1. Transparency: When we hear “transparency,” we usually think about companies and organizations being transparent to outsiders: customers, shareholders and the general public. Transparency is also an important principle within an organization. Transparency in project management means that the PM process has to be easy for everyone involved in the project to learn and use for launching and executing the project.

Good project managers are indispensable, but not because they’re the only people on the team who know all the pieces that make up the project. Rather, a good PM knows how to put into motion a transparent, consistent process that all team members understand. When different people join and leave the team, stakeholders can still count on consistent, quality results because the backbone of the project is the process, not the people.

2. Repeatable results: Another key metric of a trustworthy process is its ability to produce repeatable results. Regardless of who is leading the project or assigned to the team, the PM process must create the same high-quality results from project to project and person to person.  When customers and other stakeholders see different teams producing the same good results across projects, they grow to trust the organization’s processes.

3. Growth-driven initiative: Lastly, the PM process must inspire people to keep expanding their innate skills and capabilities rather than installing bureaucratic hurdles that stifle creative efforts. Just because a process is consistent doesn’t mean it has to limit team members’ creativity.  For example, we have a standard process we use for developing new courses. This process has allowed team members to create online courses in many new directions, depending on their interests and unique skill sets — ranging from home improvement projects, to mastering negotiation tactics, to starting your own micro-green vertical garden.  -Michelle LaBrosse,  excerpted from her article, “Trusting the process: 3 key features of effective project management” She is the founder of Cheetah Learning. Click here to read the article in its entirety. [end]