The global lockdown due to the pandemic forced organizations to adapt their working procedures. During the pandemic, almost all airport automation and Information Technology (IT) projects and upgrades had to be implemented remotely due to border closures and government-forced shutdowns impacting countless organizations, including the largest airports and airlines. Remote working became commonplace even for the most challenging projects including airport process automation. Regardless of whether critical ground handling processes, planning operations or workforce management were optimized, these projects were performed using remote teams from both the solutions provider and customer side. As these last years have shown, the success of the implementation and management of a remote project largely depends on the practices applied from the start through to the completion. Understanding the latest trends in project management and what constitutes best practices in remote project implementation can enable an airport to derive important benefits throughout the process.
Current Project Management Trends
While remote implementation is one of the most dominant trends in project management, there are other developments that are also influencing how airport projects are being conducted today. In a recent Project Management Institute (PMI) survey 81% of the respondents indicated that Artificial Intelligence is impacting how they are operating. Many are leveraging AI to automate what are considered low-value-add tasks so that their project managers can focus on more critical functions and ensure that project goals are met. Also prevalent in today’s project management is the heightened use of software that enables better resource allocation, use of historical project data, budget adherence, and project progress tracking. This is particularly relevant in view of the Annual Report – The State of Project Management issued by the project management consultancy Wellingtone. It found that 54% of organizations do not have access to real-time key performance indicators (KPIs) for managing their projects.
In addition to leveraging advanced technologies like AI and planning software, projects are now more frequently utilizing cross-functional teams led by a project manager. This enables a project to gain access to a broader range of skillsets – both hard technical skills, as well as soft skills such as team building, mentoring, training, negotiations, and conflict resolution.
Effective Remote Project Planning
Before a remote project begins, it is advisable that certain policies are in place to support a successful implementation. Since virtual meetings are a critical component of remote project execution, it is important that all participants in the project are fully trained on how to use a virtual conference platform, for example, Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and all of its features. This will enable more efficient meetings, communications and sharing of information to take place.
Regarding virtual meetings, certain policies should be established upfront, for example:
- All meetings should be recorded so they can be referred to afterwards. This, of course, presumes that the solution provider and customer have a written agreement regarding the recording of these sessions.
- Certain individuals must attend.
- On-time attendance is required.
- Time differences must be considered when scheduling the meetings.
- When necessary, intercultural training of participants should be conducted to facilitate effective communications.
It is also important to follow a well-developed planning process which also incorporates the use of key tools. To start, there should be an initial virtual meeting where the solution provider’s implementation methodology is clearly explained. This is followed by the project design phase during which all of the project’s requirements are captured. A useful tool, at this stage, is a Business Solutions Description, a joint initiative between the vendor’s team members and the customer’s team members. It involves the collection of all relevant use cases and acceptance criteria which becomes particularly important in the project implementation phase. It establishes a sound framework for the implementation of all software solutions included in the project, making sure that no critical detail is omitted, and serves as a technology document convey detailing how the systems will work. During the project implementation phase, the customer’s team members can refer to the document periodically to ensure that all of its requirements are being addressed.
Further, training sessions and workshops are jointly performed with both the solution provider’s and customer’s team members with business simulations being an essential part of the workshops. User acceptance testing (UAT) of all solutions implemented in the project follows on from this. This enables the end-user to perform real-world testing to ensure the solutions’ performance integrity. Finally, the remotely-implemented system is ready to go live with participation from both the solution provider’s team and customer’s team members.
Best Practices
Along with effective project planning and implementation, remote project management depends heavily on best practices to ensure its success. There are several best practices to follow, which include:
- Start with the right team members – individuals with essential and diverse skills as well as those who are able to communicate and collaborate effectively. Team members should be assigned clear responsibilities to ensure accountability and efficient decision-making.
- Establish the project’s goals and maintain close alignment of project goals and progress supported by weekly internal and external meetings with key principals. Within this objective, establish project priorities, but be agile and flexible, adapting when necessary to keep a project on-track and on-schedule.
- Clear communications reflected by reoccurring exchanges and virtual meetings between the solution provider and customer to promptly address any questions or issues that arise, and to reinforce the best practices being deployed.
The Benefits of Remote Project Implementation
The most significant benefit derived from remote project implementation is that of cost-savings. Since the solution provider’s team members’ do not need to travel, the related expenses (i.e., transportation, lodging) are eliminated. There are also savings stemming from tightly assigned and segregated project-related tasks aligned with the project plan and budget. Somewhat related is the ability to access the best team members for a project without having to consider where they are located.
Another benefit of remote project implementation stems from the ongoing use of a virtual meeting platform for communications, project monitoring, reporting, and training. By recording these sessions, they can be utilized by the end-user for review, training, and future reference.
Based on the nature of remote project implementation, there is generally greater scheduling flexibility which further serves to accommodate the customer’s other operational needs and could also help to speed up the project’s delivery. As remote working is now an accepted practice across aviation and other industries, remote project implementation, born out of an unprecedented global pandemic, has also become a well-received and widely-deployed process.
Oliver Tiedt is a Project Manager at INFORM. He has served in this role for 11 years and has played a key role in numerous successful optimization software solution implementations
