STEP SIX: DELIVERING CHANGE ON THE GROUND

Project Delivery Process

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We know from practical experience that not every project needs to adhere to a formal project management process – if applied in inappropriate cases it can sometimes make the processes involved overly complicated. In our experience, we have found that many projects only require a number of basic and straightforward project management practices, which if used consistently, will ensure it delivers the right results on time and within budget. Nevertheless, where appropriate we are also able to adopt a Prince2 compliant methodology to manage the project delivery process.

 

Successful project implementation is about:

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• Being committed to a solution.

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• Accepting responsibility for the decision.

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• Identifying who will implement the solution.

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• Resolving to carry out the chosen solution.

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• Exploring the best possible means of implementing the solution.

 

There are a number of useful lessons we have learnt from formal project management training that we apply to all projects and not just to large projects with complex funding and partnering arrangements. These are:

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1. The importance of bringing the right people together to manage a project.

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2. The need for good project documentation.

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Bringing the Right People Together

 

At the outset of putting a project together, it is important to decide who needs to be involved and get them round the table to agree the scope, desired outcomes and time-lines for the project. We are well equipped to help facilitate the process of bringing the right people together and setting up appropriate support and governance arrangements for a project, where appropriate. In many cases, this requires the setting up of a Project Board or Steering Group. 

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A Project Board is normally chaired by the project sponsor and typically includes a number of other senior stakeholders as well as the project manager. These are the key people that need to be gather together to ensure a project is implemented successfully, as they are the key players who have the ability to get things done on the project.

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Project Boards normally have four key roles:

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• Governance: having oversight responsibility for the work that the project team is carrying out, ensuring that policies are adhered to at the corporate and programme level.

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• Direction: providing appropriate vision and direction to keep a project on track throughout.

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• Decision making: the primary decision making body for a project, with responsibility for addressing issues that could impact on a successful completion, including addressing risks and potential challenges, resource problems (human and financial), schedule delays and potential budget overruns.

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• Approving spending: approving the overall project budget, monitoring ongoing spending to ensure it stays on track, authorising budget reprofiling, overspends and access additional funds when it can be justified and permitted.

 

Need for Good Project Documentation

 

Another useful lesson from formal project management training we apply to all our project management roles is to make sure everything is documented. This includes writing down and regularly reviewing the project scope, desired outcomes and timelines, as well as who is responsible for each task.

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There are a number of essential project documents that need to be put in place for most project, including:

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• A one-page Project Summary, which sets out the project sponsor, the project manager, the scope, the important deadlines, the budget, and an ‘elevator pitch’ of the project, or the way that you would describe it to the CEO if you met him in the lift (or elevator) and he asked what you were working on.

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• A Project Delivery Plan and Gantt Chart, which sets out the tasks that have to be done before the project is complete, how long each task will take, the constraints on each task, the resources required to achieve each task, including who will be involved, the key milestones when each task needs to be completed and the defined points in time that should occur. Prepared using a short workshop session involving all the key players.

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• A Project Budget, including both people and financial resources, which can often be the hardest thing to agree.

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• Risk Analysis Report, which identifies and assesses factors that may impact on the success of a project. It should also set out preventive measures to reduce the probability of identified risk factors from occurring and propose countermeasures that could be implemented to successfully deal with those constraints if they occur.

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• Project Update Reports submitted regularly to the Project Board: on-going monitoring and review throughout the implementation process is essential to showing project progress, information about any emerging problems and helping to understand where further improvements may be required. We favour a formal reporting structure, in the form of a short report and the use of the RAG ‘traffic light’ approach to monitor progress (Green = a task is on track, Amber = a task is at risk of delay or problems, Red = a task is suffering delays or problems).

 

How We Can Help You: Project Management

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We are experienced project managers: we provide clarity on what needs to be done, ensure a solution is fully aligned to the desired change and then make it happen.

 

We are experienced in managing a broad spectrum of projects across a range of sectors and scales, delivered for and on behalf of the public sector, businesses and community organisations and groups. This includes small community projects through to large scale projects and multi-project programmes with complex funding and partnering arrangements, operating in challenging environments.

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We also have a proven ability to manage multi-disciplinary project teams and technical experts. We are also able to synthesise, analyse and present technical evidence and advice in a clear, concise and coherent manner so that it is easily understood by the client, its partners, key stakeholders and intended beneficiaries and address the key areas in which decisions need to be made.

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As change catalysts, our role is to enable and empower clients to act on putting their own project solutions into practice. Our expertise is grounded in practical experience of leading, managing and delivering projects and programmes that have brought about transformational change that has enabled people, places, businesses and local communities to thrive and grow as well as deliver benefits for local economies and the environment. 

 

We offer a range of project management support encompassing the whole project life cycle. This includes:

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• Supporting project initiation, planning and design, including shaping or strengthening a client’s brief so that a project is well aligned to the client's objectives.

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• Facilitate the process of bringing the right people together, setting up appropriate support, delivery and governance arrangements, where appropriate, and developing robust monitoring and evaluation strategies and performance and financial monitoring systems.

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• Providing ‘hands-on’ project oversight, coordination and delivery support, ensuring the client’s objectives are followed throughout the implementation of the project and reflected in the decision making process, that it achieves its specific goals and meets the agreed success criteria at the specified time.

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• Supporting tendering, negotiation and contract management and reporting stages.

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• Managing a project team, where appropriate.

 

We work closely with each prospective client to ensure we are able to offer the right services and support, at the right time, focused on the right steps in the project management process that are appropriate to meet their specific needs, circumstances, desired outcomes and unique operating environment.