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A practical approach to Project Management
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Practical Approach Needed for Project Management
Programme and project management (PPM) is becoming an increasingly important skill for all public sector organisations in delivering improvements and hitting targets. It is particularly high on the agenda within the NHS ICT world, given the scale of the task involved in implementing NPfIT. Yet experience shows that an unsophisticated application of hard-edged project management approaches to the policy process can be detrimental by creating a burdensome overhead. Furthermore it can leave people feeling that they are feeding a process rather than attacking real issues and problems.
Through our experience working with a cross-section of clients we have developed - and continue to refine – several tools and techniques to enable PPM to be more effectively and appropriately applied to policy initiatives and improve the effectiveness of more traditional programmes and projects.
The approaches we have developed have been recognised and approved across Government. They feature in Office of Government Commerce publications and are taught at the Centre for Management and Policy Studies.
The main principles underpinning these approaches and enabling PPM to be more effectively and appropriately applied to policy initiatives are:
- Be vision led and focused on outcomes;
- See policy development and delivery as a single end-to-end process;
- Emphasise deliverability as a key criterion of 'good' policy;
- Use modelling techniques to aid prioritisation and planning; and
- Take account of stakeholders, partnership arrangements and the full range of delivery options.
For example, at the start of a programme it is essential to test that its objectives will be deliverable and to take stock of progress. To achieve this in a recent project with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) we used our 22 standard questions in a series of workshops to explore the vision, and to inform the programme definition and planning in advance of the setting up of the Learning and Skills Council.
Mapping likely outcomes is another critical area. Understanding how initiatives will affect the real world helps policy teams to scope and structure an initiative, identify risks and drive benefits realisation planning. We first used our Outcome Mapping technique in the Teacher's Reform programme to define the evaluation approach.
We offer a range of programme and programme management related services including healthchecks and gateway reviews (and the occasional post-mortem!) as well as start-up support and programme office expertise. The majority of our team members are PRINCE qualified and we offer accredited PRINCE training.
If you have any questions about the subjects covered in this white paper or you would like to find out more about how Oakleigh Consulting could help your organisation, please contact us on 0161 835 4100 or email us.
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