A quick summary of the key things to consider in a technology delivery projects

1. Project Delivery;
What good looks like
Matthew Rees
5 April 16

2. I will look at project delivery
from four perspectives
○ Purpose – why are we doing this?
○ Scope – what are we doing?
○ Plan – how and when will we do it?
○ Stakeholders – who is involved?

3. The purpose of the project
directs everything within it
○ Projects are done to provide business
benefits to the client
○ The content of the project may change,
e.g. additional deliverables, but the
purpose is constant
○ It is important to keep focused on the
purpose and not to get side-tracked on
irrelevant details

4. The scope defines what is to be
produced and the extent of this
○ The scope is what the project must
deliver, i.e. the supplier’s responsibility
○ The scope of work covers the outputs
required, e.g. materials catalogue, and
what they are to be applied to, e.g. the
source datasets to be included
○ The first formal definition of the scope
is in the contract

5. Good scope management
requires:
○ Precise specifications to define each
aspect of the project, e.g. file formats
○ Change control to manage changes to
the specifications
○ Effective governance to approve
specifications and changes
○ Without these the supplier risks doing
extra work at the same cost

6. The Governance Model defines the
project roles and responsibilities

7. The plan specifies what will be
done when and by whom
○ The Work Breakdown Structure shows
all the activities that need to be
performed and who will perform each
of them
○ The schedule shows when they will be
performed taking into account the
dependencies between them and the
availability of resources

8. An effective plan requires:
○ Knowledge of the work so that the
effort can be estimated accurately
○ Understanding of the dependencies so
that a valid schedule can be produced
○ Commitment to make the resources
available when required
○ Understanding of the risks that may
deflect the plan

9. Keeping on plan requires:
○ Clear statements of the work to be
done in each activity
○ Regular review of progress with all
people working on the project
○ Anticipating and managing risks, e.g.
availability of resources
○ Regular communication on the project
status to the Steering Group etc.

10. The stakeholders are anybody
with an interest in the project
○ Stakeholders are groups of people who
are impacted by the project and/or
have an influence over it
○ Stakeholders who are impacted by the
project include the users of the
systems and of the data within them
○ Stakeholders who can influence the
project include senior management in
the client and sparesFinder

11. Effective stakeholder
management requires:
○ Identification of all of the groups of
stakeholders and an understanding of
the level of commitment required
○ A range of communications activities,
e.g. emails and meetings, that are
suited to each group and to the
messages that need to be delivered

12. The Stakeholder Plan identifies
and categorises stakeholders
Stakeholder Plan
Stakeholders Status Communications
Group Key People Involvement Influence on Impacted by Commitment Forum Updates PSR Ad hoc
medium medium Advocate mandatory yes no yes
medium medium Advocate mandatory yes no yes
low high Engage optional yes no yes
medium high Engage optional yes no yes
medium medium Engage mandatory yes no yes
low low Engage occasional yes no no
low low Engage mandatory yes no yes
low low Engage occasional yes no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
low low Comply occasional no no yes
high low Advocate optional yes yes yes
high low Advocate occasional no yes no
high low Engage occasional no yes no

13. The commitment scale shows
where each group needs to be
Advocate
Engage
Understand
Comply
Resist
Commitment scale
1
2 4
3 5

14. Different methods are used to get
to different levels of commitment
Telling
Selling
Consulting
Co-creating
Advocate
Engage
Understand
Comply
Resist
1
2 4
3 5

15. The PID pulls everything
together
PID
SCOPE
Outputs
Boundaries
PLAN
Tasks
Schedule
STAKEHOLDERS
Impacted
Influencing
Responsibilities
Dependencies
Work List