The purpose of a project is to deliver change, which will affect people in their business as usual (BAU) activities, routines, and responsibilities. How well the change is implemented, and therefore how well the project performs, depends on the capabilities of the project team, the strength of the relationships between them, and the people impacted by the change.
Dave Litten, PRINCE2 Project Manager
PRINCE2 7th Edition change delivery
In PRINCE2 7, ‘people’ covers those who are working on a project and the relationships between them, as well as those impacted by a project.
Organizations are a complex ecosystem of fluctuating relationships. Projects change organizations, regardless of whether or not it is their primary purpose.
The success of a project will depend on how well the project establishes strong relationships with the organizations that support its delivery, as well as how it fits into the organizational ecosystem to deliver the change.
Projects combine a unique set of people from across the business, user, and supplier communities for a limited period. To successfully deliver the project, all levels of leadership must establish a project culture that motivates people.
Decisions should be made close to where the relevant knowledge resides. They should be escalated only if there is a need to consider the impact on other parts of the project ecosystem, the organizational ecosystem, or to manage wider political implications.
The Organizational ecosystem:
The internal elements of an organization (including staff, board, owners, and other stakeholders) together with the organization’s external relationships such as customers, partners, suppliers, regulators, and competitors.
The Project ecosystem:
Those elements of the business involved in or directly impacted by the project and the associated users and suppliers.
PRINCE2 7 Change management
Change management is the means by which an organization transitions from the current state to the target state.
The current and target states can be captured and described as a set of routines, responsibilities, relationships, cultures, and capabilities.
Identifying which areas of the organization will be impacted by the project as it transitions from the current state to the target state describes the change the project will deliver. For some projects, there may be interim states the business will transition through, and these can also be described.
PRINCE2 addresses change by creating and maintaining a change management approach for the project.
In determining the level of detail to capture in the change management approach, it is worth considering:
- what decisions the change management approach is supporting the project team to make
- the skills and capabilities required during and after the transition from current to target state
- which areas of the organizational ecosystem are likely to be impacted by the project
- the key relationships to be considered
- the evolving culture
- how best to transition; for example, through learning or upskilling, transitioning knowledge from the project team, or recruiting new people into the business.
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