Project Management

In the current economic climate which has had a backdrop of the recession of the three years, where the government imposed spending cuts and restrictions have affected virtually everyone in the public and private sectors, has seen its impacts extend into their personal, family, social and working lives.

For those fortunate to be in a job coping with that change is seen as a prerequisite and being able to manage the change is being seen as an increasingly valuable skill set. The disciplines, procedures, processes, tools and techniques within project management can easily be applied to other areas.

There are many specialist techniques which went together and help to bring in change in an organisation successfully. Care has also to be taken in paying attention to the people side e.g. leadership in the project, building a performing team, motivating individuals, managing their performance, giving counselling and appraisals.

Managing a Project requires knowledge, expertise and skills in many areas, including:

• developing your business case,
• identifying the objectives for the change,
• looking at a feasibility study,
• producing a basic set of information to minimise up front expenditure unnecessarily,
• obtaining permissions,
• engaging stakeholders and managing their expectations,
• building your project management team, managing quality and risks,
• planning and developing your project plan,
• managing progress has successfully,
• ensuring that the configuration works,
• managing people and finances,
• the role of decision-making is at an ensuring that they understand it,
• handing over and post-project evaluation

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PRINCE2®
PRINCE2™ is a comprehensive project management method, grounded in best practice, produced by the Government (OGC (Office of Government Commerce) and is the de facto standard for the public sector.

It seems to be achieving a bigger uptake in the private sector and companies using it include Tesco and Barclays. It is used by many thousands of Project Management Professionals in 21 countries worldwide.

It works to ensure control exists throughout the Project Lifecycle, has a focus on the Business Case, requires distinct decision making, alignment of the project with organisational strategies and objectives and the project to be tailored to the needs of the business.

Using PRINCE2™ to deliver projects is becoming increasingly common as managers and Directors alike, see it in place in projects their business partners, affinity partners and others are bringing in with increased success.

Programme Management
A programme sits at a level of the projects and should add more value than just a collection of projects put together. This is because where we do have a collection of projects, the linkages between them are identified, synergies established and duplication removed. The end result of the whole programme therefore becomes much greater than the sum of the individual projects.

MSP® Managing Successful Programmes
MSP™ is a comprehensive programme management method, grounded in best practice, produced by the Government (OGC (Office of Government Commerce) and, taking the time to incorporate key points from MSP, can significantly help to bring in change effectively and successfully.

Within MSP special attention is given to stakeholders, their likely expectations, their attitude to change and their ability to influence others. Other areas include creating a vision for the change, communicating that effectively, putting some flesh to the bones in terms of understanding what that change is likely to result in (blueprint), ensuring that the change is aligned to strategic aims and objectives and will produce quantifiable benefits.

MSP incorporates the transition period where the project and being embedded within the organisation and this is split up into pre-transition, during transition and post-transition.

The Legal Imperative

PRINCE2® ITIL® and MSP® are Registered Trade Marks of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

All training in OGC products is delivered in partnership with RK Associates, a registered ATO and we use APM approved training materials.