The adoption of project management from organizations

Today’s business world bears no resemblance to the world of previous

decades. Organizations face challenges on all levels and cut-throat

competition. Competition is now global, keeping costs low and increasing

market share, the race to bring a better product faster than the competition to

the market, utilizing the technological advancements are all factors that have

organizations constantly looking for ways to improve or even change the way

they do business. To better cope with these challenges many organizations

have adopted the use of project management tools.

Organizations are more and more viewing their business as project based and

thus they turn to project management to improve their efficiency and

effectiveness as to how they will face the forces that shape today’s business

environment1, especially when traditional methods seem inadequate to

provide solutions to one-time defined projects.2

Project and Project Management Definitions

The Project Management institution defines the term project as a temporary

endeavor “undertaken to create a unique product service or result”3. Munns

and Bjeirmi (1996) provide distinct definitions for project and project

management. According to them the purpose of a project is to realize a

specific goal through activities and tasks which require resources and has a

1
Managing Organizations By Projects With The Missing Piece
DLB Associates, LLC – Dennis Bolles, PMP
http://www.dlballc.com/images/What%20is%20The%20Missing%20Piece.pdf

2
Avots, Ivars (1969) California Management Review Fall1969, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p77-82

3
Project Management Institute (2008) A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge Fourth Edition p35
start and an end date. On the other hand project management is the process

of managing the achievement of the project objectives with techniques and

tools by using the organization’s structure and resources without changing the

standard way the organization operates.4

CHANGE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT DEFINITION

The world is constantly changing in every aspect. The changes on every level

be it political, social or economic demand that organizations are constantly

adapting and in many cases driving change in order to create a competitive

advantage that will give them an edge over competition and change

management that takes into account the above 5 6.

Organizations face two types of changes: A first order change, which does not

change the organization at its core level. On the other hand a second order

change results in the transformation of the organization.7

Change management is a large separate discipline and it is growing fast. Its

value is recognized globally by all kinds of organizations not only

corporations, but also non-profit organizations and government bodies. Prosci

Inc. is the world leader in research and content creation in the field of Change

Management defines change management as “a structured approach to

4
Munns A.K, Bjeirmn B.F (1996) The Role of Project Management in Achieving Project
Success, International Journal of Project Management v14(2) p81-87

5
Nastase Marian, Giuclea Marius, Bold Oliviana The Impact of Change Management in
Organizations-A Survey of Methods and Techniques for a Successful Change, Review Of
International Comparative Management, v13(1), p5-16

6 Zhechev Vladimir, Ivanov Stanislav (2011) Critical Review and Practical Application of
Change Management: The Case of a Higher Education Institution, International Journal Of
Professional Management v5

7
Levy Amir, Uri Merry (1986) Organizational Transformation: Approaches , Strategies,
Theories Ch1 Organizational Transformation , Paeger Publishers.
facilitate the adoption of change by groups and individuals within an

organization”8. Kamal and Abbas (2011) define change management, as

as the process that is concerned not only with the human side of a change

initiative in an organization, but also as a combination of tools which can

contribute to the project achieving its objective.9

CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Change management and project management are integrated and

interrelated fields. Both have their own tools and processes and work towards

achieving a specific goal. The project management process deals with

identifying the goals that need to be realized and how this will take place ,

while at the same time the change management process deals with the

manner in which people are affected.10

“Change Management differs from Project Management in that Project Management is a

technical set of tools and processes applied by a small group of project management

professionals. Change Management emphasizes the "people-side" of change and targets

leadership within all levels of an organization including executives, senior leaders, middle

managers and line supervisors.”11

It is only by synthesizing the processes of project and change management

that give sustainable results.12

8 http://www.prosci.com/main/change_definition.html

9
Yasir Kamal Mirza Waseem Abbas (2011) Change Management Practices and Project Cost
Legacy Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business v3(3) pp 673-682

10
Yasir Kamal Mirza Waseem Abbas (2011) Change Management Practices and Project
Cost Legacy Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business v3(3) pp 673-
682

11 http://www.prosci.com/main/change_definition.html
12 http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-integrating-cm-pm-mod1.htm
Research by Padar et al (2011) also indicates that overlapping domains exist

in change management and project management.13 They argue that

managers involved either in project or change management can benefit from

both areas. Turner and Muller (2003) support this by arguing that the project

itself is an agent of change given its nature of limited time and scope, of

mixed goals and objectives and its requirements in resources.14 Perhaps the

fact that since the 1990s a continuously increasing number of management

issues are covered under the project management umbrella explains the

growing number of organizations that treat change as a project.15

There is a fundamental difference between project management and change

management. Project management is about achieving installation. A project

plan is built around events and timelines that ensure an organization ends

with a deliverable of some kind – a new IT system, a new office, an

outsourced call centre and so on. The aim is to get from a current state (no

installation) to a future state (installation completed). Change management,

on the other hand, is about implementation. It focuses on the people aspects

of the change implied by that move from the current to the future state. True

implementation helps an organization actually achieve the benefits it expected

from the project, and it goes far beyond installation. It needs a critical mass of

people to be committed to the change involved, to learn new behaviors and to

13
Padar Katalin , Pataki Bella, Zoltan Sebestyen 2011A Comparative Analysis of
Stakeholder Theories in Project Management and Change Management International
Journal of Management Cases; , Vol. 13 Issue 4, p252-260
14
Turner J.R, Muller Ralf, (2003) On the Nature of the Projects as a Temporary Organization,
International Journal of Project Managementv21(1),p1-8

15
Cicmil Sveltana (1999) Implementing Organizational Change Projects: Impediments
and Gaps, Strategic Change 8, p119-129
sustain them willingly. It is the integration of project management and change

management which will help organizations achieves its goals of its projects16.

However the overlapping of the roles in project and change management is

not something that happens naturally or without problems. The definition of

roles as to who does what, and how exactly must project management and

change management be integrated are identified as major challenges. 17

Roles in Change Management and in Project Management

Conner (1993) suggests that change management has four stakeholder roles.

The sponsors who essentially endorses the change and gives the go ahead

and determines which changes will take place. The change agents are

responsible for making the change happen, by implementing the plan of

change. The Targets towards whom the change is aimed at and therefore

must comply and the Advocates, who cannot authorize change, but want it to

take place. 18

Bringing our attention now to project management, it is useful to keep in mind

the structure of the company when designing a project’s structure, which will

have a hierarchy that will enable people from all levels to make the right

decisions at the right time, just as the structure of any organization is

designed to meet its particular needs. Therefore consensus must be reached

as to who will be involved in managing the project. Who will define what is

required, who will provide the budget? who will direct the people involved in

16
Change and project management Prince 2, PMI and PCI
http://www.changefirst.com/sites/default/files/Knowledge%20Centre/Whitepapers/how-change-
management-improves-your-project-management.pdf

17 http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-integrating-cm-pm-mod4.htm

18 Conner Daryl R (1993) Managing at the Speed of Change Villard Books/ Random House
the project and manage and oversee the day o day work and who will

authorize changes.19

For Turner and Muller (2003) this requires the project to be viewed as a

temporary organization with its own hierarchy, established by the parent

organization to achieve a specific goal. This necessitates the appointment by

the parent company of a manager to manage the product, and just like any

other organization has its own chief executive, the project manager is chief

executive of the temporary organization.

Keeping this in mind the key roles in project management are:20 The Sponsor

provides the financial resources for the project and is responsible for

communicating with higher management. He authorizes changes and makes

decisions when the risk is high. The Project Manager essentially runs the

project by being in charge of every aspect and communicates with all stake

holders. The Project Management Team does not manage the project but

carries out the work. The Customer /User who are the targeted users of the

projects result. Kerzner (2002) also includes in the above roles that of the

Project Champion, a title given to an employee because he/she proposed an

idea which management accepted, and frequently becomes the project

manager without much success.21

The work of Padar et al 2011 shows a correspondence in the roles of project

management and change management. They argue that the agent’s role in

19 The Economist-Guide to Project Management (2007) ch 3 Published by Profile Books Ltd

20
Project Management Institute (2008) A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge Fourth Edition p.p25-26

21
Kezner H (2002) Project Management : A Systems Approach toPlanning , Scheduling and Controlling
, 8th Edition , John Wiley &Sons-Quoted by Padar Katalin , Pataki Bella, Zoltan Sebestyen 2011
A Comparative Analysis of Stakeholder Theories in Project Management and Change
Management International Journal of Management Cases; , Vol. 13 Issue 4, p252-260
change management is the same with both the role of the project manager

and the project management team. The roles of the project champion and the

customer/user role are the equivalent of the advocate’s role, and the term

sponsor has the same meaning in change management and project

management.

Conclusion

The challenge of remaining competitive is resulting in more and more

organizations to accept change as a constant and to implement it by using the

principles of project management. On the other hand projects and project

management are considered themselves agents of change. Managers will

very often find themselves running or being part of a project and at the same

time driving or implementing change. Certainly the integration is hard to

standardize, given the challenges but the more organizations strive for it the

more successful they will be. Harvey Koldny a professor at the Rotman

School of Management is a strong supporter of the integration of change

management with project management, and believes that organizations have

to work harder toward this goal to make effective use of the integration, since

they rely on both of them. Kotter, considered an authority on leadership and

change also agrees with this view arguing for a synthesis of the two

approaches, but organizations are still not benefiting to the extend they could,

resulting in missed opportunities.22

22Hornstein Henry (2012) Ivey Business Journal The Need to Integrate Project Management
and Organizational Change http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/the-organization/the-
need-to-integrate-project-management-and-organizational-change#.UT9IXfJvJSl