Edito

Dear colleagues,

This is a very special issue. Not only

because it presents the lessons

learned on the NSC and Waiting

Queues projects, but also because it

is the last published under my cus-

tody. This newsletter is just part of

a great adventure that started three

years ago and that has thrown up

new challenges for me and allowed

me and my team to accomplish some

remarkable things. I’m also taking

this opportunity to thank all of them.

The adventure does not end here, of

course. This newsletter will continue

to report project management topics

to the PM community next year, so

keep sending in your ideas and ar-

ticles.

Baudouin de Hepcée

Content

• Edito . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

• NSC: was it a success

and why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 2

• Waiting Queues & PMF . . . . . . . . 3

• PMF: the plan phase . . . . . . . . . . 4

• Post Academy is there for you! . . 4

• Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

You know someone who would like to subscribe to this newsletter? Contact: alainp.dupont@post.be

Was the NSC Project actually a suc-

cess? And if it was, what were the

reasons of such a success and the real

things that did make the difference?

The purpose of the NSC project is to

transform the way Mail’s logistics

backbone operates. There are risks at-

tached, but this large-scale, complex

project has been a success thus far,

although we’ re still rolling out round

sorting.

I’ve decided to focus here on a few

things that made the difference in the

NSC project.

Design phase and decision process

We invested thousands of hours de-

signing the NSC project so as to avoid

any serious problems in the execution

phase. Project design is all about tur-

ning a PM’s vision into a detailed de-

scription of every facet of the project,

anticipating every question, issue and

risk. The goal is to define exactly what

you will and won’t do, and particularly

why. That is the only way to ensure

the decision process is solid and all

stakeholders are squarely behind the

project at every stage.

Many projects fail because of a poorly

managed decision process – when de-

cisions are based on gut feelings or lack

the full backing of all decision-makers.

You have to ensure that the whole or-

ganisation is behind a decision and un-

derstands why it is necessary.

Leadership

Managing a complex project like NSC

is not a popularity contest. It involves

creating and communicating a vision,

defining roles and responsibilities,

managing priorities, focusing every-

body on execution, coordinating ef-

forts, communicating to all parties and

more.

1

Please submit your articles to:

alainp.dupont@post.be

NSC: was it a success and why?

Project Management NewsletterN° 2 I October 2007

2

Our CEO and former chairman both

sponsored NSC fully, showing their

confidence in the project team. The

fact that we were a relatively small,

solid group with full final responsibil-

ity helped us a lot. A project team can

never achieve anything in isolation of

course; it must interact with hundreds

of other people, each with their own

role to play, each of which need to be

mobilised. But when push comes to

shove, the project team has to drive.

Managing so many different parti-

cipants consumes a lot of time and

resources. We anticipated this by

achieving critical mass in terms of

staffing, to ensure we were always in

a position to work efficiently, drive the

project and earn the trust of the en-

tire organisation while generating the

least resistance.

Project team and structure

We reviewed the roles and responsi-

bilities of project team members every

3 months to ensure the right task was

always assigned to the right person

and to maximise use of all internal and

external project resources. The success

of a project like NSC depends not only

on staff; structure

and management

are also crucial. We

structured the NSC

project in 26 sub-

projects rather than

departments or

workflows, which

can cause pitfalls

and communica-

tion/alignment is-

sues. Each subproject had its own

manager, timetable, scope, milestones

and deliverables. All 26 subprojects

were incorporated in EPM to optimise

management of interdependencies.

We also added a second dimension

to programme organisation – content

experts (systems, sorting equipment,

processes, HR, customer impact etc) to

fulfil a cross-project role based on their

specific expertise.

We certainly haven’t underestimated

the team management dimension. We

made sure we put together a strong

team – it’s the team

that achieves success,

not individuals – with

special attention for

emotional cycles, in-

cluding celebrating

victories, managing

difficult times and

their consequences

for motivation. We

have all become

friends who trust and help each other.

Each and every one of us is committed

to investing our head, heart and soul

to make it happen. It has been tough

but fun!

Change management

Every project entails a change, by its

very nature. And, by its very nature,

every change generates resistance.

We anticipated this early on in the NSC

project in the ‘managing the change’

subproject.

Conclusion

Leading a complex project like NSC

to success is very much a question of

values, attitude and mindset. We have

kept our focus on details, always re-

mained diligent in our analysis and

decisions, and showed the will to suc-

ceed. This is where we have made the

difference.

Olivier van der Brempt

Project Management Newsletter

“Leading NSC to success is very

much a question of values, attitudes

and mindset”

“A project team can never achieve anything in isolation. It must interact with thousands of other people”

3

Can small projects do without a

framework? PM newsletter asked

Brigitte Vanopdenbosch, Waiting

Queues Pro-ject Manager between

June 05 and May 07.

PM: Would you remind us of the goals

of Waiting Queues?

BV: The goal of the project was – and

still is as it is ongoing – to initiate a

sustainable reduction in customer

waiting times at post offices and

improve customer perceptions of such

waiting times.

PM: How come it’s defined as a small

project?

BV: Because of the limited budget and

resources that were allocated. But just

because it’s not a major project doesn’t

mean it’s not important. The purpose

of the project is to improve the quality

of our customer service.

PM: Did Waiting Queues look like a

complicated project from your posi-

tion?

BV: It was my first project, so it cer-

tainly appeared complicated to me at

the beginning. That’s why I needed a

methodology such as the PMF to guide

me and structure my management of

the project.

PM: What were the most useful

Project Management Framework

tools you used?

BV: The PMF covers all the important

aspects of the project. The Work Break-

down Structure (WBS) certainly helped

in building my approach to the project.

The detailed project charter was also

important in the initiation phase. It was

crucial for me to efficiently summa-

rise the sponsors’ expectations, give

a clear definition of the project scope

to all actors and enable validation by

all stakeholders in a single document.

Communication tools were important

too. Project progress reports are the

best way to communicate important

messages up the hierarchy. The issue

logbook, meeting minutes and action

lists also helped the team to work

efficiently on the project.

PM: Does that mean the PMF is the

solution to all project-related pro-

blems?

BV: Not at all, sometimes you have to

resolve issues with your own skills. That

was the case with the SPOC identifica-

tion for proper empowerment at the

various Business and Services Units.

It gave us the opportunity to discover

the internal working processes within

each BU/SU. The transfer to the busi-

ness was also a concern. Nevertheless,

I do feel the PMF is a great help, as it

guides you through the management

of the entire project. It also helps pro-

vide a clear definition of the project

goals. The templates provide the

documentation that enables the team

to keep working on the project even

when the project manager is absent.

Last but not least, it applies the project

management principles that ensure

senior management takes the project

seriously.

Interviewer: Alain Dupont

What is the PMF?The Project Management Framework is a living tool based on needs and feedback from Project and Program Managers, but also from the business. It gathers all components that are essential for successful management of a project throughout all its phases and all areas of project management.

More info: http://wss.netpost/corporate

Project Management Newsletter

PMF helped Waiting Queues

Brigitte Vanopdenbosch: “Small projects such as Waiting Queues are also important and need therefore some methodology.”

Post Academy is there for you!

Corporate Program Management is working closely with Post Academy to expand and improve Post

Academy’s project management catalogue. The entire training catalogue is available on the intranet.

Be sure to check back regularly for updates. Here is our selection for the next weeks:

Many thanks to: Guy De Smet, Jean-Paul Letor, Olivier Van der Brempt, Brigitte Vanopdenbosch and Translation Services for their participation to this edition. Lay out and printing: Postal Printing House. Responsible editor: Baudouin de Hepcée.

The electronic version of this is newsletter’s edition is also available on: http://wss.netpost/corporate

Let’s continue our PMF trip by going through the fundamentals of the project plan phase.

If a key phrase of the initiate phase is ‘high level’, in the plan phase it’s ‘details’. In the plan phase it is PM’s job to define and refine project goals in a written scope statement, which is the starting point for all future project decisions.

The following processes are part of this phase:

- Obtaining agreement on in & out of scope, which is a very important factor for ma-naging stakeholder expectations.

- Defining project activities and delivera-bles based on detailed WBS and adapted scope

- Identifying & validating interdependen-cies with other projects or BUs

- Assessing the needs of internal SUs or ex-ternal vendors

- Developing a detailed resource plan

- Developing a detailed schedule - Developing a detailed business case

based on documented assumptions

Some of these processes have clear de-pendencies that require them to be per-formed sequentially. Project activities must be defined before they can be scheduled or costed.

The PM has to ensure project buy-in by im- pacted organisations, with the support of the project sponsors and the project leader. Failure to generate buy-in typically creates confusion and demands substantial extra efforts later down the line.

After they are recorded in the detailed project charter, the project scope and plan have to be presented to PAC for activation if the total cash expenditure is > € 200,000 or > 350 ICT MD.

See PMF & PMBOK for more details.

Jean-Paul Letor

Tips

Identify inter- dependencies with other projects

Watch out for other projects

that are working on pro-

ducing a deliverable that

could affect your project’s

activities. For example if

your project is defining a

new sales channel stra-

tegy and another project is

developing new products,

this might impact your

project. If this is the case,

invite someone of the other

project to participate in

your project as a core team

member or ad hoc expert.

Create clear and easily measurable responsibilities

When developing a resource

plan describe the tasks on

a general level and start

with an active verb. In this

way, you will have already

developed major input for

the performance manage-

ment form. Some examples

of active verbs are: advise,

approve, change, compose,

control, define, determine,

ensure, formulate, lead, pre-

pare, realize, set up… When

a team member is staffed

on the project, share with

him the roles & responsibili-

ties so he knows completely

what is expected from him.

Phase 1: INITIATE Phase 2: PLAN Phase 3: EXECUTE Phase 3: CLOSE

4

Project Management NewsletterProject Management Framework: the plan phase

Domain Training FR dates NL dates

Project Management Methodology AdvancedProjectPlanningWorkshop 07/12/07 23/11/07 20/12/07Project Management Tools DynamicProjectManagementFramework(3days) 17/12/07 24/10/07 ManageyourprojectswithMSProject2003 30/11/07 04/12/07 BusinessCaseCalculation-IFBD 12/11/07Communication Assertiveness(2days) 05/11/07 Meetingtechniques(basic) 06/12/07 Meetingtechniques(advanced) 13/12/07 Persuade 15/10/07 Effectivepresentationsin 25/10/07 25/10/07 English(2days) Presentationtechniques(2days) 13/12/07 12/10/07 04/12/07