Thinking and Learning Schools Alliance

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Thinking and Learning Schools Alliance

• Action planning programme
• Module 3 Project Management
• Sep 04

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Preview Module 3 Project management
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• Managing successful projects
• Concepts and principles

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What do we mean by the term project?Give me
some examples
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What do we mean by the term project?

• Some definitions
• An extensive task undertaken by a student or
  group of students to apply, illustrate, or
  supplement classroom lessons (source
  Dictionary.com)
• A project is a novel undertaking to create a new
  product or service, the delivery of which signals
  completion
• A project is a piece of work with clear outcomes,
  terms of reference, start and end dates and is
  typically constrained by limited resources, eg
  time, money, people
• Successful projects consistently rely on the
  management (and balance) of three key components

Time
Cost
Quality
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What are the characteristics of projects?

• Projects are usually characterised by being
• Instruments of change
• One-off, non-routine
• Intended to achieve a specific outcome
• Within a given timeframe with defined start and
  end dates
• Composed of inter-dependent activities
• Carried out by people who often dont work
  together
• Frequently risky and involving uncertainties and
  ambiguities

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What are the benefits of a pro-active approach to
project management?

• Results FOCUS ON OUTCOMES NOT ACTIVITY Ensure
  the project delivers against its promise, on
  time, within budget and to the agreed quality
  levels
• Resources To allow priorities to be set between
  competing demands for people, time and money
• Direction To ensure the project has a clear
  sense of where its going, why its going there and
  how it will deliver its results all of which
  requires inspirational leadership!
• Communication To ensure that all relevant
  stakeholders are engaged in the project and
  understand the impact
• Teamwork To ensure the individuals perform
  together as a team and feel pride in what they
  have achieved
• Auditing To provide an audit trail post project
  completion to aid learning, ensure best value and
  build intellectual capital

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There is significant data to indicate that
projects can and do fail!
Over 61 of the projects that were analyzed
were deemed to have failed by the respondents.
More than three quarters blew their schedules by
30 or more more than half exceeded their
budgets by a substantial margin Source
KPMG Canada 1997
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Why do projects fail?

• Most failures have been put down to
• Poor project specification (too ambitious, ill
  defined outcomes, lack of detail, etc)
• Unrealistic timescales
• Poor project management (people and
  methodology)   
• Inappropriate staff
• Failure to manage stakeholder expectations
• Failure to manage the organisational change
  required
• Failure to understand the real root causes/issues

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So what are the success factors?

• In your table groups, spend 10 minutes
  identifying your view on the key factors to
  making projects a success
• Prepare a 3 minute summary of your findings

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To reduce the risk of project failure, some
common success factors have been identified

• Find a project champion that cares top level
  involvement
• Accountable, passionate, strong vested interest
  in the outcome
• Be clear on what you are trying to achieve
  clearly defined goals
• Pick your team members carefully particularly a
  good project manager
• Identify and manage risks
• Focus on a FEW projects whose impact will make a
  real difference
• Clearly manage the expectations (and alignment)
  of key stakeholders communication
• Integrated teamwork
• Sound plans and effective control processes

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At a high level, for any change programme
(project) to succeed, there are three key
ingredients

• For any project to be successful and sustainable
  (C), there must be
• A compelling reason for change (R)
• A clear vision of the future (V)
• And a coherent plan for getting there (P)
• R V P C

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Exercise

• In your table groups, spend 15 minutes discussing
  projects you have been involved in at school and
  answer the following questions
• Did you treat these pieces of work differently to
  your regular school activities/jobs and if so,
  what was different
• How were these projects managed and who provided
  direction (who was ultimately accountable)
• Did the projects deliver on time, within budget
  and to the agreed quality levels
• If they did, what were the success factors
• if not, what would you do differently next time
• Be prepared for one of your team to feedback to
  the group for 5 minutes on a flip chart

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Our view on why project management is
particularly important to schools

• Prioritisation and use of scarce resources (time,
  people, money)
• Reduce risk of lack of delivery
• Manage the hearts and minds of staff
• Need to define clear accountabilities and
  responsibilities
• Co-ordination of effort across disciplines
• Provide structure and a systematic approach
• Manage results of change/success

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A framework for managing projects within a school
Project terms of reference
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Idea, opportunity, issue, challenge

• Is it a real project?
• Does it have the right level of sponsorship and
  resources
• Is it relatively important to the school

• Outcomes
• Objectives
• Budgets
• People
• Timescales
• etc

• Did the project achieve its objectives
• Was the sponsor delighted
• Did the team learn and grow

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When would you use the full range of project
management techniques in school?
H
Effective use of good project management practices
!?!
Complexity
School as usual processes and systems
L
Scale/impact of initiative
L
H
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The project manager plays a key role in any
project

• Characteristics of individual
• Action oriented
• Big picture and detail conscious
• Planning mentality and strong sense of process
• Personable yet tough/challenging
• Tenacious

• Management
• To plan
• To coordinate
• To organise
• To manage the team
• To lead and inspire

• Focus on communication
• To seek and maintain sponsorship
• To enhance the profile of the project
• To manage stakeholder expectations

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The project manager needs to manage the
emotional, political and rational barriers on
behalf of the team to achieve success

• Active involvement
• Groundswell of support
• Senior management consensus
• Personal staff commitment
• Visible stakeholder support

• Clear vision/understanding
• Case for change
• Plan of activities
• Agreed way forward

Rational
Political
Emotional
These are the difficult bits

• Enthusiasm
• Appreciation of need
• Clear role(s)
• Engagement
• Willingness to act

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All projects will have a natural emotional curve,
and the project manager plays a pivotal role in
keeping the team on track
Confidence
ve
We are really starting to deliver results
Emotional State
This will be exciting
We have a solution
This is getting tough
I dont feel confident this is going to work but
we must press on
-ve
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• Project Management Toolkit

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To help you manage your school projects, we have
developed a toolkit
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Project terms of reference

• Setting objectives
• Project sponsorship
• Relative priority
• Initial budget
• Deliverables
• Timescales

• Mobilise the team
• DACI
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Reporting
• Closing the project down
• Change control

• Defining the scope
• Constraints
• Costs/budgets
• Resources
• Approach
• Plans

• WWW/EBI and action planning
• Lessons learnt
• Knowledge capture
• Celebration

• Planning/monitoring/corrective actions
• Risk management
• Stakeholder management/communications planning
• Peer review, feedback, coaching and mentoring

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Project definition and terms of reference
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Project terms of reference

• Setting objectives
• Project sponsorship
• Relative priority
• Initial budget
• Deliverables
• Timescales

• Mobilise the team
• DACI
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Reporting
• Closing the project down
• Change control

• Defining the scope
• Constraints
• Costs/budgets
• Resources
• Approach
• Plans

• WWW/EBI and action planning
• Lessons learnt
• Knowledge capture
• Celebration

• Planning/monitoring/corrective actions
• Risk management
• Stakeholder management/communications planning
• Peer review, feedback, coaching and mentoring

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Project definition phase

• Setting objectives
• Setting objectives or goals provides direction
  and a focus on results
• They need to be Specific, Measurable, Agreed,
  Realistic, Time-bound (SMART)
• Allows for planning and prioritisation
• Communicates and motivates for success
• Project sponsorship and stakeholders
• Who has got a vested interest in this working
• Who is ultimately accountable for the projects
  success

• Relative priority
• Where does this fit alongside the schools
  strategic and operational plan
• Initial budgets
• Costs estimates and budget confirmation
• Deliverables
• Explicitly defined and agreed in the minds of
  senior management, stakeholders and project staff
  what would good look like at the end of the
  project
• Timescales
• When is the project due to complete

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Project terms of reference phase

• Defining the scope
• Who, where, how and what?
• What/who will be impacted as a result of the
  project
• What are the boundaries i.e. outside the scope
• Constraints
• Time, cost and quality limitations
• External factors over which you have no control
  law, geography, etc
• Risk/issues assessment
• What could go wrong, how will we know, what will
  we do about it

• Costs/budgets
• Define a detailed budget and tracking system
• Resources
• Who is directly involved?
• Who is responsible?
• Who can be utilised and by how much?
• What is expected out of each resource?
• Approach
• What are the major blocks of work that will be
  undertaken
• How are they linked together
• Plans
• Key milestones
• Work breakdown structure
• Activities and dependencies
• Resource allocation

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Exercise

• In your syndicate teams
• Select a current school project from one of your
  team and complete the Project Definition and
  Terms of Reference phases
• You have 45 minutes to complete this exercise
• Then, make a short presentation (5 mins) to the
  rest of the group covering
• Essence of the project definition
• Key learning points to take back into school

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Brown paper planning

• Brown paper planning is a simple but highly
  effective way to identify who does what by when.
  It is a high-touch low-tech planning tool (as
  opposed to using PC planning tools such as
  Microsoft Project)
• Some tips for brown paper planning
• First, notice the time-line and swim-lane concept
  showing different stakeholder groups
• Use of different colour/shape post-its. Arrows
  for milestones triangles for decision points
  yellow squares for activities, red squares for
  questions/issues. The benefit of this is to
  maximise visual impact and enable teams to move
  post-it notes around giving the tool flexibility
• Start planning from the end backwards, i.e.
  define the milestones
• Write on the post-it notes who should do each
  task
• Critical paths can be identified by linking
  activities together

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Facilitated exercise (20-30 mins)

• Brown paper planning in practice
• I need 6 volunteers please to help me plan a
  house move

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The project delivery phase
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Project terms of reference

• Setting objectives
• Project sponsorship
• Relative priority
• Initial budget
• Deliverables
• Timescales

• Mobilise the team
• DACI
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Reporting
• Change control
• Closing the project down

• Defining the scope
• Constraints
• Costs/budgets
• Resources
• Approach
• Plans

• WWW/EBI and action planning
• Lessons learnt
• Knowledge capture
• Celebration

• Planning/monitoring/corrective actions
• Risk management
• Stakeholder management/communications planning
• Peer review, feedback, coaching and mentoring

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Mobilise the team

• Brief team members on context and rationale for
  the project
• Discussion about the need for change
• Jointly develop a view about the key issues,
  approach, roles, etc
• ResultTeam mobilised

General communication to relevant stakeholders

• Brief team members fully and ensure everyone is
  signed up
• Agree groundrules with team members
• ResultTeam Alignment

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Responsibility charting (DACI) is a simple
documentation technique

• Who Does the work
• Who is Accountable
• Who is Consulted
• Who is Informed

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DACI is named after the roles
D - The doer - the person who actually
conducts an activity A - Ultimate ownership
the person who carries the risk if it all goes
wrong C - A person who must be consulted
before decision/action is taken I - A person
who must be informed after decision/action is
taken
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PSTB Problem Solving Team Building
The process has 7 steps for the team to work
through
30 min example
Problem Statement
5 mins
Background
Idea Generation
10 mins
Idea Selection
Benefits/ Concerns Analysis
10 mins
Work Critical Concerns
Action Plan
5 mins
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Facilitated exercise (20 minutes)

• I need a problem owner to help me please
• The rest of the group will act as resources
• I will facilitate the process
• I need a volunteer to act as a scribe please

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Project reporting - examples
Programme Dashboard
Overall Assessment
Planning Quality
Progress Report
Stakeholder Management
Risks
Deliverables
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Change control

• Critical for managing scope creep
• Ensure there are version numbers on the terms of
  reference and any project documentation
• Get any changes to the terms or reference signed
  off by the sponsor
• Re-issue documents if the changes are material
• Keep a project log of changes What was the
  change, why was it introduced, what was the
  impact, who requested it and agreed to it

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Project closedown
Actions required

• Stakeholders
• Sign off reports and completion document
• Evaluate project performance
• Agree acceptance criteria
• Agree follow on activities
• Project team
• Review outstanding issues
• Agree actions for outstanding issues
• Confirm all actions plans outstanding completed
• Update project records
• Review team performance
• Reward team performance
• Identify valuable learning point

Project completion report

• Requirements achieved
• Benefits achieved
• Final cost of the project and variance from the
  budget
• Any outstanding issues, actions to resolve and
  dates for completion
• Summary of responsibilitiestransferred
• Summary of people reassignments
• Key lessons learnt
• Project documentation

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Learning review phase
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Project terms of reference

• Setting objectives
• Project sponsorship
• Relative priority
• Initial budget
• Deliverables
• Timescales

• Mobilise the team
• DACI
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Reporting
• Closing the project down
• Change control

• Defining the scope
• Constraints
• Costs/budgets
• Resources
• Approach
• Plans

• WWW/EBI and action planning
• Lessons learnt
• Knowledge capture
• Celebration

• Planning/monitoring/corrective actions
• Risk management
• Stakeholder management/communications planning
• Peer review, feedback, coaching and mentoring

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The learning review phase is an integral and
important part of the whole project

• Simple review WWW/EBI should be done weekly
  during project and at the end of project
• What did we learn from this project
• Analyse what happened at each phase
• Work out the critical success factors
• Interview team members (by a third party if
  necessary)
• Check with the project sponsor
• Knowledge capture
• Look for re-useable knowledge in terms of forms,
  methodologies, tools, skills, techniques
• Start a project knowledge bank (a simple file or
  electronic storage area)
• Celebrate
• Take the team AND key stakeholders out for
  drinks/lunch/dinner

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End to end management of the project
Project delivery
Project definition
Learning review
Project terms of reference

• Setting objectives
• Project sponsorship
• Relative priority
• Initial budget
• Deliverables
• Timescales

• Mobilise the team
• DACI
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Reporting
• Closing the project down
• Change control

• Defining the scope
• Constraints
• Costs/budgets
• Resources
• Approach
• Plans

• WWW/EBI and action planning
• Lessons learnt
• Knowledge capture
• Celebration

• Planning/monitoring/corrective actions
• Risk management
• Stakeholder management/communications planning
• Peer review, feedback, coaching and mentoring

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Project planning using brown paper
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Gantt chart
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Alternative planning and communication tool
Work/life balance
Each action appears in a box on the plan
Sept 2005
Support Staff
Example categories
Mar 2005
ICT
Example time periods
Sept 2004
Administration
Jun 2004
Timetable
Mar 2004
Dec 2003
Miscellaneous
Ph 1 Quick Wins
Ph 2 Getting the Basics in Place
Ph 3 Longer Term Plans
Example phases
Remodelling Resources v6.0 Section 4
Remodelling in Practice Page 49
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Risk Management (A)
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Why do risks occur?

• Projects only fail due to three fundamental
  reasons
• We make the wrong assumptions
• OR
• We wrongly assess the significance of the
  assumptions we make
• OR
• The assumptions become invalid
• Therefore the capture, analysis and communication
  of theseassumptions is critical to the success
  of any project

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Assumption analysis

• What is an assumption?
• Definition An Assumption is a single, simple,
  positive or negative statement
• ie something will or will not occur
• eg 1000 LEA resources will sign up for training
• or LEA Remodelling Consultants will be available
  to support schools
• or It will not be necessary to get WAMG sign-off
  for CoP material

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Task 1 Assumption creation

• Generate the assumptions (ve and ve) you are
  making in your area of the project
• Write them on to Post-its (individually)
• Put the Post-its on a flip chart
• Cluster the Post-its
• Write summary assumption Post-its for the major
  groups

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Assumption analysis

• Two Key Characteristics of any Assumption
• Confidence How likely is the Assumption to
  change ?
• i.e. how confident are we?
• A very stable/confident
• D very unstable/unconfident
• Significance How sensitive is the
  project/programme to the
  Assumptions changing
• i.e. how much does it matter if the assumption is
  incorrect?
• A not significant/minimal impact
• D very significant/critical impact
• In general A No problem, D Big problem

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Task 2 Rate the assumptions

• As a team, place the Post-it assumption
  descriptions on the priority matrix

Team..
Unconfident/Unstable
D
C
Confidence (How likely will the
assumption change?)
B
A
Confident/Stable
A
B
C
D
Significance (to project)
Noproblem
Big problem
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Assumption Analysis

• What do the assumption prioritisations mean?

D
Potential Risks
Risks
C
Assumption Confidence
B
Potential Risks
Reasonable Assumptions
A
A
B
C
D
Significance to Project
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Definition of a risk
A RISK is the following IF action does or does
not take place THEN there is a resulting
consequence THAT will happen at a specific time
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Risk prioritisation

• Classify risks in terms of
• Impact i.e. How would the risk impact the
  project.
• Greenminor impact impacts the team
  internal/deliverable
• Ambersignificant impact impacts a key
  milestone/stakeholder
• Redcritical impact one or more CSFs will not
  be met
• Controllability i.e. who controls the risk?
• Time i.e. When will the risk start to impact
  the project

Controllable byteam/individual
Controllableat programmelevel
Under externalcontrol
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Task 3 Risk description and rating

• For the low confidence/highly significant
  assumptions create a risk register

?
?
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Task 4 Create the Risk bubble chart
Team.
ABC
Major
XYZ
Impact
Minor
Dec
April
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
Timing
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Risk Management (B)

• Risk management is a core element of the
  successful management of any project
• A key goal of risk management is to cultivate
  support amongst senior management, stakeholders
  and other participants, for the actions that are
  needed to reduce or mitigate the risk
• The risks for any project will either be inherent
  (i.e. result from the nature and scope of the
  project) or acquired (i.e. result from the
  selected model, approach, tools and techniques
  etc. that are applied to the project)
• The management of risk needs to be a continuous
  process to refine and re-assess the risks, their
  impact and likelihood

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Dealing with risk
Project objectives School impact including
management of expectations Stakeholder
management Scope and approach Project
organisation/structure
Categories of risk
Risk analysis
Cause Likelihood that the risk will occur (age
probability) Consequences/impact (quantified if
possible) Risk Evaluation classification matrix
Reducing the likelihood Reducing the
consequences/impact Avoiding the risk Managing
the risk Transfer the risk Accepting the risk
Risk management
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Risk classification matrix
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Risk classification matrix
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Stakeholder mapping
Attitudes, influence, and levels of involvement
in the project can be mapped
Involvement
A key individual disrupts the communication
between Team R and the Line Manager by making
threats
Z
Team R
Functional Group 1
Dir. 2
GroupK
GroupX
Y
LineMgr
Strength of relationship
Strong
Head of Org
Functional Group 2
Weak
Dir. 1
Size of Bubble Degree of influence
Y
For the Change
Against the Change
Attitude
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Table exercise (20 minutes)

• In pairs, discuss a project or change initiative
  you are involved in and map the stakeholders
• At the start
• At the end
• Please be prepared to feedback for 3 minutes on
  the insights the tool gave you

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Communications Plan - example
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Application back in school

• In pairs, develop personal action plans that you
  will commit to taking back into school (10 mins
  each)