KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Project management's existence is based on four wheels - Search, based on which we develop standards; Standards; Certification and Education, said Raj Kalady, managing director, Project Management Institute.

He was speaking during the panel discussion "Harnessing the power of Project Management" at the CIOL C-Change 2009. The other panelists in the session included Ajay Dhir, Group Chief Information Officer, Jindal Stainless Ltd., Arun Gupta, Customer Care Associate and Group Chief Technology Officer, Shoppers' Stop, Atul Kumar, Assistant GM, IT, Syndicate Bank, Bihag Lalaji, VP (Information Technology), Ambuja Cement, Jaya Battacharya, AGM (IT and MIS), Simplex Infrastructure Ltd.

Kalady shared some findings from a survey pool that his company had done with the CIOs. According to the survey, the top three concerns of CIOs are:

• Do more with less
• Projects on-time, on budget
• Competitive quality

"The common platform that addresses these three concerns is 'professional project management'. This fact has been endorsed by the CIOs," he said.

The panelists replied to questions put forth by the audience during the session.

What's the strategic impact of project management?
Kalady said, "We did a research with the University of California. Companies that do not adopt project management practices tend to miss targets by 40 percent over time. Companies that have professional project management practices, deliver on time and meet budget targets."

What constitutes professional project management practices? Is it merely software tools or more?
Arun Gupta said, "Project management is a part of the mindset. It is important to ensure how interdependencies work, and you don't need fancy tools. You need to ensure how teams work and back each other. Project management, I believe, is 90 percent of using common sense, and ensuring that everyone is on the same page."
 
Jaya Battacharya highlighted that tools and techniques can facilitate project management. However, project management goes far beyond that. "If all of the things work together, it will be successful. It is like an orchestra. Project management is all about optimizing resources," she said.

Atul Kumar pointed out that project management is not merely meant for software organizations. "How do you manage your attitude? It is your prime importance."

Bihag Lalaji told the audience: "We have a definite project management approach followed for all of our projects. This approach is an attitude, a culture. We have to imbibe it as a culture in the organization."

The methodology is quite detailed, and highlights the purpose of the project. "You also need to see what are the lessons learnt from doing previous projects, and take care that those issues do not occur again. When you kick off the project, the realization process starts. Continuous communication during a project is the key. The project team makes itself as a separate organization by itself," he said. "You have to take continuous feedback from clients on the progress on your implementation to make it success."

Ajay Dhir noted that project management is a framework of processes, framework of people, and not just software. "We need to focus on how we can bring in smart practices, institutionalized practices, etc. Start putting in your own processes and practices first, before adopting a professional framework."