While the basic skills of managing projects can generally be applied across many fields, for more specialized areas, it can make sense for firms to hire a project management consultant. This use of external expertise can bring a new dimension to the abilities and effectiveness of a project team.
If you’re considering looking for project management consulting but are unsure of how it might play out, we’ve put together a run-through of some of the advantages it can bring to your project.
Specialized skills
Depending on the requirements of the project, bringing in someone who has worked solely in a certain field to run the processes can be a great asset. For example, imagine a large restaurant chain wants to implement a networking project for monitoring stock and managing deliveries. While their internal project managers might be very adept at location openings and restaurant management processes, for a networking project it would make more sense to bring in someone who has specialized in IT or similar fields.
The ability to utilize project management consulting increases a firm’s flexibility and the chances that a project will be successful in achieving all its expected deliverables.
Greater experience
While internal project managers can become very adept in the field they are employed in, the fact that they generally only deal with other businesses in the orbit of the firm, can limit their experience of the broader business world. For project management consultants however, their professional life is heavily built on networking and building relationships in a wide variety of fields.
It is this experience and extensive contact list which can often prove invaluable to ensuring business success or achieving lower costs or better terms.
Objective views
Most of the time, a project manager who has been inculcated with a firm’s values and objectives is exactly what a company wants to ensure those things are enshrined throughout projects or processes. This won’t always be the case however and if a problem arises in those values themselves, then it can be very difficult to pivot quickly to deliver or save a project.
Bringing in an external project manager provides an objective pair of eyes that can view a project and how it’s progressing with fresh insight. Often it can be difficult for an internal project manager to get that kind of distance. If your firm is having difficult spotting where project issues are arising from, an external project management consultant can be just what you need.
Above office politics
Problems happen within teams all the time, it’s a project manager’s job to try and balance personalities and cool conflicts but sometimes things can just get out of hand. Accusations of bias or team members clearly not working well together can very quickly derail a project. At times like this one of the best solutions can be to bring in an external project management consultant, who will be automatically viewed as neutral and untainted by internal politics.
If a project is close to completion but is threatening to come off the rails, a short-term “firefighter” can be precisely the solution required to get it over the line.
For whatever reason you may require it, project management consulting can provide your organization with increased flexibility and greater array of skills than solely looking internally. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when looking to bring someone in.
