Deploying Strategy – 3 Times More Difficult than Developing Strategy
Successful leaders know that these days, if the company is standing still, it is falling behind, but making the right decisions and following through on them is challenging. Read more
The Vision of a CIO
The CIO’s strategic initiative should align with the company’s overall strategy, but from there, where and how should the journey take shape? Read more
Programme Management Lessons from Boeing
Steve Goo describes the Boeing Programme Management Best Practices, an integrated management system the company has refined over the past ten years to enable programmes of all sizes achieve high levels of performance and customer satisfaction. Read more
An Introduction to Portfolio Management
Paul Rayner has led a ProgM initiative to write an “Introduction to Portfolio Management” for the APM and I was one of a group of people who reviewed a draft version of the document and provided feedback. At that stage, the booklet consisted of 32 pages of clear and concise guidelines about the purpose of portfolio management and how it can be applied.
Achieving Excellence in Construction
The British Government’s OGC (Office of Government Commerce) provides an excellent online repository of documents addressing its guidelines for achieving excellence in construction. Read more
The 5th Habit and Programme Communication
I thought I would post this article that I wrote for the APM Programme Management Specific Interest Group (ProgM) newsletter some time ago. Read more
More Lessons Learned for Projects & Programmes
Whether it’s in the public or private sector, we often hear that failed projects and programmes in the context of being over budget or late. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in London has taken a closer look at some of the key areas of fault in failed government projects and programmes. Read more
Achieving Outcomes & Realising Benefits
During the course of our Programme Management roles we will have determined the critical measures and indicators of success and made arrangements to ensure the programme remains appropriate and on track to deliver the intended outcomes and benefits. Read more
The Importance of Urgency in Change – Video
John Kotter is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority on leadership and change. In this Harvard interview he discusses why without a true sense of urgency, any change effort is doomed and how managers create and sustain urgency in their organisations. Read more
Why Govern a Programme?
One of the authors of the Gower Handbook of Programme Management is Paul Rayner and just over two years ago, he conducted a survey which showed that whilst the world was moving closer to a common theory about what Programme Governance is all about in theory, the reality was very different. Read more
A Matter of Madness or Maturity
It’s all very well for an organisation’s senior management to hold up their hands and proclaim; “we have project and programme managers who manage our delivery” so we’re covered in that department. But how mature are those efforts? Do their projects and programmes portray madness or maturity? Read more
Avoid Leading one of 70% of Programmes that Fail
Guiding change may be the ultimate test of a leader because no business survives over the long term if it can’t reinvent itself. But, human nature being what it is, fundamental change is often resisted by the people it most affects: those in the trenches of the business. This means that leading change is both absolutely essential and incredibly difficult. Read more
A Question of Risk
If you have approached your project or programme well, you will have developed a Risk Plan/Strategy document. Risk needs to be proactively managed, as opposed to allowing it to manage you and the environment around you. Read more
13 Programme Transformation Success Factors
Below are 13 programme transformation success factors which could, if taken into consideration when approaching a programme of work, increase the chances of success. Read more
Boost Communication with a Weekly Message
How Well Are You Communicating?
You are in the final few hours of the business week and a considerable amount has happened in the previous four days. You and your team have worked hard to make progress, address challenges and help the overall business in their strategic objectives. But who really knows or even remembers what was achieved and who from your team deserves a pat on the back? Read more
MSP for Programme Transformation
Before I start on the subject of programme management let me to clarify what a project is and what a programme is. This is because these two words are used so interchangeably across many organisations around the world with people calling a project a programme and vice versa. Read more
Portfolio, Programme & Project Management Maturity
Do you ever gauge your current level of organisational maturity in respect of portfolio, programme and project management? When was the last time you attempted to establish an understanding of the key practices in effective portfolio, programme and project management processes? Do you want to identify the key practices that need to be embedded within your organisation for it to improve process capability and maturity? Read more
SCRUM in Less Than 10 Minutes – Video
Learn the SCRUM software development methodology in less than 10 minutes. By the end of this fast-paced video, you’ll know about burn-down charts, team roles, product backlogs, sprints, daily scrums and more. Read more
Stakeholder Management – there’s a lot at stake
An organisation might have an outstanding management team and an effective management system, but if it does not manage the sometimes myriad of key stakeholders effectively, transformation programmes can suffer serious negative impact or be completely destroyed. This is why Stakeholder Management plays such a critical role in facilitating successful change for many organisations. Read more
Programme Management Book
The Handbook of Programme Management is a 738 page hardback bible of authoritative guidance and advice, concepts, systems, templates and approaches on all aspects of successful programme management. I bought mine a couple of years ago (it was published in 2006) and it has proven to be very useful indeed. Read more
The PMO. Who Needs it?
It’s not always easy trying to sell the merits of a PMO to a CTO or CIO – or anyone who doesn’t necessarily have a good understanding of project and programme management. Many people elevate the the heights of a C-level post without having been through the project and programme management trenches. Read more
ITIL Fundamentals
To start with the basics, ITIL is the acronym for “IT Infrastructure Library” and it consists of a set of books developed by the UK’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Read more
Why New Systems Fail
Phil Simon wrote to me a few days ago about his new book called; “Why New Systems Fail – Theory and Practice Collide”.
We’ve all read plenty of statistics which highlight the disturbing proportion of projects that fail. Phil cites the following numbers in his book: Read more
PRINCE2 2009 – An Evolution Update Video
Lead author of PRINCE2 2009, Andy Murray, tells us about the way in which PRINCE2 has changed for 2009. Read more
The Elephant in The Room
This article was kindly contributed by Geoff Reiss:
Banks, software houses, manufacturers, civil engineers, central and local government organisations, universities and charities: I have been lucky enough to have observed a great many organisations struggling with the whole concept of benefits. Read more
Relationships and the Stakeholder Circle™
Many will agree that project or programme success and failure is directly related to how well stakeholder management is addressed by the project or programme manager. Communication, perceptions and relationships are key words in stakeholder management which should be taken very seriously. Read more
The Change That Needs Control
On Monday, a fomer colleague in Dubai asked me for a change request process and template. I sent him a change CR log too. Read more
APM Knowledgeshare 2009 – Programme & Portfolio Management
Date: Friday 29th May 2009 Read more
Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder Management helps us ensure successful change. It helps managers assess and manage the environment around the planned programme and brings out the interests of the stakeholders and identifies potential conflicts to assign a level of risk or challenges to the programme’s success. Read more
Why Use a Project Management Methodology?
Many Project Managers believe that to enjoy total project management success, you need to manage projects using a formal project management methodology. They say it helps give you direction, it saves you time and it improves the quality of your deliverables. But does it?
