Project and Program systems include:
- Project Selection.
- Governance.
- Project Management Methodology.
- Project Culture.
- Monitoring.
- Review and Assurance.
- Phase/Stage Gate processes.
- Templates.
- Tools.
However, firstly it should be made clear that not all projects are the same and require different methods, management and governance.
Eddie Obeng describes four different types of projects in his book “The project leader’s secret handbook. All Change”
Idea Partners can help clarify the types of project methods required to deliver different types of projects from PRINCE2 type methods to Agile methods. Idea Partners can deliver training programs across the spectrum of methodologies and provide supporting templates and tools.
The Big Six
Idea Partners has developed some project management principles that connect all stakeholders in a project. You don’t need to be a project expert to use the Big Six, they are the critical success factors to keep your eye on, talk about and manage. With the Big Six everyone in the project community is on the same page.
The idea of the Big Six came about in a company that had hundreds of project managers, all at different levels of competence, some full time Project Managers some that Managed Projects, all following different methods from Waterfall to Agile, all reporting to Executive Sponsors with different experience and with Project Teams of differing complexity.
How could a communication layer be developed that meant regardless of the situation the community were on the same page? The Big Six does this. The Big Six is particularly useful at the Governance layer, these are the things a Sponsor should be talking about with their Project Manager and Project Teams.
- Scope:
- Why are you doing the project?
- What are the key deliverables?
- How will quality be determined?
- What is not in scope and what are the interdependencies?
- Value:
- What is the value proposition for your customers/stakeholders/you?
- What are the key financials?
- What is the Benefit Realization framework?
- Cost:
- What are the key costs?
- How are your actuals tracking against your budget?
- What are the opportunity costs?
- Time:
- When will the project be complete?
- What is the high level timeline?
- When are the key milestones to be delivered?
- What are the dependencies?
- Risk:
- What are the risks, how probably are they what are the impacts and mitigations?
- What is the probability of success?
- What risks have turned in to issues?
- People:
- Who is accountable for what?
- Who are the stakeholders, what influence do they have?
- How is the team coping?
- What are the communication strategies and plans?
- What is the change management strategy?
The Big Six is about having a simple and clear framework for Project Management and Governance. The concept is to get these 6 critical success factors on the agenda and discussed by:
- Sponsors.
- Project Managers.
- Project Teams.
- The Stakeholders.
Most organizations don’t have “professional” project managers managing their projects; it becomes a part time responsibility often for a team member. Project Management can seem overwhelming at first with so many facets to think about. However if your organization can keep in front of mind the Big Six, project management soon becomes demystified.
Professional Project Managers and those who are managing a project alike may use a variety of different tools and techniques that suit them to manage their project. However, keeping the Big Six critical success factors at front of mind, rather than the detail of the specific tools and techniques, works for both full time and part time Project Managers.
With guidance the Big Six framework can be incorporated into every aspect of your project and portfolio management systems.
Idea Partners can develop both Waterfall (Prince2 etc) and Agile (Scrum etc) type methodologies for your projects and programs to suit your organisations maturity.