How to Stay Calm in the Project Storm

Just as sailors strive to overcome the waves and steer their ships, so project managers struggle through scope creep and pilot their projects. The painful truth is that not every boat reaches its destination, just as not every project is successful — the environments are similarly chaotic and turbulent. We cannot make the sea calm down or avoid all business uncertainties, but what we can do is stay fit and ready for the next storm so we can meet it confidently.
Less Noise to Create Smooth Flow
Dutch scientists Jan Willem Tromp and Albert Ponsteen, striving to bring simplicity and order to multi-project environments, have devised a method to calm the turbulence. Inspired by over 30 years of combined experience in project management, they now share the results of their research. After garnering data from 4,000 business experts, they came to the conclusion that overload, planning overhead, and prioritization are the core problems of multi-project management that need to be resolved in a timely manner. Tromp and Ponsteen devised an approach to combat these challenges — the Flow method.
Albert Ponsteen and Jan Willem Tromp
This Flow philosophy is simple — to create perfect flow for your projects, you should take proper care of your team. A sure way to avoid the risks of project delays and cost escalations is to protect your team members from unnecessary noise while at the same time reducing conflicting priorities and fights for their attention to a minimum. Tromp and Ponsteen are convinced that those who speak the loudest will get the fewest resources and eventually achieve less project and task value because hyperproductive teams are less likely to be successful when they’re switching between tasks all the time. Clearly defined priorities and task distribution prevent business experts from fighting for resources, so the decibels will drop.
Priority Routing to Avert Business Turmoil
To keep dynamic environments peaceful and calm, these Dutch scientists recommend opting for project management software that will help you allocate resources and prioritize, putting an end to intuitive decision-making in the workplace. To meet this objective, Tromp and Ponsteen developed the Epicflow PM tool to generate less noise and create smooth flow for your business, helping your in-house projects to meet due dates. Up to their comfort the employees will no longer have to rely on their intuition. With a list of clear priorities, your workforce will still be able to use local knowledge and make all the necessary decisions. A clear priority route will enable clarity and order in your business environment.
Predictive Analytics for Long-Term Project Orientation
Project management involves ripples: Once you get an additional project in the pipeline, it influences other projects, extending in ripples and eventually leading to scope creep. The question is how to stay calm, peaceful, and serene and take these ripples for given. Epicflow’s features add analytical value to existing tools, such as Jira, Primavera, CA Clarity, Trimergo, TOPdesk, and others. The tool works in tandem with the applications you already use — so far, the SaaS platform has been released to upgrade MS Project for multi-project environments. Epicflow’s algorithm allows the software to foresee the impact and feasibility of adding a new project to the pipeline. You’ll be able to predict the coming storm and gather all the necessary resources to anchor your ship at the right time and place thanks to the future load graph.
Unprecedented Ease for Project Planning
Struggling through the flood of project tasks and deadlines is stressful even if you already know how many resources you’ll need to complete an additional project on time. When a change in the schedule appears, project managers have to retrace their steps again. The Flow method performs a crucial role in re-planning. C-level managers can forget the hours they used to spend rescheduling tasks and shifting deadlines, as Epicflow can solve these issues automatically. The tool saves time on capacity planning and proper alignment of the teams, so project management experts can gain full visibility of their projects and can control them at any time.
Flow is a novel method for perfect business navigation, and its associated project management instrument not only reduces unnecessary noise and fights for resources — it also assists business experts in prioritization and resource allocation. A distinctive map of priorities averts chaos, while predictive analytics helps multi-project managers stay confident in the projects to come. Adopting the right approach to project management is paramount for your business, so sail for the latest practices and propel your boat with cutting-edge technologies.
