initiatives in a business environment typical to that of start-ups i.e. lots of ambiguity and very little structure. Within the business there was no context of any formal project methodology and the stakeholders had to be nurtured with regards to good project governance in order to become more self-sustained over time.

Dedicated Team

It worked well to have a dedicated core project team consisting of a Project Manager, a Change Manager and a Business Change Manager. They had shared values and the same vision and understanding of the business need. The business could not be expected to adopt good, but unfamiliar project practices overnight. They needed constant support through-out, as well as after the project went live.

It was required for this team to take ownership and responsibility. In a start-up environment, the business is often immature as far as projects are concerned. People often don’t know what is expected of them and don’t know anything about following a project based, structured approach to get things done.  You will rather find a lot of “survival” behaviour and “just getting things done”.

The project leaders had to educate the business gradually whilst at the same time being part of that start-up process and culture – this take time. It would be different working with with a group of people who were used to starting new businesses and in the process, have established specific ways to work, especially in that kind of environment. Instead the team found that they had to take ownership of processes, tasks and structures that would normally no be expected from a project team.

Immature Project Environment

Trying to establish new ways of work in a business environment that was largely immature in terms of project implementations. The project team had to do more support (spoon feeding so to speak) and some-times taking on responsibilities that would normally be expected from the business.

External dependencies

There were dependencies on other external projects which impacted the planned timelines of some of the projects. The business had to compete with other corporate business units and their respective projects with its demand on shared services suppliers and as such did not always get the audience needed to reach project and strategic goals according to desired timelines. A separate Project Board with the corporate executive was setup in order to create the necessary visibility of the business’ needs. Furthermore, external project environments also had no reference point for understanding the unique culture and the speed with which new initiatives had to be implemented in this environment.

Failure to reach project goals would ultimately mean a failed business case with the potential to impact roughly 200 employees. It would put the business in a position to seriously revisit and reconsider its strategic goals and approach.

Separate Project Board

Where insurmountable challenges were encountered, the businesses pivoted around its strengths and pushed forward with workarounds, even when it meant loss of efficiency for a time. This meant bypassing systems that weren’t ready and setup of an executive Project Board who would help to prioritise the business’s requirements in the greater corporate environment.

It also meant building an alliance with other business units who had a special interest in seeing the business’ initiatives succeed. Lastly, to gain greater awareness in the corporate environment and motivate prioritization of its own needs, the business promoted its initiatives in such a way that the implementation thereof would hold value for other business units, not necessarily being direct stakeholders, also. It achieved this by positioning itself as an incubation hub to the rest of the organization – this proved quite successful.

Lessons Learned

If an environment is different from what you as a PM is used to, learn to take ownership and responsibility and don’t be disappointed when you have to do more than your job description.

Innovate and try to find workarounds. It won’t help to wait for dependencies and challenges to go away. This means actively monitoring and managing all risks on the project.

Although the business is in startup mode, it will gradually mature into a project based organization provided the PM and his core team gently but assertively pushes the business into a more planned, structured approach to new project implementations.

Key Takeaway

In future projects, the PM will follow a more determined approach to the planning phase. He will ensure to introduce more structure upfront and move out of “survival mode” sooner, and work according to more realistic, planned (with all required stakeholders) outcomes and timelines.

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About the Project Manager:

Heinrich Kruger has been working in project based environments throughout his career with experience primarily in the Fintech industry but also Internet business like MWEB. Apart from project management, he has also worked as programmer, business analyst and business architect.

He can be contacted at heinrich.kruger@gmail.com.