Programme management




Programme management Business change, often with a technical component, typically requires a combination of projects - a business programme - to achieve the business change and hence the business benefit. There is much that you can do at the start of the programme - or in a "programme rescue" - to underpin the success of the programme. (The corollary is that most if not all major programme failures are established and made certain at the start of the programme). A stitch in time saves 999, and we can help. The things you need to think about, in our experience, are covered below, but we have not seen these fully explained in any of the programme management literature (If you know better, let us know!). Defining the programme Programmes and personality type Influencing and Political Skills in programmes and projects Programme culture definition Programme planning Programme management / programme management coaching Programme Assist Programme Review Defining the programme We have an interdisciplinary approach which focuses on results ensures no area is forgotten involves all key players Programme scope and blueprint Our view is that the programme scope should contain everything necessary to achieve the required outcomes. Outcomes can include: Business results Business capability Fulfilled individuals. Therefore the scope may include RESULTS Vision Benefits Social results Environmental results PROCESS Business processes Business process performance Business process architecture Quality confidence in operation PREMISES Buildings, facilities and equipment CULTURE Behaviour Culture / Paradigm PEOPLE Skills/ competences/attitudes Staffing Team & personal development SYSTEMS & DATA Systems functionality & user interface Information design Data migration Data and systems ownership Systems technical interfaces Set-up of systems support Systems volume & performance Systems infrastructure Our main focus is not to teach methods for covering all these areas of scope (although we have a wide spread of knowledge of many methods relevant to many of these areas). Our role is to help you to ensure that all areas are covered effectively in ways that are likely to result in the desired outcomes. Key questions for every element of scope: what is our approach to this element who guides us with this approach how does this approach integrate with other approaches help to ensure we achieve the outcomes we need. Key questions for every phase of the programme: what outcomes are expected within each element, or dimension what is the balance between inspired visionary advancing and rigorous planning who is responsible for achieving the outcomes? Wherever you are with the definition of your programme, we can lead programme initiation work which will complete the understanding of programme scope and responsibilities, and therefore put your programme of change on a sound footing. We strongly recommend that this includes a programme top-team personality-type workshop to raise awareness among programme senior management of the ways they may be unconsciously influencing the programme. Programmes and personality type The programme will typically take on the culture of the key leadership figure(s) in the programme (who may or may not be formally appointed in programme management positions). If these personalities are not sufficiently balanced or evolved, the programme itself will be out of balance. Team role analysis is often applied in this context, but it's also important to consider fundamental personality type preferences (via Myers Briggs Type Indicator ™). There are balances needed on the programme of logic and feeling analysis and decision detail and big picture reflection and interaction Each of these must be in an appropriate balance (i.e. a balance appropriate to the nature of the programme), but each player has an innate tendency to bring each of these out of balance. Bringing out this tension so that all players can understand it and value each other's contribution is crucial to a harmonious programme, and can contribute considerably to increasing the overall level of emotional intelligence, maturity, and hence teamwork and success. We can lead a workshop where key players can explore the dimensions of personality-type and its impact on the programme. Why is this important? Because understanding imbalance in personality-type can enable you to see potential problems months before traditional progress control methods reveal those problems. Understanding the imbalance gives you the chance to do something about it before it becomes a problem. So thinking about the softer side of the programme can result in a very tangible financial benefit. This workshop uses similar approaches to our change management personality-type workshop, but within the programme context. We also now run a public 2-day course on Better Projects by understanding personality-type (click for more details) The phrase “personality-type” is used here to refer to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)., which is a registered trademark of Consulting Psychologists Press Inc. Myers Briggs Type Indicator™ and MBTI™ are trademarks of Consulting Psychologists Press Inc; in Europe these trademarks are licensed to OPP Ltd. Actalpha personality-type workshops are led by one or more qualified assessors of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator ® who have signed up to the OPP Ltd code of ethics for the use of the MBTI ® assessment (Use the "Back" button on your browser to return here after viewing the personality-type workshop) Influencing and Political Skills in programmes and projects A workshop designed to help you increase the speed and effectiveness of your projects. Learn How To : Influence others to move you quickly past obstacles Use your own personal power to best effect Use your current project to build your influence for future projects Understand and play the game of politics – with integrity Achieve more “win-win”results in everyday negotiations Learn the positive side of politics and influencing Participants take part in a highly interactive workshop to develop their understanding of politics and influencing, and to practice political strategies and influencing skills for themselves. Participants take away an action plan for building their influence on their return to their workplace. How this course could make a difference to you “I’d never seen myself as a political player – I always felt that company politics were something for me to steer clear of. Using my new understanding and skills I’ve discovered that I can use politics to make a positive difference.” Programme culture definition Any business change programme is itself a new transient creation, and it creates a new business operation or substantially modifies an existing operation. The programme itself will have a culture which depends on past history and the influence of leading players within the programme. A successful business change will depend on an effective culture being created or affected by the programme. However, the culture change that can be effected will depend partly on the culture of the programme itself. Broadly, this is because "Do as I say, do not do as I do" tends to be ineffective - new behaviours must be modelled in order to be adopted. This means that both the culture of the programme and of the new business operation must be appropriate - either through sufficient naturally visionary and charismatic effective leadership, or (where mere mortals are involved) some careful planning involving key players. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but we can help with conscious planning of the culture of the programme and of the new business operation, and can help you identify combinations of change levers which can be used to create the changes you need. We will use similar approaches to our change management culture definition workshop, but within the programme context. (Use the "Back" button on your browser to return here after viewing the culture workshop) Programme planning We have experience of driving through programme plans for multi-project programmes up to 400 people. Our approach within programme planning workshops, working with the key people in each project, is “If we want to deliver the programme, then between us we must achieve a view of the plans for this programme, visible on the walls of this conference room”. We have an approach which has proved successful, on the most complex of programmes. “Successful” means: consistent project and programme plans agreed much improved communication between projects project staff more in control of their work the planned results achieved. Programme management / programme management coaching To achieve the programme outcomes, you need continuous FEVER: F - focus E - energy V - vision E - enthusiasm R - results It goes without saying that this "fever" must be infectious. The blueprint and programme plans give direction and course, and clear-sighted review against these is necessary to form measurable judgements of progress. You will also need to keep in mind the softer issues, particularly if there are increasing numbers of people affected by the programme. One of our most effective roles is as programme management coach, able to act as the conscience of the programme to ensure that we are building for sustainable success. Do we undertake programme management ourselves? Yes, on an interim basis (aiming to coach customer staff to take over the role), provided the client requirements for the management of the programme accord with our values. In other words - we will always be looking for the impact on people, for the cultural factors, both within the programme and the new business operation, as it is our experience that these issues will sink the programme if they are not explicitly covered. You should only engage us if you're prepared to buy in to this approach. Programme Assist Frequently major programmes can become stuck in a rut, and progress can seem elusive. We can give you a quick assessment of the crucial aspects of the programme - culture, interactions, scope, plans, control of progress and risks and issues, climate, teamwork (see Programme Scope and Blueprint info) - in order to come to initial conclusions about which areas would be of most benefit to address in order to see some better results. This can help to raise morale and management confidence; we can then if you wish look in more detail at any area where there appears to be scope for further improvement. Programme Review Our post-project review approach typically looks in turn at these key areas for the project concerned: How was it for you? What was achieved? What was not achieved? What behaviours, methods and processes proved effective and should be used elsewhere? What were the gaps or problems with methods process and behaviour, that we need to ensure do not cause difficulties with other projects? Action review We can use a similar approach to review a programme, either at completion or at a logical break-point. When reviewing a programme, normally our main focus would be on: programme-level aspects (e.g. interactions between projects) widespread aspects affecting many projects. Unless the project-level issues are common to all projects, it is generally better to review project-level issues with a group of people chosen as relevant for the project concerned. We can also help you to reach the main conclusions for a formal post-implementation review (including benefits assessment).