PROJECT Management explored

The PRINCE2 method is a set of balanced processes, principles and themes which are designed to pull together to keep a project on track to deliver its business case.

When used as intended the method is undoubtedly successful at helping the delivery of a good project.  If though the method is scaled/tailored badly for a smaller or less complex project or implemented poorly with users failing to follow parts of the method, or favouring one part over another, balance is lost and unintended consequences can occur.

One of the common ones we see and hear about is a weak or non existent Project Assurance.  It is not unusual to hear of project boards who lack the time or experience to undertake their own assurance and many organisations don't have the project support capability to fulfil the role or don't budget appropriately  for it.  I tend to think of the balance of project Assurance as 'management by exception' and if the PM and team follow this principle with a hands off project board and little or no project assurance the problem project can easily run away.

A good project manager or a straight forward project which doesn't face challenges can still deliver effectively in these situations.  Such seeming success can paper over the cracks so that the problem when it occurs is more of a shock and may have gone much further before it is recognised or seriously tackled as the human nature in the project team often try to sort it out them selves before escalating their issues to the board.

Project assurance can be thought of like insurance the short-sighted person may consider it an overhead when times are good but it is there for when times are not so good, when resourcing and supporting it properly will seem like a very good decision.  PROJECT in a box can help with project assurance providing strong project processes which helps the project board themselves spot signs that processes are not being followed well or enables more project assurance to be done with less resource by a PSO.  Helping you deliver with confidence.

 So we have seen loads of snow and freezing weather over the past few days and advisories not to travel so does that give us a reason not to work?  For some of us it certainly does because either our job is mechanical in nature and our equipment is at work or because we have to look after our kids after all the schools have closed.

But as so many of us work in the service economy just how much can we do from home with a laptop or a home PC and broadband?  The answer is surprisingly much.  Many of our PROJECT in a box customers enable their users to access the system over the web that means that their project information is available to them from anywhere, securely transmitted via web services.  Often a work laptop will allow some form of VPN/secure tunnel into the office but if all you have is your home PC or even just a smart phone you can access the browser interface for PROJECT in a box in your companies website and even choose to do a temporary deployment of the software client for even more complete interaction.

What about meetings?  Well for many the idea of less meetings is a boon and a chance to get actual work done, but if the want to meet you can now do this well on-line.  We use these tools all year round for remote customer support, for demonstrations and meetings and to deliver customer training to remote sites.  There are so many around but it is definitely worth trying a few trials before committing to expense.  Go To Meeting is excellent and has a full feature 30 day trial so that should get you through this cold snap at least.

Of course most of us are familiar with Skype and MSN messenger for voice and text keeping us in touch with our colleagues and using a combination of these tools should help you keep functioning as long as the power stays on ;-)

Last month I reviewed the OGC's published Lessons Learned around SROs, the piece was very popular so I thought I would take a look at some of their other Lessons Learned. This time their findings on Project Assurance....

Project Assurance is essential to successful consistent delivery of projects.  It is an integral part of the published and widely 'followed' PRINCE2 and MSP methodologies.  It is a central part of the set of balances and controls which make up the methodology and can be seen as a balance to management by exception a key part of the methodology favoured by Project Managers.

The review takes a broad look at assurance in particular how findings from Gateway reviews and Starting Gate reports assist with assurance.  Six lessons are proposed:

1. All projects should have their own assurance plan.
2. Use the right assurance tool at the right time, provided by appropriately skilled and experienced assurors.
3. The right assurance at the right time always adds value: start the assurance early, and consider using a Starting Gate.
4. Organisations should develop and declare a policy setting out when and to whom assurance reports should be circulated.
5. Reap the benefits of assurance by sharing the learning from others.
6. Act on the recommendations and use circulation and escalation procedures where appropriate.

There is loads of food for thought here and it makes me think back to a project we did last year with a PRINCE2 ACO who provided an external assurance service on several projects which were managed in PROJECT in a box.  They were very impressed with the way they could quickly find how the project was progressing, whether documentation was being produced and whether actions were appropriate for the circumstances and to be able to then both challenge and support the project team in their delivery.  This resulted in a positive experience for all involved.

The review recommends that the project board think about having a project assurance plan which is costed and focuses on four themes: Tools, Time, People and Place.  We couldn't agree more, as assurance is so often overlooked or given lip service and left to the Project Board who lack the time, skills or tools to do it effectively.  An assurance plan which is delivered against would be a great aid to many projects.

The full range of PROJECT in a box tools can be used to provide a structured environment to manage and assure projects and programmes to PRINCE2, MSP and a range of other standard or custom in-house methodologies, from free personal tools to the largest of enterprises.

It is an age old problem that anyone who has been involved in managing a project will have grappled with.  It is essential to manage the documentation associated with the delivery of the project, especially in these days of assurance, audit, litigation etc but it has to be appropriate...  Documents produced by the project team for the project are straightforward and a system like PROJECT in a box helps no end with these, but what to do about all the documentation from the world outside the project which the team uses, relies on......even bases itself upon?

Let us assume that the team are using an externally owned technical standard (say an ISO standard) as part of a product or work package specification....here we have a dilemma.  If the project team bring a copy of the technical standard into the project documentation set and use it, what happens if the master copy is revised?  They would then be using a potentially invalid document.

All versions of PROJECT in a box even the free PRINCE2 software Community Edition provides users with the perfect way of overcoming this using shortcuts.  Instead of saving the reference document itself in the project library you save the link to it.  This can be on one of two forms either a URL Shortcut or a Windows shortcut, both of which just store an address and when clicked on take the user to the destination and display what is there.

In practice the URL shortcut tends to be used more widely as it can easily link to content inside and outside the organisation just storing the browser address of the location where he reference material is found.  URL shortcuts are used for web articles, document download pages, web based applications, discussions threads and many other sources of information.

Potentially much more useful though are windows shortcuts.  Although only within the organisation, they can be used to link to individual files, folders or whole network drives pointing a project team to standards, policies and working instructions which change frequently as well as to launch applications consistently in standard desktop environments.

Both shortcut types can be built into your personalised method templates so that a new project is linked out automatically to appropriate guidance, standards and materials in a consistent and efficient manner.  This is invaluable for an organisation running a formal PSO or PMO and wanting to deliver consistent activities without a big overhead of governance activity to achieve it.  In particular the assurance tools in the full PROJECT in a box system can tell an administrator when, by whom and from which process this links were used.

This mix of approaches and tools is invaluable for the lone PM or the largest of corporate change programmes or portfolios alike and is typical of the practical experience led approach PROJECT in a box take to deliver the capabilities which make projects easier to deliver.

OGC have announced today the publication of Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (or PRINCE2 2009) in German, French and Spanish.  All three are available from today in hardcopy or PDF from the TSO on-line store or in Hardback from bookshops.

It is my understanding that further translations are planned over the coming months.

If this is of interest you may also like to know that the PRINCE2 Glossary is already translated into eight languages and these are available in PDF format from the official PRINCE2 website.