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Does anyone knows of any project management framework/methodology that has been developed specifically to cater to very small enterprises?

I know that Waterfall presents a serious overhead that cannot be tolerated by small enterprises.

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2 Answers

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welcome to PMSE!

Have you had a look at Agile? It's a group of methods often used for small projects and / or rough requirements. Worth to read about (and then make your question more specific).

Notice that I don't believe there's such framework/methodology based on the company's size. We can have a huge company with tiny projects as well as a (relatively) small company with a (relatively) huge project.

Success!

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Hi Tiago, I do agree with your statement up to certain extend where we can have a huge company with tiny projects as well as a (relatively) small company with a (relatively) huge project. But it is rare case that large company performing small project similarly it is rare case that small company performing large scale project. I see Agile as software development practices rather than software project management becoz agile doesn't have project lifecycle and a standard project management process that needs to be followed in order to finish the project. – Hairul May 29 '12 at 16:22
Hi @Hairul, my knowledge in Agile is restricted to some concepts... let's wait some Agile folks to put some lights on your comment. In regards to the relationship between company x project sizes, I work for a mid global services company (1000~5000 employees) but we have projects of one single person. That's why I meant by comparing company size x project size. Cheers! – Tiago Cardoso♦ May 29 '12 at 16:41
Hi Tiago, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Yeah different person has their own perspective in interpreting something! :) – Hairul May 29 '12 at 16:47
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I think you're misunderstanding the waterfall concept. Waterfall simply means that the project is sequenced, and that certain things must be done before other. In truth, all projects follow a waterfall process to some extent.

As for a small business, there's no specific methodology tailored to a type of 'business', methodologies are designed for types of projects. So what would be most applicable to you would be what suits your project best - software dev, then maybe Agile of Scrum; IT, maybe PRINCE2, const or fixed scope, then more waterfall/CPM.

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Hi Nelson, thanks for your answer. I do asked several small to medium enterprise why they didn't adapt any project management framework. Some of the answer, there are too many process in PMI-PMBOK, PRINCE2 is too heavy to learn. Just thinking whether there is a need a light-weight project management/methodology for small-medium enterprise . – Hairul May 29 '12 at 16:53
Those answers show a misunderstanding of the PMBoK Guide. It's not a methodology, but a framework. It's intended to show SOME of the things that can occur on a project. There are 5 Process Groups and 42 Processes, but a company should ONLY use the ones they need, the ones that are applicable to their situation, not all of them. It was never intended that all of them be used on a project. Hope that helps. – Trevor K. Nelson May 29 '12 at 17:00

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