Leadership Skills for PMs: Edition 11 – Leverage Processes

Leveraging processes helps improve overall efficiency and delivers continuous improvement to projects. Here are ways experienced project managers leverage a process-focused approach to increase effectiveness.

• Projects are viewed as consistent and predictable.  When project managers follow standardized processes, teams deliver predictable results and stakeholders know what to expect, strengthening trust and credibility. 
• PMs make better decisions more efficiently (especially when under pressure). Clear processes helps project managers respond efficiently to issues or proposed changes. With documented processes for addressing risks and issues including who examines scope changes and how, PMs ensure that the right people assess impacts when making these significant decisions.
• Project managers streamline communication. With a documented communication plans, the PM and team leaders consistently and predictably share updates and documents. This reduces confusion and misinterpretation of project status and upcoming activities.
• Documented processes speed up knowledge transfer. When processes are documented and repeatable, and project control deliverables are methodically updated, project managers can bring new key stakeholders, team members, and even sponsors on board faster and more effectively.
• Processes reduce risk and boost compliance. Projects are more likely to meet regulatory, contractual, and governance requirements when everyone follows standard processes. Because project audits focus on whether critical processes are documented and followed, defined processes help the PM protect their organization’s reputation and the results they deliver.
• Processes empower team members. Documented processes help project team members understand what is expected of them, how they must produce their deliverables, and how those deliverables fit into the big picture. Well-crafted work breakdown structures, task data dictionaries, and process-focused deliverable reviews help team members support one another.  This clarity boosts confidence and encourages greater ownership. 

Look through your project documentation to evaluate your project management processes. Find any missing ones or some that could be improved? Pick one each week to document until everything is up to date.

 

For more about processes, check out my Project Management Foundations course and Chris Croft’s Process Improvement Foundations course.

 

Coming Up

As Project Online approaches retirement, organizations face important decisions about the future of their project and portfolio management tools. Bonnie Biafore and Ira Brown will explore several paths for transitioning away from Project Online, discussing options such as Project Server Subscription Edition, Planner Premium, Smartsheet, and also the use of standalone Microsoft Project. Join us for Office Hours on Friday, December 5, 2025 at 11am MT/1pm ET. Click here to join!

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 100,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

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