Introduction
Sorry this has taken soo long. I have been busy with work, qualifications and breaking a foot. My aim here is describe not only the MSP & Prince2 but also how they fit together. I also want to demonstrate how each best practice can help client engagement and ensure that the each of the business change elements of strategy, design delivery and value are addressed. What do I mean by those four?
Business Change Strategy aAre we doing the right things? Is the business investing in those programmes/projects that make the greatest contribution to achieving corporate strategy? Are they correctly prioritized against each other & BAU?
Business Change Design Are we doing them the right way? Are the programmes/projects (& their outcomes & deliverables aligned with each other, and with the organization’s governance, structure & BAU activities? Are we delivering the Programmes/projects in line with the enterprise architecture/business roadmap & in the right order/sequence
Business Change Delivery Are we getting things done consistently & well? Are good & best practice delivery methods & governance structures in place for programme/projects? Are those who are involved in delivering programmes/projects doing so consistently & performing at the required level? Do they have the skills & capability to succeed? Ate the appropriate tools & techniques available?
Business Change Value Are we getting the business benefits? Are the programmes/project delivering the expected contribution to achieving corporate strategy ? Is delivery of the strategy still on track?
In early 2010s I decided to go contracting. I created an ITIL training deck, which is still available here. This lead me to getting my first contract to run a programme to off-shore Procurement processes for an IT supplier. This meant had to create two service desks, one in Hungary, the other in Slovakia, I needed help in implementation. I was aware of Prince2 project methodology and looked into utilizing this. The programme of work, however, was far larger than a simple project or even a series of projects. This was building the service desks from scratch, developing the governance processes, training the staff, implementing a service management system, as well as determining the current processes in Germany, restructuring them and transferring them to the off shore sites. Management of Successful Programmes (MSP) version four assisted me greatly here as this was clearly a vision led programme. That is to say, the programme, came into existence to deliver a clearly defined vision that has been created & is sponsored by the top of the organization with cross-functional implications for the organization’s operations. Myself and the project managers were driven by the principles of MSP, some of which are below
- Leading change – This programme was a leadership challenge. In addition to the need to manage a large number of complex tasks, I had to lead a lot of people. I had the two service desks of ~thirty people each plus five or so project managers that need to be led and encouraged to deliver.
- Envisioning & communicating a better future – This programme was delivering a transformational change. I had to describe a clear vision of that future and ensure all stakeholders were aware of the direction of travel.
- Focusing on the benefits & threats to them – I had to determine the individual benefits of each tranche and the individual projects and ensure we delivered them.
- Designing & delivering a coherent capability – I had to arrange the design of the blueprint, which was the future operating model of coherent organizational capability that I would release into operational use. This needed to be done according to an agreed schedule that delivered the maximum incremental improvements with minimal adverse operational impact.
We used MSP v4 ‘s key transformational flow to identify, define and deliver the programme
- Identifying a Programme
- Defining a Programme
- Managing the Tranches
- Delivering the Capability
- Realizing the Benefits
- Closing a Programme
Identifying a Programme
We had a programme mandate from the the person who had hired us and we used this to develop a more detailed programme brief which outlined the vision, expected benefits, estimates of costs, timescales & risks.
We then appointed the Senior responsible owner ( A senior manager at the firm sponsoring the programme) and the other members of the programme board ( members of the operations and IT departments). We then started to develop the programme preparation plan. This covered the detailed planning & design of all aspects of the programme.
This meant that the sponsoring group became fully aware of, & willing to commit to, the cost, time & resource that will be required in the next part of the programme. There was still a lot of uncertainty & ambiguity over the detail of what the programme would involve. By detailing the how the governance themes would be applied and especially the assurance theme, we were able to manage the expected complexity uncertainty & ambiguity. This enabled us to confirm with and obtain approval from the SRO, programme board & sponsoring group of an understanding of, & commitment to, the proposed programmes vision, & the preliminary view of its expected benefits, risks, issues, timescales, resources & costs.
Defining a Programme
Then we moved on to the Defining a Programme process that provided a basis for deciding whether to proceed with the programme or not. We created a detailed definition & planning for the programme. The programme brief from the previous stage was used as the starting point for developing the programme definition information in more detail.
The business case & governance for the programme was now developed. Defining the strategies for quality & assurance, monitoring & control, information management, stakeholders, risks & issues, benefits & resources. The various programme approaches are contained in the strategies and plans. We decided to to use different delivery methods for the different type of work that was to be covered by the programme and split these into several tranches. This gained the formal approval from the sponsoring group & SRO
Managing the Tranches
Next we commenced defining the Managing the Tranches to implement the governance strategies for the programme, and ensured that the capability to deliver was aligned to the strategic direction of the organization, & enable the release of the expected benefits.
In order to maintain the balance between the rate of change being offered by the Delivering the Capability process & the rate of change that the operational areas could cope with we used different methods
- Governing processes – covering how to do Service Level Management including SLAs, Service Catalogue, Change Management & Knowledge Management via Prince2 methodology.
- Service Request processes – covering how the transferred procurement processes would be implemented and managed via Prince2 methodology.
- Service Desk implementation – covering the agile implementation of the Service Desk tool (We used OTRS), training the users and customers via Prince2 Agile methodology.
Delivering the Capability & Realizing the Benefits
We had defined a projects dossier in the managing the tranches process and now got to work to provide the capabilities described in the blueprint.
Delivering the Capability and Realizing the Benefits work closely together to ensure programme objectives within project delivery and benefits were realized through transition to operations. The Managing the Tranches process was used to oversee these two processes, providing the high-level direction, guidance and control.
Each tranche and projects within the tranche faced its own challenges and the inter dependence between all three was key in ensuring we delivered in time. We moved resources between the three projects as and when required.
We managed the benefits from their initial identification in Defining the programme to their successful realization. This meant constantly monitoring the progress of the projects to ensure that the outputs were fit for purpose and were integrated into operations in a timely fashion and we could demonstrate that benefits were realized. The management of the transition from old to new ways of working was something of a challenge as we went from a legacy methods of working in various silos across Germany to integrated service desks in Sloviaka and Hungary. We had to:
- Manage pre-transition: That is analyze, prepare and plan the business transformation
- Manage transition: Deliver and support the changes
- Manage post-transition Review the progress, measure the performance and adapt the change when required
Closing a Programme
After two years we made the final assessment of the programme and determined that the blueprint had been delivered. The required outcomes had been achieved and the business case was satisfied. The new way of working was self-sustaining and a lot more efficient and effective than the previous distributed silos with multiple ways of working. Thus we went through the process of reassigning staff in Germany and where it was wished offering early retirement on generous packages to those who had work diligently over many years all within the planned budget.
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