Session Three

Seminars

1. Delivering business change in government using e-commerce

UKvisas, a Joint Foreign & Commonwealth and Home Office agency issuing visas to foreign nationals entering the UK from 163 offices world-wide, has enabled business change utilising an e-commerce business techniques.

UKvisas face an increasing demand of 15% PA for visa services, which brings with it the need to employ more staff to service demand and deal with security issues of visitors and packages being delivered to its premises.

Introducing an on-line visa application and appointment service ‘visa4uk’ has revolutionised service delivery world-wide. During the presentation we will illustrate the business issues that were faced and the advantages of deploying an e-commerce solution to resolve those issues. We will also illustrate the challenges of changing internal business and financial processes.

One of our most interesting challenges is introducing systems in differing cultural environments, which range from the USA to Zaire, in both these disparate countries every visa applicant applies on-line.

At the DTI e-commerce Awards on 6th October UKvisas Visa4UK service was awarded the e Government National ICT Innovators award. The judges commented of the project ‘It particularly stands out for the way it uses ICT to vastly improve underlying processes which are then automated, rather that falling into a typical trap – assuming existing processes are robust and adding another layer of technology to attempt to overcome the problem. The service substantially reduces the number of applications which require visits and interviews with applicants, as well as greatly improving the completeness and accuracy of the visa application. The system was developed around a key country (the USA) and is being rolled out worldwide beyond the current 37 countries in which it is already available. A truly innovative, “everybody-wins” and world-leading exemplar of the application of the ICT in government.

2. Programmes and Authority: more than just talk

Empowering programmes is a significant challenge facing change initiatives in most organizations. We have all heard the talk that the programme:

• is vital to the business;
• is supported by senior management; and
• will follow best practice MSP and PRINCE2™.

However, the reality is all too often:

• best practice is followed as long as it does not require extra work.
• senior management support extends only until some difficult decisions have to be made; and
• organizational support lasts only until the toes of a functional manager are stepped on.

The answer to these issues is to suspend the organization’s management structure (for the duration and scope of the initiative) and replace it with programme management.

This must occur in the programme definition stage and requires discussion about real choices and genuine authority that will move the programme beyond just talk.

Steve Clarke, working with The Projects Group, has been facilitating programmes in the Environment Agency to secure such genuine authority. One such large business change programme is that led by Geoff Bateman as the Programme Executive. Geoff has been at the forefront of the process of establishing authentic authority and programme management practice in a real world organization.

Geoff will explain how establishing appropriate authority is critical to achieving the strategic business aims of the Environment Agency. In other words, how genuine authority makes it easier to get the job done.

Steve will explain the consequences of failing to empower change programmes and will offer practical suggestions on how the issues can be managed and how senior management can be persuaded to hand over authority.
 
Establishing programme authority is one of the key elements of change management. The process of discussion of these issues is a major way to engage senior managers and enlist their involvement and support.

PRINCE2™ is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commence

3. Introducing Project and Portfolio Management at Watson Wyatt – Lessons Learned

Tom Edwards
Global Head of Project Management and Process Improvement

Watson Wyatt has over $1.1 billion in revenue and approximately 6,000 associates in 32 countries. The firm is a leading provider of human capital and financial management consulting services. Typical change initiatives include:

• Supporting growth of the core consulting business
• Updating IT infrastructure and business systems
• Providing facilities throughout the world
• Improving business processes
• Meeting regulatory, risk and compliance requirements

Tom Edwards joined Watson Wyatt in August 2003 as Head of Project Management, with the brief to introduce a project and programme management culture and improve the decision-making and governance process across all the corporate support functions – by forming a project and portfolio management ‘centre of excellence’ where none had existed before. Tom’s implementation strategy was – and is - to make continuous incremental improvements towards the use of leading practices and gain buy-in from stakeholders across the organisation.

Tom will describe Watson Wyatt’s journey from ‘not knowing how many projects were actually underway’ to the present day, where a portfolio of work is selected and assessed based on contribution to strategic objectives and the organisation’s capacity to deliver - and senior executives use words like ‘portfolio prioritisation’ and ‘benefit realisation’ in everyday conversation!

You will hear about practical lessons that were learned on the way:

• Why senior stakeholder support is so critical
• How to introduce a ‘change process’ across the organisation
• When to involve ‘the business’ in the improvement initiative
• How to get stakeholders in the change process working towards a common goal
• How to introduce a ‘project management culture’ in a ‘consensus driven’ organisation
• Why getting ‘quick wins’ is vital
• How to deliver improvements quickly without ‘running before you can walk’

4. The practicalities of maturity models – how they are useful, including a case study

5. Using MSP In an Research Environment

ICT Development Programmes for Higher and Further Education  
 The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) supports further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support teaching, learning, research and administration. The JISC manages a range of development programmes to support the JISC, regional and national strategies for ICT in education. These development programmes range from exploratory to construction and delivery of services effecting technical and cultural change at a national and international level.

The JISC recently began to adopt Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) as part of the overall programme management framework. This session will look at the how MSP has been adapted to help design and manage research and development programmes and the lessons learned so far.

www.jisc.ac.uk

Birds of a Feather Sessions

1. People & successful project delivery: what’s the problem?

• communicating with business
• softer skills required for people project management benefits realisation

The design of this session is to give practical skills and techniques, hints & tips in dealing with the most challenging aspect of successful project delivery: the people part.

In organisations, once the project management approach is settled, the most challenging area left for project managers is how to manage the people component of their project as successfully as the agreed outcomes.

Putting this another way, organisations are better focussed on the content of project delivery rather than the context by and in which the project will be delivered.

Given that all parties are trying to create as good a delivery environment as possible, how much effort at the organisational and individual levels is put into the people side as compared with measurements, resourcing, reporting and let’s not forget, deliverables.

Viewing the people side of project delivery, how much training and development do project managers receive on this side of the delivery equation balanced against their technical project management skills? A balanced approach towards the content and the context of successful project delivery will repay any investment many times over.

Ask any project manager where their challenges arise with successful project delivery: there will be process and technical challenges though most will admit that their biggest challenges come from the context i.e. the people and organisational side.

This session will highlight the misnomer of “soft skills” in project delivery.
Any project manager that’s faced a disappointed or surprised stakeholder will know there’s nothing “soft” about either the situation or skills required to manage it.

Equally, ask any project manager how easy it is to create, motivate and sustain an effective project team.

What we’ll learn in this session is that significant benefits can be gained from effective communication, influence & negotiation, conflict resolution and motivation skills. The session will place these and other skills within a successful project delivery framework and identify a couple of “how to actions”

1. successful implementation strategies and skills
2. some pitfalls to avoid

2. Senior Management buy in

PRINCE2 is often perceived as a bureaucratic approach to project management by senior management, mainly because they have not been formally introduced to the method, received little or no training and are harangued by middle managers, who have been trained, to adopt something which is quite alien to the prevailing culture in the organisation.  The result is a rejection of the method or at best adoption of PINO (PRINCE In Name Only).

In the first instance there must have been a reason to send (project) managers on a PRINCE2 course.  This may be because the manager may have recognised that the qualification is a good career move or the organisation has experienced problems in project management, has looked around and found PRINCE2, thinking that training project managers will ‘solve’ their problems. In either case it is unlikely that the benefits of the training will be fully appreciated in terms of transforming the project management practices of the organisation.

How can we change this?.  In this session you will learn:

• The real benefits of PRINCE2 are in the principles upon which the method is based and in this session we will discuss the principles that underpin the method and the benefits these bring to senior management.
• We will explain how control over project can be maintained, how senior management can have confidence that the project is proceeding well, without micro managing the project.
• We will explore what training is available for senior management, based on ‘what they need to know’ to do their job within the project.
• We will explain what trained project managers will know so that senior managers will have confidence in their abilities.
• We will explain the benefits of a credible plan for managing the project and how this will help in maintaining control rather than fire fighting throughout the project.

We will provide some diagrams to assist your understanding during the session.

3. Getting PRINCE2 to the top level of the organisation: how a Minister and the Parliament were convinced to implement PRINCE2

Measuring the effects of using PRINCE2 in your organisation with the Success and Failure diagnostic.  The method presented here was used to convince the Parliament and the Ministry of Transport to use PRINCE2 for large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands.

The top level of organisations and Ministry are not interested in methods and don't see the value of them. They are interested how projects and project portfolios can be controlled and managed and if you can really measure the start and end situation.  How to get data to convince organisations that the use of a method as PRINCE2 is necessary.  How do you measure success?

The use of the Success and Failure Diagnostic gives a clear indication how the organisation performs in managing projects successfully. In combination with the 16 Key Process Areas of PRINCE2 it is a powerful analysis tool to convince the top of the organisation to use PRINCE2 and to measure how PRINCE2 will help them to control the project portfolio better and to set specific measuring points.

In a case study situation in this session, you will learn how to use the Success and Failure Diagnostic and the link to the 16 Key Process Areas so that you can use it in your organisation.

4. Managing Successful Programmes (MSP): current plans to update the guidance

5. Real results from your investments

“Benefits Management is the activity of identifying, optimising and tracking the expected benefits from business change to ensure they are achieved….. and of identifying and minimising the negative impact of change. True Benefits Realisation requires proactive management of benefits from a business operations perspective”

– Office Government
Commerce (OGC).

The session will discuss how a business needs to recognise that programmes or projects can only be regarded as successful if the intended benefits are realised in a quantifiable manner, with a defined measurement process and baseline against which benefits can be judged.

It will also show how comprehensive Benefits Management binds the business elements of a programme or project together and allows for the successful delivery and implementation of
products or services, in order to meet the business requirements.

• Provek will outline in this session how ‘business and operational requirements’ within an organisation must drive the requirements and solution delivery, and that the ‘solution’ must not drive the business.

• Provek will show how the successful implementation of outputs / products enabling change - require a clear vision up front of the business needs and context of the organisation into which the solution is being delivered.

• Provek will demonstrate how the capability to deliver ‘change’ into organisations will be successful if translated into recognised benefits and outcomes; providing the business actively manages the new capability into the business.

• Provek will show how Benefits Management needs to provide identification of potential benefits, the need for the assignment of responsibilities and authorities for the benefits; and that the business change required must plan the actual realisation of benefits as a result of the investment.

• Provek will highlight how  developing a Benefits Management Strategy with established structures, roles and responsibilities, ownership and management commitment, will enable benefits to be monitored, managed and achieved…. changes will always have impact (positive or negative) on stakeholders and close integration between Benefits Management, stakeholder communications and the other aspects of planning will ensure programmes and projects remain aligned to their target.

Provek works with their clients to define Benefits Management Strategy and Process. It ensures that the Benefits Realisation Plan is realistic in its aims, helps develop pragmatic, measurable Benefits Profiles and that the Benefits Management process will provide a change programme with a framework for Benefits Realisation and a means of monitoring achievement against targets.

6. Visual mapping to identify benefits: Systems thinking using the Outcome Relationship Model

“Keep everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.” 
Albert Einstein

Much of what we encounter in benefits management is like that; it’s a balance between being over-complex and being simplistic. So how do we follow Einstein’s advice when first trying to identify benefits? How do we identify the complex relationships between projects and benefits without either making it over-complicated or simplistic?

Patrick Mayfield, Founding Director of Pearce Mayfield, will take you through a short workshop where you will use a simple visual technique that models these relationships. “Much of our language in describing the cause of things is too linear,” he says. “We tend to describe the links from project outputs to benefits as isolated chains of events. If x is delivered then y will happen, followed by z. The real world of programmes is more complex. We must respect that. We need to apply what Peter Senge calls ‘Systems Thinking’.”

Using outcome relationship modelling, Patrick will show you how to respect this complexity, rapidly map it and manage it. You will discover how the model can be used as a map that the programme team develops together and uses to discuss causal relationships… good and bad. You will see how such a model can then be transformed into the more familiar benefits model.

In the run-up to this Workshop and afterwards, Patrick will be posting entries on his ‘Lessons of a Learning Leader’ Blog. He can also be contacted at www.pearcemayfield.com.

7.“Overdue, over-budget, over and over again” The Economist 2005 – Could PRINCE2 have helped?

PRINCE2TM is a structured approach to Project Management. It is recommended by Office of Government (OGC) as the de-facto standard for all public sector projects.

PRINCE2 is a multi scaled set of processes that can apply to both small and large scale projects in any environment and in any industry. The key is how these principles are applied to ‘our organisation’ and the projects within it.

Organisations spend considerable amount of money training staff in PRINCE2 methodology. A large number of these (99% at Foundation and about 80% at Practitioner) obtain the required qualification. Unfortunately when these “qualified staff” return to their workplace, there is poor or no infrastructure in place for them to apply their newly found knowledge.

Additionally, senior managers who are part of strategic decision making process in projects have not had the necessary training. They are, therefore not empowered to support the management of projects.

In order to maximise the resources of the trained staff and the key features of a structured approach to project management, organisations need to make PRINCE2 work for them rather than be a slave to PRINCE2.

What we would like to discuss during the “Birds of a Feather” session is how PRINCE2 can be implemented in our organisation. While remaining loyal to the PRINCE2 methodology, we need to tailor PRINCE2 to suit established organisations whose decision may not align with those implied with PRINCE2.

Key areas of discussion to include:

• How decisions are made in organisation to instigate projects?
  
• Who and how are the key decision makers identified?
  
• Are the key personnel trained in project management – do they need training?
  
• Do the key personnel need a formal qualification?
  
• How is Project Manager identified?
  
• Creation of in-house templates and training guide on their usage
  
• Which elements of PRINCE2 are essential and which ones can we do without?
  
• Essential areas of governance in projects

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