As a project coordinator, you have to balance the needs and expectations of your clients, stakeholders, team members, and yourself. But how do you ensure that your project values align with the industry standards and best practices? In this article, we will explore some tips and strategies to help you achieve this alignment and deliver successful projects.
The first step is to define your project values clearly and explicitly. Project values are the principles and beliefs that guide your decisions and actions throughout the project lifecycle. They reflect your vision, mission, goals, and culture as a project coordinator. Some examples of project values are quality, innovation, collaboration, transparency, sustainability, and ethics. To define your project values, you can use tools such as value proposition canvas, stakeholder analysis, SWOT analysis, or vision statement.
Using appropriate monitoring and evaluation tools and methods, such as KPIs, dashboards, audits, surveys, or lessons learned, to assess and improve your project values and industry standards.
Defining the core values of the project I co-founded, was so central and strategic for it that the main value became the brand itself (kindness = kindology), as a philosophy, so we need to make sure that kindness is present in every action, whether it’s with clients or different stakeholders, and the way we relate with every human being that gets in touch with?our?project/brand.
The next step is to research the industry standards and best practices that apply to your project. Industry standards are the norms and expectations that define the quality, performance, and compliance of products, services, processes, and systems in a specific sector or domain. They are often established by professional associations, regulatory bodies, or industry leaders. Some examples of industry standards are ISO, PMI, ITIL, GDPR, and LEED. To research the industry standards, you can use sources such as journals, websites, podcasts, webinars, or courses.
The third step is to compare and contrast your project values and industry standards and identify any gaps, conflicts, or opportunities. This step requires critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation skills. You have to ask yourself questions such as: How do your project values support or challenge the industry standards? How do the industry standards enhance or limit your project values? How can you leverage the industry standards to achieve your project values? How can you resolve any discrepancies or trade-offs between your project values and industry standards?
In my experience with our project, we did some research that made sure that our values were totally aligned with people, trends and company needs, although we realized during the lauch of the project that our product offer was probably too advanced for the stage of the market, so we needed to adapt and create projects and products that would allow us to make a soft entrance in the market and prepare later adoption of more advanced?products.
The fourth step is to communicate and align your project values and industry standards with your stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people or groups who have an interest or influence in your project, such as clients, sponsors, team members, suppliers, users, or regulators. Communication and alignment are essential to build trust, rapport, and collaboration among your stakeholders. You have to use effective communication tools and techniques, such as stakeholder matrix, communication plan, feedback loops, or reporting systems, to inform, consult, involve, or empower your stakeholders.
The final step is to monitor and evaluate your project values and industry standards throughout the project. Monitoring and evaluation are the processes of collecting, analyzing, and reporting data and information to measure the progress, performance, and impact of your project. They help you to track and control your project values and industry standards and ensure that they are aligned and consistent. You have to use appropriate monitoring and evaluation tools and methods, such as KPIs, dashboards, audits, surveys, or lessons learned, to assess and improve your project values and industry standards.
I believe it’s also important to work systematically in continuous improvement and one of the tools that we should use more frequently is constant feedback, not only from customers, but from every?stakeholder.