How To Embed PRINCE2 7 in your organization
THE SECRET TO EMBEDDING PRINCE2 7
Embedding PRINCE2 in your organization involves changing the way people work, designing the future state, setting the high-level scope, ensuring consistency, harnessing the “big-bang” or incremental approach, tracking change progress building and sustaining maturity
Embedding PRINCE2 7 in your organization
Changing the way people work using PRINCE2 7
The introduction of an organization’s project management method involves changing the way that people work, so that the outcome (in this case, widespread use of the project management method) can be realized, leading to a higher project success and enhanced business performance.
Current approaches to change management combine the psychological and engineering views of the world to create repeatable change methods, drawing on a wide range of tools and techniques.
The application of different change methods has implications for the way organizations and their leaders regard change, the way they manage change and even the effectiveness of any change initiatives.
At the heart of most change models is gaining the support of those who are required to change their ways of working. This involves:
To gain stakeholder support, change management approaches should not just involve training, but may also include coaching, mentoring, stakeholder engagement, marketing and communications activities to embed a real understanding of the need for the change and the resulting benefits.
Change is as much about managing people’s expectations and perceptions as managing facts
Design of the future state using PRINCE2 7
The design of the future state of a project management method should reflect the vision for how project management will work after the method is embedded. It should include the roles, processes, tools and behaviours relating to using the method itself and to any supporting organizational units.
Projects should be perceived as part of the organization and therefore any processes, roles or approaches should align with those used in the rest of the organization.
As project management is a form of governance it should explicitly link with the overall governance of the organization; embedding project management strengthens corporate governance.
Common areas where this is apparent include the allocation of resources, the authorization of funding for projects, procurement of goods and services, audit, accounting and human resources practices.
The design of the future state not only includes the tailoring of PRINCE2 7, but also the design of every other part of the organization which is needed to support project management.
For example, if the use of the method is mandated, an organization may create a special audit team to assess each project manager’s degree of compliance with the method; sanctions may be applied to those who do not comply.
The auditors may need special training, checklists, knowledge and processes to support their work.
A less directive organization may have mentors and coaches to help the practitioners understand and use the method effectively; such coaches need to be familiar with the project management method, supporting techniques and how to tailor them.
Organizations will often support their project managers by implementing tools and systems to aid communication and reduce administrative overhead.
Such tools may be for planning and tracking, controlling changes, tracking risks and actions, and recording lessons. The PRINCE2 product description outlines include several such products.
Unfortunately, many proprietary tools use their own terminology and workflow which may not match PRINCE2 or an organization’s terminology.
Sometimes the terms can be changed but often not. In these cases, the choice is to adapt the organization’s terminology to match the tool or choose an alternative tool.
The decision depends on the value put on maintaining the chosen terminology or workflows. Experienced project managers should be able to cope with different terminology but people new to project management or from disciplines outside project management may have a problem.
The ‘future-state design’ may also be referred to as the ‘blueprint’
Processes, Organization, Technology and Information
The POTI model
sets a high-level scope of what must be included and integrated in an effective future state design:
- check
If embarking on a long-term roll-out of a project management method, do not forget to define what the interim states will be and make sure each is designed to work effectively while work continues towards the next one.
Ensure consistency across all impacted parts of the organization
The deployment of project management throughout an organization involves the roll-out of the project management method and supporting tools, together with the change management activities to promote the use of the method.
Such consistency also must be applied to every other activity related to the implementation; for example, training content should reflect the concepts and terminology used in the method.
Other activities associated with deployment may include communications, assurance, audit, mentoring and coaching.
As many specialist products may need to be created to implement a project management method, the deployment strategy needs to be carefully thought through. Two alternatives are the ‘big bang’ approach and the incremental approach
The Big Bang approach using PRINCE2 7
In the ‘big bang’ approach, the project management method and its supporting elements are activated for use on the same day; all plans focus on this go-live date.
Such an approach may be suitable in a small or new organization, but the actual go-live date would be constrained by the longest lead element of the project and thus early benefits may be lost.
There could also be teething problems on launch unless full trials have been carried out. Trials would normally need to question, does it work in practice and does it work at scale? As the Big Bang approach focuses on a single go-live date, this could be managed as a project.
The Incremental approach to PRINCE2 7
In most cases an incremental approach to rolling out the project management method and its supporting capabilities would be the most flexible and practical.
By taking this approach, early benefits can be realized and the amount of change that users must cope with at any one time reduced.
It enables roll-out to be progressive, say geographically so that deployment resources are not overstretched. In this case, the essential features required for launch would need to be determined, with other features rolled out as they become available.
In some cases, the plan may show interim states where the capabilities are used and bedded in before new capabilities are rolled out later. As the roll-out would require several projects and change activities, this would be better managed as a programme with tranches to reflect any interim operating states
Track progress of the change of PRINCE2 7
Whatever approach is taken, it is helpful to track the progress of the change effort during deployment and in the early operational period.
Many change management techniques include change-tracking approaches. Maturity models can be used to assess the progress of the roll-out for the whole of the organization or a sub-part.
If you are implementing a portfolio, programme and project management method, make sure they are designed to work together from the very start, sharing as much as possible in common and using the same glossary of terms.
The chain of governance from the corporate business level through portfolio and programme to project needs to be explicit.
Building and sustaining PRINCE2 7 maturity
If practitioners do not continue to use a project management method after the initial deployment, the effort and cost of creating it are wasted. A method needs ongoing active management if it is to benefit the business and help to continually improve business performance.
The creation of a method should not be an objective but just one component in a mix of capabilities aimed at improving business performance.
Using a method requires people to be skilled and competent at their jobs; a method simply brings consistency in approach, where consistency adds value.
The method should remain relevant to its users and so direct engagement should be encouraged through feedback and stakeholder involvement, such as in communities of practice and user groups.
Tracking usage of the method can be hard; however, as most methods tend to be published on an organization’s intranet site, a simple ‘click’ count combined with analytics can provide a pattern of usage.
Initially, the use of the site should increase, but unless momentum is maintained, usage may drop off. Part of this may be because people can find what they need more quickly (with fewer clicks) or need to refer to it less as they have learned the content.
Tracking the quantity of feedback and any resulting changes to the project management method is indicative of user engagement.
Web site counts may be indicative of a method being used but they are not hard evidence. Evidence of the practices being used can be gleaned by quality assurance, project assurance and through audits.
If a maturity model is used, the gradual progression of capability through the maturity levels is also evidence of improvement.
Many larger organizations create ‘communities of practice’, which have the aim of improving performance by knowledge sharing and creating a sense of community.
These often have their own websites, blogs, social media and events to motivate their members to contribute to the development of the profession. Some companies run internal conferences or actively encourage participation in external events and with professional associations.
A community of practice can develop subject matter experts who take a leadership role in an aspect of project management and act as a focal point for advice; they may also own the relevant parts of the method, working with the overall method owner.
Just as maturity relates to the capability of an organization, ‘competence’ relates to an individual. The development of individual skills should be encouraged. This may be by only allowing individuals to manage projects if they have a ‘license’ obtained through achieving a prescribed competence level (e.g. through assessment centers).
Any gaps in competencies can be dealt with through additional training and development. The skills and competencies should be traceable to parts of the method, so that they can be used together seamlessly.
Training and development should reflect both the competencies and method if they are to be relevant, particularly at lower levels. Experienced practitioners can be encouraged to act as mentors or coaches, ensuring the right behaviours and that the use of the method does not become mechanistic.
Do not expect a project management method to run itself. Someone in the higher levels of the business should continue to sponsor it and someone, with resources, should have the responsibility for managing its ongoing development and use
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