Of all the contributors to project success, the one overwhelming factor is ‘clarity’: Clarity about what the project is to achieve; clarity about what success looks like; clarity about value to the stakeholders; clarity about who the stakeholders are, and certainty about the risks that may be encountered. Continue reading The Mission Model
Directed or managed change is the way organisations translate their deliberate strategies into reality. For most organisations the vehicle used to initiate and structure change is its portfolio of projects. It is, therefore, the linking of business outcomes to project … Continue reading The change diamond
From our interviews with project managers, and the stories they tell us, we have identified six generic communication purposes. The ‘six-whys’ are discussed in the following sections, along with how the purpose (the ‘why’ question) impacts the communication approach used. Continue reading Purposeful communication
Scope is the sum total of all the work required for the project. Objective – A single statement describing the project’s completion state in business outcome language. It enables the sponsor, steering group, key stakeholders and project to test when the … Continue reading Defining project scope
Portfolio, programme and project governance Maintaining, focus and control, implementing policy and giving direction are the principle purposes of any change governance model. As with corporate governance, the approach must ensure the decisions are made at the right level, by … Continue reading The M-model
When defining the PMO, a crucial step is to identify who and precisely what the stakeholder groups want. The PiCubed PMO model identifies two stakeholder groups: Continue reading Project office styles
The cost of getting it wrong can be astounding. Did you know:
Requirement defects account for 56% of re-work in projects
Globally, $250 billion of annual waste is traced to poor requirements Continue reading Requirements to scope
The Pentagon model is not a definition of leadership, but describes five crucial elements required within change initiatives. The Pentagon icon was adopted to illustrate that the five leadership roles cannot operate in isolation. Individual leaders may take on several of these leadership elements, or more than one person may contribute to one area. An absence or failure of change leadership in any of these key areas will put at risk the entire change initiative. Continue reading Leadership roles in project management
Books are full of methods and procedures for planning a project, but if you ask a project manager what they do when they are planning, the answer is often far from clear or definitive. It may start with some kind of engagement with the sponsor or main stakeholders to find out what they want. This is then followed by a series of iterations—seeking input from a variety of stakeholders and instantiating this into a proposed approach. The aim is to create a plan which delivers the desired outcomes within the constraints set by the project owners. Continue reading CPPRRSS – the planning process
Meaningful engagement is characterized by a willingness to be open to change. Continue reading Extended stakeholder process
PiCubed models 