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8½ Steps to Make Your Project Method Stick: Practical Guidance for Effective Adoption

In this 30-40 minute session, Neil Whittington shares actionable tips derived from over 20 years of experience in project management across various sectors. He provides 8½ pragmatic steps to ensure the successful adoption of project methods like Prince II or PMBOK. Attendees will learn how to simplify processes, engage stakeholders, create useful templates, and ensure effective communication to prevent reverting to old habits. This versatile advice applies not only to project management but also to software development and IT service management.

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8½ Steps to Make Your Project Method Stick: Practical Guidance for Effective Adoption

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Process Performance Zone

  2. 8½ Steps To Making A Project Method Stick Neil Whittington MD & Principal Consultant neil.whittington@arturian.com +44 (0) 1932 268657

  3. Today’s Session • 30-40 minutes duration • Usable suggestions, hints and tips • Based on experience implementing project & development methods in many different types and sizes of organisation • Session is not specific to any project method – Prince II, PMBOK etc • Advice can be applied outside of Project Management – e.g. SDLC, IT Service Management..............

  4. Presenter Background • 20 years practical experience in IT, Manufacturing and Financial Services • Established Quality Assurance functions and software testing centers for top-tier Investment Banks • Implemented several company-wide Software Development Lifecycles including one supporting 2,500 developers • Developed and deployed project and development lifecycles for clients across UK, Europe and USA • Importantly....also been a Project Manager for many years

  5. 1 Challenge, 2 Principles and 8½ Steps • At some point, most organisations look to standardise the way projects are run • Once the fanfare is over – how do you stop people drifting back to their old ways of working? • There are 2 simple principles to making change stick • It must be easy for people to understand what they need to do • It must be useful – i.e. there must be something “in it for them” • This session explores 8½ pragmatic steps any organisation can take to achieve adoption of any project method

  6. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote .. “A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” So, if you are going on this long journey ……..

  7. STEP 1 …make sure that wherever you are going is worth the effort! DON’T OVER-ENGINEER THE SOLUTION • Make sure what you need to achieve is clear - the biggest barrier to adoption is an overly complex / bureaucratic process • Be pragmatic and make sure the method is scalable – does a 3 year, 10 person project really need to be run the same as a 1 month project? • Talk to similar sized organisations, see what they have done – did it stick?

  8. STEP 2 …make sure you take a good map! MAKE IT SIMPLE FOR PEOPLE TO FIND WHAT THEY NEED • Provide a clear and simple representation of the process • Make everything people need available in one place • Processes • Guidance • Templates • Training • Ensure everything is under good version control

  9. STEP 3 ...always ask a local for directions! ENGAGE PEOPLE WHO WILL USE THE PROCESS IN DEVELOPING IT • Create a working group, engaging staff from different disciplines (PMs, business users, testers) and groups – but don’t make it a management forum! • Provide a forum to gather ongoing feedback on processes & templates • Identify “Champions” in the PM user community to act as reference points and to take a temperature check with their peers • Include identifying process improvement suggestions after each project in every PM’s annual objectives

  10. STEP 4 …check to see if there are any rickshaws running to your destination or better still, go by plane PROVIDE PRE-BUILT TEMPLATES, GUIDELINES AND EXAMPLES • Providing pre-built templates together with simple guidelines for use will accelerate adoption and encourage usage • Provide a Project Plan template that has all the tasks, resources and dependencies built it • Engage the “Champions” in gathering other good templates in use and make them available to the rest of the organisation • No training can beat a good example - take good documents from different sized projects and make them available to everyone in your process repository

  11. STEP 5 …make sure you only pack what you need PROVIDE A SCALABLE PROJECT CHECKLIST • Scalability is key to the success of any project model • Provide a single checklist for a PM to use for their project that helps them • Categorise their project and select the right model • Engage the right people / groups at the right times • Produce the right documents / deliverables / signoffs • Maintain through the project to act as a compliance tool for reviews

  12. STEP 6 …It’s ok to take a detour, as long as the destination is the same BE FLEXIBLE AND ALLOW FOR EXCEPTIONS • Provide a control mechanism that allows projects to deviate from the standards where appropriate • Publish “self assessment checklists” for key documents • Checklist of attributes / information that should be contained in the document – regardless of document format

  13. STEP 7 ...a phrase book will be essential! ENSURE COMMUNICATION IS CONSISTENT AND STRAIGHTFORWARD • Identify 4 or 5 simple “rules of the road” that relate to key challenges or compliance requirements - for example • All changes requiring over 2 days total effort must follow the Project Lifecycle • Requirements must be signed off by project sponsor • Test results must be documented and approved • Ensure all affected parties know what is changing, why and how it affects them. • Use a newsletter to keep people up to date, alert to new templates and provide hints and tips on areas people are struggling with

  14. STEP 8 …when you get somewhere special, send a postcard PUBLISH INTERNAL SUCCESS STORIES AND CASE STUDIES • People often associate process with bureaucracy - good PR for the method is worth its weight in gold • Publish case studies demonstrating how a successful project was implemented – and how some of the principles in the project method helped • Gain agreement from project teams using the method to act as a reference for teams being introduced for the first time to it

  15. Re-Cap Keep it practical - don’t over engineer the solution Make it simple for people to find what they need Engage the users of the process in its development Provide pre-built templates and good examples Provide a scalable Project Checklist Remain flexible, but controlled and allow for exceptions Keep communication simple and consistent Publish internal case studies and success stories

  16. AND FINALLY........STEP 8½ TAKE SMALL STEPS AND KEEP CHECKING YOUR PROGRESS • Get people doing one or two things well then move on

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