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How Good Are Your Change Management Skills?
6:08 AM |For most organizations, change is inevitable. Because of this, you'll most likely be involved in managing a change project at some point – be it a simple change to the way your team deals with customer complaints, or a major change in organizational policy or strategy.
When you manage change effectively, you can move your organization into the new "business as usual" state swiftly, and you'll find that other people are quick to accept change. This means that your team and organization experiences minimum disruption, and projects succeed, rather than stall and fail.
The quiz below helps you assess your change management skills. By using it, you can learn for yourself where your skills are strong, and where you need to develop new skills.
We then guide you through the key areas of change management, and give links to resources that you can use to further develop your change management skills.
How Good Are Your Change Management Skills?
Instructions:
For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score in the 'wrong direction'. When you are finished, please click the 'Calculate My Total' button at the bottom of the test.
16 Statements to Answer
Not at All
Rarely
Some times
Often
Very Often
1
I usually receive good support from senior executives for changes that I want to implement.
2
I create a plan for change for my department and team, and I let other departments deal with the impacts as they choose.
3
I communicate successes throughout the organization, so that everyone understands the positive impact of a change project.
4
If the change makes financial and operational sense, then it will work.
5
If the team is dissatisfied with how something is working or operating right now, change is more likely to be successful.
6
I try to understand my organization's culture and values as important elements of a change project.
7
When change is happening, I expect people to continue to perform at 100 percent.
8
Once I'm successful with a change project, I declare victory and move onto the next project.
9
I consider things like the impact on people and organizational structure when planning a change project.
10
If I think something must be changed, I start right away and make it happen.
11
To get backing and support from my team, I talk with team members about what is causing the need for change.
12
I let people get comfortable with changes before I decide if any training is necessary.
13
If key individuals are convinced that change is needed, the rest of the stakeholders will usually come on board.
14
It’s harder to manage change effectively when the organization has previously managed change projects badly.
15
When implementing a change project, I set achievable, short-term targets that, once accomplished, will motivate people to persist and keep trying.
16
Change is as good as a rest, so even though it might not be necessary, it often helps to "mix things up a bit."
Total = 0
Score Interpretation
Score
Comment
16-36
You tend to look at the end result and forget to focus on the immediate planning needs. To be successful with change, you must find a way to communicate and share the excitement of the end goal with your team, as a way of creating the necessary support. Take time to work through the sections below in detail to learn how to do this.
37-58
You understand many of the elements required for change, but putting them into practice doesn't always work well. Concentrate on developing a process that allows you to work on each of the elements of change one after the other. The ideas and resources below will help you do this.
59-80
You have a very good understanding of what makes change successful, and you have a good knowledge of managing, planning, and implementing change. Skim the sections below to see if there are any ideas that you can use to get even better.
The questions you just answered relate to four key areas of successful change management. They are:
Understanding change.
Planning change.
Managing resistance to change.
Implementing change.
By addressing each area, you'll be better prepared to plan and implement successful change projects. We'll look at each area separately, and provide links to more in-depth resources that you can use in the change management
process.
Understanding Change
(Questions 1, 7, 10, 14)
Before you manage a project that involves changing the way that people work, you must first understand how people react to change. Then you'll be in a better position to plan proactively for the stages of change, and for the effect that change has on your organization.
The Change Curve theory describes people's reactions to each stage of change. These reactions can range from "shock and denial," when business as usual is first disrupted, to "acceptance" and "commitment," as the change is implemented.
Many people need time to adjust and accept the change. So levels of performance may fall as they learn how to use new systems and processes. Lewin's Change Management Model of "Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze" highlights why you need to build sufficient time into the process for people to adjust, and provide a lot of consultation with those affected by the change.
Planning Change
(Questions 2, 4, 6, 9)
The quote that "If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail" is as true with change management as it is with anything else. As ever, thorough preparation is the key to successful planning.
As part of this, conducting an Impact Analysis will help you understand the possible positive and negative consequences of change, so that you can develop contingency plans to deal with any issues that may arise.
The Burke-Litwin Change Model will help you identify every potential area of impact. It maps out the interrelated complexity of organizational structures, and helps you track how your proposed change project will affect other areas of your organization. Leavitt's Diamond is another tool that analyzes how change can impact your organization. It looks at the four major components of an organization – structure, technology, people, and tasks – and helps you think about how changes to these components can affect each other.
You can also use McKinsey's 7S Framework to help you look at every affected area, and ensure that you keep issues aligned and congruent throughout the organization. Organizational design issues are particularly important, because you must ensure that your changes can be supported by your team and organization, using available resources.
Finally, the tools and techniques taught in our Project Management section will help you when it comes to planning how you'll implement change.
Managing Resistance to Change
(Questions 5, 11, 13, 16)
Many people are uncomfortable with change. So a large part of managing change is overcoming resistance, and promoting acceptance and belief in the change.
You can overcome this resistance by communicating effectively. Talk about why change is necessary, and share your vision of change with everyone. This includes talking to all stakeholders and getting their support early in the process. These early discussions can help you assess the various barriers to change, and then plan how to manage stakeholders as you move the project forward.
According to Beckhard and Harris's Change Equation , for people to be motivated to change, they must be dissatisfied with the current situation, and must think that the proposed solution is desirable and practical. Use this equation to assess readiness for change, so you can ensure that a change is actually needed, and that your planned changes will result in significant benefits.
The RACI Matrix
is another useful tool that can help you manage resistance to change. It shows you how to structure the various responsibilities between the change team and the rest of the stakeholders. You'll be able to deal with natural resistance, and manage issues that occur throughout the process, by keeping your communication open and well organized.
Implementing Change
(Questions 3, 8, 12, 15)
When you implement change, further communication is crucial – you'll almost certainly have problems at some point, and if you aren't regularly talking about the plan and communicating your successes, people may go back to old ways of doing things.
Conduct Training Needs Assessments
at various stages of the project to ensure that people have the skills they need to be successful as the change is implemented. People must be confident that they can do what they're being asked to do – so the time for training is before, during, and after the change.
Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
is a useful overall change management tool, and the last three steps of it are crucial for successful implementation. These three steps are:
Create short-term wins.
Build on the change.
Anchor the changes in corporate culture.
So aim for a few early achievements to showcase the benefits of the change. This can help keep motivation and enthusiasm for the change high.
Then highlight building on the change you started, and work toward making it part of the organizational culture. This can separate "good" change management from "great" change management. Good change management is when you are satisfied when you meet your initial objective. Great change management is when you keep adjusting your target for continuous improvement – you aren't afraid to keep changing things, because you're confident in your ability to keep making progress.
Tip:
For a unique perspective on effective change management, read our article on Why Change Can Fail . If you avoid the common mistakes outlined in this article, you’ll improve your chances of managing change successfully.
Key Points
Managing change is a challenging and important task. If you apply a process and use a variety of tools, you can design a change plan that people will accept and work hard to implement, leading to less disruption to your team and organization.
Because change doesn't happen in isolation, you must understand how change works, then broaden your thinking, brainstorm potential impacts, and maintain open communication with people.
Change management doesn't end as soon as the change is implemented. Make sure that you continue to communicate achievements, and ensure that people have the skills needed to do what they are being asked to do.
By taking an extensive and proactive approach to your change projects, you'll enjoy greater success, and you'll be able to build on that success for many other change projects in the future.
Read more…
When you manage change effectively, you can move your organization into the new "business as usual" state swiftly, and you'll find that other people are quick to accept change. This means that your team and organization experiences minimum disruption, and projects succeed, rather than stall and fail.
The quiz below helps you assess your change management skills. By using it, you can learn for yourself where your skills are strong, and where you need to develop new skills.
We then guide you through the key areas of change management, and give links to resources that you can use to further develop your change management skills.
How Good Are Your Change Management Skills?
Instructions:
For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score in the 'wrong direction'. When you are finished, please click the 'Calculate My Total' button at the bottom of the test.
16 Statements to Answer
Not at All
Rarely
Some times
Often
Very Often
1
I usually receive good support from senior executives for changes that I want to implement.
2
I create a plan for change for my department and team, and I let other departments deal with the impacts as they choose.
3
I communicate successes throughout the organization, so that everyone understands the positive impact of a change project.
4
If the change makes financial and operational sense, then it will work.
5
If the team is dissatisfied with how something is working or operating right now, change is more likely to be successful.
6
I try to understand my organization's culture and values as important elements of a change project.
7
When change is happening, I expect people to continue to perform at 100 percent.
8
Once I'm successful with a change project, I declare victory and move onto the next project.
9
I consider things like the impact on people and organizational structure when planning a change project.
10
If I think something must be changed, I start right away and make it happen.
11
To get backing and support from my team, I talk with team members about what is causing the need for change.
12
I let people get comfortable with changes before I decide if any training is necessary.
13
If key individuals are convinced that change is needed, the rest of the stakeholders will usually come on board.
14
It’s harder to manage change effectively when the organization has previously managed change projects badly.
15
When implementing a change project, I set achievable, short-term targets that, once accomplished, will motivate people to persist and keep trying.
16
Change is as good as a rest, so even though it might not be necessary, it often helps to "mix things up a bit."
Total = 0
Score Interpretation
Score
Comment
16-36
You tend to look at the end result and forget to focus on the immediate planning needs. To be successful with change, you must find a way to communicate and share the excitement of the end goal with your team, as a way of creating the necessary support. Take time to work through the sections below in detail to learn how to do this.
37-58
You understand many of the elements required for change, but putting them into practice doesn't always work well. Concentrate on developing a process that allows you to work on each of the elements of change one after the other. The ideas and resources below will help you do this.
59-80
You have a very good understanding of what makes change successful, and you have a good knowledge of managing, planning, and implementing change. Skim the sections below to see if there are any ideas that you can use to get even better.
The questions you just answered relate to four key areas of successful change management. They are:
Understanding change.
Planning change.
Managing resistance to change.
Implementing change.
By addressing each area, you'll be better prepared to plan and implement successful change projects. We'll look at each area separately, and provide links to more in-depth resources that you can use in the change management
process.
Understanding Change
(Questions 1, 7, 10, 14)
Before you manage a project that involves changing the way that people work, you must first understand how people react to change. Then you'll be in a better position to plan proactively for the stages of change, and for the effect that change has on your organization.
The Change Curve theory describes people's reactions to each stage of change. These reactions can range from "shock and denial," when business as usual is first disrupted, to "acceptance" and "commitment," as the change is implemented.
Many people need time to adjust and accept the change. So levels of performance may fall as they learn how to use new systems and processes. Lewin's Change Management Model of "Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze" highlights why you need to build sufficient time into the process for people to adjust, and provide a lot of consultation with those affected by the change.
Planning Change
(Questions 2, 4, 6, 9)
The quote that "If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail" is as true with change management as it is with anything else. As ever, thorough preparation is the key to successful planning.
As part of this, conducting an Impact Analysis will help you understand the possible positive and negative consequences of change, so that you can develop contingency plans to deal with any issues that may arise.
The Burke-Litwin Change Model will help you identify every potential area of impact. It maps out the interrelated complexity of organizational structures, and helps you track how your proposed change project will affect other areas of your organization. Leavitt's Diamond is another tool that analyzes how change can impact your organization. It looks at the four major components of an organization – structure, technology, people, and tasks – and helps you think about how changes to these components can affect each other.
You can also use McKinsey's 7S Framework to help you look at every affected area, and ensure that you keep issues aligned and congruent throughout the organization. Organizational design issues are particularly important, because you must ensure that your changes can be supported by your team and organization, using available resources.
Finally, the tools and techniques taught in our Project Management section will help you when it comes to planning how you'll implement change.
Managing Resistance to Change
(Questions 5, 11, 13, 16)
Many people are uncomfortable with change. So a large part of managing change is overcoming resistance, and promoting acceptance and belief in the change.
You can overcome this resistance by communicating effectively. Talk about why change is necessary, and share your vision of change with everyone. This includes talking to all stakeholders and getting their support early in the process. These early discussions can help you assess the various barriers to change, and then plan how to manage stakeholders as you move the project forward.
According to Beckhard and Harris's Change Equation , for people to be motivated to change, they must be dissatisfied with the current situation, and must think that the proposed solution is desirable and practical. Use this equation to assess readiness for change, so you can ensure that a change is actually needed, and that your planned changes will result in significant benefits.
The RACI Matrix
is another useful tool that can help you manage resistance to change. It shows you how to structure the various responsibilities between the change team and the rest of the stakeholders. You'll be able to deal with natural resistance, and manage issues that occur throughout the process, by keeping your communication open and well organized.
Implementing Change
(Questions 3, 8, 12, 15)
When you implement change, further communication is crucial – you'll almost certainly have problems at some point, and if you aren't regularly talking about the plan and communicating your successes, people may go back to old ways of doing things.
Conduct Training Needs Assessments
at various stages of the project to ensure that people have the skills they need to be successful as the change is implemented. People must be confident that they can do what they're being asked to do – so the time for training is before, during, and after the change.
Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
is a useful overall change management tool, and the last three steps of it are crucial for successful implementation. These three steps are:
Create short-term wins.
Build on the change.
Anchor the changes in corporate culture.
So aim for a few early achievements to showcase the benefits of the change. This can help keep motivation and enthusiasm for the change high.
Then highlight building on the change you started, and work toward making it part of the organizational culture. This can separate "good" change management from "great" change management. Good change management is when you are satisfied when you meet your initial objective. Great change management is when you keep adjusting your target for continuous improvement – you aren't afraid to keep changing things, because you're confident in your ability to keep making progress.
Tip:
For a unique perspective on effective change management, read our article on Why Change Can Fail . If you avoid the common mistakes outlined in this article, you’ll improve your chances of managing change successfully.
Key Points
Managing change is a challenging and important task. If you apply a process and use a variety of tools, you can design a change plan that people will accept and work hard to implement, leading to less disruption to your team and organization.
Because change doesn't happen in isolation, you must understand how change works, then broaden your thinking, brainstorm potential impacts, and maintain open communication with people.
Change management doesn't end as soon as the change is implemented. Make sure that you continue to communicate achievements, and ensure that people have the skills needed to do what they are being asked to do.
By taking an extensive and proactive approach to your change projects, you'll enjoy greater success, and you'll be able to build on that success for many other change projects in the future.
Project Milestone Reporting
6:00 AM |Many managers will have been in situations in
which they're told that work is "80% done" at a certain
stage of a project, only to find that that project then massively
and embarrassingly over-runs by weeks or even months.
This is
because the last 20% of the work takes longer than planned.
If you've ever been in this situation and suffered
the painful consequences, you'll know why experienced managers
carefully monitor how actual completion dates compare against
planned completion dates at certain "milestones"
within projects. This allows them to take corrective
action, or manage people's expectations appropriately, and this
is where Project Milestone Reporting becomes important.
A real life milestone is a marker that tells
you how far you are from a certain point – so you know how far
you have come, or how far you have to travel.
Project Milestones perform exactly this role
in a project plan. They mark significant events, deliverables
or interdependencies that needs to be monitored to keep the project
on track. Project Milestone Reports show you what has been achieved
and what else needs to be done to complete your project
successfully and on time.
Project Milestone Reporting is just one of many
ways to monitor and present the status of a project. It's a useful
approach in large or complex projects (with many interdependencies)
because it helps present information in a meaningful yet concise
way, showing what has actually been achieved, rather than the
gory detail of how it's been achieved. This article helps you
think about how you want milestones to be reported to you.
Tip 1 :
Many organizations have specific approaches and methodologies
for managing projects, and for reporting their progress
and status. Before you specify a completely new approach,
see if any of the existing approaches meet your needs.
Tip 2 :
Remember that it takes time to prepare these reports. If
you ask for too much detailed information, or ask for information
you don't actually need, you'll diminish the effectiveness
of the manager or team member preparing the report. After
all, time spent reporting is time not spent working on the
project!
Project milestone reports come in many different
forms. Some are narrative reports. Others are quantitative or
graphical, using spreadsheets or project management software to
manage the milestone data and track progress and completion. If
your team uses project management software, the chances are the
software will help them prepare milestone reports in a particular
way, and it's best to make the most of these in-built features
if you can.
If you need to design your own milestone report, our
template is a
good place to start. Together with the report description below,
it will help you understand the principles of project milestone
reporting in more detail, and so help you use this reporting tool
in the best way for your project.
Creating a Milestone Report
Start by downloading our free
project milestone report template .
This contains all of the elements typically found on a milestone
report.
The first part of a milestone report (" Milestones
Completed" ) describes what has
happened so far. It provides a quick summary of what has been
accomplished and when.
Description of
Milestone: Here you provide details about what was accomplished
in order to complete the milestone specification.
Due Date: Record when the milestone was due according to the
current project plan.
Actual Completion Date: Record when the milestone was actually
accomplished.
Comments: This section is for providing details about
modifications from the original plan i.e. why the due date was
missed or why deliverables were changed.
Tip 3:
Insist that deliverables are only shown as completed when
they are 100% completed. 99% still leaves wriggle-room,
and is not good enough!
Tip 4:
Make sure you inspect a selection of the completed deliverables
to make sure they actually are completed, and are completed
to an acceptable quality.
The next section is used to report on the status
of Future Milestones . Here you want to make note
of the status of the milestones and understand changes to the
original plan should they be necessary. Remember, milestones are
critical events, so by reporting on their status you give yourself
a formal method to modify the master project plan before too many
tasks and responsibilities get off course.
Description of Milestone: What has to be accomplished in order for the milestone to be considered
complete?
Due Date: What is the due date of the milestone based on the
original plan (or previously modified plan)?
Status: Here you record whether the milestone is on target, is at
risk of getting off target, or is already off course. Our sample
report uses a Green, Amber, Red system but that can be modified to
suit the particular situation.
Modified Due Date: Modifying a milestone due date is a last resort
option. If this is necessary, record the modified due date.
Remember that changes to milestones often mean changes to other
dates in the project plan.
Required Actions: This is where you note what needs to be done to
bring a milestone back on target and/or the repercussions of
having to modify a due date and what has been done to address
those issues.
Tip 5:
Make sure the time spent completing Milestone Reporting
provides benefit to the project. This means that you should
continually assess whether it is worthwhile for your project
and, if you decide that it is, include only the elements
that will help you keep your project on target.
Key Points
Milestone reports help you monitor the progress
and outcomes of projects you are watching over, so that you can
take corrective action where necessary. They are also a valuable
control checkpoint that helps the project manager keep all the
pieces of a project working smoothly and in co-operation with
one another.
The format of a milestone report varies from
organization to organization but the content remains quite
similar: Milestone descriptions, a note of their status, and
relevant comments. When it's complete, one short report will show
you the status of every milestone, and help you to plan and
prepare accordingly.
Download Worksheet
Read more…
which they're told that work is "80% done" at a certain
stage of a project, only to find that that project then massively
and embarrassingly over-runs by weeks or even months.
This is
because the last 20% of the work takes longer than planned.
If you've ever been in this situation and suffered
the painful consequences, you'll know why experienced managers
carefully monitor how actual completion dates compare against
planned completion dates at certain "milestones"
within projects. This allows them to take corrective
action, or manage people's expectations appropriately, and this
is where Project Milestone Reporting becomes important.
A real life milestone is a marker that tells
you how far you are from a certain point – so you know how far
you have come, or how far you have to travel.
Project Milestones perform exactly this role
in a project plan. They mark significant events, deliverables
or interdependencies that needs to be monitored to keep the project
on track. Project Milestone Reports show you what has been achieved
and what else needs to be done to complete your project
successfully and on time.
Project Milestone Reporting is just one of many
ways to monitor and present the status of a project. It's a useful
approach in large or complex projects (with many interdependencies)
because it helps present information in a meaningful yet concise
way, showing what has actually been achieved, rather than the
gory detail of how it's been achieved. This article helps you
think about how you want milestones to be reported to you.
Tip 1 :
Many organizations have specific approaches and methodologies
for managing projects, and for reporting their progress
and status. Before you specify a completely new approach,
see if any of the existing approaches meet your needs.
Tip 2 :
Remember that it takes time to prepare these reports. If
you ask for too much detailed information, or ask for information
you don't actually need, you'll diminish the effectiveness
of the manager or team member preparing the report. After
all, time spent reporting is time not spent working on the
project!
Project milestone reports come in many different
forms. Some are narrative reports. Others are quantitative or
graphical, using spreadsheets or project management software to
manage the milestone data and track progress and completion. If
your team uses project management software, the chances are the
software will help them prepare milestone reports in a particular
way, and it's best to make the most of these in-built features
if you can.
If you need to design your own milestone report, our
template is a
good place to start. Together with the report description below,
it will help you understand the principles of project milestone
reporting in more detail, and so help you use this reporting tool
in the best way for your project.
Creating a Milestone Report
Start by downloading our free
project milestone report template .
This contains all of the elements typically found on a milestone
report.
The first part of a milestone report (" Milestones
Completed" ) describes what has
happened so far. It provides a quick summary of what has been
accomplished and when.
Description of
Milestone: Here you provide details about what was accomplished
in order to complete the milestone specification.
Due Date: Record when the milestone was due according to the
current project plan.
Actual Completion Date: Record when the milestone was actually
accomplished.
Comments: This section is for providing details about
modifications from the original plan i.e. why the due date was
missed or why deliverables were changed.
Tip 3:
Insist that deliverables are only shown as completed when
they are 100% completed. 99% still leaves wriggle-room,
and is not good enough!
Tip 4:
Make sure you inspect a selection of the completed deliverables
to make sure they actually are completed, and are completed
to an acceptable quality.
The next section is used to report on the status
of Future Milestones . Here you want to make note
of the status of the milestones and understand changes to the
original plan should they be necessary. Remember, milestones are
critical events, so by reporting on their status you give yourself
a formal method to modify the master project plan before too many
tasks and responsibilities get off course.
Description of Milestone: What has to be accomplished in order for the milestone to be considered
complete?
Due Date: What is the due date of the milestone based on the
original plan (or previously modified plan)?
Status: Here you record whether the milestone is on target, is at
risk of getting off target, or is already off course. Our sample
report uses a Green, Amber, Red system but that can be modified to
suit the particular situation.
Modified Due Date: Modifying a milestone due date is a last resort
option. If this is necessary, record the modified due date.
Remember that changes to milestones often mean changes to other
dates in the project plan.
Required Actions: This is where you note what needs to be done to
bring a milestone back on target and/or the repercussions of
having to modify a due date and what has been done to address
those issues.
Tip 5:
Make sure the time spent completing Milestone Reporting
provides benefit to the project. This means that you should
continually assess whether it is worthwhile for your project
and, if you decide that it is, include only the elements
that will help you keep your project on target.
Key Points
Milestone reports help you monitor the progress
and outcomes of projects you are watching over, so that you can
take corrective action where necessary. They are also a valuable
control checkpoint that helps the project manager keep all the
pieces of a project working smoothly and in co-operation with
one another.
The format of a milestone report varies from
organization to organization but the content remains quite
similar: Milestone descriptions, a note of their status, and
relevant comments. When it's complete, one short report will show
you the status of every milestone, and help you to plan and
prepare accordingly.
Download Worksheet
Project Dashboards
5:57 AM |In today's busy organizations, project and program
managers need to know exactly how the projects they're responsible
for are doing.
But they also rarely have the time to read through
detailed status reports covering all aspects of the project.
Perhaps Project A is on time and on budget,
but is it going to deliver all of the functionality that your
sponsor needs?
Or maybe engineers have been working overtime to
ensure that every last bug has been ironed out. But how can you
find out what this overtime has done to the budget?
From this "time versus information" dilemma
grew the concept of the Project Dashboard. Just as a car's dashboard
provides immediate and up-to-date information about the speed of
the vehicle, the amount of gas in the tank and the temperature of
the engine, a Project Dashboard provides immediate and up-to-date
information about the status of a project. A common and easily understood
approach to using the dashboard is to use red, yellow or green symbols
that quickly identify whether the thing being measured is in good
shape (green), requires attention (yellow), or is critical condition
(red).
With a Project Dashboard you no longer have
to wade through 3 different reports to determine whether the production
department received the widgets it needed, and got permission
to hire its new employees. Instead, if the widgets had arrived
but a decision on staffing was pending, you would see that the
Materials gauge was in the optimum zone and that the Human Resources
gauge was registering in the warning zone:
With the overall simplicity of a dashboard, you need to remember
that dashboards are not, in and of themselves, a panacea. The
end product is only as good as the inputs. A dashboard is only
an effective tool if firstly the right things are being tracked
and secondly, the classifications being made are well-judged.
Tip 1:
It's easy to descend into a quantitative and analytical
mess with Project Dashboards. At root, managers want a simple,
quick way of seeing whether there are problems they need
to address. Reliance on a quantitative approach gives people
a way of "wriggling out" of their accountability
for reporting this. As a "client" of the Project
Dashboard, you need to insist that the people reporting
to you are personally accountable for their Project Dashboard
judgment calls.
Tip 2:
If you're a client, beware false positives.
Make sure you allocate time to go into detail on individual
cases, so that you can confirm to yourself that classifications
are fair and reliable. Otherwise you risk being disastrously
hoodwinked! On the other hand, make sure that people don't
waste your time by flagging up trivial issues as needing
attention. Make sure people take responsibility for solving
these themselves!
How to Use the Tool
Follow these steps to use the Project Dashboard:
Step One: Assess your goals and expectations for the dashboard.
Why you are you using it? What should it tell you? Here are some
examples:
How far off my budget am I?
Are we on schedule in meeting project milestones?
Do we have the resources we need in place?
What is the status of the various ongoing
tasks?
Are the project risks controlled?
Step Two: With the person reporting
to you, agree what should be shown on the Project Dashboard, and
how this should be represented. If you're monitoring a business,
perhaps there are key indicators that you watch that show you
what's going on? Or if you're responsible for a project, perhaps
you want to monitor individual streams of activity within the
project, keep a sharp eye on the critical path, or monitor other
aspects of it?
Also agree how information will be represented,
and the sensitivity with which information is represented: For
example, you may not be at all worried if people slip a couple
of days behind on a task, just as long as they catch up. And just
seeing a list of twenty items monitored may be enough, rather
than having to scan a 30 page dashboard.
Whatever you decide, keep it as simple as possible,
and make sure that the people reporting to you remember the purpose
of the dashboard – to keep you informed, and alert you to issues
you need to resolve.
Step Three: Make sure that people are held personally accountable
for their Project Dashboard judgment calls. You need to know:
Who, precisely, is responsible for making
the judgment call; and
Who can override this judgment call.
Step Four: Work with the Dashboard.
Get experience with it. Add or eliminate measures as you find
you do or do not need them. Increase or reduce the sensitivity
of reporting. Get people used to making good judgment calls. And
make sure you leave enough time to validate the information being
reported.
Key Points
The Project Dashboard is a useful technique
for quickly communicating the status of projects that you're responsible
for. It quickly shows you whether individual parts of the project
are on course, are worrying, or are in serious trouble.
As with any simplification of reality, it's
vulnerable to confusion and misreporting. It's therefore essential
that you avoid excessive complexity, and insist that people reporting
information to you are accountable for their reporting, and that
you regularly allocate time to assure the accuracy of people's
reporting.
Read more…
managers need to know exactly how the projects they're responsible
for are doing.
But they also rarely have the time to read through
detailed status reports covering all aspects of the project.
Perhaps Project A is on time and on budget,
but is it going to deliver all of the functionality that your
sponsor needs?
Or maybe engineers have been working overtime to
ensure that every last bug has been ironed out. But how can you
find out what this overtime has done to the budget?
From this "time versus information" dilemma
grew the concept of the Project Dashboard. Just as a car's dashboard
provides immediate and up-to-date information about the speed of
the vehicle, the amount of gas in the tank and the temperature of
the engine, a Project Dashboard provides immediate and up-to-date
information about the status of a project. A common and easily understood
approach to using the dashboard is to use red, yellow or green symbols
that quickly identify whether the thing being measured is in good
shape (green), requires attention (yellow), or is critical condition
(red).
With a Project Dashboard you no longer have
to wade through 3 different reports to determine whether the production
department received the widgets it needed, and got permission
to hire its new employees. Instead, if the widgets had arrived
but a decision on staffing was pending, you would see that the
Materials gauge was in the optimum zone and that the Human Resources
gauge was registering in the warning zone:
With the overall simplicity of a dashboard, you need to remember
that dashboards are not, in and of themselves, a panacea. The
end product is only as good as the inputs. A dashboard is only
an effective tool if firstly the right things are being tracked
and secondly, the classifications being made are well-judged.
Tip 1:
It's easy to descend into a quantitative and analytical
mess with Project Dashboards. At root, managers want a simple,
quick way of seeing whether there are problems they need
to address. Reliance on a quantitative approach gives people
a way of "wriggling out" of their accountability
for reporting this. As a "client" of the Project
Dashboard, you need to insist that the people reporting
to you are personally accountable for their Project Dashboard
judgment calls.
Tip 2:
If you're a client, beware false positives.
Make sure you allocate time to go into detail on individual
cases, so that you can confirm to yourself that classifications
are fair and reliable. Otherwise you risk being disastrously
hoodwinked! On the other hand, make sure that people don't
waste your time by flagging up trivial issues as needing
attention. Make sure people take responsibility for solving
these themselves!
How to Use the Tool
Follow these steps to use the Project Dashboard:
Step One: Assess your goals and expectations for the dashboard.
Why you are you using it? What should it tell you? Here are some
examples:
How far off my budget am I?
Are we on schedule in meeting project milestones?
Do we have the resources we need in place?
What is the status of the various ongoing
tasks?
Are the project risks controlled?
Step Two: With the person reporting
to you, agree what should be shown on the Project Dashboard, and
how this should be represented. If you're monitoring a business,
perhaps there are key indicators that you watch that show you
what's going on? Or if you're responsible for a project, perhaps
you want to monitor individual streams of activity within the
project, keep a sharp eye on the critical path, or monitor other
aspects of it?
Also agree how information will be represented,
and the sensitivity with which information is represented: For
example, you may not be at all worried if people slip a couple
of days behind on a task, just as long as they catch up. And just
seeing a list of twenty items monitored may be enough, rather
than having to scan a 30 page dashboard.
Whatever you decide, keep it as simple as possible,
and make sure that the people reporting to you remember the purpose
of the dashboard – to keep you informed, and alert you to issues
you need to resolve.
Step Three: Make sure that people are held personally accountable
for their Project Dashboard judgment calls. You need to know:
Who, precisely, is responsible for making
the judgment call; and
Who can override this judgment call.
Step Four: Work with the Dashboard.
Get experience with it. Add or eliminate measures as you find
you do or do not need them. Increase or reduce the sensitivity
of reporting. Get people used to making good judgment calls. And
make sure you leave enough time to validate the information being
reported.
Key Points
The Project Dashboard is a useful technique
for quickly communicating the status of projects that you're responsible
for. It quickly shows you whether individual parts of the project
are on course, are worrying, or are in serious trouble.
As with any simplification of reality, it's
vulnerable to confusion and misreporting. It's therefore essential
that you avoid excessive complexity, and insist that people reporting
information to you are accountable for their reporting, and that
you regularly allocate time to assure the accuracy of people's
reporting.
Influence Maps
5:55 AM |Many people can have influence over your projects.
Some influencers are obvious and easy to spot.
Others are less
obvious, but are no less significant.
If you fail to recognize
and "manage" these influencers, you'll most-likely experience
unexpected resistance to your projects, and sometimes bewildering
failure.
This is increasingly the case as you run large projects,
and as the number of people affected by your projects increases.
People within your organization, at least, are supposed to work
together openly and willingly. However, even here, your boss, your
teammates, your customers, your boss's boss – even the CEO's
nephew in the mailroom – can all impact you, given certain sets of
circumstances.
However people outside your organization have all sorts of
interests and motivations that you can't control. Here, knowing
who influences who can be critical if you want to get anything
done at all.
Influence Mapping
So do you understand who has influence over your projects? Do you
know the nature, direction, and strength of these influences?
After all, using the normal "chain of command" may not always be
the best way to advance your objectives: Knowing who the real
influencers are can help you determine where you should put your
effort if you really want to succeed.
This is what influence mapping is all about
– discovering your project's true stakeholders (not just the obvious
ones) and the influence relationships between them. This helps
you target the key influencers so that you can win the resources
and support you need to reach your goal.
Influence maps are a natural extension
of Stakeholder Analysis . Your project's success can depend
on identifying its key stakeholders and then managing the
various relationships between them. Stakeholders have the
power to help or hurt your initiatives, so stakeholder
management is an important aspect of project management. For
more on this, see our Winning Support for Your Project Bite-Sized Training.
The Elements of an Influence Map
An influence map is a visual model showing the
people who influence and make decisions about your project. The
map helps you understand how stakeholders relate to one-another,
so that you can quickly see the way in which influence flows.
Remember that even the most powerful people
rarely act alone. Top executives and other people in authority
rely on advisers. Find out who the advisers are, and understand
how they operate. This can be vital to your project's success.
There are three main considerations when you construct an
influence map:
The importance or weight of a stakeholder's overall influence (represented by the size of the circle representing that stakeholder).
The relationships between stakeholders (represented by the presence of lines or arrows between them).
The amount of influence stakeholders have over others (represented by the heaviness of the lines drawn between them).
Your completed influence map shows the stakeholders with the most
influence as individuals with the largest circles. Lines (arrows)
drawn to other stakeholders indicate the presence and strength of
influence.
Example
We'll use an example to illustrate.
You've proposed a new organizational structure
that will encourage people to work in business units with
cross-functional teams. You know this is a huge change,
and you want to make sure it's well supported within the
company before you try to implement it.
The most obvious stakeholders are:
CEO
Elizabeth Brown
CFO
Dennis Gordon
Director of Marketing
Pamela Enns
Director of Product Development
Jon Evans
Director of Human Resources
Wallace Houston
But are there other stakeholders as well? And who holds
influence over whom?
Upon further investigation, here's what you discover:
The entire HR team will be important to the reorganization – but not just the director of HR. Francis Beaton, the newly hired change agent, will be especially important.
Elizabeth Brown has worked with Jon Evans for over 15 years, and she values Jon's input on strategic initiatives.
The board of directors is chaired by a longtime associate of Jon Evans. Like Elizabeth Brown, the board chair values Jon's opinions and has never objected to any initiative Jon has ever backed.
Wallace Houston and Dennis Gordon have a history of conflict. This is because Dennis was very late to realize HR's strategic value. Dennis still has difficulty spending money on HR projects, which he considers to be "soft" expenses. Getting Dennis's buy-in is critical if you want the financial resources needed for the change.
So when you look more closely, you can identify additional
people who will have an impact on your reorganization plan.
And not everyone has the same influence.
The resulting influence map looks something like this:
This influence map clearly shows how important Jon Evans is to the
success of your restructuring plan. It also indicates that you
should spend energy on gaining support from Wallace Houston and
Dennis Gordon before moving on to other executives.
Before you thought about stakeholder influences,
you might have assumed that the CEO and CFO had the most influence
on organization-wide change. But the influence map shows you that
this is probably not for the case in this situation.
Influence is not static. It changes over
time, just like the circumstances surrounding each project
or decision. If you create influence maps at regular
intervals, you'll chart these differences and gain a much
greater appreciation for the way decisions are made. This
will help you to smooth the decision making process and be
more effective.
Creating an Influence Map
Follow these steps to construct an influence map.
Step One: Prepare a stakeholder analysis . This helps you identify,
prioritize, and understand your key stakeholders.
Step Two: For each stakeholder, find
out the following:
Whom does he or she influence, and who influences him or her?
How strong is that influence?
What is the history of each relationship? How does this impact overall influence?
What role does hierarchy play in the amount of influence?
Step Three: Map the importance of influence
using the size and position of the circles. The largest circles
belong to stakeholders with the most influence. Where possible,
place the most influential stakeholders at the top of the page,
and put less influential people lower down.
Step Four: Map the direction of influence
by drawing arrows to link the stakeholders. (These may be one-way
or two-way, depending on whether influence flows to the same extent
in both directions).
Step Five: Map the strength of influence by using thicker lines to
indicate stronger influence.
In some situations, the person who signs
off projects or purchases may not actually be the most influential
person in the network. For example, a Head of Purchasing
might always accept the recommendations of the IT Department.
In this case, it's worth marking who has
sign-off authority on your map, however, it's worth checking
quite carefully that they really are as influenced by others
as the others claim!
Step Six: Study the map, and identify stakeholders with the most
overall influence. Form a stakeholder management plan that will
allow you to communicate with, and hopefully influence, these
important influencers.
Step Seven: Map these influence relationships
on a regular basis. This way, you'll better understand the dynamics
of decision making relating to your project.
Key Points
Influence maps are important visual models of
the key people and relationships that impact a project or decision.
(Don't make the mistake of thinking that hierarchy or traditional
lines of authority are always the routes by which decisions are
made.)
Take the time to uncover the underlying relationships and
influence that key stakeholders have. With this insight, you can
tap into the real sources of power and persuasion.
While this is something that people do intuitively
in small projects, it's something that you'll need to do actively
for larger projects. This is particularly the case in projects
that involve people outside your organization.
Read more…
Some influencers are obvious and easy to spot.
Others are less
obvious, but are no less significant.
If you fail to recognize
and "manage" these influencers, you'll most-likely experience
unexpected resistance to your projects, and sometimes bewildering
failure.
This is increasingly the case as you run large projects,
and as the number of people affected by your projects increases.
People within your organization, at least, are supposed to work
together openly and willingly. However, even here, your boss, your
teammates, your customers, your boss's boss – even the CEO's
nephew in the mailroom – can all impact you, given certain sets of
circumstances.
However people outside your organization have all sorts of
interests and motivations that you can't control. Here, knowing
who influences who can be critical if you want to get anything
done at all.
Influence Mapping
So do you understand who has influence over your projects? Do you
know the nature, direction, and strength of these influences?
After all, using the normal "chain of command" may not always be
the best way to advance your objectives: Knowing who the real
influencers are can help you determine where you should put your
effort if you really want to succeed.
This is what influence mapping is all about
– discovering your project's true stakeholders (not just the obvious
ones) and the influence relationships between them. This helps
you target the key influencers so that you can win the resources
and support you need to reach your goal.
Influence maps are a natural extension
of Stakeholder Analysis . Your project's success can depend
on identifying its key stakeholders and then managing the
various relationships between them. Stakeholders have the
power to help or hurt your initiatives, so stakeholder
management is an important aspect of project management. For
more on this, see our Winning Support for Your Project Bite-Sized Training.
The Elements of an Influence Map
An influence map is a visual model showing the
people who influence and make decisions about your project. The
map helps you understand how stakeholders relate to one-another,
so that you can quickly see the way in which influence flows.
Remember that even the most powerful people
rarely act alone. Top executives and other people in authority
rely on advisers. Find out who the advisers are, and understand
how they operate. This can be vital to your project's success.
There are three main considerations when you construct an
influence map:
The importance or weight of a stakeholder's overall influence (represented by the size of the circle representing that stakeholder).
The relationships between stakeholders (represented by the presence of lines or arrows between them).
The amount of influence stakeholders have over others (represented by the heaviness of the lines drawn between them).
Your completed influence map shows the stakeholders with the most
influence as individuals with the largest circles. Lines (arrows)
drawn to other stakeholders indicate the presence and strength of
influence.
Example
We'll use an example to illustrate.
You've proposed a new organizational structure
that will encourage people to work in business units with
cross-functional teams. You know this is a huge change,
and you want to make sure it's well supported within the
company before you try to implement it.
The most obvious stakeholders are:
CEO
Elizabeth Brown
CFO
Dennis Gordon
Director of Marketing
Pamela Enns
Director of Product Development
Jon Evans
Director of Human Resources
Wallace Houston
But are there other stakeholders as well? And who holds
influence over whom?
Upon further investigation, here's what you discover:
The entire HR team will be important to the reorganization – but not just the director of HR. Francis Beaton, the newly hired change agent, will be especially important.
Elizabeth Brown has worked with Jon Evans for over 15 years, and she values Jon's input on strategic initiatives.
The board of directors is chaired by a longtime associate of Jon Evans. Like Elizabeth Brown, the board chair values Jon's opinions and has never objected to any initiative Jon has ever backed.
Wallace Houston and Dennis Gordon have a history of conflict. This is because Dennis was very late to realize HR's strategic value. Dennis still has difficulty spending money on HR projects, which he considers to be "soft" expenses. Getting Dennis's buy-in is critical if you want the financial resources needed for the change.
So when you look more closely, you can identify additional
people who will have an impact on your reorganization plan.
And not everyone has the same influence.
The resulting influence map looks something like this:
This influence map clearly shows how important Jon Evans is to the
success of your restructuring plan. It also indicates that you
should spend energy on gaining support from Wallace Houston and
Dennis Gordon before moving on to other executives.
Before you thought about stakeholder influences,
you might have assumed that the CEO and CFO had the most influence
on organization-wide change. But the influence map shows you that
this is probably not for the case in this situation.
Influence is not static. It changes over
time, just like the circumstances surrounding each project
or decision. If you create influence maps at regular
intervals, you'll chart these differences and gain a much
greater appreciation for the way decisions are made. This
will help you to smooth the decision making process and be
more effective.
Creating an Influence Map
Follow these steps to construct an influence map.
Step One: Prepare a stakeholder analysis . This helps you identify,
prioritize, and understand your key stakeholders.
Step Two: For each stakeholder, find
out the following:
Whom does he or she influence, and who influences him or her?
How strong is that influence?
What is the history of each relationship? How does this impact overall influence?
What role does hierarchy play in the amount of influence?
Step Three: Map the importance of influence
using the size and position of the circles. The largest circles
belong to stakeholders with the most influence. Where possible,
place the most influential stakeholders at the top of the page,
and put less influential people lower down.
Step Four: Map the direction of influence
by drawing arrows to link the stakeholders. (These may be one-way
or two-way, depending on whether influence flows to the same extent
in both directions).
Step Five: Map the strength of influence by using thicker lines to
indicate stronger influence.
In some situations, the person who signs
off projects or purchases may not actually be the most influential
person in the network. For example, a Head of Purchasing
might always accept the recommendations of the IT Department.
In this case, it's worth marking who has
sign-off authority on your map, however, it's worth checking
quite carefully that they really are as influenced by others
as the others claim!
Step Six: Study the map, and identify stakeholders with the most
overall influence. Form a stakeholder management plan that will
allow you to communicate with, and hopefully influence, these
important influencers.
Step Seven: Map these influence relationships
on a regular basis. This way, you'll better understand the dynamics
of decision making relating to your project.
Key Points
Influence maps are important visual models of
the key people and relationships that impact a project or decision.
(Don't make the mistake of thinking that hierarchy or traditional
lines of authority are always the routes by which decisions are
made.)
Take the time to uncover the underlying relationships and
influence that key stakeholders have. With this insight, you can
tap into the real sources of power and persuasion.
While this is something that people do intuitively
in small projects, it's something that you'll need to do actively
for larger projects. This is particularly the case in projects
that involve people outside your organization.
The RACI Matrix
5:50 AM |Teamwork is often seen as an effective way to accomplish work
goals.
And there is no doubt that when teams work well together
the results can be impressive.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true
and all too common: Teams that fail to work well can also fail to
deliver the desired results.
When several people work on a project it is easy to assume that
someone else is taking care of a particular detail or assignment.
It is also easy to point fingers and assign blame when one of
those jobs is done poorly or not done at all.
Many factors can contribute to the underperformance of a team, but
unless responsibilities and accountabilities are clear, there can
be a significant risk that problems will arise.
With complex, time-sensitive or mission-critical projects, or in
situations where people are ducking responsibility, it's often
worth taking the time to think through the roles that you and your
team members must play in every task that your team undertakes.
Without this clarity, you will most-likely find gaps, duplication
and confusion. Teamwork will be frustrating, inefficient and you
are less likely to deliver good results. In these situations, the
delegation of tasks and other responsibilities can be too
important to leave to chance.
The RACI Matrix is a system that brings structure and clarity to
assigning the roles people play within a team. It is a simple grid
system that you can use to clarify people's responsibilities and
ensure that everything the team needs to do is taken care of.
RACI explained
The acronym RACI stands for:
R = Responsible.
A = Accountable.
C = Consulted.
I = Informed.
Using the RACI system, you list every task, milestone and
decision, then clarify who is responsible, who is accountable, and
where appropriate, who needs to be consulted or informed.
Responsible – these people are the "doers" of the work. They must
complete the task or objective or make the decision. Several
people can be jointly responsible.
Accountable – this person is the "owner" of the work. He or she
must sign off or approve when the task, objective or decision is
complete. This person must make sure that responsibilities are
assigned in the matrix for all related activities. There is only
one person accountable, which means that "the buck stops there."
Consulted – these are the people who need to give input before the
work can be done and signed-off on. These people are "in the loop"
and active participants.
Informed – these people need to be kept "in the picture." They
need updates on progress or decision, but they do not need to be
formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or
decision.
Other Variants
ARCI
Some people prefer to use the acronym ARCI, reflecting the importance of the "Accountability" role.
RASCI or RASIC
A fifth element, "Supportive," is sometimes interjected to make the acronym RASCI. Supportive refers to people who provide resources and assistance to the people responsible for the work.
RACI-V
In some situations, another role is included: "Verifies." This role provides the checks needed to make sure the work is done according to predetermined criteria.
CAIRO
This includes a fifth category: "Omitted" or "Out of the loop". this would be used to designate people whom you consciously decide not to involve in project communications.
Using the Tool
To complete a RACI Matrix:
List all the tasks, activities and decisions that your team works
on. It's often good to involve the whole team in doing this,
helping you drill down to the core tasks that must be completed if
the project to be a success.
List all the functions of people in the team. Sometimes this means
you need to list each individual team member. But if a function is
performed by several people, you should list the function rather
than each individual.
Then create a matrix (see figure 1) from the two lists you have
made. List tasks, activities and decisions as row headers in the
left hand column, and place the functions/roles as column headers.
Figure 1: Example RACI Matrix
Tasks, milestones and decisions
Function A
(e.g. Line
Supervisor)
Function B
(e.g. Manager)
Function C
Function D
Task 1
R
A
Task 2
R
I
A
R
Task 3
C
A
R
Task 4
A
C
C
I
Now plot the RACI for each task etc listed. Indicate who is
responsible, who is accountable, who needs to be consulted and who
needs to be informed.
And now check the RACI for each task: Check this carefully, as
this is the step that ensures everything gets done!
For every task (row):
There must be one (and only one) person accountable
There must be at least one responsible
'Consulted' and 'informed' are optional on each row.
Also, make sure that everyone involved really needs to be. There
is a saying that "too many cooks spoil the broth". Too many people
involved, even if they are only 'consulted' and 'informed' can
make work inefficient and more difficult than is necessary.
Having already checked that everything gets done, the next step of
analyzing the RACI matrix helps ensure things get done right!
You do this by analyzing the roles that each function will
perform. This means looking vertically at the Rs, As, Cs and Is
assigned and asking the following questions:
Does one person or function have too many responsibilities? If so,
there is a risk that he or she may perform poorly or not be able
to complete the work.
Does anyone have too many or all the As? If so its well worth
looking again at the design of people's jobs. Can this person
really monitor and oversee all these tasks fully and well? Or is
it better to delegate some of the accountability (and hence the
checking and balancing) to other people in the team?
Is any one person or function involved in every task? This is
probably not necessary and you should look again at how tasks are
delegated and prioritized.
Once you have checked completed steps 5 and 6, you have checked
the completeness and integrity of the roles and functions in your
team. The final step is to communicate the RACI matrix to all team
members and keep it updated as things change.
Key Points
One of the biggest challenges of team working (particularly in areas where there's little margin for error) is to make sure
everything is done completely and well. By taking a structured approach to role assignment using the RACI Matrix, you can plot
and check who is responsible and accountable for each team task, and also check the integrity of each person's roles. In so doing,
you can minimize the risk of gaps, overlaps and confusions and so have a greater chance of running a highly effective and efficient team.
Once you understand people's roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, the next step is often to think through the
scheduling of people's time so that projects can be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Read more…
goals.
And there is no doubt that when teams work well together
the results can be impressive.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true
and all too common: Teams that fail to work well can also fail to
deliver the desired results.
When several people work on a project it is easy to assume that
someone else is taking care of a particular detail or assignment.
It is also easy to point fingers and assign blame when one of
those jobs is done poorly or not done at all.
Many factors can contribute to the underperformance of a team, but
unless responsibilities and accountabilities are clear, there can
be a significant risk that problems will arise.
With complex, time-sensitive or mission-critical projects, or in
situations where people are ducking responsibility, it's often
worth taking the time to think through the roles that you and your
team members must play in every task that your team undertakes.
Without this clarity, you will most-likely find gaps, duplication
and confusion. Teamwork will be frustrating, inefficient and you
are less likely to deliver good results. In these situations, the
delegation of tasks and other responsibilities can be too
important to leave to chance.
The RACI Matrix is a system that brings structure and clarity to
assigning the roles people play within a team. It is a simple grid
system that you can use to clarify people's responsibilities and
ensure that everything the team needs to do is taken care of.
RACI explained
The acronym RACI stands for:
R = Responsible.
A = Accountable.
C = Consulted.
I = Informed.
Using the RACI system, you list every task, milestone and
decision, then clarify who is responsible, who is accountable, and
where appropriate, who needs to be consulted or informed.
Responsible – these people are the "doers" of the work. They must
complete the task or objective or make the decision. Several
people can be jointly responsible.
Accountable – this person is the "owner" of the work. He or she
must sign off or approve when the task, objective or decision is
complete. This person must make sure that responsibilities are
assigned in the matrix for all related activities. There is only
one person accountable, which means that "the buck stops there."
Consulted – these are the people who need to give input before the
work can be done and signed-off on. These people are "in the loop"
and active participants.
Informed – these people need to be kept "in the picture." They
need updates on progress or decision, but they do not need to be
formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or
decision.
Other Variants
ARCI
Some people prefer to use the acronym ARCI, reflecting the importance of the "Accountability" role.
RASCI or RASIC
A fifth element, "Supportive," is sometimes interjected to make the acronym RASCI. Supportive refers to people who provide resources and assistance to the people responsible for the work.
RACI-V
In some situations, another role is included: "Verifies." This role provides the checks needed to make sure the work is done according to predetermined criteria.
CAIRO
This includes a fifth category: "Omitted" or "Out of the loop". this would be used to designate people whom you consciously decide not to involve in project communications.
Using the Tool
To complete a RACI Matrix:
List all the tasks, activities and decisions that your team works
on. It's often good to involve the whole team in doing this,
helping you drill down to the core tasks that must be completed if
the project to be a success.
List all the functions of people in the team. Sometimes this means
you need to list each individual team member. But if a function is
performed by several people, you should list the function rather
than each individual.
Then create a matrix (see figure 1) from the two lists you have
made. List tasks, activities and decisions as row headers in the
left hand column, and place the functions/roles as column headers.
Figure 1: Example RACI Matrix
Tasks, milestones and decisions
Function A
(e.g. Line
Supervisor)
Function B
(e.g. Manager)
Function C
Function D
Task 1
R
A
Task 2
R
I
A
R
Task 3
C
A
R
Task 4
A
C
C
I
Now plot the RACI for each task etc listed. Indicate who is
responsible, who is accountable, who needs to be consulted and who
needs to be informed.
And now check the RACI for each task: Check this carefully, as
this is the step that ensures everything gets done!
For every task (row):
There must be one (and only one) person accountable
There must be at least one responsible
'Consulted' and 'informed' are optional on each row.
Also, make sure that everyone involved really needs to be. There
is a saying that "too many cooks spoil the broth". Too many people
involved, even if they are only 'consulted' and 'informed' can
make work inefficient and more difficult than is necessary.
Having already checked that everything gets done, the next step of
analyzing the RACI matrix helps ensure things get done right!
You do this by analyzing the roles that each function will
perform. This means looking vertically at the Rs, As, Cs and Is
assigned and asking the following questions:
Does one person or function have too many responsibilities? If so,
there is a risk that he or she may perform poorly or not be able
to complete the work.
Does anyone have too many or all the As? If so its well worth
looking again at the design of people's jobs. Can this person
really monitor and oversee all these tasks fully and well? Or is
it better to delegate some of the accountability (and hence the
checking and balancing) to other people in the team?
Is any one person or function involved in every task? This is
probably not necessary and you should look again at how tasks are
delegated and prioritized.
Once you have checked completed steps 5 and 6, you have checked
the completeness and integrity of the roles and functions in your
team. The final step is to communicate the RACI matrix to all team
members and keep it updated as things change.
Key Points
One of the biggest challenges of team working (particularly in areas where there's little margin for error) is to make sure
everything is done completely and well. By taking a structured approach to role assignment using the RACI Matrix, you can plot
and check who is responsible and accountable for each team task, and also check the integrity of each person's roles. In so doing,
you can minimize the risk of gaps, overlaps and confusions and so have a greater chance of running a highly effective and efficient team.
Once you understand people's roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, the next step is often to think through the
scheduling of people's time so that projects can be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
5:46 AM |It takes a lot of effort to keep a large project running smoothly. With a large number of variables, people, and deliverables, it’s hard to keep on top of everything that’s happening. Consider the following scenario:
Hal (the distressed project manager): "What do you mean, we don’t have the test results yet?! What has Katy been doing? Get Katy!"
Katy: "No, Hal, I wasn’t responsible for getting that done. Joan has more expertise in that area, remember? I’ll ask Joan what happened."
Joan: "Gee, Katy, I know I have more experience with these reports, but I was waiting for you to contact me so we could review them together."
Do you recognize anyone you know? This type of situation is repeated daily in organizations across the globe. And most of the time, there’s no incompetence or bad intentions involved. More often, problems like this are the result of inadequate planning and poor communication.
Successful projects have a clear breakdown of who is ultimately responsible for each aspect of the project. Without clear, written, and agreed-upon accountability, it’s far too easy to for communication to fail and for responsibilities to be muddled.
So how do you avoid this?
Developing a Responsibility Assignment Matrix
One tool that project managers use to keep these assignments clear is the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (also called the RAM, or the Responsibility Matrix). This matches deliverables with the people who are responsible for them. For every piece of the project, the matrix shows who needs to contribute what for the project to be completed.
For example, let’s say that you’re upgrading your customer service delivery system, and you need to train your staff to use new procedures and tools.
Step One: Define Your Deliverables
Using a Work Breakdown Structure , you define three key deliverables for this training project, with a few subcategories for each:
Identify training needs:
Survey current practice.
Define new practice.
Coordinate the training:
Locate resources.
Prepare training schedule.
Manage training.
Evaluate the results:
Re-survey practices after implementation.
Analyze results.
Tip:
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a project planning tool used to break a project down into smaller, more manageable pieces of work (deliverables). It's not a list of every task: rather, it's a "tree" structure showing the meaningful groups of activities that make up the main segments of the project.
Step Two: Identify the People Involved
Map out who is on your project team. By creating a chart of individuals who are available, you can then delegate work assignments based on expertise, and you can recruit talent that you’re missing. This step is often called an “Organization Breakdown Structure” because it creates an organizational chart for your team.
Level 1
Project Manager: Kim
Level 2
Customer Service Manager: Ron
Level 3
Customer Experience Coordinator: Terry
Training Coordinator: Nancy
Customer Service Supervisor: Reagan
Level 4
Customer Service Representative: John
Step Three: Create Your Responsibility Matrix
Draw a matrix. The deliverables are the column headings, and the people are the row titles.
Identify training needs
Coordinate the training
Evaluate the results
Person
Survey current practice
Define new practice
Locate resources
Prepare training schedule
Re-survey practices
Analyze results
PM: Kim
A
A
A
A
CSM: Ron
A
R
I
A
R
CEC: Terry
R
C
R
R
TC: Nancy
I
R
R
CSS: Reagan
R
C
C
R
C
CSR: John
C
C
C
With your team, determine accountabilities as well as other levels of involvement for each item in your Work Breakdown Structure.
A useful framework to determine role assignments is RACI . This defines four levels of involvement:
R = Responsible (People who do the work)
A = Accountable (People who make sure the work gets done)
C = Consulted (People who provide input before and during the work)
I = Informed (People who are kept informed of progress)
Other levels of involvement may include “assist”, “coordinate”, “sign off”, and “review”. You can decide how to assign responsibility for your project and your team. But you must be sure that ultimate accountability and responsibility for performing the work are agreed upon and communicated.
Step Four: Communicate
When your Responsibility Assignment Matrix is complete, communicate it to all stakeholders. It’s a good idea to post it in an area where people will see it. Used effectively, the RAM helps people understand what they should be doing at all stages of the project.
Key Points
Project teams can easily lose focus on what needs to be done and who needs to do it. People may assume that somebody else is doing something – and before long, key pieces of work fall behind schedule.
To avoid this common problem, consider developing a Responsibility Assignment Matrix for your team. This matrix clearly identifies which role each team member has agreed to take on for each of the project’s main deliverables.
With these assignments, you can eliminate miscommunication about who’s doing what – and you can help to ensure that your project is successful.
Read more…
Hal (the distressed project manager): "What do you mean, we don’t have the test results yet?! What has Katy been doing? Get Katy!"
Katy: "No, Hal, I wasn’t responsible for getting that done. Joan has more expertise in that area, remember? I’ll ask Joan what happened."
Joan: "Gee, Katy, I know I have more experience with these reports, but I was waiting for you to contact me so we could review them together."
Do you recognize anyone you know? This type of situation is repeated daily in organizations across the globe. And most of the time, there’s no incompetence or bad intentions involved. More often, problems like this are the result of inadequate planning and poor communication.
Successful projects have a clear breakdown of who is ultimately responsible for each aspect of the project. Without clear, written, and agreed-upon accountability, it’s far too easy to for communication to fail and for responsibilities to be muddled.
So how do you avoid this?
Developing a Responsibility Assignment Matrix
One tool that project managers use to keep these assignments clear is the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (also called the RAM, or the Responsibility Matrix). This matches deliverables with the people who are responsible for them. For every piece of the project, the matrix shows who needs to contribute what for the project to be completed.
For example, let’s say that you’re upgrading your customer service delivery system, and you need to train your staff to use new procedures and tools.
Step One: Define Your Deliverables
Using a Work Breakdown Structure , you define three key deliverables for this training project, with a few subcategories for each:
Identify training needs:
Survey current practice.
Define new practice.
Coordinate the training:
Locate resources.
Prepare training schedule.
Manage training.
Evaluate the results:
Re-survey practices after implementation.
Analyze results.
Tip:
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a project planning tool used to break a project down into smaller, more manageable pieces of work (deliverables). It's not a list of every task: rather, it's a "tree" structure showing the meaningful groups of activities that make up the main segments of the project.
Step Two: Identify the People Involved
Map out who is on your project team. By creating a chart of individuals who are available, you can then delegate work assignments based on expertise, and you can recruit talent that you’re missing. This step is often called an “Organization Breakdown Structure” because it creates an organizational chart for your team.
Level 1
Project Manager: Kim
Level 2
Customer Service Manager: Ron
Level 3
Customer Experience Coordinator: Terry
Training Coordinator: Nancy
Customer Service Supervisor: Reagan
Level 4
Customer Service Representative: John
Step Three: Create Your Responsibility Matrix
Draw a matrix. The deliverables are the column headings, and the people are the row titles.
Identify training needs
Coordinate the training
Evaluate the results
Person
Survey current practice
Define new practice
Locate resources
Prepare training schedule
Re-survey practices
Analyze results
PM: Kim
A
A
A
A
CSM: Ron
A
R
I
A
R
CEC: Terry
R
C
R
R
TC: Nancy
I
R
R
CSS: Reagan
R
C
C
R
C
CSR: John
C
C
C
With your team, determine accountabilities as well as other levels of involvement for each item in your Work Breakdown Structure.
A useful framework to determine role assignments is RACI . This defines four levels of involvement:
R = Responsible (People who do the work)
A = Accountable (People who make sure the work gets done)
C = Consulted (People who provide input before and during the work)
I = Informed (People who are kept informed of progress)
Other levels of involvement may include “assist”, “coordinate”, “sign off”, and “review”. You can decide how to assign responsibility for your project and your team. But you must be sure that ultimate accountability and responsibility for performing the work are agreed upon and communicated.
Step Four: Communicate
When your Responsibility Assignment Matrix is complete, communicate it to all stakeholders. It’s a good idea to post it in an area where people will see it. Used effectively, the RAM helps people understand what they should be doing at all stages of the project.
Key Points
Project teams can easily lose focus on what needs to be done and who needs to do it. People may assume that somebody else is doing something – and before long, key pieces of work fall behind schedule.
To avoid this common problem, consider developing a Responsibility Assignment Matrix for your team. This matrix clearly identifies which role each team member has agreed to take on for each of the project’s main deliverables.
With these assignments, you can eliminate miscommunication about who’s doing what – and you can help to ensure that your project is successful.
Working With Project Sponsors
5:43 AM |No project will ever get off the ground without a sponsor.
He or she is the person who has identified the need for change in an area of the business, and is committed to making that change happen.
The project sponsor is the person who proposes the project, and who procures the resources – the people, the money, and the time.
The sponsor has the authority and influence within the organization to champion the project, and ensure it has all the support it needs to succeed. In other words, the project sponsor is the internal 'client' to whom the project manager has to deliver the project on spec, on budget, and on time.
The project manager/project sponsor relationship is, therefore, extremely important to a project's success. If you're a project manager, then understanding exactly what a project sponsor does is critical to managing this relationship effectively and proactively.
The Role of a Project Sponsor
First and foremost, a sponsor must have the authority and commitment to ensure a project's success. While a project manager's influence is often limited to the project team, the sponsor is the one who leads and directs the overall business environment related to the project. Therefore, the sponsor is responsible for making sure the organization understands the value of the project, and is ready to receive and implement the project's deliverables,
The project sponsor usually holds a senior position within the business function that will ultimately support the project. This way, the sponsor has significant input into the project, and is highly committed to the results.
Some of the key project sponsor responsibilities are as follows:
Aligning the project with organizational objectives – Promoting the project, monitoring the political environment, and making changes as necessary.
Appointing the project manager (PM) – Ensuring that the PM understands his or her role and responsibilities.
Approving the project plan – This includes the project scope, schedule, budget, and objectives.
Holding the PM accountable for keeping the project on track – Meeting regularly with the PM, and holding the PM accountable for key deliverables according to the project plan.
Supporting the PM – Being available for consultations and meetings, and helping the PM avoid and reduce the impact of obstacles.
Providing funding – Obtaining the necessary financial resources, or liaising with the person or group that authorizes funding (for example, the company owner, board of directors, external funding sources). Ensuring that project assets are used properly (this financial obligation is often the basis for all of the other responsibilities of a project sponsor).
Helping the PM obtain other necessary resources – This includes managing cross-functional relationships, and protecting promised resources, so they don't get reassigned elsewhere.
Actively promoting the project – Communicating the benefits and importance of the project.
Mentoring and supporting the PM – Empowering and motivating the PM, building the PM's confidence and leadership skills, and dealing with issues that the PM can't resolve.
Approving major changes – This includes supporting the need for additional resources, and otherwise changing key parts of the project plan when necessary.
Monitoring and reviewing progress – Providing the PM with strategic direction, validating project phases, and signing off on deliverables.
Celebrating the project's success – Recognizing the team's effort, supporting implementation as needed, and contributing to the final review process, including the Post-Implementation Review .
In summary, the project sponsor is an executive-level champion who ensures that the project gets what it needs, and delivers what it should. Clearly, project sponsorship is an active position that involves a continuous commitment throughout the life of the project.
Large projects often have a steering committee, which is typically headed by the project sponsor. This committee has final budget approval, makes decisions about scope and objective changes, and is the highest authority for resolving issues and disputes.
Characteristics of a Great Project Sponsor
To fill this critical role, a person needs to be passionate about the project, and able to communicate that passion effectively. Here are some of the key requirements for an effective project sponsor:
Having sufficient influence within the organization to champion a cause.
Understanding the organization's strategy, and how the project's objectives help to deliver it.
Having the authority to make final decisions.
Have a vested interest in the project outcome.
Understanding the project objectives.
Being able to solve problems involving different stakeholders and competing needs.
Having enough time to dedicate to project meetings and responsibilities.
Communicating effectively with all levels of the organization.
If you're asked to be a project sponsor, or if you're looking for the right sponsor, you should be aware of these qualities. However, if you're a project manager, and you need to work closely with the sponsor, you can do certain things to take charge of the relationship, and help ensure the project's success. We'll discuss some of these next.
Working Effectively With Project Sponsors
Having the right sponsor is only half the battle. The project sponsor and project manager must work well together. They may already have a working relationship, because they often work in the same office and for the same company. Sometimes, however, the project sponsor and project manager come from different organizations. Knowing how to make this important relationship work is key to the project's success.
Here are some tips for project managers to improve the way they collaborate with their project sponsors:
Discuss project expectations right from the start – Make sure you're both clear about the objectives and the project specifics.
Take responsibility for the quality of the relationship – Set the tone for the relationship, and for the type of communication you'll use.
Find out how much the sponsor knows – Determine how much information the sponsor has about project details, and be prepared to provide any missing information.
Agree on the sponsor's role and responsibilities – Discuss issues like these:
How does the sponsor want the PM to report progress?
How will progress be reported to senior management?
What kind of issues does the sponsor want to be involved in?
Which deliverables will the sponsor approve?
How will the sponsor be involved in requested changes?
What is the best time and means of communication?
Introduce the sponsor to the project team – Give the sponsor an opportunity to provide an executive-level perspective on the project and its expected outcomes.
Meet regularly and communicate openly – Have ongoing discussions on matters of importance, and continue to build your relationship.
Respect the sponsor's time – Carefully prepare for meetings, and summarize information as much as possible. Make it as easy as possible for the sponsor to get the information needed.
Be open and honest with the sponsor – Address problems and delays in a timely manner, and give the sponsor enough time to deal with issues that need to be resolved. The more trust you develop, the better the project outcomes will be.
Project managers typically focus on one project, whereas a sponsor may oversee several projects at the same time. Take this into consideration, and make the communication process as simple and straightforward as possible. An effective project manager acts as a guide, and makes it easier for the sponsor, who has ultimate accountability for the final result.
Key Points
The project sponsor's influence, commitment, and effectiveness directly impact a project's success. Project sponsorship, however, requires certain skills as well as active participation. Throughout the project, there are tasks to be completed, actions to be taken, and decisions to be made. Sponsors are ultimately responsible for initiating the project, and for supporting the achievement of its outcomes. They have a governance role – ensuring that the project is completed according to its plan, scope, schedule, and budget.
Project sponsors and project managers can do many things to improve project outcomes. It's a partnership of shared responsibility: the project manager focuses on specific deliverables, and the project sponsor focuses on overall outcomes. This relationship is a top priority, and it can be managed from both sides for maximum effectiveness.
Read more…
He or she is the person who has identified the need for change in an area of the business, and is committed to making that change happen.
The project sponsor is the person who proposes the project, and who procures the resources – the people, the money, and the time.
The sponsor has the authority and influence within the organization to champion the project, and ensure it has all the support it needs to succeed. In other words, the project sponsor is the internal 'client' to whom the project manager has to deliver the project on spec, on budget, and on time.
The project manager/project sponsor relationship is, therefore, extremely important to a project's success. If you're a project manager, then understanding exactly what a project sponsor does is critical to managing this relationship effectively and proactively.
The Role of a Project Sponsor
First and foremost, a sponsor must have the authority and commitment to ensure a project's success. While a project manager's influence is often limited to the project team, the sponsor is the one who leads and directs the overall business environment related to the project. Therefore, the sponsor is responsible for making sure the organization understands the value of the project, and is ready to receive and implement the project's deliverables,
The project sponsor usually holds a senior position within the business function that will ultimately support the project. This way, the sponsor has significant input into the project, and is highly committed to the results.
Some of the key project sponsor responsibilities are as follows:
Aligning the project with organizational objectives – Promoting the project, monitoring the political environment, and making changes as necessary.
Appointing the project manager (PM) – Ensuring that the PM understands his or her role and responsibilities.
Approving the project plan – This includes the project scope, schedule, budget, and objectives.
Holding the PM accountable for keeping the project on track – Meeting regularly with the PM, and holding the PM accountable for key deliverables according to the project plan.
Supporting the PM – Being available for consultations and meetings, and helping the PM avoid and reduce the impact of obstacles.
Providing funding – Obtaining the necessary financial resources, or liaising with the person or group that authorizes funding (for example, the company owner, board of directors, external funding sources). Ensuring that project assets are used properly (this financial obligation is often the basis for all of the other responsibilities of a project sponsor).
Helping the PM obtain other necessary resources – This includes managing cross-functional relationships, and protecting promised resources, so they don't get reassigned elsewhere.
Actively promoting the project – Communicating the benefits and importance of the project.
Mentoring and supporting the PM – Empowering and motivating the PM, building the PM's confidence and leadership skills, and dealing with issues that the PM can't resolve.
Approving major changes – This includes supporting the need for additional resources, and otherwise changing key parts of the project plan when necessary.
Monitoring and reviewing progress – Providing the PM with strategic direction, validating project phases, and signing off on deliverables.
Celebrating the project's success – Recognizing the team's effort, supporting implementation as needed, and contributing to the final review process, including the Post-Implementation Review .
In summary, the project sponsor is an executive-level champion who ensures that the project gets what it needs, and delivers what it should. Clearly, project sponsorship is an active position that involves a continuous commitment throughout the life of the project.
Large projects often have a steering committee, which is typically headed by the project sponsor. This committee has final budget approval, makes decisions about scope and objective changes, and is the highest authority for resolving issues and disputes.
Characteristics of a Great Project Sponsor
To fill this critical role, a person needs to be passionate about the project, and able to communicate that passion effectively. Here are some of the key requirements for an effective project sponsor:
Having sufficient influence within the organization to champion a cause.
Understanding the organization's strategy, and how the project's objectives help to deliver it.
Having the authority to make final decisions.
Have a vested interest in the project outcome.
Understanding the project objectives.
Being able to solve problems involving different stakeholders and competing needs.
Having enough time to dedicate to project meetings and responsibilities.
Communicating effectively with all levels of the organization.
If you're asked to be a project sponsor, or if you're looking for the right sponsor, you should be aware of these qualities. However, if you're a project manager, and you need to work closely with the sponsor, you can do certain things to take charge of the relationship, and help ensure the project's success. We'll discuss some of these next.
Working Effectively With Project Sponsors
Having the right sponsor is only half the battle. The project sponsor and project manager must work well together. They may already have a working relationship, because they often work in the same office and for the same company. Sometimes, however, the project sponsor and project manager come from different organizations. Knowing how to make this important relationship work is key to the project's success.
Here are some tips for project managers to improve the way they collaborate with their project sponsors:
Discuss project expectations right from the start – Make sure you're both clear about the objectives and the project specifics.
Take responsibility for the quality of the relationship – Set the tone for the relationship, and for the type of communication you'll use.
Find out how much the sponsor knows – Determine how much information the sponsor has about project details, and be prepared to provide any missing information.
Agree on the sponsor's role and responsibilities – Discuss issues like these:
How does the sponsor want the PM to report progress?
How will progress be reported to senior management?
What kind of issues does the sponsor want to be involved in?
Which deliverables will the sponsor approve?
How will the sponsor be involved in requested changes?
What is the best time and means of communication?
Introduce the sponsor to the project team – Give the sponsor an opportunity to provide an executive-level perspective on the project and its expected outcomes.
Meet regularly and communicate openly – Have ongoing discussions on matters of importance, and continue to build your relationship.
Respect the sponsor's time – Carefully prepare for meetings, and summarize information as much as possible. Make it as easy as possible for the sponsor to get the information needed.
Be open and honest with the sponsor – Address problems and delays in a timely manner, and give the sponsor enough time to deal with issues that need to be resolved. The more trust you develop, the better the project outcomes will be.
Project managers typically focus on one project, whereas a sponsor may oversee several projects at the same time. Take this into consideration, and make the communication process as simple and straightforward as possible. An effective project manager acts as a guide, and makes it easier for the sponsor, who has ultimate accountability for the final result.
Key Points
The project sponsor's influence, commitment, and effectiveness directly impact a project's success. Project sponsorship, however, requires certain skills as well as active participation. Throughout the project, there are tasks to be completed, actions to be taken, and decisions to be made. Sponsors are ultimately responsible for initiating the project, and for supporting the achievement of its outcomes. They have a governance role – ensuring that the project is completed according to its plan, scope, schedule, and budget.
Project sponsors and project managers can do many things to improve project outcomes. It's a partnership of shared responsibility: the project manager focuses on specific deliverables, and the project sponsor focuses on overall outcomes. This relationship is a top priority, and it can be managed from both sides for maximum effectiveness.
Project and Program Governance
5:39 AM |Your business case is approved, your project team is in place, and you're ready to go.
You have agreement on all the resources you need. You're confident that you're going to deliver on time, to quality, and within budget.
The project's success seems to be guaranteed... But how often do things actually work out as smoothly as this?
Then resources that you thought had been assigned to your project start to disappear… Experts that you need are allocated elsewhere. The data storage that you had stated as critical will no longer be provided, because another project has been delayed. Other stakeholders hear about your project, and it becomes obvious to you that the project's scope should be extended to include their needs, but you don't have the funding to do this.
How could you have prevented this? The answer is to have strong project governance in place. This won't necessarily stop these issues from occurring, however, it will ensure that you have the right senior management support lined up and motivated to help you to resolve problems quickly and successfully.
In this article, we'll explain what project governance is, we'll look at some useful governance mechanisms, and we'll give you a checklist that you can use to choose the approach that's right for your project.
What is Project Governance?
Project governance is the set of processes used to ensure that the project is implemented successfully. This includes reviewing how the project is progressing through the project’s phases .
Project managers are responsible for making sure that appropriate management processes are used routinely within the project. The Mind Tools project management menu takes you through many of these individual processes – for example, showing you how to
initiate a new project, how to plan a large project, and how to control the scope of the project.
But this isn't enough. A strong approach to project governance is also needed to engage with senior stakeholders. They can make decisions in the wider interest of the organization as a whole, and they can give you the support you need as a project manager, so that you can resolve critical issues.
You can get this engagement in a variety of ways, and not all are appropriate for all projects. In this article, we'll review three mechanisms that are commonly used as part of the project governance framework (steering groups, panels of experts, and oversight groups), and we'll look at the project sponsor role. You'll then be able to decide what will work best for your specific project.
Project sponsorship is the most important part of project governance, so we'll start with the role of the project sponsor.
Project Sponsor
Every project needs a sponsor to get started. Sponsors are often the executives who want the project's benefits, and they have the authority and commitment to provide the support that the project needs. As such, the sponsor has significant input into the project and is highly committed to the results. (See our article Working with Project Sponsors for more on this.)
But simply having a project sponsor in place often isn't enough.
Projects have a range of key stakeholders. (You can use the Stakeholder Analysis tool to understand who these are.) The web of relationships and interests that these stakeholders have can become difficult to manage. (Our article Stakeholder Management helps you think through the communications that each stakeholder needs.)
Managing all of these separate relationships can take up a great deal of time. If you deal with them separately, you may lose out on ideas that would be generated if many of these people were in the same place, at the same time. Also, when dealing with issues or concerns one by one, you don't have the same opportunity for discussing the big picture, and support or advice given privately may not turn out to be that strong if other senior managers think of better ideas or solutions.
One way of getting around this is to set up a series of forums that help you engage with stakeholders efficiently, helping you address the stakeholder engagement problems that many projects experience. These forums give you a way of formalizing this engagement, and put specific, regular events on stakeholders' calendars so that your project gets regular time and attention.
There are three types of forum that can be useful: project steering groups, panels of experts, and oversight teams. We look at these below.
Project Steering Groups
A project steering group is led by the project sponsor, and it includes senior people with a significant interest in the project and its success. This group is responsible for overall decision making with the project sponsor. Members oversee the direction of the project; set its priorities; approve its scope, costs, and resources; resolve major issues; ensure alignment with the business's strategic plan; and support the sponsor's communication within the business, and with customers and suppliers.
The project steering group usually includes the following people:
Senior managers from the areas of the business that the project impacts.
Representatives from key projects or programs with which this project interfaces.
Functional heads or experts from key risk areas – for example, IT, if there's a heavy reliance on information technology; HR, if there will be a significant impact on the roles that individuals will be required to perform; or a legal adviser, if there are significant contractual issues to be overcome.
A senior finance person, for both business case approval, and for monitoring of benefits against the business case baseline.
The project or program manager.
Panels of Experts
A panel of experts is used to make recommendations about what the project delivers. The group may meet only infrequently, because it's likely that individuals on the panel would be needed for their advice at different times.
For example, consider a project to deliver a global finance process to a range of countries. You could establish a panel of global process owners to decide where local variations are required to the global process (for example, local variations may only be needed for local taxation and legal requirements). Finance experts in each of the sub-process areas (for example, accounts payable and accounts receivable) could be consulted to decide which local process variations are acceptable, and which are not.
You can also use this panel of experts approach with supplier and customer representatives, if this is appropriate for your project.
Oversight Teams
Oversight teams are useful when you need to supervise the work and decisions that senior project team members are making, as a way of validating that the work and decisions made are appropriate. This is particularly useful when the project is being implemented by an external group, or by an inexperienced internal team.
This oversight team is likely to consist of a small number of individuals, who will probably be assigned to this role part time (with the exception of very large projects). For an IT implementation, a typical oversight team would consist of a project manager, a technical manager, and a change manager. They would review key deliverables, attend key project meetings, and hold discussions with key team members and stakeholders to understand project progress.
Structuring Your Project's Governance Requirements
There's no single answer to what appropriate governance arrangements look like. You must assess your project's needs to decide what is appropriate. Here's a checklist that will help you think about this:
Which stakeholders are really important to the success of your project? And are their different interests likely to lead to competing priorities within the project? (If they are, a steering group or other forum will enable them to discuss these competing priorities and create a single list of products for the project to deliver.)
What is likely to cause the most significant issues within the project? (Use your log of critical risks to identify these.) Who will be able to help you if these become major issues? What is the best way to engage these people before any issues arise, so that they're available to you for support if the issues do occur?
Which of your project decisions involve several departments or functions? What is the best way to coordinate these decisions across these departments?
What profile does the project have within the organization? (The higher the profile, the stronger the governance needs to be.)
Whose support is critical for the sponsor to be effective? How is this support best given?
What is the attitude of key stakeholders to any change that the project will bring? If they're reluctant or if they refuse this change, what is the best way to engage them? Who is in the best position to convince them that this change is in their best interests, and what will convince them?
Who must sign off on the project deliverables to enable the project to proceed? How is this most effectively achieved? Who has the power to block the project, and for what reasons?
Key Points
Effective project governance is critical to the success of many projects. Structure this governance so that it supports you and your project sponsor. By doing so, you can ensure that your project receives the support it needs when it needs it, which can make the difference between success and failure for the project.
Read more…
You have agreement on all the resources you need. You're confident that you're going to deliver on time, to quality, and within budget.
The project's success seems to be guaranteed... But how often do things actually work out as smoothly as this?
Then resources that you thought had been assigned to your project start to disappear… Experts that you need are allocated elsewhere. The data storage that you had stated as critical will no longer be provided, because another project has been delayed. Other stakeholders hear about your project, and it becomes obvious to you that the project's scope should be extended to include their needs, but you don't have the funding to do this.
How could you have prevented this? The answer is to have strong project governance in place. This won't necessarily stop these issues from occurring, however, it will ensure that you have the right senior management support lined up and motivated to help you to resolve problems quickly and successfully.
In this article, we'll explain what project governance is, we'll look at some useful governance mechanisms, and we'll give you a checklist that you can use to choose the approach that's right for your project.
What is Project Governance?
Project governance is the set of processes used to ensure that the project is implemented successfully. This includes reviewing how the project is progressing through the project’s phases .
Project managers are responsible for making sure that appropriate management processes are used routinely within the project. The Mind Tools project management menu takes you through many of these individual processes – for example, showing you how to
initiate a new project, how to plan a large project, and how to control the scope of the project.
But this isn't enough. A strong approach to project governance is also needed to engage with senior stakeholders. They can make decisions in the wider interest of the organization as a whole, and they can give you the support you need as a project manager, so that you can resolve critical issues.
You can get this engagement in a variety of ways, and not all are appropriate for all projects. In this article, we'll review three mechanisms that are commonly used as part of the project governance framework (steering groups, panels of experts, and oversight groups), and we'll look at the project sponsor role. You'll then be able to decide what will work best for your specific project.
Project sponsorship is the most important part of project governance, so we'll start with the role of the project sponsor.
Project Sponsor
Every project needs a sponsor to get started. Sponsors are often the executives who want the project's benefits, and they have the authority and commitment to provide the support that the project needs. As such, the sponsor has significant input into the project and is highly committed to the results. (See our article Working with Project Sponsors for more on this.)
But simply having a project sponsor in place often isn't enough.
Projects have a range of key stakeholders. (You can use the Stakeholder Analysis tool to understand who these are.) The web of relationships and interests that these stakeholders have can become difficult to manage. (Our article Stakeholder Management helps you think through the communications that each stakeholder needs.)
Managing all of these separate relationships can take up a great deal of time. If you deal with them separately, you may lose out on ideas that would be generated if many of these people were in the same place, at the same time. Also, when dealing with issues or concerns one by one, you don't have the same opportunity for discussing the big picture, and support or advice given privately may not turn out to be that strong if other senior managers think of better ideas or solutions.
One way of getting around this is to set up a series of forums that help you engage with stakeholders efficiently, helping you address the stakeholder engagement problems that many projects experience. These forums give you a way of formalizing this engagement, and put specific, regular events on stakeholders' calendars so that your project gets regular time and attention.
There are three types of forum that can be useful: project steering groups, panels of experts, and oversight teams. We look at these below.
Project Steering Groups
A project steering group is led by the project sponsor, and it includes senior people with a significant interest in the project and its success. This group is responsible for overall decision making with the project sponsor. Members oversee the direction of the project; set its priorities; approve its scope, costs, and resources; resolve major issues; ensure alignment with the business's strategic plan; and support the sponsor's communication within the business, and with customers and suppliers.
The project steering group usually includes the following people:
Senior managers from the areas of the business that the project impacts.
Representatives from key projects or programs with which this project interfaces.
Functional heads or experts from key risk areas – for example, IT, if there's a heavy reliance on information technology; HR, if there will be a significant impact on the roles that individuals will be required to perform; or a legal adviser, if there are significant contractual issues to be overcome.
A senior finance person, for both business case approval, and for monitoring of benefits against the business case baseline.
The project or program manager.
Panels of Experts
A panel of experts is used to make recommendations about what the project delivers. The group may meet only infrequently, because it's likely that individuals on the panel would be needed for their advice at different times.
For example, consider a project to deliver a global finance process to a range of countries. You could establish a panel of global process owners to decide where local variations are required to the global process (for example, local variations may only be needed for local taxation and legal requirements). Finance experts in each of the sub-process areas (for example, accounts payable and accounts receivable) could be consulted to decide which local process variations are acceptable, and which are not.
You can also use this panel of experts approach with supplier and customer representatives, if this is appropriate for your project.
Oversight Teams
Oversight teams are useful when you need to supervise the work and decisions that senior project team members are making, as a way of validating that the work and decisions made are appropriate. This is particularly useful when the project is being implemented by an external group, or by an inexperienced internal team.
This oversight team is likely to consist of a small number of individuals, who will probably be assigned to this role part time (with the exception of very large projects). For an IT implementation, a typical oversight team would consist of a project manager, a technical manager, and a change manager. They would review key deliverables, attend key project meetings, and hold discussions with key team members and stakeholders to understand project progress.
Structuring Your Project's Governance Requirements
There's no single answer to what appropriate governance arrangements look like. You must assess your project's needs to decide what is appropriate. Here's a checklist that will help you think about this:
Which stakeholders are really important to the success of your project? And are their different interests likely to lead to competing priorities within the project? (If they are, a steering group or other forum will enable them to discuss these competing priorities and create a single list of products for the project to deliver.)
What is likely to cause the most significant issues within the project? (Use your log of critical risks to identify these.) Who will be able to help you if these become major issues? What is the best way to engage these people before any issues arise, so that they're available to you for support if the issues do occur?
Which of your project decisions involve several departments or functions? What is the best way to coordinate these decisions across these departments?
What profile does the project have within the organization? (The higher the profile, the stronger the governance needs to be.)
Whose support is critical for the sponsor to be effective? How is this support best given?
What is the attitude of key stakeholders to any change that the project will bring? If they're reluctant or if they refuse this change, what is the best way to engage them? Who is in the best position to convince them that this change is in their best interests, and what will convince them?
Who must sign off on the project deliverables to enable the project to proceed? How is this most effectively achieved? Who has the power to block the project, and for what reasons?
Key Points
Effective project governance is critical to the success of many projects. Structure this governance so that it supports you and your project sponsor. By doing so, you can ensure that your project receives the support it needs when it needs it, which can make the difference between success and failure for the project.
Stakeholder Management
5:36 AM |Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project
in every organization I have ever worked with. By engaging the right
people in the right way in your project, you can make a big
difference to its success... and to your career.
– Rachel Thompson (Mind Tools), experienced change management consultant
Having conducted a Stakeholder Analysis exercise, you will have most
of the information you need to plan how to manage communication with
your stakeholders.
You will have identified the stakeholders in your job and in your
projects, and will have marked out their positions on a stakeholder
map.
The next stage is to plan your communication so that you can win them
around to support your projects. Stakeholder Planning is the process
by which you do this.
To carry out a Stakeholder Planning exercise, download our free
Stakeholder Communications
worksheet . This is a table with the following column headings:
Stakeholder Name .
Communications Approach .
Key Interests and Issues .
Current Status – Advocate, supporter, neutral, critic, blocker.
Desired Support – High, medium or low.
Desired Project Role (if any).
Actions Desired (if any).
Messages Needed .
Actions and Communications .
Using this table, work through the planning exercise using the steps
below:
1. Update the Worksheet with Power/Interest Grid Information
Based on the Power/Interest Grid you created in your Stakeholder
Analysis , enter the stakeholders' names, their influence and interest
in your job or project, and your current assessment of where they
stand with respect to it.
2. Plan Your Approach to Stakeholder Management
The amount of time you should allocate to Stakeholder Management
depends on the size and difficulty of your projects and goals, the
time you have available for communication, and the amount of help you
need to achieve the results you want.
Think through the help you need, the amount of time that will be
taken to manage this and the time you will need for communication.
Help with the project could include sponsorship of the project,
advice and expert input, reviews of material to increase quality,
etc.
3. Think Through What You Want From Each Stakeholder
Next, work through your list of stakeholders thinking through the
levels of support you want from them and the roles you would like
them to play (if any). Think through the actions you would like them
to perform. Write this information down in the "Desired Support,"
"Desired Project Role," and "Actions Desired" columns.
4. Identify the Messages You Need to Convey
Next, identify the messages that you need to convey to your
stakeholders to persuade them to support you and engage with your
projects or goals. Typical messages will show the benefits to the
person or organization of what you are doing, and will focus on key
performance drivers like increasing profitability or delivering real
improvements.
5. Identify Actions and Communications
Finally, work out what you need to do to win and manage the support
of these stakeholders. With the time and resource you have available,
identify how you will manage the communication to and the input from
your stakeholders.
Focusing on the high-power/high-interest stakeholders first and the
low-interest/low-power stakeholders last, devise a practical plan
that communicates with people as effectively as possible and that
communicates the right amount of information in a way that neither
under nor over-communicates.
Think through what you need to do to keep your best supporters
engaged and on-board. Work out how to win over or neutralize the
opposition of skeptics. Where you need the active support of people
who are not currently interested in what you are doing, think about
how you can engage them and raise their level of interest.
Also, consider how what you are doing will affect your stakeholders.
Where appropriate, let people know as early as possible of any
difficult issues that may arise, and discuss with them how you can
minimize or manage any impact.
Tip:
It is usually a good idea to manage people's expectations about
likely problems as early as possible. This gives them time to think
through how to manage issues, and preserves your reputation for
reliability.
Once you have prepared your Stakeholder Plan, all you need to do is
to implement it. As with all plans, it will be easier to implement if
you break it down into a series of small, achievable steps and action
these one-by-one.
Key Points
As the work you do and the projects you run become more important,
you will affect more and more people. Some of these people have the
power to undermine your projects and your position. Others may be
strong supporters of your work.
Stakeholder Management is the process by which you identify your key
stakeholders and win their support.
Stakeholder Analysis is the first stage of this, where you identify
and start to understand your most important stakeholders. Once you have completed your Stakeholder Analysis, the next stage is
Stakeholder Planning. This is the process you use to plan how to
manage your stakeholders and gain their support for your projects.
To prepare your plan, go through the following steps:
Update the planning sheet with information from the power/interest grid.
Think through your approach to stakeholder management.
Work out what you want from each stakeholder.
Identify the messages you need to convey.
Identify actions and communications.
Good Stakeholder Management helps you to manage the politics that can
often come with major projects. It helps you win support for your
projects and eliminates a major source of project and work stress.
Download Worksheet
Read more…
in every organization I have ever worked with. By engaging the right
people in the right way in your project, you can make a big
difference to its success... and to your career.
– Rachel Thompson (Mind Tools), experienced change management consultant
Having conducted a Stakeholder Analysis exercise, you will have most
of the information you need to plan how to manage communication with
your stakeholders.
You will have identified the stakeholders in your job and in your
projects, and will have marked out their positions on a stakeholder
map.
The next stage is to plan your communication so that you can win them
around to support your projects. Stakeholder Planning is the process
by which you do this.
To carry out a Stakeholder Planning exercise, download our free
Stakeholder Communications
worksheet . This is a table with the following column headings:
Stakeholder Name .
Communications Approach .
Key Interests and Issues .
Current Status – Advocate, supporter, neutral, critic, blocker.
Desired Support – High, medium or low.
Desired Project Role (if any).
Actions Desired (if any).
Messages Needed .
Actions and Communications .
Using this table, work through the planning exercise using the steps
below:
1. Update the Worksheet with Power/Interest Grid Information
Based on the Power/Interest Grid you created in your Stakeholder
Analysis , enter the stakeholders' names, their influence and interest
in your job or project, and your current assessment of where they
stand with respect to it.
2. Plan Your Approach to Stakeholder Management
The amount of time you should allocate to Stakeholder Management
depends on the size and difficulty of your projects and goals, the
time you have available for communication, and the amount of help you
need to achieve the results you want.
Think through the help you need, the amount of time that will be
taken to manage this and the time you will need for communication.
Help with the project could include sponsorship of the project,
advice and expert input, reviews of material to increase quality,
etc.
3. Think Through What You Want From Each Stakeholder
Next, work through your list of stakeholders thinking through the
levels of support you want from them and the roles you would like
them to play (if any). Think through the actions you would like them
to perform. Write this information down in the "Desired Support,"
"Desired Project Role," and "Actions Desired" columns.
4. Identify the Messages You Need to Convey
Next, identify the messages that you need to convey to your
stakeholders to persuade them to support you and engage with your
projects or goals. Typical messages will show the benefits to the
person or organization of what you are doing, and will focus on key
performance drivers like increasing profitability or delivering real
improvements.
5. Identify Actions and Communications
Finally, work out what you need to do to win and manage the support
of these stakeholders. With the time and resource you have available,
identify how you will manage the communication to and the input from
your stakeholders.
Focusing on the high-power/high-interest stakeholders first and the
low-interest/low-power stakeholders last, devise a practical plan
that communicates with people as effectively as possible and that
communicates the right amount of information in a way that neither
under nor over-communicates.
Think through what you need to do to keep your best supporters
engaged and on-board. Work out how to win over or neutralize the
opposition of skeptics. Where you need the active support of people
who are not currently interested in what you are doing, think about
how you can engage them and raise their level of interest.
Also, consider how what you are doing will affect your stakeholders.
Where appropriate, let people know as early as possible of any
difficult issues that may arise, and discuss with them how you can
minimize or manage any impact.
Tip:
It is usually a good idea to manage people's expectations about
likely problems as early as possible. This gives them time to think
through how to manage issues, and preserves your reputation for
reliability.
Once you have prepared your Stakeholder Plan, all you need to do is
to implement it. As with all plans, it will be easier to implement if
you break it down into a series of small, achievable steps and action
these one-by-one.
Key Points
As the work you do and the projects you run become more important,
you will affect more and more people. Some of these people have the
power to undermine your projects and your position. Others may be
strong supporters of your work.
Stakeholder Management is the process by which you identify your key
stakeholders and win their support.
Stakeholder Analysis is the first stage of this, where you identify
and start to understand your most important stakeholders. Once you have completed your Stakeholder Analysis, the next stage is
Stakeholder Planning. This is the process you use to plan how to
manage your stakeholders and gain their support for your projects.
To prepare your plan, go through the following steps:
Update the planning sheet with information from the power/interest grid.
Think through your approach to stakeholder management.
Work out what you want from each stakeholder.
Identify the messages you need to convey.
Identify actions and communications.
Good Stakeholder Management helps you to manage the politics that can
often come with major projects. It helps you win support for your
projects and eliminates a major source of project and work stress.
Download Worksheet
Stakeholder Analysis
5:33 AM |"Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organization I have ever worked with. By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success... and to your career."
As you become more successful in your career, the actions you take and the projects you run will affect more and more people. The more people you affect, the more likely it is that your actions will impact people who have power and influence over your projects. These people could be strong supporters of your work – or they could block it.
Stakeholder Management is an important discipline that successful people use to win support from others. It helps them ensure that their projects succeed where others fail.
Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won over. You then use Stakeholder Planning to build the support that helps you succeed.
The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that:
You can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape your projects at an early stage. Not only does this make it more likely that they will support you, their input can also improve the quality of your project
Gaining support from powerful stakeholders can help you to win more resources – this makes it more likely that your projects will be successful
By communicating with stakeholders early and frequently, you can ensure that they fully understand what you are doing and understand the benefits of your project – this means they can support you actively when necessary
You can anticipate what people's reaction to your project may be, and build into your plan the actions that will win people's support.
How to Use the Tool
The first step in Stakeholder Analysis is to identify who your stakeholders are. The next step is to work out their power, influence and interest, so you know who you should focus on. The final step is to develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders so that you know how they are likely to respond, and so that you can work out how to win their support – you can record this analysis on a stakeholder map.
After you have used this tool and created a stakeholder map, you can use the stakeholder planning tool to plan how you will communicate with each stakeholder.
The steps of Stakeholder Analysis are explained below:
Step 1 – Identify Your Stakeholders
The first step in your Stakeholder Analysis is to brainstorm who your stakeholders are. As part of this, think of all the people who are affected by your work, who have influence or power over it, or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion.
The table below shows some of the people who might be stakeholders in your job or in your projects:
Your boss
Shareholders
Government
Senior executives
Alliance partners
Trades associations
Your coworkers
Suppliers
The press
Your team
Lenders
Interest groups
Customers
Analysts
The public
Prospective customers
Future recruits
The community
Your family
Remember that although stakeholders may be both organizations and people, ultimately you must communicate with people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual stakeholders within a stakeholder organization.
Step 2 – Prioritize Your Stakeholders
You may now have a long list of people and organizations that are affected by your work. Some of these may have the power either to block or advance. Some may be interested in what you are doing, others may not care.
Map out your stakeholders on a Power/Interest Grid on our free
template as shown in figure 1, and classify them by their power over
your work and by their interest in your work.
Figure1: Power/Interest Grid for Stakeholder Prioritization
For example, your boss is likely to have high power and influence over your projects and high interest. Your family may have high
interest, but are unlikely to have power over it.
Someone's position on the grid shows you the actions you have to take with them:
High power, interested people: these are the people you must fully engage and make the greatest efforts to satisfy.
High power, less interested people: put enough work in with these people to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with your message.
Low power, interested people: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful with the detail of your project.
Low power, less interested people: again, monitor these people, but do not bore them with excessive communication.
Step 3 – Understand Your Key Stakeholders
You now need to know more about your key stakeholders. You need to know how they are likely to feel about and react to your project. You also need to know how best to engage them in your project and how best to communicate with them.
Key questions that can help you understand your stakeholders are:
What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of your work? Is it positive or negative?
What motivates them most of all?
What information do they want from you?
How do they want to receive information from you? What is the best way of communicating your message to them?
What is their current opinion of your work? Is it based on good information?
Who influences their opinions generally, and who influences their opinion of you? Do some of these influencers therefore become important stakeholders in their own right?
If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to support your project?
If you don't think you will be able to win them around, how will you manage their opposition?
Who else might be influenced by their opinions? Do these people become stakeholders in their own right?
A very good way of answering these questions is to talk to your stakeholders directly – people are often quite open about their views, and asking people's opinions is often the first step in building a successful relationship with them.
You can summarize the understanding you have gained on the stakeholder map, so that you can easily see which stakeholders are
expected to be blockers or critics, and which stakeholders are likely to be advocates and supporters or your project. A good way of doing this is by color coding: showing advocates and supporters in green, blockers and critics in red, and others who are neutral in orange.
Figure 2: Example Power/Interest Grid With Stakeholders Marked
Figure 2 shows an example of this – in this example, you can see that a lot of effort needs to be put into persuading Piers and Michael of the benefits of the project – Janet and Amanda also need to managed well as powerful supporters.
Example
You can create your own example of Stakeholder Analysis at work – whether for your current role, a job you want to do, or a new project.
Conduct a full stakeholder analysis. Ask yourself whether you are communicating as effectively as you should be with your stakeholders. What actions can you take to get more from your supporters or win over your critics?
Key Points
As the work you do and the projects you run become more important, you will affect more and more people. Some of these people have the power to undermine your projects and your position. Others may be strong supporters of your work.
Stakeholder Management is the process by which you identify your key stakeholders and win their support. Stakeholder Analysis is the first stage of this, where you identify and start to understand your most important stakeholders.
The first stage of this is to brainstorm who your stakeholders are. The next step is to prioritize them by power and interest, and to plot this on a Power/Interest grid. The final stage is to get an understanding of what motivates your stakeholders and how you need to win them around.
Download Worksheet
Read more…
As you become more successful in your career, the actions you take and the projects you run will affect more and more people. The more people you affect, the more likely it is that your actions will impact people who have power and influence over your projects. These people could be strong supporters of your work – or they could block it.
Stakeholder Management is an important discipline that successful people use to win support from others. It helps them ensure that their projects succeed where others fail.
Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won over. You then use Stakeholder Planning to build the support that helps you succeed.
The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that:
You can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape your projects at an early stage. Not only does this make it more likely that they will support you, their input can also improve the quality of your project
Gaining support from powerful stakeholders can help you to win more resources – this makes it more likely that your projects will be successful
By communicating with stakeholders early and frequently, you can ensure that they fully understand what you are doing and understand the benefits of your project – this means they can support you actively when necessary
You can anticipate what people's reaction to your project may be, and build into your plan the actions that will win people's support.
How to Use the Tool
The first step in Stakeholder Analysis is to identify who your stakeholders are. The next step is to work out their power, influence and interest, so you know who you should focus on. The final step is to develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders so that you know how they are likely to respond, and so that you can work out how to win their support – you can record this analysis on a stakeholder map.
After you have used this tool and created a stakeholder map, you can use the stakeholder planning tool to plan how you will communicate with each stakeholder.
The steps of Stakeholder Analysis are explained below:
Step 1 – Identify Your Stakeholders
The first step in your Stakeholder Analysis is to brainstorm who your stakeholders are. As part of this, think of all the people who are affected by your work, who have influence or power over it, or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion.
The table below shows some of the people who might be stakeholders in your job or in your projects:
Your boss
Shareholders
Government
Senior executives
Alliance partners
Trades associations
Your coworkers
Suppliers
The press
Your team
Lenders
Interest groups
Customers
Analysts
The public
Prospective customers
Future recruits
The community
Your family
Remember that although stakeholders may be both organizations and people, ultimately you must communicate with people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual stakeholders within a stakeholder organization.
Step 2 – Prioritize Your Stakeholders
You may now have a long list of people and organizations that are affected by your work. Some of these may have the power either to block or advance. Some may be interested in what you are doing, others may not care.
Map out your stakeholders on a Power/Interest Grid on our free
template as shown in figure 1, and classify them by their power over
your work and by their interest in your work.
Figure1: Power/Interest Grid for Stakeholder Prioritization
For example, your boss is likely to have high power and influence over your projects and high interest. Your family may have high
interest, but are unlikely to have power over it.
Someone's position on the grid shows you the actions you have to take with them:
High power, interested people: these are the people you must fully engage and make the greatest efforts to satisfy.
High power, less interested people: put enough work in with these people to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with your message.
Low power, interested people: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful with the detail of your project.
Low power, less interested people: again, monitor these people, but do not bore them with excessive communication.
Step 3 – Understand Your Key Stakeholders
You now need to know more about your key stakeholders. You need to know how they are likely to feel about and react to your project. You also need to know how best to engage them in your project and how best to communicate with them.
Key questions that can help you understand your stakeholders are:
What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of your work? Is it positive or negative?
What motivates them most of all?
What information do they want from you?
How do they want to receive information from you? What is the best way of communicating your message to them?
What is their current opinion of your work? Is it based on good information?
Who influences their opinions generally, and who influences their opinion of you? Do some of these influencers therefore become important stakeholders in their own right?
If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to support your project?
If you don't think you will be able to win them around, how will you manage their opposition?
Who else might be influenced by their opinions? Do these people become stakeholders in their own right?
A very good way of answering these questions is to talk to your stakeholders directly – people are often quite open about their views, and asking people's opinions is often the first step in building a successful relationship with them.
You can summarize the understanding you have gained on the stakeholder map, so that you can easily see which stakeholders are
expected to be blockers or critics, and which stakeholders are likely to be advocates and supporters or your project. A good way of doing this is by color coding: showing advocates and supporters in green, blockers and critics in red, and others who are neutral in orange.
Figure 2: Example Power/Interest Grid With Stakeholders Marked
Figure 2 shows an example of this – in this example, you can see that a lot of effort needs to be put into persuading Piers and Michael of the benefits of the project – Janet and Amanda also need to managed well as powerful supporters.
Example
You can create your own example of Stakeholder Analysis at work – whether for your current role, a job you want to do, or a new project.
Conduct a full stakeholder analysis. Ask yourself whether you are communicating as effectively as you should be with your stakeholders. What actions can you take to get more from your supporters or win over your critics?
Key Points
As the work you do and the projects you run become more important, you will affect more and more people. Some of these people have the power to undermine your projects and your position. Others may be strong supporters of your work.
Stakeholder Management is the process by which you identify your key stakeholders and win their support. Stakeholder Analysis is the first stage of this, where you identify and start to understand your most important stakeholders.
The first stage of this is to brainstorm who your stakeholders are. The next step is to prioritize them by power and interest, and to plot this on a Power/Interest grid. The final stage is to get an understanding of what motivates your stakeholders and how you need to win them around.
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Scope Control
5:29 AM |Have you ever been on a project that seemed to
develop a life of its own?
Suddenly, instead of one key objective,
you had to take care of three secondary objectives before you
could get back on track – and then you couldn't finish on time?
Let's look at a home repair example. You want to replace your
kitchen countertop. But then you think the back tiling could be
updated and replaced too. And you certainly can't replace the
countertop without a new sink and faucet. Oh no – the sink you
want doesn't fit into the old space. OK, you'll just move the
plumbing pipes, right?!
Before you know it, you've torn apart your whole kitchen, and
you're waiting for new cabinets, appliances, and flooring. You're
trying to figure out how you'll live in a house with no kitchen
for the next six weeks, and you don't know how you'll pay for all
these little extras and upgrades that seemed like a good idea at
the time.
Have you ever experienced this with a business project?
Projects can quickly grow beyond their initial boundaries if you
don't carefully control changes to them. It's called "scope creep"
– new objectives and needs "sneak up" on you with no warning. This
can lead to the following:
An extended project schedule – You need extra time to explore the new requirements and then complete the work.
Increased project costs – More time and additional requirements often mean higher costs.
Decreased overall value – Project stakeholders expect results on time and on budget, so when you don't deliver, they're not satisfied.
To minimize the risk of scope creep in your projects, you need to take appropriate measures to manage the scope of the project, and keep it under your control.
Scope Creep Management
Control is the key. Projects can and will change. Almost
inevitably, as you begin work, you'll discover situations and
results that you didn't anticipate. You could decide to adopt a
"no change" policy and complete the project exactly the way you
originally intended. However, you'd probably miss ways to improve
the project outcome.
The objective of scope control is to anticipate as many of these
potential changes as possible before they happen, and then have a
process in place to evaluate and accept only those changes that
are reasonable and appropriate. Furthermore, it provides a
framework within which stakeholders can understand the cost and
delay that changes involve, and decide whether or not these are
acceptable.
Scope change and scope creep are not the same. They each refer to modifying the original requirements, specifications, or objectives. However, the difference is this: scope change is achieved through a
defined process, but scope creep happens without a plan. You control scope change – but scope creep controls you!
Strategies for Controlling Scope Creep
Scope control starts well before a project begins. It's built into the project plan, and it allows you to maintain power over what happens, when it happens, and why it happens.
Try the following to help control the scope of your project:
Develop a clear project vision – You need to understand why the project is important.
What underlying need will be met if your project is successfully executed?
How complete is your vision? Create prototypes, talk directly to key stakeholders, and include end-users in the planning and development process. The more complete your vision, the tighter your initial project plan will be.
Determine project priorities – Which elements of the project are most important to the project's sponsors and stakeholders?
What "must" you have, and what would be "nice to have"?
What is most important? Is completing the project on time more important than completing it within your budget? Where does customer satisfaction fit in? Is it better to schedule extra time to gather customer feedback – or do you want to roll out the product quickly, and then make changes later?
What risks are associated with your priorities and tradeoffs?
Formally define the project's requirements – Conduct a business requirements analysis . This is a structured process for understanding the fine detail of what's needed within the project, and for agreeing this with everyone involved.
Create a detailed schedule with major milestones – Use this to allocate resources and build in extra time for the unexpected. This can give you flexibility to assess and implement legitimate scope changes. Tools like GANTT charts , PERT charts , and Work Breakdown Structures can be used for effective scheduling.
Develop a process to manage scope changes – You'll probably be asked to change the scope at some point, so set clear guidelines for evaluating and executing changes.
What criteria will you use to evaluate proposed changes?
How will you manage the change process?
How will you assess any risks that proposed changes may bring, and how will you manage these?
How will you assess the impact of the change on the business case for the project?
How will you document your changes and how they affect the project over time?
Who will sign off on changes?
How will you communicate your scope change plan to all stakeholders and get agreement from them? Address this issue with the project sponsor early on, and gain agreement that you will accept no change without due process.
If this is your own
project, you may need to set boundaries and simply say no to
project changes. You can usually make something better if you
work long and hard enough – that's why some perfectionists
have such a hard time getting anything done! Use your judgment
to determine when the current objectives and requirements are
sufficient. Consider releasing later versions or providing
upgrades in the future to meet changing needs.
Identify project phases – Use predetermined breaks in the process to properly evaluate and accept additional requirements. If appropriate, delay any scope changes until you reach a new phase.
Key Points
Scope creep is hard to prevent, because most large projects
encounter new and unexpected issues after they begin. But don't
allow these issues to grow too numerous or too big: uncontrolled
changes can affect your time and budget, they can reduce the
overall viability of your project, and they can undermine the
project's business case.
To avoid this, carefully define your original requirements, and
create a plan to deal with the scope changes that you'll
inevitably face. With a scope control plan, you can manage the
number of changes, the impact of those changes, and when and how
those changes are integrated. It puts you back in control of the
project – and it helps ensure that you'll successfully reach your
goal.
Read more…
develop a life of its own?
Suddenly, instead of one key objective,
you had to take care of three secondary objectives before you
could get back on track – and then you couldn't finish on time?
Let's look at a home repair example. You want to replace your
kitchen countertop. But then you think the back tiling could be
updated and replaced too. And you certainly can't replace the
countertop without a new sink and faucet. Oh no – the sink you
want doesn't fit into the old space. OK, you'll just move the
plumbing pipes, right?!
Before you know it, you've torn apart your whole kitchen, and
you're waiting for new cabinets, appliances, and flooring. You're
trying to figure out how you'll live in a house with no kitchen
for the next six weeks, and you don't know how you'll pay for all
these little extras and upgrades that seemed like a good idea at
the time.
Have you ever experienced this with a business project?
Projects can quickly grow beyond their initial boundaries if you
don't carefully control changes to them. It's called "scope creep"
– new objectives and needs "sneak up" on you with no warning. This
can lead to the following:
An extended project schedule – You need extra time to explore the new requirements and then complete the work.
Increased project costs – More time and additional requirements often mean higher costs.
Decreased overall value – Project stakeholders expect results on time and on budget, so when you don't deliver, they're not satisfied.
To minimize the risk of scope creep in your projects, you need to take appropriate measures to manage the scope of the project, and keep it under your control.
Scope Creep Management
Control is the key. Projects can and will change. Almost
inevitably, as you begin work, you'll discover situations and
results that you didn't anticipate. You could decide to adopt a
"no change" policy and complete the project exactly the way you
originally intended. However, you'd probably miss ways to improve
the project outcome.
The objective of scope control is to anticipate as many of these
potential changes as possible before they happen, and then have a
process in place to evaluate and accept only those changes that
are reasonable and appropriate. Furthermore, it provides a
framework within which stakeholders can understand the cost and
delay that changes involve, and decide whether or not these are
acceptable.
Scope change and scope creep are not the same. They each refer to modifying the original requirements, specifications, or objectives. However, the difference is this: scope change is achieved through a
defined process, but scope creep happens without a plan. You control scope change – but scope creep controls you!
Strategies for Controlling Scope Creep
Scope control starts well before a project begins. It's built into the project plan, and it allows you to maintain power over what happens, when it happens, and why it happens.
Try the following to help control the scope of your project:
Develop a clear project vision – You need to understand why the project is important.
What underlying need will be met if your project is successfully executed?
How complete is your vision? Create prototypes, talk directly to key stakeholders, and include end-users in the planning and development process. The more complete your vision, the tighter your initial project plan will be.
Determine project priorities – Which elements of the project are most important to the project's sponsors and stakeholders?
What "must" you have, and what would be "nice to have"?
What is most important? Is completing the project on time more important than completing it within your budget? Where does customer satisfaction fit in? Is it better to schedule extra time to gather customer feedback – or do you want to roll out the product quickly, and then make changes later?
What risks are associated with your priorities and tradeoffs?
Formally define the project's requirements – Conduct a business requirements analysis . This is a structured process for understanding the fine detail of what's needed within the project, and for agreeing this with everyone involved.
Create a detailed schedule with major milestones – Use this to allocate resources and build in extra time for the unexpected. This can give you flexibility to assess and implement legitimate scope changes. Tools like GANTT charts , PERT charts , and Work Breakdown Structures can be used for effective scheduling.
Develop a process to manage scope changes – You'll probably be asked to change the scope at some point, so set clear guidelines for evaluating and executing changes.
What criteria will you use to evaluate proposed changes?
How will you manage the change process?
How will you assess any risks that proposed changes may bring, and how will you manage these?
How will you assess the impact of the change on the business case for the project?
How will you document your changes and how they affect the project over time?
Who will sign off on changes?
How will you communicate your scope change plan to all stakeholders and get agreement from them? Address this issue with the project sponsor early on, and gain agreement that you will accept no change without due process.
If this is your own
project, you may need to set boundaries and simply say no to
project changes. You can usually make something better if you
work long and hard enough – that's why some perfectionists
have such a hard time getting anything done! Use your judgment
to determine when the current objectives and requirements are
sufficient. Consider releasing later versions or providing
upgrades in the future to meet changing needs.
Identify project phases – Use predetermined breaks in the process to properly evaluate and accept additional requirements. If appropriate, delay any scope changes until you reach a new phase.
Key Points
Scope creep is hard to prevent, because most large projects
encounter new and unexpected issues after they begin. But don't
allow these issues to grow too numerous or too big: uncontrolled
changes can affect your time and budget, they can reduce the
overall viability of your project, and they can undermine the
project's business case.
To avoid this, carefully define your original requirements, and
create a plan to deal with the scope changes that you'll
inevitably face. With a scope control plan, you can manage the
number of changes, the impact of those changes, and when and how
those changes are integrated. It puts you back in control of the
project – and it helps ensure that you'll successfully reach your
goal.
Work Breakdown Structures
5:26 AM |You know what your project has to deliver and you're clear about what its scope is. So now you need to do some planning. But where do you begin?
Whether you project is big or small, one of the first challenges of project planning is to break the overall deliverable down into manageable chunks. Later, you'll use this
to work out the schedule, identify the resources you'll need, and work out what the cost of it all is likely to be.
One of the most popular ways of this is to use a "Work Breakdown Structure". This technique, developed by the United States Department of Defense and NASA in the 1950s and 60s, is often used by professional project managers, using formal project planning methodologies. But you'll also find it useful for smaller, less formal projects – and even if your job title isn't "Project Manager".
These might include a running marketing campaign, managing an office move or even organizing a company "away day".
A Work Breakdown Structure is a detailed list of all of the things that need to be delivered and the activities that need to be carried out to complete the project. As shown
in Figure 1 below, it's represented as a tree-structure, with each deliverable or activity broken down into further components.
Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure Format
There are several different approaches you can use when constructing a Work Breakdown Structures:
Process or activity-oriented – this involves breaking the project into the different activities it involves such as management, needs analysis, purchasing, testing, installation and training.
Achievement-oriented – this involves breaking down the overall project objective into achievements such as having fully trained users, and acceptance of a system against
test plans.
Function or product-oriented – this involves breaking the project up according to the different parts of the final product e.g. hardware, software, data and service
elements.
Different approaches suit different circumstances. The achievement-oriented approach is useful because it helps you to keep sight of how what you're doing contributes to the overall project deliverable. A function-oriented approach is useful where different people have different skills, and you need to organize work to take advantage of these different skill-sets. And a process-oriented approach allows you to break work down into conceptually simpler elements which can be approached one-by-one. Other approaches suit other situations, and some mix the approaches.
How to Use the Tool
Use the following steps to analyze your project:
Choose which approach you want to use for your Work Breakdown Structure: process/activity; achievement; function/product-oriented; a different approach; or a combination
of approaches.
Break the project down according to this approach. And then break it down further so that the lowest level shows clearly-defined, achievable chunks of work. Try
to create no more than 3 or 4 levels in total, with ideally no more than nine elements at each level. The final level of detail you go to will depend on the nature of the activities and the experience of the staff you will be assigning the activities too, but try to avoid going into too much detail while still ensuring that the Work Breakdown Structure is comprehensive. Your Work Breakdown Structure should certainly not be a list of one-hour jobs!
Tip 1: How far to break down...
What you're trying to do here is break the project down into manageable elements so that you allocate resource and estimate time and cost. Within your Work Breakdown Structure, try to break work down to a level where you understand tasks reasonably well, and can estimate resources needed with a reasonable level of confidence. (If you're doing this as part of a large program, break work down as far as individual projects that you feel comfortable delegating.)
Tip 2: Beware exhaustion
As you're breaking work down, it's easy to lose concentration, meaning that you can miss important tasks, and skip over unknowns without noticing them. Make sure that you validate your breakdown with key stakeholders to make sure it's comprehensive.
If you're using this tool with people who want to get on with other stuff, it's easy to rush this stage and tolerate chunks of activity that are too large or are too loosely defined. Be careful and be thorough, particularly if you're likely to be facing deadlines or working within tight budgets.
Tip 3: Be careful of commitment
Use of Work Breakdown Structures is very much a "top-down" approach to identifying work. The thing most likely to cause you problems when using it are the "unknowns". These are tasks that you don't fully understand, and which could be quite simple, but could also be complex, expensive and time-consuming.
If there are significant unknowns, mark them as such, and make sure you schedule early work to investigate them and clear them up. And make sure that you communicate these unknowns as risks to the clients of your project.
If your project is reasonably large or complex, number each element or activity using a hierarchical numbering system as shown in Figure 2 below. This allows everyone to be completely clear about which activity or milestone is being referred to in project reports.
Figure 2: Part of an Example Work Breakdown Structure
Tip 4:
If you are working with a team on this exercise, you may find it simplest to work with sticky notes on a large sheet of paper, and only transfer your WBS to a computer later.
Key Points
Good planning is a requirement for any successful project. And creating a Work Breakdown Structure during the planning phase is a good way of identifying the tasks that need to be completed.
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure is just one part of the wider activity of planning. More detail about planning can be found in Mind Tools Project Planning section and in our Bite-Sized Training session on Planning Small Projects .
Read more…
Whether you project is big or small, one of the first challenges of project planning is to break the overall deliverable down into manageable chunks. Later, you'll use this
to work out the schedule, identify the resources you'll need, and work out what the cost of it all is likely to be.
One of the most popular ways of this is to use a "Work Breakdown Structure". This technique, developed by the United States Department of Defense and NASA in the 1950s and 60s, is often used by professional project managers, using formal project planning methodologies. But you'll also find it useful for smaller, less formal projects – and even if your job title isn't "Project Manager".
These might include a running marketing campaign, managing an office move or even organizing a company "away day".
A Work Breakdown Structure is a detailed list of all of the things that need to be delivered and the activities that need to be carried out to complete the project. As shown
in Figure 1 below, it's represented as a tree-structure, with each deliverable or activity broken down into further components.
Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure Format
There are several different approaches you can use when constructing a Work Breakdown Structures:
Process or activity-oriented – this involves breaking the project into the different activities it involves such as management, needs analysis, purchasing, testing, installation and training.
Achievement-oriented – this involves breaking down the overall project objective into achievements such as having fully trained users, and acceptance of a system against
test plans.
Function or product-oriented – this involves breaking the project up according to the different parts of the final product e.g. hardware, software, data and service
elements.
Different approaches suit different circumstances. The achievement-oriented approach is useful because it helps you to keep sight of how what you're doing contributes to the overall project deliverable. A function-oriented approach is useful where different people have different skills, and you need to organize work to take advantage of these different skill-sets. And a process-oriented approach allows you to break work down into conceptually simpler elements which can be approached one-by-one. Other approaches suit other situations, and some mix the approaches.
How to Use the Tool
Use the following steps to analyze your project:
Choose which approach you want to use for your Work Breakdown Structure: process/activity; achievement; function/product-oriented; a different approach; or a combination
of approaches.
Break the project down according to this approach. And then break it down further so that the lowest level shows clearly-defined, achievable chunks of work. Try
to create no more than 3 or 4 levels in total, with ideally no more than nine elements at each level. The final level of detail you go to will depend on the nature of the activities and the experience of the staff you will be assigning the activities too, but try to avoid going into too much detail while still ensuring that the Work Breakdown Structure is comprehensive. Your Work Breakdown Structure should certainly not be a list of one-hour jobs!
Tip 1: How far to break down...
What you're trying to do here is break the project down into manageable elements so that you allocate resource and estimate time and cost. Within your Work Breakdown Structure, try to break work down to a level where you understand tasks reasonably well, and can estimate resources needed with a reasonable level of confidence. (If you're doing this as part of a large program, break work down as far as individual projects that you feel comfortable delegating.)
Tip 2: Beware exhaustion
As you're breaking work down, it's easy to lose concentration, meaning that you can miss important tasks, and skip over unknowns without noticing them. Make sure that you validate your breakdown with key stakeholders to make sure it's comprehensive.
If you're using this tool with people who want to get on with other stuff, it's easy to rush this stage and tolerate chunks of activity that are too large or are too loosely defined. Be careful and be thorough, particularly if you're likely to be facing deadlines or working within tight budgets.
Tip 3: Be careful of commitment
Use of Work Breakdown Structures is very much a "top-down" approach to identifying work. The thing most likely to cause you problems when using it are the "unknowns". These are tasks that you don't fully understand, and which could be quite simple, but could also be complex, expensive and time-consuming.
If there are significant unknowns, mark them as such, and make sure you schedule early work to investigate them and clear them up. And make sure that you communicate these unknowns as risks to the clients of your project.
If your project is reasonably large or complex, number each element or activity using a hierarchical numbering system as shown in Figure 2 below. This allows everyone to be completely clear about which activity or milestone is being referred to in project reports.
Figure 2: Part of an Example Work Breakdown Structure
Tip 4:
If you are working with a team on this exercise, you may find it simplest to work with sticky notes on a large sheet of paper, and only transfer your WBS to a computer later.
Key Points
Good planning is a requirement for any successful project. And creating a Work Breakdown Structure during the planning phase is a good way of identifying the tasks that need to be completed.
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure is just one part of the wider activity of planning. More detail about planning can be found in Mind Tools Project Planning section and in our Bite-Sized Training session on Planning Small Projects .
Business Requirements Analysis
5:23 AM |Every new activity, every new product, every
new project in the workplace is created in response to a business
need.
Yet we often find ourselves in situations where, despite
spending tremendous time and resources, there's a mismatch between
what has been designed and what is actually needed.
Has a client ever complained that what you delivered isn't what
she ordered? Has someone changed his mind altogether about the
deliverable, when you were halfway through a project? Have you had
conflicting requirements from multiple clients? And have you ever
received new requirements just after you thought you'd finished creating a
product?
A focused and detailed business requirements analysis can help you
avoid problems like these. This is the process of discovering,
analyzing, defining, and documenting the requirements that are
related to a specific business objective. And it's the process by
which you clearly and precisely define the scope of the project,
so that you can assess the timescales and resources needed to
complete it.
Remember: to get what you want, you need to accurately define it –
and a good business requirements analysis helps you achieve this
objective. It leads you to better understand the business needs,
and helps you break them down into detailed, specific requirements that
everyone agrees on. What's more, it's usually much quicker and
cheaper to fix a problem or misunderstanding at the analysis stage
than it is when the "finished product" is delivered.
Tip:
Many organizations already have established procedures and
methodologies for conducting business requirements
analyses, which may have been optimized specifically for
that organization or industry. If these exist, use them! However, do make sure you also consider the points below.
How to Use the Tool
Below is a five-step guide to conducting your own business
requirements analysis.
Step 1: Identify Key Stakeholders
Identify the key people who will be affected by the project. Start
by clarifying exactly who the project's sponsor is. This may be an
internal or external client. Either way, it is essential that
you know who has the final say on what will be included in the
project's scope, and what won't.
Then, identify who will use the solution, product, or service.
These are your end-users.
Your project is intended to meet their needs, so you must consider
their inputs.
Tip:
Make sure that your list is complete: remember, end-users
for a product or service might all be in one division or
department, or they might be spread across various
departments or levels of your organization. Our article on Stakeholder Analysis will help you identify stakeholders.
Step 2: Capture Stakeholder Requirements
Ask each of these key stakeholders, or groups of stakeholders, for their requirements from the new product
or service. What do they want and expect from this project?
Tip 1:
Remember, each person considers the project from his or
her individual perspective. You must understand these
different perspectives and gather the different
requirements to build a complete picture of what the
project should achieve.
Tip 2:
When interviewing stakeholders, be clear about what the
basic scope of the project is, and keep your discussions
within this. Otherwise, end-users may be
tempted to describe all sorts of functionality that your
project was never designed to provide. If users have
articulated these desires in detail, they may be
disappointed when they are not included in the final
specification.
You can use several methods to understand and capture these
requirements. Here, we give you four techniques:
Technique 1: Using stakeholder interviews
Talk with each stakeholder or end-user individually. This allows
you to understand each person's specific views and needs.
Technique 2: Using joint interviews or focus groups
Conduct group workshops. This helps you understand how information
flows between different divisions or departments, and ensure that
hand-overs will be managed smoothly.
Tip:
When using these two methods, it's a good idea to keep
asking "Why?" for each requirement. This may help you
eliminate unwanted or unnecessary requirements, so
you can develop a list of the most critical issues.
Technique 3: Using "use cases"
This scenario-based technique lets you walk through the whole
system or process, step by step, as a user. It helps you
understand how the system or service would work. This is a very
good technique for gathering functional requirements, but you may
need multiple "use cases" to understand the functionality of the
whole system.
Tip:
You might want to find existing use cases for similar
types of systems or services. You can use these as a
starting point for developing your own use case.
Technique 4: Building Prototypes
Build a mock-up or model of the system or product to give users an
idea of what the final product will look like. Using this, users
can address feasibility issues, and they can help identify any
inconsistencies and problems.
You can use one or more of the above techniques to gather all of the
requirements. For example, when you have a complete list of
requirements after your interviews, you can then build a prototype
of the system or product.
Step 3: Categorize Requirements
To make analysis easier, consider grouping the requirements into
these four categories:
Functional Requirements – These define how a
product/service/solution should function from the end-user's
perspective. They describe the features and functions with which
the end-user will interact directly.
Operational Requirements – These define operations that must be
carried out in the background to keep the product or process
functioning over a period of time.
Technical Requirements – These define the technical issues that
must be considered to successfully implement the process or create
the product.
Transitional Requirements – These are the steps needed to
implement the new product or process smoothly.
Step 4: Interpret and Record Requirements
Once you have gathered and categorized all of the requirements, determine
which requirements are achievable, and how the system or product
can deliver them.
To interpret the requirements, do the following:
Define requirements precisely – Ensure that the requirements are:
Not ambiguous or vague.
Clearly worded.
Sufficiently detailed so that everything is known. (Project over-runs and problems usually come from unknowns that were not identified, or sufficiently well-analyzed.)
Related to the business needs.
Listed in sufficient detail to create a working system or product design.
Prioritize requirements – Although many requirements are
important, some are more important than others, and budgets are
usually limited. Therefore, identify which requirements are the
most critical, and which are "nice-to-haves".
Analyze the impact of change – carry out an Impact Analysis to make
sure that you understand fully the consequences your project will
have for existing processes, products and people.
Resolve conflicting issues – Sit down with the key stakeholders
and resolve any conflicting requirements issues. You may find Scenario Analysis helpful in doing this, as it will allow all those
involved to explore how the proposed project would work in
different possible "futures".
Analyze feasibility – Determine how reliable and easy-to-use the
new product or system will be. A detailed analysis can help
identify any major problems.
Once everything is analyzed, present your key results and a
detailed report of the business needs. This should be a written
document.
Circulate this document among the key stakeholders, end-users, and
development teams, with a realistic deadline for feedback. This
can help resolve any remaining stakeholder conflicts, and can form
part of a "contract" or agreement between you and the
stakeholders.
Step 5: Sign Off
Finally, make sure you get the signed agreement of key
stakeholders, or representatives of key stakeholder groups, saying that the requirements as presented precisely reflect their needs. This formal commitment will
play an important part in ensuring that the project does not
suffer from scope creep later one.
Key Points
The key to a successful business requirements analysis is
identifying what the new system or product will do for all appropriate
end-users/stakeholders – and to understand what they WANT the new system or
product to do.
You can use various techniques to gather requirements, but
make sure those requirements are clear, concise, and related to
the business. This process also helps you identify and resolve any
conflicting requirements issues early on.
Once you complete your analysis, record it in a written document.
This becomes the "contract" for creating the product or system
that addresses all the needs of your business or your client.
Read more…
new project in the workplace is created in response to a business
need.
Yet we often find ourselves in situations where, despite
spending tremendous time and resources, there's a mismatch between
what has been designed and what is actually needed.
Has a client ever complained that what you delivered isn't what
she ordered? Has someone changed his mind altogether about the
deliverable, when you were halfway through a project? Have you had
conflicting requirements from multiple clients? And have you ever
received new requirements just after you thought you'd finished creating a
product?
A focused and detailed business requirements analysis can help you
avoid problems like these. This is the process of discovering,
analyzing, defining, and documenting the requirements that are
related to a specific business objective. And it's the process by
which you clearly and precisely define the scope of the project,
so that you can assess the timescales and resources needed to
complete it.
Remember: to get what you want, you need to accurately define it –
and a good business requirements analysis helps you achieve this
objective. It leads you to better understand the business needs,
and helps you break them down into detailed, specific requirements that
everyone agrees on. What's more, it's usually much quicker and
cheaper to fix a problem or misunderstanding at the analysis stage
than it is when the "finished product" is delivered.
Tip:
Many organizations already have established procedures and
methodologies for conducting business requirements
analyses, which may have been optimized specifically for
that organization or industry. If these exist, use them! However, do make sure you also consider the points below.
How to Use the Tool
Below is a five-step guide to conducting your own business
requirements analysis.
Step 1: Identify Key Stakeholders
Identify the key people who will be affected by the project. Start
by clarifying exactly who the project's sponsor is. This may be an
internal or external client. Either way, it is essential that
you know who has the final say on what will be included in the
project's scope, and what won't.
Then, identify who will use the solution, product, or service.
These are your end-users.
Your project is intended to meet their needs, so you must consider
their inputs.
Tip:
Make sure that your list is complete: remember, end-users
for a product or service might all be in one division or
department, or they might be spread across various
departments or levels of your organization. Our article on Stakeholder Analysis will help you identify stakeholders.
Step 2: Capture Stakeholder Requirements
Ask each of these key stakeholders, or groups of stakeholders, for their requirements from the new product
or service. What do they want and expect from this project?
Tip 1:
Remember, each person considers the project from his or
her individual perspective. You must understand these
different perspectives and gather the different
requirements to build a complete picture of what the
project should achieve.
Tip 2:
When interviewing stakeholders, be clear about what the
basic scope of the project is, and keep your discussions
within this. Otherwise, end-users may be
tempted to describe all sorts of functionality that your
project was never designed to provide. If users have
articulated these desires in detail, they may be
disappointed when they are not included in the final
specification.
You can use several methods to understand and capture these
requirements. Here, we give you four techniques:
Technique 1: Using stakeholder interviews
Talk with each stakeholder or end-user individually. This allows
you to understand each person's specific views and needs.
Technique 2: Using joint interviews or focus groups
Conduct group workshops. This helps you understand how information
flows between different divisions or departments, and ensure that
hand-overs will be managed smoothly.
Tip:
When using these two methods, it's a good idea to keep
asking "Why?" for each requirement. This may help you
eliminate unwanted or unnecessary requirements, so
you can develop a list of the most critical issues.
Technique 3: Using "use cases"
This scenario-based technique lets you walk through the whole
system or process, step by step, as a user. It helps you
understand how the system or service would work. This is a very
good technique for gathering functional requirements, but you may
need multiple "use cases" to understand the functionality of the
whole system.
Tip:
You might want to find existing use cases for similar
types of systems or services. You can use these as a
starting point for developing your own use case.
Technique 4: Building Prototypes
Build a mock-up or model of the system or product to give users an
idea of what the final product will look like. Using this, users
can address feasibility issues, and they can help identify any
inconsistencies and problems.
You can use one or more of the above techniques to gather all of the
requirements. For example, when you have a complete list of
requirements after your interviews, you can then build a prototype
of the system or product.
Step 3: Categorize Requirements
To make analysis easier, consider grouping the requirements into
these four categories:
Functional Requirements – These define how a
product/service/solution should function from the end-user's
perspective. They describe the features and functions with which
the end-user will interact directly.
Operational Requirements – These define operations that must be
carried out in the background to keep the product or process
functioning over a period of time.
Technical Requirements – These define the technical issues that
must be considered to successfully implement the process or create
the product.
Transitional Requirements – These are the steps needed to
implement the new product or process smoothly.
Step 4: Interpret and Record Requirements
Once you have gathered and categorized all of the requirements, determine
which requirements are achievable, and how the system or product
can deliver them.
To interpret the requirements, do the following:
Define requirements precisely – Ensure that the requirements are:
Not ambiguous or vague.
Clearly worded.
Sufficiently detailed so that everything is known. (Project over-runs and problems usually come from unknowns that were not identified, or sufficiently well-analyzed.)
Related to the business needs.
Listed in sufficient detail to create a working system or product design.
Prioritize requirements – Although many requirements are
important, some are more important than others, and budgets are
usually limited. Therefore, identify which requirements are the
most critical, and which are "nice-to-haves".
Analyze the impact of change – carry out an Impact Analysis to make
sure that you understand fully the consequences your project will
have for existing processes, products and people.
Resolve conflicting issues – Sit down with the key stakeholders
and resolve any conflicting requirements issues. You may find Scenario Analysis helpful in doing this, as it will allow all those
involved to explore how the proposed project would work in
different possible "futures".
Analyze feasibility – Determine how reliable and easy-to-use the
new product or system will be. A detailed analysis can help
identify any major problems.
Once everything is analyzed, present your key results and a
detailed report of the business needs. This should be a written
document.
Circulate this document among the key stakeholders, end-users, and
development teams, with a realistic deadline for feedback. This
can help resolve any remaining stakeholder conflicts, and can form
part of a "contract" or agreement between you and the
stakeholders.
Step 5: Sign Off
Finally, make sure you get the signed agreement of key
stakeholders, or representatives of key stakeholder groups, saying that the requirements as presented precisely reflect their needs. This formal commitment will
play an important part in ensuring that the project does not
suffer from scope creep later one.
Key Points
The key to a successful business requirements analysis is
identifying what the new system or product will do for all appropriate
end-users/stakeholders – and to understand what they WANT the new system or
product to do.
You can use various techniques to gather requirements, but
make sure those requirements are clear, concise, and related to
the business. This process also helps you identify and resolve any
conflicting requirements issues early on.
Once you complete your analysis, record it in a written document.
This becomes the "contract" for creating the product or system
that addresses all the needs of your business or your client.
