Mohammad Farooq — December 20, 2016 Follow @farooqslSucceeding with your startup is no easy task. In as much as the statistic, that 8 out of every 10 startups fail, has been debunked, the startup failure rate is still quite high at 60% by the 8th year of operation, with just about 39% of startups still remaining open for business by the 9th year.
For most startups, threshing out a sustainable business strategy is just the start of the journey. On a day to day basis, startups need to consistently, systematically and meticulously run operations in order to avoid the top challenges that startup entrepreneurs face including; changing goals and a lack of adequate resources, and therefore guarantee success in the long-term.
The question is, how can startup entrepreneurs enhance their chances of success when they have so many challenges to deal with, right from the get go.
The answers can be found in basic project management practices. In as much as the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) outlines knowledge areas that are specific to managing projects, the knowledge areas are just as relevant for startups looking for success. Apart from the years of Project experience, required to get a PMP Certification, using this approach can multiply your chances of building the perfect startup.
Below are 6 project management principles that are exemplified in the PMBOK knowledge base.
1. Organizational Alignment
For the overall business to be viable, sustainable and successful everyone directly involved with the business must be on board or aligned. This organizational alignment is achieved through ongoing communication in order to let individuals understand ‘what’s in it for them’ among other things so that they can feel invested in working towards organizational success.
More specifically, organizational alignment means that:
- Business objectives and business activity must be aligned
- The business must be managed to satisfy the customer and
- The objectives, scope, and purpose of the business must be clearly documented
2. Measurement and Accountability
To different people, success can mean different things. For example, for an employee, success could mean completion of assigned tasks. To a manager, success could mean achieving certain specific milestones or sets of tasks.
Project management allows entrepreneurs to track the progress of employees in the organization. This suggests that measures of success should be pre-determined because it will allow for clear accountability in execution, improvement and sustainability of the business at a micro and macro level.
Project management can also help a startup understand that a success criterion can change over time and that, just because an original objective has not been achieved doesn’t necessarily mean failure.
3. Planning
Project management advocates for, planning first, then doing. In other words, in as much as taking time to think and reflect is not usually considered to be an active management process, project management illuminates the fact that, activity does not necessarily equate to progress.
Inadequate planning at the startup phase can easily lead to; a lack of understanding of the complexity of the business, setting of unrealistic- goals, scheduling and timeframes. All this can easily lead to the startups failure. It
Through this principle, project management encourages:
- Developing a project management plan so that performance can be gauged and measured
- Identifying of project risks and managing them
- Planning procurement
- Work breakdown structures and responsibility for assignments and
- Costing for the business
4. Execution and Intervention Strategy
Project management emphasizes that procedures and policies must be identified at the start and then monitored throughout the life of the project. This is useful to startups because it allows for the best solution to be sought in order to solve any issue.
Project quality management models like ‘root cause analysis’, can be used to identify the best solution for a problem or issue. Thereafter, an execution strategy can be put in place to implement the solution.
Some of the activities that this project management principle encourages include:
- Constant and continual reporting of activities
- Immediate corrective action when activities deviate from the original objectives and goals
- Changes from the project scope must be controlled and managed
- Documenting must be properly managed and so on
5. Efficiency variables should be attainable and consistent
For the startup to succeed, variables of efficiency including time, scope, quality and cost should be attainable and consistent. In essence, all aspects of the startups activities should be coordinated and integrated for maximum efficiency and attainable success.
6. Strong cultural environment
For the startups management and staff to achieve their set out objectives, a good organizational culture is critical. A good cultural environment means that the startups values and relationships should encompass both its internal and external environment to allow for a supportive, informed and relational organizational environment.
Conclusion
According to PMBOK, 10 knowledge areas are prescribed as knowledge areas for a responsible project manager to apply and manage a project. The knowledge areas include: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resources, Communication, Risk, Procurement and Stakeholders.
These knowledge areas are the source of the principles of project management that can help you build the perfect startup and provide useful tools and methodologies that will allow you to save on time and money, which are scarce resources for startups.
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