Featured Best Practice

Identifies the real need (separating the "essential" from the "nice to have") & specifies it accurately with escalation tolerances:
- What's in; What's out
  - De-scoped or phased to ensure tangible deliverables and reduce risk
- Quality
- Cost (See Previous Malpractice M007: The Cost of the Costing System)
- Delivery (See Previous Best Practice B045: Measuring on time delivery or schedule adherence)
Then does not change the specification
- Or re-plans the project if specification changes are imposed externally
Identifies risk (See Previous TechniqueT027: Product FMEA & T033: Process FMEA)
Defines priority at the outset
Then does not change priority
Anticipates & manages resistance to the plan
- Ensure buy-in to plan from stakeholders
Defines a method / process of delivery
Estimated accurately & allows time (resources & duration) to complete tasks
Plans, taking into account logical and priority tasks & estimates
"Chunked" into "bite sized" lumps (logical units of work of typically no longer than one month) to ensure tangible deliverables and reduce risk
Defines Milestones based on "chunk "deliverables
Communicated to the stakeholders
Takes into account strengths & weaknesses of resources (See Previous Technique T007: CARAP Analysis)
Exists in a hard nosed "on time in full" delivery culture (See Previous Best Practice B045: Measuring on time delivery or schedule adherence)
Is tenaciously managed:
- Allocates resources in a CARAP way (See Previous Technique T007: CARAP Analysis)
- Q: Quality good (but within the allowed tolerance)
- C: Costs minimised (but within the allowed tolerance)
- D: Delivery as early as possible (but within the allowed tolerance)
- R: Risk minimised (within the allowed tolerance)
Escalates problems with recovery plans at the earliest possible time, routinely and automatically, where estimates to completion indicate out of tolerance conditions
Is not sidetracked (mission creep)
Is not side-lined or resources diverted away from it
- Or re-plans the project if resource changes are imposed internally

(Extracts from our S09 Project Management training course.)

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Speed of Beneficial Impact

Medium term

Type of benefits

Successful projects (Success is measured by):
- Delivering at least what you intended (but maybe more)
- Delivering at the earliest time (but certainly no later that you intended)
- Delivering at the minimum cost (but at least no more than you had intended)
- Risks are minimised

Ease of Implementation

Easy

Prerequisites

Projects must exist within a programme management process which manages all product & process development work.

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Whilst great care has been taken to provide relevant, accurate, practical, advice based on our considerable process design and development experience, this will almost certainly require interpretation into the context of your unique business. Please be careful in doing so and if in doubt seek expert advice. We would welcome your feedback!

SM Thacker & Associates

Independent Best Practice Training & Consultancy

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