PM Network December 2011

NEW GROUND
by Manuela S. Zoninsein photo by Dave Terry
Project management has become a trend in the fashion industry, and educators are learning some new best
practices. From small-scale farmers in Asia to community police officers in the United States, many non-traditional
sectors are benefitting from adopting project management practices.

ON TREND Sectpr: Fashion

Technological improvements have revolutionized the fashion industry, allowing employees to keep close tabs on
every step of apparel production. This increased transparency creates a more efficient supply chain and helps to
eliminate bottlenecks. The ability to track information through software systems, such as enterprise resource planning
(ERP), has led to the growing adoption of project management processes, says Ken Li, senior vice president of the
apparel group at the clothing manufacturer Waitex in New York, New York, USA.
An industry built on instinct and a keen eye for trends has been somewhat reluctant to implement processes that
focus on numbers and analytics. By using data to demonstrate the value of project management, though, even the
most skeptical stakeholders are buying in.
The upside to mass manufacturing is that huge volumes of pieces can be produced efficiently, Mr. Li says. The
downside is if there's a problem, the assembly line will get stuckand you don't notice until 100,000 pieces have
been made.
The fashion world is following the lead of other industries that have seen the increased control and ROI project
management provides.
When such legendary designers as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood were making names for
themselves, they weren't looking at sell-through data, the percentage of units sold from the total inventory, Mr. Li
says. One of the fashion industry's newest power players, however, is not a sartorial wizard but an IT expert: Ron
Johnson, former head of Apple's retail stores, was poached by J.C. Penney to become CEO in November.
SAFE AND SOUND Sector: Public Safety
Financial fiascoes and job-security woes have hit public safety budgets hard.

PM Network December 2011

The increase of project management practices in public safety is intertwined with budget issues and the public's
demand of accountability for government services, says Ben Krauss, PMP, public safety technology specialist at
Search, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, a not-for-profit organization in Spokane,
Washington, USA.
Increased accountability has pressured public safety departments to ramp up their project selection and prioritization
processes.
At the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina, USA, our supervisors need the same justification
and reasons for approving a project as any other company, explains Harriett Johnson, PMP business systems
manager.
On a recent project to implement an online crime-reporting system for citizens, the project team followed standard
scorecard metrics.
We were always asking, Where are we at with the project? What did we say we'd do? Did we do what we said we
would do? Did we stay within our budgets? We're always held accountable and must report accordingly, she says.
To prove the project's value to external stakeholders, the team tracked:
The number of reports submitted online
The amount of money and time saved
Civilians report crimes online at their convenience and get the same service they would have over the phone or in
person, Ms. Johnson says. That builds credibility for future projects.
Transparency is a best practice in any governmental sector. We need to show we are implementing sound and
consistent standards, using reliable methodologies and tools that support credibility, professionalism and public trust,
Mr. Krauss says.
Looking ahead, Ms. Johnson would like to see the sector adopting an agile approach. Her project team currently uses
waterfall development, bringing in members as they are needed. Instead, she'd prefer her team members to be
brought together in the beginning to work as a unit throughout. This could serve law enforcement particularly well,
as the culture is very tight-knit and team-oriented, she says.
LEARNING PROCESS Sector: Educational Reform
The influx of data has also been a catalyst for the education field to adopt project management, explains Allan Alson,
EdD, senior consultant at the Consortium for Educational Change, a not-for-profit organization in Lombard, Illinois,
USA that pairs with public school districts and their communities to break the links between race, poverty and student
achievement. The organization provides senior consultants who work with leaders of urban school districts for
engagements that may last up to 10 years.
In the United States, information gathering and reporting (and, in turn, project management) were significantly
increased by a piece of legislature, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001. There are sanctions that can affect
funding for schools that don't meet standards.
There was demand to disaggregate all that data by race, poverty, socioeconomics and other categories, Dr. Alson
explains. This enabled project teams to identify students who were achieving or struggling, according to a wide array
of measures.
Armed with that data, project leaders work with teachers and administrators to discuss what changes should be
implemented at a school to ensure its achievement.
The key really is how teachers and administrators use data to improve instruction, Dr. Alson says.

PM Network December 2011

Teachers are engaged in regular meetings with project team members to discuss what patterns they notice in terms
of struggles and successes. Their involvement helps shape individual initiatives, and they are encouraged to discuss
and push back on projects to integrate new techniques and skills in the classroom. These stakeholders follow a
collaborative, iterative approach to fine-tune project scope and processes.
However, there are simply not enough project teams yet, Dr. Alson says. Educators need help using data to change
behaviors. They need training and support to be successful and ultimately reach sophistication, he explains.
The Panasonic Foundation, the programs sponsor, works with the school board office, central office, principal
leadership and teacher union leadership in school districts, building collaboration among those stakeholder groups.
That interaction has shown that a culture shift is neededfrom one that discourages disagreement and honest
dialogue to one that encourages and supports honest, open evidence-based discussion and constructive criticism.
Administrators and teachers need to learn that it's okay to push back, he says.
FERTILE GROWTH Sector: Sustainable Agriculture
As organizations become more complex, they risk becoming unwieldy. To accommodate rapid growth, Pesticide EcoAlternatives Center (PEAC), an organic agriculture nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Kunming, Yunnan, China,
adopted project management processes. Project teams held regular meetings to clearly delineate strategic goals and
status check-ins to analyze achievements and setbacks before outlining an initiative's next steps.
Stakeholder management played a key role as well. Project teams must be thoughtful and deliberate when they
identify and reach out to experts, who provide critical guidance and support whenever we implement a project, says
Sun Jing, deputy director and Asia Pacific project coordinator at PEAC.
The organization established a steering committee of experts, government officials, academics and NGO staffers.
They come together twice a year to evaluate the process of each project in PEAC's portfolio, including a research
study to determine the success of a chemical pesticide reduction campaign. In addition, the steering committee will
join in the procedure of reviewing plans for the next year's projects, considering what processes could be
strengthened and reviewing strategic goals.
Bringing together such diverse individuals contributes to buy-in. We establish good relationships with the
government, from the county and provincial levels to the national level, Ms. Sun says.
In today's unpredictable business climate, non-traditional sectors have taken notice of the benefits of project
management. Whether the goal is to increase transparency or shift the focus to business value, more and more
organizations are adopting best practices.