Opportunity

Since 1988, TAP has been a pioneer in applying robust automation approaches to science-based processes in leading-edge fields such as genomics, cell culture and drug discovery. There are over 250 TAP systems in intensive use worldwide, helping many of the world’s leading companies in pharmaceuticals and life sciences to develop the next generation of pharmaceutical products.

Based close to the ‘Cambridge cluster’ of leading life sciences companies, TAP is recognised as a world leader in its field. TAP has succeeded in a new industry sector — life sciences automation — which it had played a significant role in creating.

This success, and the growth of the sector, means TAP is being asked to tackle increasingly complex projects, that combine an understanding of business requirements, precision engineering of automated systems, and leading edge R&D.

Approach

As automation becomes increasingly critical to the success of pharmaceutical giants, TAP’s systems are having to integrate ever more closely with order management and other key business systems in place at client sites. CITI is helping TAP to assess its project management capability against global ‘best practice’, and identify any useful lessons learnt from experience in other sectors, that are relevant to the unique challenges that TAP faces.

This is an example of CITI’s very successful practice in project assurance and ‘forensic’ project management, designed to help companies ensure that project management capability is up to the task, and to identify any potential problems before they become critical. Project education improves overall skills; project assurance can provide a ‘hands on’ focus on current projects, and an early warning system for senior management that avoids ‘surprises’. It also helps to identify specific areas for improvement, that will keep companies ahead of the game in an increasingly competitive world.

Outcome

A growing number of organisations are realising that success or failure of particular projects is both critical to public and market perception of the company, and can make a difference of £millions — positive or negative — to the bottom line. However good your project management capability, it is worth the effort to ensure that everything that can be done is being done to assure success, especially when facing new challenges that are critical to the business.

Opportunity

BT Exact (now BT Design) helps businesses and organisations gain maximum advantage from communications technology. Because much of its business involves complex projects that span across many organisations, BT Exact uses the best practice approach that is encapsulated in CITI’s project management development programmes and our e:PMguide.

Approach

An important consideration in the purchase of the guide was the ability to seamlessly integrate it into the management system that provides a process view of how BT Exact does business. Neil Goodger, project management transformation manager at BT Exact, recognised the need for consistency of approach and terminology, given the many commercial relationships that BT Exact manages with other organisations. The e:PMguide has been structured for everyday use, with the emphasis on what must be done to achieve the project’s objective, as opposed to all the things that could be done.

To save reinventing the wheel, the guide provides an essential set of templates and examples of their proper use. Again, the focus is on success, with the minimum amount of management effort expended.

As well as best practice guidance, the e:PMguide comes with a method ‘handbook’, which is based on ten project disciplines and six project roles. This allows other members of the project community, such as the sponsor, to understand their responsibilities within projects, as well as the project manager.

BT recognises the differences between project and programme management. Consequently, it is currently evaluating CITI’s electronic programme management guide (e:PGMguide). The e:PGMguide encapsulates CITI’s leading approach to programme management. Like the e:PMguide, its focus is on supporting the programme manager to do the right thing at the right time, given that programmes have significant degrees of uncertainty that need to be managed.

Outcome

Other parts of BT are now making use of the e:PMguide, generally as a follow on to CITI development programmes, where the guide ensures persistent application of best practice.

(BT exact became BT Design in 2007)

Opportunity

In the face of this, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had approved an investment plan of several hundred million pounds into a simpler network of air traffic control centres, advanced tools for air traffic management and a new suite of core applications that would be more readily compatible with European operators. All this at a time when airlines were demanding lower costs for air traffic services and the CAA was looking to NATS to prove that it can deliver projects on time and to budget.

This left the programme planners at NATS with a headache: how to plan the investment so that each of the aims would be met, when they need to be met, without over investing in any one of them and without incurring an unmanageable level of risk. Air traffic control applications take many years to develop and the airlines would begin to suffer increasingly costly delays if the South East of England did not get the new tools and systems before demand reached predicted levels.

Approach

Paul Gallop, programme architect at NATS, turned to CITI and its Strategy Implementation Planning Process (SIPP) to help resolve the planning headache. Experienced SIPP consultants from CITI helped the team at NATS to revisit the benefits of the programme and to model how and when each would need to happen. By identifying and predicting the scale of impacts on airspace capacity, air traffic productivity and safety, the team could structure and sequence the projects to deliver the benefits against a defined time line.

The team were then helped to link each of the impacts to the programme deliverables so that different scenarios could be tested: for example, if certain new tools were to be introduced to the South East first, what would be the impact on capacity and what would be the benefit for the airlines in terms of avoided cost of delay?

Outcome

The SIPP exercise gave Paul and his team the means to resolve their complex planning issues and monitor progress to plan. It did more than that however, it also left NATS with a powerful approach to model its current and future programmes: focus on the benefits, profile their value over time, determine what changes need to be in place to achieve the benefits, organise and structure their programme and its projects to deliver those changes in the timeframe, and take action to minimise the risks to the benefits.

Opportunity

Identifying and focusing on the benefits and gaining an understanding of the cultural and organisational consequences of the programme were critical to success. The programme was planned to integrate internet/mobile phone and digital TV chat under a new Orange World brand before the new businesses were floated on the Stock Exchange.

Approach

Called in to help facilitate the programme at a very early stage, CITI programme manager Simon Peach said, “As we have worked with Orange before, the managers valued the insights that we were able to bring, while building a programme to suit their needs. Outsourcing control of the programme was simple, easy and quicker for the company.”

Ensuring the entrepreneurial culture of Orange successfully merged with the culture of France Telecom, and with the diverse cultures of the stakeholders and operations in smaller markets throughout the world, was a major aim of the exercise. A further challenge was trying to make meaningful progress when so few people were aware of the programme.

In its simplest form, CITI’s strategic implementation planning approach identifies and ‘proves’ the relationship between the blueprint of the new organisation (its target operating model), the customer value proposition and benefits case for the transformation. The core element is the ‘As-is’ and ‘To-be’ modelling process. The ‘As-is’ identified Orange’s current operation, while the ‘To-be’ focused on the future – the blueprint.

The value of this sophisticated approach to structuring the programme was that, when the planning stage was complete, it was clear that unless a radically different organisational design was adopted the programme would fail. “The CITI approach to programme planning ensures an holistic approach is taken and this focused the attention of the team we were working with on the organisational design issues that had to be addressed to ensure a successful resolution,” said Simon.

Realising they had to sort out the organisation design issues, Orange concentrated on addressing these whilst delivering a limited number of ‘quick-wins’ – benefits driven projects that had been identified during the programme planning effort.

Outcome

The programme was a great success – once again the benefits driven approach, which is the basic principle behind CITI’s strategic implementation planning, cut through the complexity and yielded the results sought.

Further reading

We also discuss business transformation programmes here:
http://consulting.citi.co.uk/tesco-business-transformation-programme/

Opportunity

As part of their programme to drive excellence into their business performance and respond to their clients and their competitors, they are investing in their project community. Their spokesperson, who headed this initiative, was very clear, project performance was fundamental to their success, and the performance of their project managers – and indeed the whole project community – underpined their success globally.

“Their vision fits well with CITI’s own mission,” says Loretta Devonshire, CITI client manager. “Our business is to make project management a valued and respected discipline, and recognised as an essential skill in today’s business world. Their commitment to quality project management was evident every step of the way during the procurement. What they are looking for, what they want to achieve, and what they will get from CITI, is the very best development programme for their whole project community.”

Approach

Over a 12 month period, working closely with their project and programme management community programme, CITI delivered a comprehensive package of development events. Based on a ‘needs analysis’, backed up by profiling of individual skills and knowledge, individual development plans were translated into action: training to achieve APMP and PRINCE2 accreditation; targeted development of specific disciplines, as well as education programmes that develop the rounded skills, experience and judgement that underpin excellent project management.

Outcome

As part of the programme, CITI also supported the implementation of consistent, ‘best practice’ project management processes and procedures. What initially started as a one year contract has now developed into one of CITI’s most long-standing partnerships, with CITI continuing to provide core components of the project and programme management development framework, in particular through our practical, application based ‘beyond method’ courses and masterclasses.

PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited