Project Management Discussion

Tesla is one of the biggest companies today due to the consistent and rapid growth of its revenue. The company is the highest performing automaker after shifting the auto industry into electric vehicles. Tesla widely relies on innovation and technology for its operations. As a result, it is safe to say that the company primarily relies on projects for its value-creation processes. An excellent example to support this case was the Cybertruck project that was a value-creation process based on how the company was bound to be affected by its outcomes (Furr & Dyer, 2020). The success of the project significantly increased the company's revenue and boosted its reputation as a leader in the auto industry.

Based on this example, as well as the company’s overreliance on technology and innovation to grow its revenue, Tesla is an organization that uses projects as its central value-creation process. This means that the project management process at Tesla differs from that of other organizations that only use projects on ad hoc. Whereas most organizations rely on the agile project management approach, Tesla’s use of the approach is bound to be different. For instance, organizations that use projects on a need basis will likely apply only a few tenets of the agile project management approach. The most common include the assumption of simplicity, reliance on feedback from stakeholders, and quality deliverables (Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). Other companies that use projects on an ad hoc basis still rely on traditional project management strategies instead of the agile approach.

On the other hand, Tesla’s application of the agile project management approach is bound to be intense by applying all the possible facets of the strategy. These include the assumption of simplicity, quality deliverables, maximizing value, enabling focus on the next effort, and embracing change, among other practices (Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). All the mentioned practices have been identified with Tesla, which establishes the difference in the company’s project management process from other organizations. At the same time, Tesla’s flexible and informal ability-enhancing practices, as displayed by its CEO Elon Musk considerably highlight how different the company is in terms of project management processes (Zavyalova et al., 2020).