Post on 18-Jul-2015
Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit
Mark Ritchie, University of Edinburgh
Pauline Woods-Wilson, Lancaster University
Project and Change Management Group
Project and Change Management Group
• Established March 2013
• Committee from across UK HE
• Committee members new to UCISA
• Focus on providing practical resources for practitioners
• Collaborative and action oriented group – more than just the sum of the parts!
“Working together to promote and develop project and change management best practice in HE and FE”
UCISA Project and Change Management Group
• ~280 subscribers on mailing list
• ~100 followers on Twitter
• 2 resources published• Major Projects Governance
Assessment Toolkit (July 2014)
• Effective Risk Management (December 2014)
• First event PCMG15 (June 2015)
“Working together to promote and develop project and change management best practice in HE and FE”
Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit
Why is it needed?
• Project governance often ineffective
• Unclear roles and responsibilities
• Lack of confidence in project status
• Focus on IT rather than business requirements and benefits
• Weak change management
• Unclear where action required
Unforeseen risks and issues Poor project outcomes
How was it developed?
Peer review by Project
and Change Management Group (2013)
Role definitions
and “business as usual” added by Lancaster University
(2014)
UCISA Best Practice Toolkit
Published (2014)
• Student Record Implementation Lessons Learned (2009)
• Shared Academic Timetabling (2010-13)
• Adopted for all major IT projects (2012)
• Research Management (2013-14)
• University Web Site CMS (2014)
• Library Management (2014-15)
What’s in the toolkit?
Governance assessment
process
Scorecard for
identifying major
projects
Project governance
elements
Role descriptions
Visualisation tool
Case studies
Major Projects
“A major project is a project that has a significant financial, operational, or reputational impact on a university or college”
COSTConsider whole life costs over 48 months
IMPACTConsider extent and nature of impact on students and staff
COMPLEXITYConsider number of external stakeholders and changes to business processes and IT systems
REPUTATIONConsider potential for reputational damage if project goes wrong
The toolkit can be used as a checklist for any project and modified to meet your institutional requirements
Project Governance ElementsVision for Change
Business Case and Alignment
Team Building Communication
ImplementationRisk
ManagementProject
ManagementGovernance Structures
MeasurementBenefits
RealisationBusiness As
UsualLearning
Sponsorship & Stakeholder
Buy in
Create vision
Engage people
Deliver
Embed
Project Roles
Project Executive (Sponsor) Project ManagerSenior User Senior Supplier Project Board User Group
Project Roles
Project Sponsor
Owns the business case and is ultimately accountable for the success or failure of the project
Senior User
Ensures that the services delivered by the project meet the needs of user stakeholders
Project Roles
Senior Supplier
Represents the team delivering the project and is accountable for the quality, performance, technical integrity and timeliness of the supplier deliverables
Project Board
Provides overall governance for the project. The key members of the Project Board are the Project Executive, the Senior User and the Senior Supplier
Project Roles
User Group
Represents the diverse range of user stakeholders for the project. The primary responsibility of the User Group is to ensure that the project deliverables meet the needs of users. The Senior User typically chairs the User Group and represents user interests on the Project Board
Project Manager
Has day to day responsibility for running the project and is accountable to the Project Board. The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that project produces the required deliverables within the tolerances agreed with the Project Board
Project Roles
Project Assurance
An audit function used to ensue that the project is being run correctly and that complete and accurate information reaches the Project Board.
Governance Assessment
PROJECT TEAM
PROJECT BOARD
USER GROUP
SCORES (For Each Governance Element)0 = Not Started 1–3 = Emerging, immature and/or incomplete4–6 = Progressing towards best practice7–10 = Mature and working effectively
REASONS FOR SCORING
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Visualisation – Single Assessment
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Vision
Business Case
Sponsorship andStakeholder Buy-In
Team Building
Communication
GovernanceStructures
Project ManagementRisk Management &
Assurance
Implementation
Measurement
Business As Usual
Benefits & OngoingImprovement
Learning
Visualisation – Assessment Over Time
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Vision
Business Case
Sponsorship andStakeholder Buy-In
Team Building
Communication
Governance Structures
Project ManagementRisk Management &
Assurance
Implementation
Measurement
Business As Usual
Benefits & OngoingImprovement
Learning
___ July 2013___ Feb 2014
Act Following Assessment
Focus on the governance elements most needing attention
Publicise outcomes and increase project engagement
Recognise and reinforce existing good practice
Follow up suggestions for improvement
IMPROVE PROJECT
OUTCOMES
Feedback So Far
We have had some success with the Major Projects Assessment Toolkit. The gap for us was sizing across the project piece. We have addressed this by amending the toolkit so that we can understand the requirements for different sizes of project.
This looks really interesting, I have asked our internal auditors to do a review of projects and programmes to pick up on exactly some of these issues!
We hope that the governance assessment and visualisation tool will help people understand where we are and aren’t making progress with our projects’ health. It seemed very clear to us, and we are always looking at ways to present concepts visually.
Any Questions?
UCISA Project and Change Management Group
https://twitter.com/UCISA_PCMG
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/UCISAPCMG-7427251/about
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Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit