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Perfecting partner projects: Hartley Millar, Management Partners (October 2008)
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Organisations are steadily improving the methods they use to manage and co-ordinate projects.
At the practical level, using a dashboard approach to control a project is becoming
commonplace. After all, the opportunity to aggregate the data gathered – often in real time –
from those directly involved in project delivery seems like the Holy Grail of control.
The advantage of this approach is that, rather than confronting managers with a mass of detail,
it is possible to present an overview and ‘bore down’ on any particular areas where questions
arise.
It may not quite be a basis for managing by exception, but this clearly addresses the issue of
information overload for managers in complex projects.
However, such data only becomes useful when it is put in context, typically by comparing the actual situation with what was
planned. That, for most systems, is the project plan – and it’s the project manager and steering committee who own this.
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Don't forget the Q word: Steve Kirk, SGK Consulting (August 2008)
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Do you remember TQM? How about ISO 9000? Or even BS 5750? For those of you like me
who’ve been around a bit, it will bring back memories of quality circles, statistical process
control and lots of written procedures. But for those of you too young to remember, it may just
be a list of meaningless acronyms. In which case, let me explain that this article is all about the
‘q’ word – quality – and why it’s as important as ever to your business and your projects.
You see, although the great management consulting fads at the moment are technology
breakthroughs like Web 2.0, mobile working and SOA, back in the 80s and 90s when the
internet was something only academics and defence companies had heard of, quality was the
big thing that no self-respecting MD would dare ignore.
No longer were companies just concerned with efficiency and productivity, now they were
focusing on customer satisfaction, the cornerstone of quality. Why? Because it was seen as a
great differentiator between you and your competitors.
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Stand and deliver: David Walton, Bestoutcome (April 2008)
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Why do projects and multi-project programmes so often fail to deliver a real return on
investment? In many cases, the root cause can be traced back to the start of the
initiative, before planning has even begun. Quite simply, there may have been a
fundamental failure to ensure the underlying business case was rock solid.
The first step to achieving a successful result, based on the business case, is to agree
what value you expect to be delivered by the investment over its working life. In short, be
absolutely clear about the whole point of spending the money.
By clarifying the value factors right at the beginning, you can ensure the project or
programme will achieve its real purpose. But it’s surprising how often this vital step is
only partially dealt with.
Another fundamental issue is that project managers – the supply-side of the endeavour – may regard a successful
outcome as delivery to budget, on time, at the right quality, and to the requirements specification.
Once this happens they regard the job as done – but that is only half the story. The other half is the value or business
benefits the investment will deliver to the client – the demand side – after delivery.
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Projects without borders: Elizabeth Harrin, Spire Healthcare (February 2008)
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The world of business is continually shrinking: we work in an environment of real-time
communication with colleagues on the other side of the world and online translation tools. Even
small companies can operate internationally, with outsourcing agreements and partners
overseas, which means project managers in organisations of any size face the challenges of
managing international projects.
And that means far more than just working out that when it’s 9.00am in Paris, Texas it’s 4.00pm
in Paris, France. International projects come with two main challenges: the people you are
working with won’t necessarily work in the same way as you, and the people you’re working for
won’t necessarily want the same things.
The first step in being able to address these challenges is having an open mind. National culture plays a big part in how we
act, and we can’t change that – we can just learn how to make it work for everyone concerned.
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PRINCE: purple pain?: Danny Thomas, Searchlight (December 2007)
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A quick glance at the job pages will confirm what virtually every project manager already knows:
if you want a career in IT project management, you have to have PRINCE2 skills. Whether you
are permanent or freelance, junior or senior, almost every job advert makes it clear that being a
PRINCE2 practitioner is no longer optional.
So why is it then, once the job is won, so few of these positions actually require the successful
candidate to exercise that practitioner status? With the exception of a few government
organisations, generally the police forces and the military, most people actually adopt PINO –
Prince In Name Only.
There is general agreement that a project management method is a good thing: repeatable
processes, a strong governance ethos and a ready supply of qualified professionals. There is
also widespread acceptance that PRINCE2 is the only method that fulfils the required criteria
and has many strengths. Without question, the governance structures PRINCE introduced – in particular a project board with
supplier and user representation at a senior level – have been extremely powerful.
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Project myths and trends: Kelvin Kirby, Technology Associates (October 2007)
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The project management software marketplace has come of age. In the early part of this
decade, the market was limited to a few key players. But as mainstream vendors – including
Microsoft – realised the huge growth potential in the market, they either
developed their own software or acquired existing technology from a key player in the
market.
Microsoft, for example, bought UMT Consulting in January 2006, and immediately secured its
place as a vendor in the PPM market. UMT was a well-known and respected organisation
selling high-value, high-benefit consulting services and applications to help organisations
analyse their corporate objectives, marketing strategy and product portfolio and then align their
projects and programmes to realise maximum ROI.
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Gateway to the boardroom: Roy Illsley, the Butler Group (July/August 2007)
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Many IT departments are implementing, or considering implementing, a portfolio management
approach to ensure that they are spending their time and money on the projects that will deliver
maximum value for the business.
However, there are some fundamental points that need to be considered and actions taken if an
organisation is to obtain the results anticipated from portfolio management.
Companies are discovering that in the new global marketplace, the emergence of low-cost
competitors is forcing them to review their own cost base, and effectively do more for the same
spend. Meanwhile, Butler Group research suggests that 80% of an organisation’s IT spend is
used for non-new value adding activities, such as support and maintenance.
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Demystifying PPM: Mike Beard and Karen VanSant (March 2007)
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Project portfolio management (PPM) benefits an organisation by making visible the ‘basket’ of enterprise projects to
management and executives – enabling them to define and track projects according to their value and relevance to enterprise
goals.
PPM is not a new concept. Commercial companies that pioneered programme management aligned to US military projects in
the 1950s transferred these project and portfolio management approaches to their commercial efforts.
In mid-2006 the Project Management Institute (PMI) released the Standard for Portfolio Management. This is a framework that
represents generally recognised good practices in project portfolio management.
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One version of the truth: Steve Kirk, SGK Consulting (January 2007)
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I remember when I was managing a portfolio of projects at my last employer, the most stressful
moments came not when I was eyeball-to-eyeball with the customer in a project meeting, but
when I was in management meetings with our finance director.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a nice enough chap and we got on famously, but it often seemed
we were talking about different projects such was the chasm between our respective views. You
see, as a project/programme manager my focus was on getting things done – problem solving,
managing work and planning – while my FD was more worried about tracking the money –
recognising revenue, absorbing costs and forecasting the final impact on the company’s bank
account.
Nothing surprising about that, of course, but the way we worked and the systems we used
reflected our own goals, and trying to reconcile them was virtually impossible. It did appear that
we had two versions of the truth.
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The pleasure of repeating yourself: Stuart Cooke, CEC Europe (October 2006)
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Projects continue to fail at an alarming and unacceptable level. According to the Standish
Group’s CHAOS Report (2004), 60% of projects fail because they: overrun time estimates by 84%; overrun cost estimates by 43%; substantially fail to support business processes; and substantially fail to deliver benefits.
However, process maturity models and assessments clearly indicate that a defined and
repeatable process substantially improves an organisation’s project delivery capability. These
processes, or methodologies, have been around for many years, especially in the IT arena. And
now methodologies are evolving to be more generic so they are applicable to a broader range
of projects.
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It shouldn't be a lottery: Alan Fowler, Isochron (August 2006)
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I once asked a director of IT strategy what he thought his company’s track record was in
realising project benefits. He laughed and said, “About half a percent, I should think”. Of
course, he was joking, no-one had really measured it and it wasn’t that bad. Well, not quite
that bad.
It’s a serious issue. In 1996 Capers Jones pointed out in ‘Patterns in IT System Development
Failure and Success’ that really large software systems can “cost more than building a domed
football stadium”. Studies of a sample of eight IT developments and business change
programmes carried out in private sector companies in the UK during 1996-98 yielded the
following total costs.
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Keeping the faith: Tony Davies, addACUMEN (June 2006)
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My wife – now of 40 years – is a fairly sparky personality. One weekend when the
children were small, I failed to come up to scratch and she went to her mother’s home
for the weekend. She returned on Sunday night – I was on duty the following morning –
to find the house in good order, the nappies laundered and put away, the children
asleep. “How did you do that?” she demanded. “Simple, I don’t know why you make so
much fuss…it is just that I haven’t slept since you left.”
The Guinness Book of Records shows that the record for building a four-bedroom house
from a standing start is 3 hours 44 minutes and 59 seconds. Built in March 1999 in New
Zealand by Habitat for Humanity it is an extremely impressive feat. The planning took 14
months. Both of these examples demonstrate the balance between execution and obtaining clarity. I would like to discuss this in
relation to projects.
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Look for the label: Donnie MacNicol, Team Animation (March 2006)
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The accumulated wisdom of traditional project management provides the basis for
winning the ‘minds’ of team members. This ensures that people understand what needs
to be achieved, how it must be achieved and the part they can play in making it happen.
Winning ‘hearts’ is achieved by creating a project which people can believe in, have a
relationship with and develop some level of emotional attachment to.
Clearly, without emotional attachment, you will not get the undivided attention and the
complete support of the individual, team or stakeholder group. But why is this important?
The reason is that value can only be created on a project through an individual taking
action – and it is therefore critically important ‘how’ that person takes that action. For
example, it might be the speed and care with which a bricklayer lays a wall, the
consideration and time an information architect gives to a particular design, or the extra effort a financial controller
makes in reviewing aspects of the budget prior to sign-off. The quality of each action, cumulatively, will decide between
a project being a success or failure. If your direct and wider team are truly engaged, they will feel part of something that
deserves their best, not just what has been contracted for.
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Putting the management back into PM: Alex Robertson, Carosoft (January 2006)
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Not too long ago, television viewers in Scotland were favoured with a nightly master
class in project management. Or, to be more accurate, in NOT project management. The
source of this class was the TV report of that day’s proceedings of the Fraser Enquiry
into the building of the new Scottish Parliament. A project originally estimated at a price
of £40 million was finally finished, years late, and 10 times over budget. And night after
night we saw the enquiry conducting a forensic examination of why it happened.
I will spare you the details, but it was very clear from early on that methodologies,
reviews, client committees, no end of scrutiny of schedules and costs aside, there was
little or no professional project management applied, as project scope not so much crept
as galloped out of sight. Civil servants, pressed to be project managers, succeeded one after another, and each one left
a bigger shambles than the previous one. The miracle is that the project was completed at all.
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Why do projects fail?: Ian Glenister, PCMI (November 2005)
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Successful project managers are not defined simply by the length of time that they have
served in a management capacity. Experience is, of course, valuable. But if a project
manager does not have a reliable toolkit at their disposal – a toolkit which consists of a
variety of project management tools and techniques to care for a range of circumstances
– they are likely to struggle to consistently deliver projects in accordance with the
project’s objectives.
To the uninformed observer, the solution may seem to lie in simply gaining a formal
project management qualification. But this in itself is not enough. A formal qualification
may provide a framework or methodology that can be used, and certainly this can assist
with planning and control. But you have to practically apply these principles in order to
achieve success. People skills are also vitally important.
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More than IT: Jeremy Miles, Valtech (May 2005)
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The benefits of automating the administrative components of professional service
organisations are clear. Too many organisations still suffer from duplicated data, manual
processes that require significant overhead to process, little real-time management
overview of the performance of the organisation, and a general lack of efficiency that
means lost competitive advantage in an increasingly cut-throat world.
Why is it then that some of the perennial complaints from organisations that have
attempted to adopt PSA, still revolve around the onerous burdens of timesheet and
expense completion, incomplete project analysis and inaccurate invoicing? How can
companies capitalise on the obvious benefits that PSA packages can offer, and how can
they address the challenges facing successful integration of PSA applications?
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QA the way: Rod Baker, Project Essentials (May 2005)
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It’s an unfortunate fact of life that many projects either fail completely or are abandoned. Even those that are finished
often miss their deadlines, cost more than planned or don’t deliver the expected results. This is true of big projects and
small projects, in the public and the private sector, for all types of projects and in all types of organisations in all
countries (read the press if you doubt this!).
Yet we have had ‘formal’ project management for over 50 years now. We have all the tools, techniques, methods,
processes, procedures and software to help us manage our projects – and still we don’t handle the process of project
management effectively. However, organisations can use a properly structured project quality assurance (QA) review
system to minimise the chance of failure, by undertaking prescribed audits at regular intervals throughout the lifecycle of
the project.
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