Management & Support

Project Management (classic/agile)

Companies have been focusing more and more on projects over the years. Meanwhile, employees in Germany spend more than 50 per cent of their working time on projects. The sad truth is, that less than half of these projects are successful and are therefore abandoned. The failure is usually due to defiance in the project set-up.

Therefore, professional project management is required. It coordinates the scarce resources ensures constant control of the project progress. Based on the requirements of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), VIVACIS has developed a four-phase approach (“initiation and planning”, “mobilization”, “implementation and control” and “completion”). This describes a clear methodology how projects can be successfully realized. Each phase contains specific tasks that must be executed for our clients to achieve their project goals. In line with this classic method requirements can be singled out and treated individually. One disadvantage to this approach can be that change requests may result in significant increases in cost, as this classic approach does not provide for iterations and therefore assumes that each phase can finalized through approval.

Against this background, new agile ways of thinking such as Scrum, Kanban or Design Thinking are of increasing importance to the project business and can be used by VIVACIS – if sensible and desired in the individual mandate. The Agile Manifesto, published in 2001, is generally regarded as a reference for agile project management. The adjective “agile” is intended to express the dynamic handling and implementation of last-minute change requests that would normally endanger the scope of services. Agile project management also improves customer-oriented and team-oriented communication. The concept behind agile methods is easy to understand but requires a lot of discipline and self-government in implementation. Since agile methods are based on a certain set of values, it also entails a cultural and therefore time-consuming, change. Traditional bodies such as steering committees must be willing to hand-off responsibility to the project team so that an agile project can function. The deeper the commitment to agile values, the greater the effect.

A combination of traditional and agile project management is also possible. Hybrid project management can build a bridge between the two approaches. It combines and blends the strengths of classic and agile methods, which opens new doors in project management. Therefore, the level of the project managers qualification plays an essential role in the successful and future-oriented handling of projects.

We support our clients in professional and targeted project management. Projects are clearly structured and consistently managed. Our approach ensures efficient coordination of scarce resources as well as constant control of the project progress – and budget. Traditional project management approaches are just as familiar to us as are agile methods. VIVACIS project managers are trained Professional Scrum Masters. In cooperation with our clients, we determine the appropriate method before the project starts.

Project Management Office

Not only do we support our clients as a project consultant and manager, but we are also experienced in the project management office. In addition to the classic administrative tasks (e.g. planning of attendances, appointments, rooms, orders, user authorizations), we also work on the preparation of documents (e.g. presentations), the management of lists (e.g. the to-do list/open items list) as well as the preparation of minutes. This exculpates the project management considerably.

VIVACIS has extensive experience in both roles, in some cases over many years, which has led to satisfied customers and thus to follow-up projects. In addition to the methodological knowledge of project work, our employees also possess the technical expertise to operate the common IT tools (e.g. MS Office) and typical standard software for project administration.