Project Management

What is Fractional Project Management?

Imagine having a dedicated, experienced Project Manager seamlessly integrate into your team, guiding your most important projects to successful completion, but only for the hours or duration required. That's the essence of fractional project management. Instead of committing to a permanent employee, you gain a strategic partner who brings an independent perspective, proven methodologies, and extensive hands-on experience to oversee projects, optimize processes, and drive results. It's about securing specialized expertise on a flexible, on-demand basis, perfectly aligning with your project needs and budgetary realities.

How LCG's Fractional Project Management Benefits Your Business

LCG's approach to fractional project management is designed to empower your organization with efficiency, expertise, and a clear path to success:

• Cost Efficiency, Maximum Impact: Eliminate the significant costs associated with a full-time hire (salary, benefits, training, recruitment). You only pay for the project management expertise you need, precisely when your projects demand it, ensuring a lean and agile operational model.

• Access to Senior-Level Expertise: Leverage over 25 years of proven professional experience in project leadership. LCG's fractional Project Managers bring a wealth of knowledge from diverse industries and project types, including complex business initiatives and owner's representation for capital improvement projects.

• Agility & Scalability: Easily scale your project management capacity up or down to match project spikes, new initiatives, or temporary resource gaps. Our services are ideal for young organizations establishing their footing or more established companies facing a surge in project volume.

• Accelerated Project Momentum: Kickstart new projects, revive stalled initiatives, and ensure critical deadlines are met. Our experienced PMs hit the ground running, bringing immediate structure and guidance to keep your projects on track and within budget.

• Process Optimization & Workflow Development: Beyond just managing projects, LCG's fractional PMs are experts in identifying inefficiencies and establishing robust, repeatable processes and workflows. This includes developing clear OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure success and improve overall operational efficiency.

• Strategic Guidance & Independent Perspective: Benefit from an objective, outside perspective that can identify blind spots, mitigate risks, and introduce best practices. Our PMs are focused on delivering successful outcomes and building sustainable capabilities within your organization.

• Tailored Methodologies: While primarily utilizing Waterfall methodologies for robust planning and control, LCG also has the ability to implement streamlined Agile practices for efficient, lean organizations, ensuring the right approach for your specific project and culture.

• Proficiency with Leading Tools: Our Project Managers are well-versed in common project management tools, including ClickUp, Microsoft Project, Excel, SmartSuite, Smartsheet, Monday.com, and Asana, ensuring seamless integration with your existing technological ecosystem.

• Comprehensive Program Oversight: In addition to hands-on project execution, LCG offers program oversight for organizations looking for assistance in establishing their Project Management Office (PMO) or auditing their current project operations for improvement opportunities.

Our Engagement Process: Your Path to Project Success

We believe in a structured, client-centric approach to ensure our fractional project management services deliver maximum value:

1. Discovery & Assessment: Our engagement begins with a discovery call to thoroughly understand your organization's unique needs, challenges, culture, and specific project delivery requirements.

2. Proposal of Services & Solutions: Based on our assessment, we'll present a tailored proposal of services and solutions, outlining the scope, objectives, and anticipated outcomes of our partnership.

3. Onboarding & Integration: Once contracted, an onboarding period allows LCG to deeply understand your organization's culture, existing processes, and specific project delivery needs, ensuring our PMs seamlessly integrate with your team. We're selective in the clients we take on, ensuring our team maintains a client load that prioritizes availability and deep cultural understanding.

4. Project Management Lifecycle: The project management process then commences, following standard phases:

   • Initiation: Defining the project scope, objectives, and stakeholders.

   • Planning: Developing detailed project plans, timelines, resource allocation, and risk management strategies.

   • Implementation with Monitoring & Controls: Executing the project plan while rigorously tracking progress, managing changes, and ensuring alignment with objectives. Our PMs are typically hands-on throughout this phase.

   • Project Closure: Formalizing project completion, documenting lessons learned, and ensuring all deliverables are handed over.

Ensuring Continuity and Knowledge Transfer

A common concern with external resources is continuity. LCG addresses this proactively:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): If part of the scope, we develop comprehensive SOPs as a key deliverable, providing repeatable frameworks for your future projects.

• Detailed Project Reports: Regular and comprehensive project reports are provided as deliverables, offering clear insights into progress, challenges, and resolutions.

• Full Project Documentation: All project documentation is meticulously organized and provided to the client for secure storage on their servers or cloud systems.

• Project Webpage for Clarity: A dedicated project webpage is provided, offering a real-time, consolidated view of project status and key information, ensuring clarity at any given time.

Is Fractional Project Management Right for You?

You should consider LCG's Fractional Project Management services if your organization is:

• Launching New Initiatives: You have exciting new projects (e.g., product launches, system implementations, market expansions, capital improvement projects) but lack the dedicated internal project leadership.

• Experiencing Resource Gaps: Your team is already stretched thin, or you're experiencing a temporary surge in projects that outpaces your current capacity.

• Dealing with Stalled or Struggling Projects: A project has lost momentum, gone off track, or is consuming too many internal resources without clear progress.

• Seeking Operational Efficiencies: Your teams or departments are operating without clearly defined processes, workflows, or performance metrics, or you need help establishing a PMO.

• Aiming for Cost-Conscious Growth: You need high-level project management expertise to grow, but want to maintain a low overhead and flexible cost structure.

Ready to bring expert project leadership to your next initiative without the full-time commitment? Contact Lyle Consulting Group today to discuss how our Fractional Project Management services can empower your success.