Tailoring

OVERVIEW 

Tailoring is the deliberate adaptation of the project management approach, governance, and processes to make them more suitable for the given environment and the work at hand.

In a project environment, tailoring considers the development approach, processes, project life cycle, deliverables, and choice of people with whom to engage. The tailoring process is driven by the guiding project management principles in The Standard for Project Management organizational values, and organizational culture. For instance, if a core organizational value is “customer centricity,” then the activities selected for requirements elicitation and scope validation favor customer-centered approaches. This aligns with the principle of “Effectively engage with stakeholders.” Likewise, an organization with a low appetite for risk may have many processes and procedures to guide projects throughout their life cycles. A similar company operating in the same market but with a high tolerance for risk may have fewer processes and procedures. In both of these examples, the organizations are aligned with the principle of “Optimize risk responses” even though their appetite, processes, and procedures are different.

Tailoring entails the mindful selection and adjustment of multiple project factors, regardless  of whether the label of “tailoring” is used.

The alternative to tailoring is using an unmodified framework or methodology. There are many methodologies available that provide descriptions of processes, phases, methods, artifacts, and templates to be used in projects. These methodologies and their components are not customized to the organizational context.

Most of these methodologies have clear instructions stating they should not be applied rigorously but should be subject to a process of tailoring to determine which elements are most useful given the particular type, size, and complexity of the project. Some inexperienced practitioners try to apply the methodology verbatim without regard to project size, complexity, duration, or organizational context. 

Tailoring involves understanding the project context, goals, and operating environment. Projects operate in complex environments that need to balance potentially competing demands that include, but are not limited to :

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Delivering as quickly as possible, 

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Minimizing project costs, 

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Optimizing the value delivered, 

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Creating high-quality deliverables and outcomes, 

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Providing compliance with regulatory standards, 

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Satisfying diverse stakeholder expectations, and

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Adapting to change.

These factors need to be understood, evaluated, and balanced to create a practical operating environment for the project.

There may be situations that limit the degree to which project teams can tailor their approach, for example, when organizational policies mandate the use of a specific approach or a contract specifies a mandated approach.

WHY TAILOR?

Tailoring is performed to better suit the organization, operating environment, and project needs. Many variables factor into the tailoring process, including the criticality of the project and the number of stakeholders involved. Using these variables as an example, it is evident that the rigor, checks and balances, and reporting required for a critical project (e.g., building a nuclear reactor) are much greater than those for building a new office building.

Likewise, the communication and coordination of work necessary for a project team of  10 people is insufficient for a project team of 200 people. Too few processes can omit key activities that support effective project management, while employing more processes than required is costly and wasteful. Thus, tailoring facilitates appropriate management for the operating environment and the project needs.

The structure used to deliver projects can be extensive or minimal, rigorous or lightweight, robust or simple. There is no single approach that can be applied to all projects all of the time. Instead, tailoring should reflect the size, duration, and complexity of each individual project and should be adapted to the industry, organizational culture, and level of project management maturity of the organization.

Tailoring produces direct and indirect benefits to organizations. These include, but are not limited to : 

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More commitment from project team members who helped to tailor the approach, 

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Customer-oriented focus, as the needs of the customer are an important influencing factor in its development, and 

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More efficient use of project resources.

WHAT TO TAILOR 

Project aspects that can be tailored include :

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Life cycle and development approach selection, 

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Processes, 

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Engagement, 

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Tools, and

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Methods and artifacts.

LIFE CYCLE AND DEVELOPMENT APPROACH SELECTION

Deciding on a life cycle and the phases of the life cycle is an example of tailoring. Additional tailoring can be done when selecting the development and delivery approach for the project. Some large projects may use a combination of development and delivery approaches simultaneously. For instance, building a new data center could involve 

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the use of predictive approaches for the physical building construction and finishing and 

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an iterative approach for understanding and establishing the computing capabilities required. Viewed from a project level, this combination of approaches represents a hybrid approach, but the construction team and the computing team may only experience a predictive or iterative development approach.

PROCESSES 

Process tailoring for the selected life cycle and development approach includes determining which portions or elements should be :

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Added, to bring required rigor, coverage, or address unique product or operating environment conditions, etc. (e.g., adding independent inspections for safety critical projects); 

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Modified, to better suit the project or project team requirements (e.g., modifying  the format of project documents to accommodate project team members with  vision limitations); 

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Removed, to reduce cost or effort since it is no longer required or is not economical  for the value it adds (e.g., removing the creation of meeting minutes for a small, colocated project team with good communications); 

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Blended, to bring additional benefits or value by mixing or combining elements (e.g., adding appreciative inquiry methods from organizational management to the lessons learned meetings of predictive project management to help foster better collaboration); and 

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Aligned, to harmonize elements so there is consistent definition, understanding, and application (e.g., many disciplines have standards and practices associated with risk management that are sufficiently different from each other that would need to be aligned). For example, on multidisciplinary project teams, different disciplines may have specific elements, such as their own language, tools, and practices related to the same area of focus.

ENGAGEMENT

Tailoring engagement for the people involved in the project includes :

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People. This entails evaluating the skills and capabilities of the project leadership and the project team; then selecting who should be involved and in what capacities based on the project type and operating conditions. For example, on a challenging or time constrained project, assigning very experienced project team members is more logical than using inexperienced project team members. 

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Empowerment. Empowerment involves choosing which responsibilities and forms of local decision making should be deferred to the project team. Some environments and team member capabilities support high levels of empowerment. In other situations, less empowerment with more supervision and direction might be preferable. 

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Integration. Project teams can include contributors from contracted entities, channel partners, and other external entities in addition to staff from inside the sponsoring organization. Tailoring considers how to create one project team from a diverse  collection of contributors to facilitate optimal project team performance and realization  of project outcomes.

TOOLS 

Selecting the tools (e.g., software or equipment) the project team will use for the project  is a form of tailoring. Often, the project team has the best insight into the most suitable tools for the situation, but those choices might need tempering based on the associated costs. Additionally, organizational leaders can impose constraints that the project team cannot change.

METHODS AND ARTIFACTS 

Tailoring the means that will be used to achieve the project outcomes is performed so that the methods are suited for the environment and the culture. Tailoring the documents, templates, and other artifacts that will be used on the project helps to make sure the artifacts are appropriate for the project and the organization. Section 4 contains numerous examples of methods and artifacts that can be considered when tailoring methods and artifacts.