Basic definition of the MOBA Project Management

Here you can read the 6th part of our series, especially about the work of MOBA project management.

MOBA AG’s project management considers itself as multi project management. In multi project management, several individual projects are organized simultaneously, with their interactions, shared resources, and so on. With the PM software all projects are recorded, managed and presented.

Before the project management gets to start, the executive board manages the project portfolio and decides on each project request according to the MOBA strategy. In sum, all approved projects form MOBA AG’s project portfolio. In a process upstream to the portfolio management every MOBA staff member can request new projects with the form “Development request” in the Intranet.

The projects to be managed by the project management team are product developments in the business areas construction, agriculture and waste & logistics. Projects like IT acquisitions, reconstruction of buildings or product transfers between the different subsidiaries, however, are managed by different people within the MOBA group. In the ideal case, for developments not made in Limburg, there is a project manager closely located to the core of development who can help to support and control the product generation process directly on site. The physical proximity allows a steady flow of information and a shorter reaction time.

A project has been successful when the planned result could be realized
- with the planned functionality
- in the planned quality
- in the planned time
- in the scope of expected risks.

Since a project manager is fully responsible for his project and its success, he has to make sure that all success criteria mentioned above have been fulfilled.

From the beginning, a successful project requires clear project organization and transparent process-oriented organization. The process-oriented organization defines the rules (roles, competences, responsibilities, decision-making, etc.) and the communication structure. The project manager (project controlling) supervises the consequent observation of the project organization and the process-oriented organization.

As soon as the project manager has handled all issues mentioned above, he/she officially starts the project with a kick-off meeting preferably attended by all members of the project organization team including the executive board. He/she commits all participants to the project order, the project plan, the project rules etc. and makes sure to keep everybody on a uniform level of information.

The bigger and the more complex a project is, the bigger the PM competence or PM performance the project manager has to provide and the smaller the required technical competence or performance. Unfortunately, in practice, many project managers almost exclusively concentrate or have to concentrate on technical contents, because the processes are not clearly defined in the companies.

By generating a requirement specification template for the different product types, a not insignificant part of the specific technical work, so far previously provided by the project managers, can be carried out by the customer in cooperation with MOBA AG’s sales department.

You will find all previous parts here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

We will continue with the next part soon.