The June Question relates to PMBOK the project management framework from the PMI and is asked by one of our existing corporate customers wanting to roll PROJECT in a box out into a PMBOK dominated environment overseas:

'What have peoples experiences been of implementing their own method template into a PMI/PMBOK environment?  How extensively have method templates had to be tailored to reflect the language and framework differences in the new environments?  What were the lessons learned?'

If you have experience in this area we would love to know and put you in touch to pass it on.

A republish of the Original MSP post. 

Since January (2010) we have been providing our MSP Method Template as an Official Licensed Product under the OGC/APMG Licensing scheme.  Our MSP Method Template is the first product to go through the scheme for MSP and also the first software product to be approved, seeing us again setting the benchmark for others to achieve.

So whats in a name? The Licensing scheme tells you two things firstly that the contents are official authentic materials and secondly that they are reproduced accurately and in a way which adds value to them.  The process required us to provide our product which was then reviewed in detail by an appropriate assessor, in this case an MSP trainer and examiner.

So what does the MSP Method Template include? A standard PROJECT in a box method template  it provides a navigation structure based on diagrams from the MSP manual following the transformational flow process model but also supporting the principles and governance themes.  At every step guidance is provided and taken directly from the manual and supported by templates created by our team (the same authors who produced the official PRINCE2 template pack).  When taken in totality, something very easily navigated via the Library feature the method template includes 95% of the MSP Manual. 

 So how can you use it? The MSP Method Template comes provided as standard in PROJECT in a box Enterprise Edition and can be purchased as an add on for Community Edition or Personal Version (just £75) or for Small Team Edition £500.  Once added to your software you can create as many programmes with it as you want and you can also personalise it to the needs of your organisation (except on Community Edition where it is fixed).

So what did the reviewer say? "This is a product designed to provide programme teams with a convenient and effective documentation management system.  In addition it provides all the guidance from the MSP® book in a convenient mechanism and in a single place.  Overall it is a useful addition to the armoury of the programme office team and would provide a good basis on which to develop the documentation for a programme."

So what effect has it had? Since being available as an official licensed product sales of the MSP method template have trebled showing the value customers attribute to having official materials rather than a vendors loose interpretation of a method designed to get them around paying licence fees. It also means we are able to proudly display the Swirl logo for MSP on our website and associated products.

Here at PROJECT in a box we are now TSO resellers and this enables us to integrate links to the TSO's on-line versions of OGC publications into our method templates.

In practice this means that when projects are created from these method templates and users are invited to work on the projects the links will be provided consistently across all projects of that type. Clicking the link will take the user to the best practice website and directly into the material in question.  Of course to view the content the user must have access to the best practice site, we can provide this under licence from TSO on an annual (either individual or multi-user) basis.

In keeping with the flexibility offered by the PROJECT in a box method template approach this would enable customers to set up their own arrangements of links to key guidance materials to suit the type of projects they were undertaking.  In fact in the first delivery of this we set up sets of links for a number of scaled PRINCE2 methods for a new customer, enabling them to get up and running very quickly.

The full range of OGC publications are available in English and a number of translations are also available.  Additional translations can also be secured is sufficient concurrent users are required.

Contact us if you want to see this in action.

Many thanks to Jose Luis Fernandez for providing the Spanish Language file. You can read Jose's PRINCE2 Blog here: http://jlfr-prince2.blogspot.com .  The Spanish language file can be downloaded from the Community Edition Knowledge Base along with instructions on how to add it to your tool.

If you would like to create your own language file you can just follow the instructions in the Knowledge Base.

It is obvious but very difficult to achieve.  Even after you have got over the significant challenge of getting people to record the problems they faced (as we are as much talking about challenges as opportunities) on a project you still have to share this information back into following projects in a focussed and helpful way.  Recently we set up a very helpful and simple solution for a PROJECT in a box customer to help them with the process.

We created a very simple Single step method template called Lessons Archive and created a project from it which was made available to all users with read access.  Using the share documents between projects feature we then linked in the Lessons Learned Log from each project on the system so it was shared into the Lessons Archive project.  This means that any content placed in the Lessons Learned Log document in the original projects will be available through the Lessons archive and it's content indexed for searching.  When a new project is starting the PM can visit the Lessons Archive and search the indexed content from all previous projects by providing their key words and being given the matching results which they can then view to find out more.

Because the documents are live shared between the original project and the Lessons Archive, if the project is archived or removed from the server it's Lessons Learned log document contents will be retained in the Lessons Archive so building an increasing archive of content for the following projects to take advantage of.

As further extensions it would be possible to provide a link to the Lessons Archive in all new projects (by adding it to the method templates) so guiding new PMs directly to an area where they could search the archive and to automatically notify the Archive owner (perhaps the head of PMO) of any new additions to the archive contents with notifications.

Creating these simple, intuitive tools is straightforward in PROJECT in a box and a good demonstration of how the tool set provided can be used to your advantage.  If you would like to see this in action or add a Lessons Archive to your PROJECT in a box system, drop me an email and I will share the method template.

The nature of projects is that different stages address different types of activities and as such have varied processes and documentation requirements and users have addressed this in the past by tailoring each stage once it is created from the template.  The new multi-stage method templates allow a user to define any number of different stage types as part of the method template.  Obviously the overall method template process structure remains the same but different documents can be displayed and different guidance given to users with each stage type.

The uses for this capability are widespread and here are the main two that Beta users have been highlighting:

Delivery stages -Templating different documents for different types of stage i.e. a desk study/research stage as opposed to a software development stage as opposed to a testing stage or a stage used to purchase a standard product or system off the shelf via competitive tender.  Having a library of these stages available as part of the Method Template allows the organisation to further guide its project teams and encourage the following of best practice.

Gates, Checkpoints and Reviews - setting up Review Stages so that standard documentation for a review (or a range of different review types) could be inserted into a project when the review was to be undertaken.  Having a review process added to the overall method template structure would enable the review checklists, agendas guidance notes etc to all be merged with the key project or programme documentation in a quick and helpful manner.  Any number of reviews could be added as and when required and each review would pull through the 'current' documentation so even long running projects could take advantage of the approach.

This capability will be open to administrators as part of their method management capability to implement as they wish using an updated Method Manager tool putting even more methodology control into the hands the organisation.  We will be assisting customers to turn their ideas into practice as required and may then decide to introduce some standard stage types or reviews into our popular prescaled PRINCE2 methods and DSDM Atern.

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.

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 ;-)