Posts Tagged ‘Skills’

£200billion Government Projects at Risk

Projects, like businesses, often fail because they are not properly managed, and concern is growing over the lack of experienced project managers with the skills and knowledge base needed to deliver the large projects and programmes being planned over the coming years.

A small number of recent headlines;

- ‘The strong consensus has been that the NHS and DH need commercial skills as never before’ – DH
- Out of Control: How the Government overspends on capital projects – taxpayersalliance.com
- We must attract, retail and develop talent’ – NHS Employers
- £200bn government projects ‘at risk’ – Computer world UK.com

The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently released a report titled ‘Commercial skills for complex government projects’.

The report is part of a series of NAO reports examining the current level of commercial skills and experiences in the Government. The gist of the report encompasses the above news headlines! There is a huge gap in what they term ‘commercial skills’ and expertise of the people running major projects like the colossal NHS National Programmes for IT. Originally expected to cost £2.3 billion over three years, in June 2006 the total cost was estimated by the National Audit Office to be £12.4bn over 10 years and it’s still going! Watch out for this week’s news headlines on NPfIT as Alistair Darling pledges to curb government spending. Will the National Programme for IT be cut?

The government are currently sitting on a value of major project portfolio worth around £200billion! The projects have been deemed at ‘risk’ by the Government themselves.

Key Findings

- 44% of Senior Responsible Owners (SRO) of major projects did not have any substantial commercial experience
- 14 out of 16 departmental commercial directors believe OCG has done little to address skills gap
- 8 out of 16 government departments had effective commercial leadership
- The NAO identifies ‘project management capability’ as a core skill in delivering change

What do they mean by Commercial Skills?

Many PM’s have fallen into the profession of Project Management. Project Management skills are only a very small fraction of what makes a good Project Manager. Other elements include technical abilities, communication skills and commercial awareness.

It is very common for project managers to have worked managing internal projects, therefore never having a formal contract, having only informal reporting procedures, no external communications or interaction with customers, suppliers and third party partners and so forth. Therefore, they have never had the change to actually develop these imperative commercial skills.

These commercial skills may incorporate;

1.Client focus
2.Market/industry awareness
3.Financial awareness
4.Business focus
5.Risk management

Commercial Awareness according to the University of Liverpool is, showing that you can;

- contribute to an organisation’s goals by recognising, utilising and creating opportunities
- demonstrate an understanding of what is happening in the sector understand how workplaces and organisations are structured
- understand the nature/requirements of a job display financial awareness
identify, implement/monitor idea development
- interpret data presented in a numerical or graphical format

Back in June 2009 Arras People were awarded Approved Supplier Status from NHS PASA (now merged with OCG Buying Solutions). The Commercial Resources Framework was developed, available to the DH and all NHS organisations seeking Commercial Resources. Arras People is a supplier on this framework. In theory this means a supplier on a list available to the NHS/DH recruitment staff supplying competent, qualified, commercial resources. A company on this list with 100% sole focus on Project and Programme Management. Perhaps if this framework was of more prominence and people were truly aware of it, if it was actually utilised and supplier were engaged maybe, just maybe there would be less skill shortage?

It seems bizarre that with such a skill gap in the public sector this framework is not helping people to solve the problems highlighted in the report and help overcome employee skill shortages. I hate to ask but do staff know this CRF framework exists and aims of why it came about, do NHS staff know it is available to them?

Let us know your thoughts.

Project Management Blog – Connecting Developers, Building Worlds

Building Skills For Business Recovery Through Project Management Training

Often when a recession strikes training budgets are unfortunately one of the first to be slashed, according to research that looks at previous recessions this is a fatal error! Trends show that companies who carry on investing in training are then in the healthiest position to gain competitive advantage when during recession recovery. Research from the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) also highlights one of the top reasons for project failure is poorly trained Project Managers when businesses often rely on successful projects & programmes to pull them through downturns and business change.

This view on training was recently hailed by an alliance consisting of some of the UK’s most senior business people including Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT group and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The alliance took the first-time move to issue a joint call via an open letter to employers advising them to invest in training during the downturn and to make it a top priority.
 
The letter stated “the skills of our people are our best guarantee of future prosperity – and the best investment a business can make in challenging times. We must not pay the price of failing to invest in the very talent on which our future will be built.”
 
This view was also supported by a recent report Nurturing Talent by Cranfield University which stated development of internal talent was a cost effective way to boost business performance during any period especially a downturn. The report also found that successful organisations were those that had invested in long-term focus on employee development.
 
A good example of this philosophy was demonstrated by an American based airline that trained its way out of the 2001 recession whilst still managing to make a profit.
 
By now the importance of well run projects should be obvious. It is critical that projects are delivered within time, cost and quality constraints. There is very little tolerance for delays or overruns. Customised project management training that caters for the exact needs of an organisation and its projects provides much better ROI over generic public courses. During the recession is the time to invest in your internal talent to ensure you come through strong.

Related project management video:

Everybody Has Project Management Skills (well, Almost Everybody)

Project management is simply managing

• what has to be done;

• when it needs to be done by;

• within certain cost constraints.

Did you know that a lot of what we do in our everyday lives is very similar to project management?

Can you answer YES to any of these questions:

• have you arranged a holiday?

• have you hosted a dinner party?

• have you built or purchased a house or done renovations to your home?

• have you organised a surprise party for someone?

• have you arranged a picnic with a group of friends

All of the tasks listed above require you to use project management skills. You need to work out what you want to achieve, put together a plan of how you’re going to achieve it, work out whose help you need to pull it off, and you set a budget.

For a holiday – you might delegate a lot of this work to your travel agent, and similarly to your Builder for building a house. But for things like organising a surprise party, you need to:

• work out who’s invited

• select a time and location

• send out the invitations

• organise catering (or bring a plate)

• arrange music

• organise where everyone will park to keep the party a surprise

• work out a cover story for the guest of honour

If you think that doesn’t take project management skills – think again!

And do you know what skill I think is the most critical? Common sense (or pragmatism).

If I had a dollar for every Project Manager who “talks the talk” at the start of a project, I’d be a very rich woman. And if I had a dollar for every Project Manager who successfully delivers what they set out to (who “walks the walk”), I’d be a very poor woman. And why is that? Because most people get lazy and take their eye off the ball.

It’s easy to start a project, create a nice looking Project Management Plan, and set up lots of important meetings. But when things start to go wrong, many people go to pieces, overreact, or focus on the really non important stuff (like whether their status report makes them look bad).

Common sense, especially when it comes to being able to prioritise effectively, and knowing when to compromise, is a key skill for a project manager. I’d take this over a university degree any day!

Give me someone who can sort the wheat from the chaff; who knows not to sweat the small stuff; who knows when they can afford to compromise and when not to, rather than standing their ground just for the sake of it.

For a copy of my free report – Troubleshooting the Most Common Challenges Facing Project Managers Today – just visit http://www.PMsRCool.com.

Basic Project Management Skills

Nowadays, professionals are increasingly expected to have mastered the principles of project management in addition to their many other talents. Having basic project management skills, at least, is rapidly becoming a requirement for many professionals. In a fast paced working environment, it therefore seems logical to take advantage of available tools, such as Microsoft Project software, which can help to streamline project management activities.

Once a project has been initiated, the planning phase can begin. The next step is to execute the planned tasks and ensure that they are kept on schedule until the final completion date is reached. A successful Project Manager must successfully manage four basic aspects of a project: resources, time, money and scope. Let us briefly consider how Microsoft Project software is designed to assist in the management of these four elements.

Scope

The scope of a project refers to the fact that the project itself should be clearly defined from the very beginning. The project scope may need to be adjusted as variables change during the course of events. These changes will have a knock-on effect upon the resources, time scale and budget. Microsoft Project offers a project guide to assist in the setting up of a new project.

Resources

Project management involves the effective management of all resources needed for the project. These include personnel, equipment and all materials required for project completion. Microsoft Project allows the user to input all the necessary resources required for the project and assign resources to a particular task. It is also possible to review how efficiently resources are being used.

Time

Any project can be broken down into a list of tasks which need to be performed and approximation of how long each task will take. The principle difficulty is that many of these tasks will need to be performed simultaneously. Microsoft Project allows the user to design and manage Gantt charts, which are very useful for monitoring progress. A PERT analysis indicates the duration of particular tasks. Critical path analysis, which highlights those tasks that dictate the start date and finish date, can also be performed with Microsoft Office software.

Money

Completing projects within budget is a key aspect of project management. Expenses, contingency plans for unexpected costs and potential future profits all need to be considered. Microsoft Project allows you to create a budget for your project and subsequently calculate costs as the project progresses.

It is becoming increasingly important for individuals to have project management capabilities in their armamentarium of talents. Microsoft Project training courses can assist you and your employees or colleagues to fine tune your project management skills and potentially enhance your chances of success in the workplace.

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Every Day Project Management Skills – Yes, You are a Project Manager

Many people have used the term ‘Project Management’ without a real appreciation of what Project Management actually is. If you read the textbooks they will talk about projects as having a beginning, a middle and an end, which is the essential and obvious difference from normal business operations. Text books also talk about uniqueness, a timescale, using resources and carrying a budget. They may also talk about risk, issue and change management. But what does all this mean in practical terms?

Project management is essentially four phases – initiation, planning, execution and closure. 1)An Initiation/Start which is the stage where you decide you need a project 2)Planning is the stage where you plan the project and map out what is going to happen when 3)Execution is the stage where you implement the project and things start moving and 4)Closure is the stage where you decide the project is completed (and you pay the supplier).

These four phases are called a project lifecycle. This all sounds very complicated and business-like, so let me explain what it means in real terms.

If you need to replace your kitchen you may need the agreement of your partner. Assuming your partner agrees then congratulations, you have just initiated a project (and achieved the buyin of a key stakeholder!)

Next stage is the planning stage where you will probably first decide your budget. Then chances are you will want to decide what kind of units you want so you may go to a kitchen supplier to provide the whole lot, or you may go to individual suppliers for the units, cooker, fridge, electrics, plastering, tiling etc. A schedule and price should be agreed which should be checked against your budget – and sometimes this will need a replan. The order that you want your suppliers to come onsite must also be decided – you will want the electrician to come before the plasterer. This stage will probably take the most time (it’s all in the planning!)

Next you will enter the execution stage – which is where all your suppliers will perform their part of the project at the specified time to the specified budget (!and your kitchen is complete.

And finally, you will want to close the project. You need to make sure all suppliers deliver to their scope, quality and budget and bring it together in an overall cost model…… simple, eh?

Whether you are aware of it or not, you have project managed the installation of your new kitchen and in doing so you have invoked some simple project management processes – the obvious ones are planning, budgeting, supplier management, but you may have also unconsciously invoked others. For instance you may have done some risk management (say if the kitchen is not completed on time), communications or stakeholder management (who needs to know that the kitchen is out of action and when will it be completed?), contracts management (agreeing the size and scope and payment terms of the work to be performed ), change management (what happens if you change your mind, or you are forced to change your mind by unforeseen circumstances). Wittingly or not, you will most likely have invoked some or all (or more) of these processes and more in the management of your fairly simple kitchen installation project.

But what if the project was a house, or a supermarket, or a factory? These would be far more complicated to implement. There will be more suppliers involved, more money at stake, a greater likelihood that things could go wrong and therefore greater risk. There are likely to be more stakeholders, more lines of communication. A project management methodology will manage processes, schedules, documentation in order to achieve the final goal. Standard processes and methodologies will ensure consistency.

And this is what a Project Manager does, and is where Project Management Methodologies and Tools come in. A good Project Methodology will provide all the tools, all the processes so that you can document and manage your project, whatever its size and scope. If you work for a medium or large company chances are it uses a project methodology to standardise the process. There are processes and methodologies available on the internet to download and implement straight away.

Related project management video:

projectmanagementzerotopro.com This tutorial introduces Project Management as a first step towards PMP Certification.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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