Business-led Project and Programme Management

Click here for a printer friendly version.

On any given day, ambitious organisations are busy fielding a whole range of projects. Some of these stand alone, whilst others are subsumed into Programmes of related projects. The linear, elegant world of the Gantt chart is underpinned (and sometimes undermined!) by a complex, shifting sea of variables with the potential to disrupt The Plan:

• Customers refine or re-define their requirements, creating mission creep.
• Yesterday's strategic project may be today's dead duck: a dynamic, competitive landscape and other aspects of the environment need a flexible, adaptive response.
• Emergent change creates an imperative for new projects.
• The political dimension prevalent in all organisations informs shifting and competing priorities.
• Your best people are usually not found sitting on the bench when you need them, so their input is hard won.

Without an integrated, coherent, excellently managed project environment, you can look forward (sic) to projects that are delayed, failed or stalling, due to:

• Poor change management leading to insufficient buy-in from key stakeholders
• Lack of prioritisation, resulting in more projects being created than there are resources to service them, and therefore the slowing down or killing of other important projects.
• Changes to the organisation and work practices, necessary to embed the project deliverables and benefits, not being managed in an integrated manner, leading to waste, duplication and conflict.
• Major projects that are hurtling towards one another because the control room doesn't know that they are sharing the same track.
• We have a cracking framework for delivering projects: the business-led, project management process. We will work in partnership with you to implement the process in your organisation.

Our approach:

• Sweeps up the messy, component parts of projects and programmes into a joined-up methodology, improving the efficient delivery of projects across the organisation.
• Integrates the project, the processes, the systems, the work practices and the organisational changes in a methodical and intelligent manner that revs up the people involved.
• Provides early and high visibility of issues and risks, reducing hidden, expensive surprises.
• Streamlines the task of establishing and launching project teams that can get the job done with reduced cycle time. Manages out the issues that cause strategic projects to fail.
• Addresses not just the technical structures, but also the people-in-change issues that create not only resistance but impoverish the project through non-engagement and delay.
• Equips programme managers and project leaders with the skills and group processes they need for conflict resolution and rapid implementation of actions, decisions and solutions.
• Supports you with hands on facilitation of all aspects of your project environment, including large group whole system events, interface meetings for 2 or more teams, or facilitation of discrete teams.

Two brief examples of our work.

We worked in partnership with the Housing Service of a Greater London Council to establish a ‘Best Practice' programme and project management process in order to achieve consistently high standards and Key Performance Indicators. With the new processes in place, the Council is in a much better place with more clarity on Roles and Responsibilities, a ‘Fit for Purpose' process and skilled up project managers who are masters at facilitating others to get things done. The Council feels this has ‘constituted a culture change and a much improved customer-orientated service'.

We worked with one of the UK 's largest on-line Entertainment and Leisure Services to undertake a review of their project management processes. This involved:

• Establishing a new project management process
• Identifying and developing communication structures and methods to support projects
• Introducing and establishing a range of project management tools
• Identifying and establishing project roles
• Creating core competencies for project managers

The new ‘Fit for Purpose' process is working effectively. The organisation has implemented a single approach for all projects with established benchmarks and standards.