{"id":19227,"date":"2021-07-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/"},"modified":"2021-07-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T05:00:00","slug":"formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Formal vs. Informal Project Management: Which is Right for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <!-- .post-meta --><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Have you ever heard a project manager refer to &#x201C;formal&#x201D; project management and wondered what exactly makes it formal? While different organizations might have their own definition of the term, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalknowledge.ie\/content\/files\/documents\/white-papers\/pm\/231458\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">formal project management<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the area of interest to professional project managers, and is the preferred style of management for most enterprise projects. Here&#x2019;s a quick look at the differences between formal and informal project management, and the situations in which you might use one over the other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2017\/02\/formal.jpg\" alt=\"formal vs informal project management\" height=\"400\"><\/p>\n<p><b>Formal Project Management<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Formal project management is usually marked by a few distinguishing characteristics:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The presence of a professional project manager who guides the project team and helps ensure that project activities are conducted according to plan. It&#x2019;s safe to assume that if a project has a dedicated project manager, the project is using a formal project management style.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The use of sophisticated project management tools for planning, tracking and reporting. While informal projects often rely on loose collections of spreadsheets and documents, formal projects generally take advantage of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/teams\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">cloud-based project management solutions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like Planview AdaptiveWork to streamline the planning process and facilitate communication between team members.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The use of a well-defined <\/span><a href=\"\/the-best-project-management-methodologies-for-marketing-projects\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">project management methodologies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> such as agile project management or the waterfall methodology. Project managers are typically experts in the methodology itself, and help team members coordinate their work with the management style.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#x2019;s important to note that the term &#x201C;formal&#x201D; doesn&#x2019;t necessarily imply the use of strict procedures and extensive documentation, but simply means that an organization is investing time and effort to ensure that proper plans and controls are in place. Some types of formal project management may actually allow as much flexibility as any informal management style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Informal Project Management<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Informal project management is harder to define, as it can take an almost infinite number of forms. The simplest answer is that informal project management is any approach to planning and executing a project that doesn&#x2019;t fit a reasonable definition of formal project management. Informal project styles are commonly used on very small projects, and when projects are to be completed by small teams who are familiar with both the work to be done and with each other&#x2019;s style of working.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"content-cta\">\n<div id=\"content-cta-text\">Increase your business agility with Planview AdaptiveWork&#x2019;s project management software<\/div>\n<div id=\"content-cta-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/resource\/product-tour\/?refer=blogpost\">Take a Product Tour<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Informal project management rarely involves a project manager or specialized project management technology. Instead,&#xA0;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">project management activities are usually shared among the people who are actually doing the work, and who use whatever combination of online and offline tools they prefer in order to keep track of their own tasks and progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Making the Choice<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For most organizations, formal project management is the only acceptable choice for large or mission-critical projects, as it ensures a level of oversight and accountability that is not achievable otherwise. However, most companies allow departments or employees to use informal styles to manage projects that don&#x2019;t require a separate budget or other specific resource allocations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"client-logo\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Siemens Energy\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/08\/siemens_energy-200x100.png\" alt=\"Siemens Energy\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"IIROC Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/07\/IIROC_logo-200x100.gif\" alt=\"IIROC Success\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Financial Services Institution\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/04\/FINANCIAL-SERVICES-IMG-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Financial Services Institution\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"M Squared\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/03\/m-squared-logo-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"M Squared\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Aliancys Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2019\/12\/aoc_aliancys-logo-800x400-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Aliancys Success\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Bonfiglioli Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2019\/11\/bonfiglioli_logo-800x400-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Bonfiglioli Success\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever heard a project manager refer to &#x201C;formal&#x201D; project management and wondered what exactly makes it formal? While different organizations might have their own definition of the term, formal project management is the area of interest to professional project managers, and is the preferred style of management for most enterprise projects. Here&#x2019;s a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pmo-project-management-organizations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Formal vs. Informal Project Management: Which is Right for You?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Formal vs Informal project management - formal usually marked by distinguished characteristics whereas informal is harder to define. Formal project management is the only acceptable choice for most organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Formal vs. Informal Project Management: Which is Right for You?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Formal vs Informal project management - formal usually marked by distinguished characteristics whereas informal is harder to define. Formal project management is the only acceptable choice for most organizations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planview Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Planview-Inc\/89422974772\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-30T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2017\/02\/formal.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Team AdaptiveWork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Planview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Planview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Team AdaptiveWork\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Team AdaptiveWork\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e307731bc782b0042d055366fc035e50\"},\"headline\":\"Formal vs. Informal Project Management: Which is Right for You?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-30T05:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\"},\"wordCount\":524,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2017\/02\/formal.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Project Portfolio Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/\",\"name\":\"Formal vs. Informal Project Management: Which is Right for You?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/formal-vs-informal-project-management-which-is-right-for-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2017\/02\/formal.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-30T05:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Formal vs Informal project management - formal usually marked by distinguished characteristics whereas informal is harder to define. 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