Project Booster: Aligning for Success
The Project Booster workshop described below brings together the key business owners of the project, and the project delivery team to ensure (strategic) alignment of the business domains1 with the project, and coordination and trust between all parties involved.
The Seminar
We offer a highly interactive Alignment for Project Success three-day seminar.
Day One
In day one we will provide insight and learning into:
- pitfalls: the typical pitfalls of ICT projects: how they happen and how to avoid them;
- the three cultures: a walk through the gaps in language, understanding, focus, and expectations of the three cultural domains, and their possible consequences for projects. Special attention will be given to the Operational Culture, its characteristics and motivations and their implications for projects; the Executive Information Gap and to the positioning of the external party in relation to the three cultures;
- complexity in projects: its implications and strategies to deal with it, including an understanding of the difference between complicated and complex: how to recognise it and how to work with it. How the engineering culture approaches complex domains and the implications for systems design;
- change processes: how they work. How systems react to changes introduced to them – as in the case of large projects;
- decision-making: different models for decision making within projects and their implications for project design, information flow, involvement and motivation. Control and trust issues within the different models.
- ownership: accountability versus SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem) in projects: from expectations to design to change management.
In the afternoon we will investigate the goals and expectations for the project. Using a process of collaborative brainstorming we will come to a shared understanding of the success criteria for the project.
Day Two
The second day will be dedicated to flushing all the issues and concerns around the project at hand. We will use Open Space Technology (OST – a specialised collaborative technology, used this year, for example, by Microsoft in their annual Professional Development Conference) to create an inventory of all issues involved and to explore many of those issues together.
Day Three
We will start day three with prioritising the issues and concerns raised the day before and creating momentum
towards resolution of a number of those.
Based on a complete listing of issues and concerns we will dedicate the second half of the morning to a collaborative
exploration of safe-guards for the project. We will use a specialised process
(Dialogue Café2, recently used, for example, by the ACS QLD) to create a list of project safe-guards.
In the afternoon we will share a library of know-how, tips, and tricks of the trade to improve the probability of success.
Rounding off the seminar will entail a collaborative session strengthening involvement and personal commitment of participants
and listing the first further steps for project improvement to be taken.
Seminar Outcomes
Participants will acquire:
- deeper insight into the many factors involved in ensuring the well-being of a project;
- enhanced ability to recognise and avoid project pitfalls;
- a library of know-how, tips, and tricks of the trade to improve the probability of success;
- working knowledge of collaborative knowledge gathering, brainstorming, and communication techniques;
- a comprehensive inventory of project issues;
- a listing and shared understanding of expectations expressed as success criteria for the project;
- a listing and shared understanding of safe-guards for project success;
- enhanced personal commitment and involvement of the participants;
- improved communication, cooperation, trust and coordination within and around the project;
- insight into the first steps to be taken for project improvement.
A report will be provided including the issues and conversations from the seminar and further recommendations for the project.
