What do you do if your project management process is inefficient and error-prone?

This can be a formal process, following a PM Maturity Model, or a more heuristic inspection. What you are looking for is where the process has gaps and weaknesses but it is also important to look where the process might be cumbersome - often a weak process is not through design but how easy it is to use.

The most common thing people get wrong is not defining their problem statement correctly as the first step, and getting agreement from all stakeholders that this is the problem that a project is attempting to solve.

Measurement is key, if you have the metrics of previous failures you should easily be able to see where the problem was: benefits definition, mobilisation, design, build, scope/control, deployment, business readiness, adoption or quality. Then you can analyse why these didn’t work, planning experience, pressure to squeeze estimates, insufficient time to actually do the job, failure to prepare the audience. You do this every time and you will get better, or you bring in experience to help you sooner…It isn’t rocket science (well sometimes it might be ??????

Step 1: Answer the following question: does the culture currently lean towards continuous improvement or resistance to change? This tells you where on the spectrum the culture currently is. The goal is to get/keep the culture on the continuous improvement side of the spectrum as this will over time yield the best results by enlisting stakeholders as partners in the journey of continuous process improvement. Step 2: Assess your current process with a focus on identifying areas of the process that could be improved with minimal effort and yield high value. These types of improvements strengthen people’s belief that improvement is possible, is worth their time and effort, builds momentum, and decreases resistance to larger improvements.

Try not to "boil the ocean". If *everything* needs to be improved, select a few things which will provide a large ROI and work on those first.

If you are working on improvement goals, make sure to include the voice of your customers. Look at past customer expectations and make sure that they are included with any new goals that is being established. If you have a long term or primary customer see about getting them involved with the process. Success is defined by the scope of the project defined by the customer. Making sure that your improvement goals match up will ensure that you are working on those items that your customer finds important. Many times in the past I have seen project management systems that tend to measure things that do not contribute to customer success. This can often lead to a system that is bad for everyone.

Agree don’t rewrite the bible risk analysis can be over played project comparisons the movie has been shown somewhere before just watch it

I find it useful to interview or question a range of stakeholders, from the steering teams, project teams, resource pools and the Project Managers themselves. Ask questions about how strong they feel the process is in each area (say, resource allocation for example) but also how important that area is for the organisation. What you want to be able to do is prioritise not only the biggest gaps but those that add the most value.

Defining the improvement goals should include the end product or results desired by taking into consideration the following requirements: quality, quantity, speed, cost and safety.

Whilst it is really important to base your project process steps on proven methods (no point reinventing the wheel), it is even more important to not be beholden to one methodology. If taking the best fit from a range of methods works best for your organisation, then that's what you should do. To this end, a PM Consultant with a wide ranging experience and a pragmatic attitude to improving PM processes will be helpful.

Establish an improvement governance process by setting the end results metrics: quality, quantity, speed, cost and safety. Test for robustness. Implement, monitor, review and repeat until the results are delivered consistently.

Something to keep in mind, your goals may change over time. Don't get locked into goals just because you spent time identifying them early on. Be fluid.

Remember to include new people and their perspectives over time...especially those from outside your organization. External additions can bring a wealth of knowledge of what worked and what didn't work at their previous employers.