Revealing Project Management Success Secrets

With Project Management (PM) such a key function for any external service provider, just what are the secrets to good PM delivery that could differentiate one from another?

To determine these secrets, we picked the brains of Daryl Yeo, from the National Project Management Office at IT Infrastructure and Managed Services provider, Logicalis Australia. What we found showed that Logicalis has a complex system that takes Project Management very seriously.

Yeo revealed the two key secrets to good PM delivery – accountability and governance – plus appropriate PM enablement for the organisation.

 

Weekly PM review

On the accountability and governance front, Yeo said that Logicalis has a Project Management Office that reviews all projects weekly (regardless of their value) against the key performance indicators of schedule, scope, budget and customer satisfaction.

“If any of these indicators are flagged as in risk, an action plan/mitigation strategy is formed immediately,” he said. “In addition to this, we have executive support and buy in by our CEO and CFO. Every month we hold an internal Project Board Review where the project managers report on the health of their projects to the CFO and CEO. All projects are reviewed to ensure they adhere to the Logicalis PMO Standard Practice.”

Yeo said that Logicalis also had an ‘Enablement Model’ for their Project Management.

“In addition to our governance practice, we understand that the success and health of a project is often in the hands of a project manager,” he said. “The purpose of the PMO in this regard is to ensure that the project managers have the correct support or environment to manage their projects in accordance to the Logicalis standard.”

 

Project manager enablement

The Logicalis Enablement Model has several aspects. Firstly, project managers are coached in the company’s professional services vision so they develop the values to guide them to deliver amazing customer experiences and to aid with decision-making.

The next fundamental building block of the Enablement Model has been designed to ensure project managers have the appropriate tools and templates in place to deliver consistency and effectiveness for the benefit of customers.

Next, the project managers are armed with a set of goals and objectives that align with their department’s strategic and organisational objectives. These are broken down to engender meaningful and clear understanding.

With the Logicalis management philosophy that ‘the carrot is mightier than the stick’ there is a rewards and recognition scheme attached to the project manager’s goals and objectives to make success worth their while.

 

The Logicalis Academy

To ensure that project managers are qualified and appropriately experienced, the company has established a Logicalis Academy where they can build their capabilities and help their careers grow.

Yeo said that Logicalis has a set of processes and procedures, based on industry best practice. Each project manager is taken through Logicalis’ practices and standards to ensure consistency and increased likelihood of successful projects for their customers.

So with all this coaching, training, checking and double-checking, we asked Yeo: ‘What can Logicalis clients expect relating to Project Management through Logicalis? What can clients learn from good Project Management?’

 

Risk and issues assessment

“Logicalis clients can expect their projects to run on time, budget and scope through Project Management,” he said. “To have their projects fully owned by Logicalis includes a full risk and issues assessment of their project – this is a proactive way to mitigate potential problems that may impact the success of your project and to ensure that if a problem does eventuate, the most effective solution is collaborated and approved before implementation.”

Yeo said that clients can also expect to receive project schedules that consist of timelines and planning to aid future decisions.

“In addition to this, clients will also receive full project reporting and progress reports through the right communication and engagement model throughout the customer’s organisation,” he said.

And, perhaps the cherry on top of the Logicalis Project Management ice cream sundae: “Clients can expect organisational change management with their projects too,” said Yeo.

“Organisational change is about effective people management by taking them through, and on, the journey when introducing a change, regardless of how big or small the project impact is perceived to be on its people.”

To find out more about Logicalis’ Project Management offering, head to last week’s post or to read more on how Logicalis can support your business, visit our Solutions and Services page.

Project Management Critical for 3rd Platform Implementations

To the layperson, Project Management (PM) may appear to be dry, administrative and boring, but to the IT world, it is critical to success.

With enterprises now seeking to take advantage of the new 3rd Platform revolution which is underway, the adoption and implementation of Cloud, Big Data and Analytics and Mobility must be properly measured and tracked by a professional project management.

When you scratch the ‘surface paint’, you will find that PM is the fundamental skillset offered by managed service providers, consultants and external IT experts of all labels and persuasions.

Research House Gartner sees PM as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements”. They say the primary value of PM goes beyond just delivering on-time and on-budget projects, but is ensuring expected business outcomes and realised value.

 

PM a culture measure

Gartner rightly regards PM as so important because the biggest changes from project activities are actually people-oriented, influencing culture and mind-sets across the whole enterprise. The way an organisation approaches one particular project, will likely be the template they apply to all projects and to the way they generally do business.

Successful PM, say Gartner, “is characterised by the ongoing development and refinement of methods and practices and ensuring that any software tools deployed meet the needs without becoming a burden”.

A solid way of determining the ability and expertise of a service provider is to check their project management approach and to grill them on their overall philosophy.

Daryl Yeo, from the National Project Management Office at IT Infrastructure and Managed Services provider, Logicalis Australia, says his firm believes that the success of a project is determined by the ability to manage and control the project.

 

Strategic and tactical investments

“We understand that each project from our customer is more than just another IT integration or implementation – they are business investments that are tactical and strategic to help achieve a business outcome,” Yeo said. “So we take pride when our customers trust us to deliver and we make it our goal to ensure that they see the realisation of their investments in the time required by the business, that the investment delivers what they need and, most of all, fits within their budget.”

Yeo shared the most common project management issues that Logicalis encounters. Misaligned expectations between project delivery – and what is in the scope to be delivered – stands out as number one.

“This occurs frequently because often the time when a solution is presented, to when the project commences, can be months or a year. In this time requirements may have changed or the environment has shifted,” he said.

 

Customer Consultation

“To avoid this, we facilitate a project kick-off with the customer that runs through the scope and covers the project objectives. This normally allows us to clarify 80 to 90% of assumptions regarding scope. Typically for larger and complex projects, where the outcome is so far to conceive in detail, a miss-aligned assumption or expectation can often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in unforeseeable costs to the project. In these scenarios, experience has taught us to break up larger more complex projects into smaller more manageable projects,” Yeo said.

Tightening IT budgets have highlighted a specific PM danger of which enterprises should be aware of.

Yeo said that, unfortunately due to many IT budget constraints customers are adopting the lean approach to services by solely selecting proposals that are the most cost effective.

 

Dangerous PM trend

“As a result, we are starting to see a trend where some customers don’t see the value of effective project management and are requesting that it be removed from the services quote,” he said. “As a result of this, we have several customer-managed projects that have exceeded deadlines and budget. We’ve had cases where an implementation should take 3 months but is still open after 12 months.”

“A common misconception is the lack of visibility and understanding in unforseen cost to their business as a result of delays and budget overruns. For example, an organisation may save an extra $5,000 on project services, but as a result of delays the actual cost of impact to their business (in not being able to manage change effectively) is measured in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Project Management (PM) is a complex and involved subject (Frost & Sullivan offers more than 40 distinct PM courses) so the next blog in our series will also take on this examination of PM.

In the meantime, have a look at how Logicalis can help you and your business stay afloat.