Project management: Change as a project

Once magnitude, complexity, difficulty and project risk exceed certain measure, it is necessary to use adequate methods of managing the whole change. How to manage such changes is subject of study by various institutions that deal with various project management methodologies. The following organizations belong to the most famous ones:

• Project Management Institute (manages methodology PMBOK)
• International Project Management Association (IPMA)
• Axelos (methodology Prince2)

Various methodologies differ in approaching the projects, scope, compactness (some of them are very well interconnected systems and some rather a body of knowledge) but all of them provide a perspective on change that will enable you to go through the change successfully. Like with any other methodology it is important not to follow the methodology blindly but to think how to use it in your environment.

Sometimes you  may come across an opinion that certain methodology is too robust for environment of certain company. We take the liberty not to agree with this point of view. An effort for a full blind take-over of certain methodology will be always nonsense. However, if you feel that  you do not manage well changes in your company then e.g. Prince2 will be a great inspiration for you, even if it is used also for managing large projects in big companies or public sector. The purpose is not to thoroughly fulfil steps described in a methodology but to apply principles that matter much more than details or form. Even if you are a small organization, principles of a big methodology used in large projects can help you very well. Just adapt them to your needs.

Below we will describe several concepts that we recommend to adopt if you are not satisfied with managing changes in your organization and you want to start applying project management. In case of need you can get more detailed information from above stated links.

Project

A temporary organization created for the sake of delivering outputs according to the approved business case in the agreed timeframe, with agreed resources and within the agreed scope.

Business case

Before we jump to the project we should have at least acbasic idea about why we are going to run the project and whether benefits outweigh project cost. Benefits should be formulated in terms relevant for business. Therefore, when upgrading a server we should not mention higher server performance but higher user satisfaction due to faster responses, lower maintenance cost and reducing security risk associated with running an outdated system.

The first business outline usually comes from the project sponsor and project manager works with it further on. Business case has to be regularly updated. New information can occur during the project which may improve the business case (difference between project cost and benefits increases) or on the contrary decrease it. Even if it may sound improbable at the beginning of the project, we may realize during the project that the business case becomes negative and project should be stopped because it does not make sense to continue in it.

Project charter

Project charter is a fundamental project document that can be referred later on. It formulates project objectives, its sponsor, main stakeholders, project manager and members of the project team. It defines reasons for launching the project, its scope, budget and duration. It is a sort of contract between sponsor, key stakeholders, project manager and project team.

This document establishes project manager authority and authorizes project itself. It is also a starting point (baseline) for future assessment how the project proceeds.

Project charter can be usually created quite easily and this effort always pays off because approval by all the stakeholders provides your project with necessary legitimacy.

Deliverable (Project output)

Deliverable is a tangible or intangible project output that should be handed over to the customer. Deliverables should be described at the beginning of the project or within its course, once we identify an output that is required. We can assign responsibility for delivery of particular outputs to various team members. We should definitely describe in a detail how the deliverable should look like and who will validate it. This will help to avoid unclarity at the time when the output should be delivered because we will be able to compare easily the real output with the planned one. This is one of prerequisite for ensuring high quality of the project outputs.

Project Steering Committee

For each project we should set up a committee that will regularly meet  to provide guidance, control of the project course and decisions that are out of project manager authority. Project manager regularly reports to the committee work progress, informs about issues, submits options how to address them and recommended solution. It is advised to use form of a Project Status Reportu (see below) for that.

Project Steering Committee should be defined already in the Project charteru.

Project Status Report

This is a document presented by the project manager in the Project Steering Committee. It contains information about project progress, last activities, next steps and alignment with the plan. It informs about issues and risks and proposes measures to address them.

Action and Decision log

All the agreed tasks and decisions should be recorded. They will appear the first time in minutes from the project team meeting or from the Project Steering Committee, that you will send to the meeting participants by email. However, tasks should be recorded also in a central task repository, that everybody can consult at any time and that allows project manager to keep a good track of all the tasks and their fulfilment.

Issue

Issue is anything that happens during project, was not planned and requires attention. It can be also a query concerning the project raised by a project team member for which the answer is not known. Prince2 distinguishes three types of issues:

• Change request - anything that needs to be changed against the approved baseline
• Off-specification - anything that was agreed for delivery but was not delivered or does not correspond with the original specification
• Problem/Concern - anything else that requires attention

For each issue we should:

1. Register it in the list of project issues.
2. Analyze it including impact on Business case and Project plan. If necessary you can ask Project Steering Committee for a guidance.
3. Propose solution options, assess them and submit recommendation to the Project Steering Committee, if the decision is out of project manager authority.
4. Implement the approved option and update the project plan if necessary.

It is recommended to use a standardized form of Issue Report for submitting the issue to the Project Steering Committee.

We recommend e.g. Prince2wiki as a source of further information about Prince2.