Will everything always happen "by itself" in a small project team?

In my professional career, I have worked in medium and large companies and I am very happy that this year I have the opportunity to get to know small companies as well and see how projects are implemented in small teams. I will share my thoughts on the complexities of projects and why attention should be paid to ensuring successful project management.

Having observed the work of a small project team, initially I could agree with the opinion that in small teams project management is not so important because there are fewer people involved, less hierarchy (or no hierarchy at all), less internal bureaucracy (or none at all), smoother mutual communication, etc. I was skeptical about one thing from the beginning - for successful communication about the progress of the project, it is enough for the colleagues to meet in the office from time to time and then talk informally about what is being done in the specific project. This can never be the main channel of mutual communication between all involved parties and I made sure of this again and again. And although many things are indeed simpler in small teams, things often do not happen "by themselves". Why?

In my opinion, the determining factor when thinking about how much attention to put into project management should not be the size of the organization or the project team, but the complexity of the project management. Namely, the more complex the project to manage, the more important it is to establish project management, even if it is a small project team.

Based on my experience, I think project management becomes difficult under the following circumstances (even with a small project team):

☝ business development intersects with technical development

☝ people from different areas/parts/departments of the company worked in the project (there is no regular cooperation outside this project)

☝ additional external service providers have been engaged.

In such projects, although there is a person responsible for technical development and a person responsible for the business side, there is often a lack of a person who manages both of these parts and directs coordinated development of the project. This management error can often be seen directly in the development of IT solutions. The person who manages and directs the overall development of the project is very important in such cases because:

🚀Strategically sees the overall development of the project

🚀Drives coordinated project development

🚀Ensures mutual communication for all parties

🚀Keep track of task completion.

When starting a significant project, I recommend that all managers of organizations think about how the strategic monitoring of the project will be ensured, the coordinated direction of project activities and, most importantly, how mutual communication will be ensured. If, during the project, someone from the team is surprised by what has already happened, for example, the service promised to the client, it is worth returning to the project management review.