Assuring the delivery of major projects

Effective project delivery is of prime importance to virtually all our clients. Major projects in one form or another have increasingly become a core business activity for organisations in every sector.

Our clients in construction, transport and energy have long recognised this, but the role of projects is now much more central to the day-to-day working of all kinds of organisation. This is true even in the public sector where government departments now see Programme and Project Management – PPM – as critical to their remit.

Despite rapid growth in the scope and importance of projects, many organisations still struggle to achieve effective project delivery. Our experience points to several reasons for this. In major public sector projects, for example, there is often a mindset of assumed failure from the outset; in the construction sector there is widespread failure to learn from the lessons of previous projects.

In almost every instance we see of non-delivery, the root cause can be traced back to the start of the project. The reasons for project failure seldom materialise from thin air midway through the project; invariably they can be traced back to the way in which the project was set up.

Key causes for project failure which we have identified are:

• A failure to align and engage critical stakeholders. This means that when problems do arise, there is no common understanding of how they should be addressed. Rather, the parties fall back into partisan posturing and blame
• An inability to understand and manage risk – not just commercial risk, but risk relating to safety, relationships, the political context and so on

We have worked extensively with our clients to minimise the risk of non-delivery.

In every instance our interventions are designed to improve the way in which the project is set up for success. Perhaps the single most important part of being set up to succeed lies in not so much in formal plans and programmes but in the way the various parties build sustainable working relationships. It is these relationships which enable collaboration to endure, even when the going gets tough.

There is widespread talk of the difficult economic climate bringing an end to collaboration and partnership in project work. What’s the need, runs the argument, when we can use financial muscle to squeeze improved performance from our supply chain? All the evidence we have seen is that this approach is ultimately self-defeating as it fails to address the main reasons for non-delivery. Unless the parties to any major project are aligned in terms of goals, intent and interest, fundamental fault lines exist which will inevitably be exposed in the delivery phase.

Goal Directed Planning

In last weeks blog I mentioned Goal Directed Planning. GDP sounds like a planning tool –  and indeed that's how it started life, but to lloydmasters it is a dynamic, visual process that enables groups of people, often from different teams or organisations, to agree on a collective way forward.

Working together in one room, over one or two days, drives an output of a high level milestone plan, set around ‘themes’ or ‘result paths’ with each result path having an agreed goal, or end point. Whilst developing this plan issues are identified, hidden agendas surfaced, silos broken down and meaningful dialogue undertaken. It is an exhausting process, but apart from producing the plan, the process also engenders real engagement of all players, with participants clear on what needs to happen, by when and by who – most importantly this real understanding of the issues which will need to be faced, means that they can be added proactively, rather than ignored until they become show stoppers later on in the life of the project.

The plan itself can also act as a very elegant communication document. As on one piece of A3 paper a whole two year plan can be shown, together with dependencies, creating assurance amongst stakeholders and users, enabling a holistic view to be taken. Progress can be measured against each high level milestone, with the detail being illustrated in action plans that sit behind the top 2 milestone in each resource plan.

Goal Directed Planning has been used extensively with lloydmasters clients, helping support mergers, projects and reorganisations. The process translates well across nationalities and cultures and because it’s so visual, helps understanding. If you would like to understand more about this technique please contact lloydmasters for an information document.