Effective and lean
Project, Process and Product Management
Our observations
- Projects within organisations do reach their goals, but at a relatively high cost that could have been avoided.
- To many, an organisation’s project landscape appears confusing, questionable and sluggish.
- External requirements, such as the integration of sustainability issues, are dealt with by separate ‘designated representatives’ and are not integrated into the company’s business and work processes in such a way that they are met ‘as a matter of course’.
- Process improvements are often implemented without a clear focus on a value-adding objective, with the result that they fall well short of what they could achieve in terms of reliability, speed, minimising effort or preventing errors.
- Government Red Tape reduction is (rightly) demanded by organisations, yet internal, ‘home-grown’ red tape is largely disregarded. The latter could be reduced immediately.
- Products and services are brought to market, but fall well short of their potential benefits for customers, the organisation and society.
Our Expertise
Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of projects and project portfolios, processes and product offerings.
Lean Project Management
Project Portfolio Management – lean & adaptive
Sustainability in project and portfolio management
Focused process management
Red Tape Reduction
Benefit-oriented product management
Our Experience
We have successfully applied our expertise in numerous organisations:
“In large corporations, project management requires ever greater flexibility and responsiveness. Using the compact Unified Project Management Framework, we were able to optimise the approach taken in a sub-project aimed at designing software. This involved implementing lean thinking as a key element, which enabled project management processes to be optimised and applied in a modular, phased manner.” (Project Manager, car manufacturer)
“I would like to thank you once again for your excellent presentation! … Your presentation was repeatedly singled out as the ‘best presentation’ and was even awarded a ‘1***’ by one participant.” (Speaker from a consultancy and networking firm for the energy sector)
“The collaboration … was very constructive and productive. … Furthermore, drawing on my knowledge and experience in project management, I would go so far as to describe your work and your performance as exemplary. The added value … is, in my view, beyond doubt.” (Project Manager, State Criminal Police Office)
“I think the [PM Reference] model is brilliant. … I particularly like the rigour with which you have structured your model and filled the individual subject areas with appropriate content.” (Professor of Business Administration and ERP Systems)
Services and Costs
Support with the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of projects, processes and products
Pricing depends on the focus of the assignment:
Customer-specific solutions without research contributions
Customer-specific solutions incorporating research contributions (“Action Research”)
Pure research projects whose primary aim is to gain new insights
Your benefits
Minimum effort and time invest
Low external support costs
Fast results
Adressing root causes instead of symptoms
Ability to act within your current conditions
Academically established methods
About us
We are a network of academics and practitioners who develop and apply research findings, models, methods and tools relating to project, product and process management.
IDP means "ill-defined problems".
Well-defined problems are characterised by the fact that the initial state, the target state and the methods leading from the initial state to the target state are known.
In contrast, ill-defined problems are characterised by the fact that the initial state, the target state and/or the methods are unclear. They can therefore be classified as ‘ill-defined problems’.
This is precisely what we focus on in the context of project, process and product management: what is effective, and what is dispensable? These are ‘ill-defined problems’.
These cannot be solved by theory alone, but require field research (‘action research’). That is why IDP was established as a field laboratory for ill-defined problems in project, process and product management.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Erne
Product, Process and Project Management
Rainer Erne is a professor of product, process and project management at the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences for Business and the Environment (HfWU) and Dean of Studies of the ‘Product Management’ (B.Sc.) and ‘Master of Project Studies’ (M.Sc.) degree programmes.
Prior to that, he had worked for over 15 years in the above-mentioned fields at various industrial companies and in a range of roles, including as a project manager at IBM Global Services, a senior consultant at Vector Consulting and a programme manager at the Bosch Group.
Furthermore, for over 15 years he has been helping non-profit organisations, particularly churches, to realign their focus and minimise costs.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Erne
Mail: rainer.erne@idp-lab.org
Prof. Dr. Claus Hüsselmann
Project, Project Portfolio and Process Management
Prof. Dr. Claus Hüsselmann
Mail: claus.huesselmann@idp-lab.org
Stefanie Langhardt
Project Management and Coaching
Stefanie Langhardt is a freelance consultant for Project Management and Coaching.
She supports in the critical reflection and application of agile and waterfall processes with the aim to to leverge Project Management in a valued-added way.
Before that she was engaged for over ten years as a Project Manager in Profit and Nonprofit Organisations as a certified IPMA Project Manager.
Stefanie Langhardt
Mail: stefanie.langhardt@idp-lab.org
Contact
IDP lab
Hölderlinstr. 18
D-73635 Rudersberg
Phone: +49 – (0) 7331 – 22511
Mail: info@idp-lab.org