1.
Major Project Governance
Assessment Toolkit
Mark Ritchie, University of Edinburgh
Pauline Woods-Wilson, Lancaster University
Project and Change Management Group

2.
Project and Change Management Group
• Established March 2013
• Committee from across UK HE
• Committee members new to
UCISA
• Focus on providing practical
resources for practitioners
• Collaborative and action
oriented group – more than just
the sum of the parts!
“Working together to promote and develop project and change
management best practice in HE and FE”

3.
UCISA Project and Change Management
Group
• ~280 subscribers on mailing list
• ~100 followers on Twitter
• 2 resources published
• Major Projects Governance
Assessment Toolkit (July 2014)
• Effective Risk Management
(December 2014)
• First event PCMG15 (June 2015)
“Working together to promote and develop project and change
management best practice in HE and FE”

4.
Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit

5.
Why is it needed?
• Project governance often ineffective
• Unclear roles and responsibilities
• Lack of confidence in project status
• Focus on IT rather than business
requirements and benefits
• Weak change management
• Unclear where action required
Unforeseen risks and issues
Poor project outcomes

6.
How was it developed?
Peer review
by Project
and Change
Management
Group (2013)
Role
definitions
and “business
as usual”
added by
Lancaster
University
(2014)
UCISA Best
Practice
Toolkit
Published
(2014)
• Student Record Implementation
Lessons Learned (2009)
• Shared Academic Timetabling
(2010-13)
• Adopted for all major IT projects
(2012)
• Research Management (2013-14)
• University Web Site CMS (2014)
• Library Management (2014-15)

7.
What’s in the toolkit?
Governance
assessment
process
Scorecard
for
identifying
major
projects
Project
governance
elements
Role
descriptions
Visualisation
tool
Case studies

8.
Major Projects
“A major project is a project that has a significant financial, operational, or
reputational impact on a university or college”
COST
Consider whole life costs
over 48 months
IMPACT
Consider extent and nature
of impact on students and
staff
COMPLEXITY
Consider number of external
stakeholders and changes to
business processes and IT systems
REPUTATION
Consider potential for reputational
damage if project goes wrong
The toolkit can be used as a checklist for any project and modified to meet
your institutional requirements

9.
Project Governance Elements
Vision for
Change
Business Case
and Alignment
Team Building Communication
Implementation
Risk
Management
Project
Management
Governance
Structures
Measurement
Benefits
Realisation
Business As
Usual
Learning
Sponsorship &
Stakeholder
Buy in
Create vision
Engage people
Deliver
Embed

10.
Project Roles
Project Executive (Sponsor)
Project Manager
Senior User
Senior Supplier
Project Board
User Group

11.
Project Roles
Project Sponsor
Owns the business case and is ultimately accountable for the success or
failure of the project
Senior User
Ensures that the services delivered by the project meet the needs of
user stakeholders

12.
Project Roles
Senior
Supplier
Represents the team delivering the project and is accountable for the
quality, performance, technical integrity and timeliness of the supplier
deliverables
Project Board
Provides overall governance for the project. The key members of the Project
Board are the Project Executive, the Senior User and the Senior Supplier

13.
Project Roles
User Group
Represents the diverse range of user stakeholders for the project. The
primary responsibility of the User Group is to ensure that the project
deliverables meet the needs of users. The Senior User typically chairs the
User Group and represents user interests on the Project Board
Project Manager
Has day to day responsibility for running the project and is accountable to
the Project Board. The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that
project produces the required deliverables within the tolerances agreed
with the Project Board

14.
Project Roles
Project
Assurance
An audit function used to ensue that the project is being run correctly and
that complete and accurate information reaches the Project Board.

15.
Governance Assessment
PROJECT
TEAM
PROJECT
BOARD
USER
GROUP
SCORES (For Each Governance Element)
0 = Not Started
1–3 = Emerging, immature and/or incomplete
4–6 = Progressing towards best practice
7–10 = Mature and working effectively
REASONS FOR SCORING
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

16.
Visualisation – Single Assessment
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Vision
Business Case
Sponsorship and
Stakeholder Buy-In
Team Building
Communication
Governance
Structures
Project Management
Risk Management &
Assurance
Implementation
Measurement
Business As Usual
Benefits & Ongoing
Improvement
Learning

17.
Visualisation – Assessment Over Time
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Vision
Business Case
Sponsorship and
Stakeholder Buy-In
Team Building
Communication
Governance Structures
Project Management
Risk Management &
Assurance
Implementation
Measurement
Business As Usual
Benefits & Ongoing
Improvement
Learning
___ July 2013
___ Feb 2014

18.
Act Following Assessment
Focus on the governance elements most needing attention
Publicise outcomes and increase project engagement
Recognise and reinforce existing good practice
Follow up suggestions for improvement
IMPROVE
PROJECT
OUTCOMES

19.
Feedback So Far
We have had some success with the Major Projects Assessment
Toolkit. The gap for us was sizing across the project piece. We have
addressed this by amending the toolkit so that we can understand the
requirements for different sizes of project.
This looks really interesting, I have asked our internal auditors to do a
review of projects and programmes to pick up on exactly some of these
issues!
We hope that the governance assessment and visualisation tool will help
people understand where we are and aren’t making progress with our
projects’ health. It seemed very clear to us, and we are always looking at
ways to present concepts visually.

20.
Any Questions?
UCISA Project and Change
Management Group
https://twitter.com/UCISA_PCMG
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/UCISAPCMG
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Join our mailing list to have your say and find out more!
Major Project Governance
Assessment Toolkit