What’s the value

Having a strategy for change reduces waste, accelerates benefit delivery, prioritises the important over the demanding but, and most of all, reduces the risk of failed change. ‘Strategy for change’ includes aligning the work to achieve the vision, turning strategic aspiration into structured actions and the creation of a clear ‘line of sight’ between the strategic intent of the Board and the set of projects that need to be established to develop the necessary new or additional competences within the business to deliver the benefits of the strategy.

Not only the organisation’s aspirations but also its culture will ultimately determine the strategy for change. Just as with organisational strategy, circumstances will coerce the deliberate strategy for change into an emergent strategy – the strategy for change must accommodate such flexibility too and is therefore likely to be updated in ‘real-time’.

Why is it valid

Often a major inhibitor of change is not a lack of clarity on what is wanted but rather how to go about achieving it. Applying a stepped approach to the development of a change strategy gives a clear sense of direction, and allows the construction of the optimum portfolio. Whilst valuable at the outset, it has another great strength as it structures how best to conduct the continual review of progress against plan, and the adoption of alternative strategic strands as becomes necessary.

What you will experience

An initial mapping is made between the declared strategy and the project portfolios under management to determine risk-adjusted expenditure and .risk-adjusted outturns and outcomes. This process, called ‘brigading up’, groups current expenditures into sets that allows the emergent strategy to be described.

The agreed strategy is decomposed into strategic threads, and the specific foci for management attention are subjected to value management disciplines. The tacit, as well as the explicit, prioritisation practices are discovered and the consequences of the choices made clear in terms of risk-adjusted value returned.

The Board then has a model that reflects the actual alignment of the project portfolios with the strategy, which can be used to do scenario analysis – and to confirm or alter the operational imperatives of the emergent strategy.

Where the portfolio contains tens of projects the option analysis often proves very complex. To reduce this to manageable proportions, tool-based decision-support approaches are deployed: cross-linking dependent projects to prevent infeasible choices, and reducing the offered choices to a range of near-optimum selections based on published criteria.

A boundary based organisational analysis can be used to overlay the portfolio and its schedule to optimise opportunities to accelerate or de-risk the desired outcomes.

How you might start

Typically the start point for a strategy for change engagement is a strategic implementation planning workshop with the board sponsoring the change; it is imperative that they have a shared view of and consistent support for the strategy for change. This is moderated through a series of stakeholder engagement workshops and interviews amongst the change managers and change agents. The emerging suite of initiatives are subjected to portfolio analysis to determine the optimum composition for the initial portfolio and this can then be subjected to periodic reviews (typically using boundary analysis or benefit, impact, product maps and associated KPIs) to assess achievement and adjust or regulate the portfolio as appropriate.

Example models, methods & tools used

SIP and Chip workshops
V-model
Impact analysis
Boundary management/analysis.

Clients we have used this method for

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What’s the value

Governance groups and project selection committees have a consistent basis upon which to judge the absolute and comparative merits of competing bids for the investment funds of the organisation in terms of value, likelihood of return, costs and the associated risks. Each business case also has value in the project and change delivery process, acting as the basis for decision-making by the governance group.

Why is it valid

Because many of investment decisions are discretionary and all of them ‘compete’ to some extent or another, it is necessary to have a consistent expression of the individual and comparative merit of any given initiative. This is what a compelling business case provides.

Not only does the compelling business case set out the initial justification for an investment, it is also the basis for deciding whether to provide the ‘authorisation to proceed’ (ATP) as the project unfolds, and the actual costs, risks and opportunities for benefit are realised at each of the stage gate reviews.

What you will experience

Understanding and committing to what the value of the competing investment opportunities that candidate projects offer is a critical part of the selection of the project portfolio.

All decisions about the future should take into account risks, the risk of it costing more to achieve the benefits, and the risk of the benefit not being realised in full or at all. So after defining the problem or opportunity that the project is there to address; the risks and rewards of doing so have to be quantified. Categorised appropriately into financial, strategic and risk avoidance, the benefits are profiled, showing the value recovered over time. This typically involves the identification and quantification of the impacts of the necessary business changes, with sets of KPIs agreed.

With the ‘desirability’ in terms of benefits established, the cost and the possible costs of the known risks are calculated to make possible the cost-benefit-risk assessment (COBRA).

How you might start

Typically a sponsor or a programme will seek support in developing a business case under their ownership. Though usually targeted at a specific difficult case, it is often found that the approach is quickly recognised to have wider application and, where organisations have them, the PMO becomes interested in developing an in-house capability.

We support the development of project-based workshops and provide experts to create business cases, and then using our Reflect-Learn –Apply approach embed the knowledge, skills and attitudes into the organisation.

Example models, methods & tools used

BIP mapping,
Benefits registry document (BRD),
Cost estimating processes and tools,
Risk and complexity modelling and workshops.
Business case templates.

Clients we have used this method for

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What’s the value

Project portfolio prioritisation schemes give assurance to management that the project selections made give maximum value to the organisation for the resource allocated.
Most organisations have more opportunities available and problems to solve than they are able to resource or afford. A project portfolio often represents the largest investment an organisation makes on a yearly basis. Failure to invest wisely, either because money is spent on the wrong things or the investment fails to deliver the intended return is a major source of concern to Boards. Prioritising – investing in the most optimum way – is a critical discipline for an organisation.

Why is it valid

Prioritisation approaches and ways to manage the competition for resource that are based on criteria that compares costs (adjusted for risk) against benefits (value – also adjusted for risk) have been proven to provide maximum return with optimum resource utilisation. A common difficulty faced by project portfolio selection committees is coping with the combinatorial effect. i.e. As numbers of candidate projects rises the number of possible combinations rises very steeply. With just 12 projects there are 4096 while with 25 the number is in the billions. It is therefore unsurprising that without good prioritisation schemes and tools mistakes are made when considering best combinations of projects in a portfolio.

What you will experience

The Board can determine what is intentional and what accidental. A transparent and maintainable set of criteria is put in place to control entry on to the portfolio list and inclusion into the portfolio itself.

With this, senior management is assured and confident that the best options have been selected and that throughput has been maximised against priority.

How you might start

CITI has developed tools, techniques and approaches to set up prioritisation schemes for use by governance groups involved in project portfolio selection and management. Usually called in when a portfolio has become unmanageable due to over-contention for resource and working closely with the PMO or other project groups, project registers are established clearly articulating a number of characteristics: cost and benefit risk profiles of the projects, the basis of choices made and organisational preferences.

Example models, methods & tools used

Facilitated workshops
Benefit – impact- product mapping
Portfolio analysis techniques
RACI analysis
KASE profiling
PMO maturation model
PEFA
Benefit categorisation

Clients we have used this method for

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What’s the value

Complex change is difficult to deliver, individual projects rarely succeed in doing so, and programmes are often seen as too hard to manage. Solving this problem depends on understanding the significance of the projects’ interdependencies within a programme, and how best to structure a programme to deliver complex change – simply.

Why is it valid

Complex change cannot be achieved with project methodology alone. Programmes are large sophisticated bodies of work that provide the necessary management structure allowing projects and the necessary BAU initiatives to succeed. They ensure all important management decisions are predicated on the need to ensure the required benefits are delivered. The ‘how to achieve’ this is then considered as a secondary concern.

What you will experience

Current planning of your programme is reviewed, and an approach adopted which ‘starts with the end in mind’. This allows the outputs and projects to be grouped into a set of tranches that structures and sequences the work necessary to deliver the vision. Governance approaches are also reviewed and the necessary management structures and roles are confirmed to make the tranches work. The high level political engagement necessary is articulated and clear accountabilities are established.

How you might start

CITI usually gets called in when concerns are raised by the programme board as progress in the first tranche is stalled, or there is serious contention between projects that are already in progress and projects initiated under the auspices of a programme.

Example models, methods & tools used

Programme management evaluations
Benefit – impact – product modelling
Tranche construction
Programme management toolkit
RACI

Clients we have used this method for

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What’s the value

‘Translating strategy into action’ allows the Board to determine the extent to which the project portfolio delivers the organisation’s strategy.

Why is it valid

The evidence set out in a series of Standish Reports clearly shows the incidence of low level s of satisfaction amongst senior management with the alignment and contribution made by projects to the strategy of the company remains a major concern. Very often senior executives complain that they are unsighted by the project portfolio processes being used.

What you will experience

An initial mapping is made between the declared strategy and the project portfolios under management to determine risk-adjusted expenditure and .risk-adjusted outturns and outcomes. This process, called ‘brigading up’, groups current expenditures into sets that allows the emergent strategy to be described.
The agreed strategy is decomposed into strategic threads, and the specific foci for management attention are subjected to value management disciplines. The tacit, as well as the explicit, prioritisation practices are discovered and the consequences of the choices made clear in terms of risk-adjusted value returned.

The Board then has a model that reflects the actual alignment of the project portfolios with the strategy, which can be used to do scenario analysis – and to confirm or alter the operational imperatives of the emergent strategy.

Where the portfolio contains tens of projects the option analysis often proves very complex. To reduce this to manageable proportions, tool-based decision-support approaches are deployed: cross-linking dependent projects to prevent infeasible choices, and reducing the offered choices to a range of near-optimum selections based on published criteria.

This clarity identifies the best use of available resources, rather maximum use of resources, and a clear trajectory to the consequences of changing the composition of the portfolio as business imperatives change.

How you might start

Most organisations find it helpful to call CITI in when it is trying to monetise its vision – or to identify and quantify the benefits. Very often we find that the way the vision has been constructed is blocking the analysis: this may be due to the vision being substituted by a solution or because the separation between the customer value proposition and the business value proposition is incomplete.
CITI’s approach which uses a set of tools to analyse and tease apart related strategic focus areas and our ruthless focus on value has helped many organisations develop stronger commitment and better alignment of its project portfolio. We often have the opportunity to observe, “Show us your portfolio and we will show your strategy.” As one of clients said afterwards, “For once, it’s tell us your strategy and we’ll select the right portfolio…”

Example models, methods & tools used

Portfolio prioritisation models: e.g. MoSCoW, Hedging
SIPP
Benefits analysis
Results chain

Clients we have used this method for

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Knowledge management programme

What’s the value

Our knowledge management programme improves performance, productivity and competitiveness by reducing time to competence, increasing capacity for innovation, and enhancing opportunity capturing.

Knowledge management systems provide a managed environment in which expertise and experience are associated with a value, and it is the deployment of knowledge not its storage which is the focus of management.

Why is it valid

Organisations stores vast quantities of data and information in its corporate memory, some of it physical storage such paper and electronic documents and files, some in its processes and more in the minds and memories of its staff members.

Knowledge management moves the focus away for ownership to knowledge about what is known, and how to collaborate, aggregate and build so as to create value from knowledge.

Experience and research has confirmed that up to a fifth of an organisations time is spent on storing data and retrieving data, that significant effort is wasted in recreating data that is already owned but not retrieved, and repetitive errors are a major source of avoidable costs – all sure signs of weak knowledge management disciplines.

Perhaps more interesting is the evidence that in environments dependent on external resource, where there is a need to quickly align diverse work practices, good knowledge management makes the acquisition and assimilation of new expertise faster and more effective.

What you will experience

Using an approach that has been very successful in both the private sector and in major government departments, CITI sets up a programme that delivers changes to processes, systems and people. The focus of the programme is to maximise performance through better access to relevant information; provide competitive advantage by connecting people and information; and avoid wasteful and repetitive rework caused by lack of timely data.

The combination of the deliverables establishes a working environment where knowledge-sharing becomes embedded in the culture. Data is tagged, information is valued, and personal and knowledge networks enables by cultural and IT-backed processes, with mechanism for renewal and refreshment built in.

How you might start

Organisations will identify and map current organisational knowledge management programme (what is important, where it resides, and how to access it). They will create and affirm a vision for the new way of working and will then create a programme of change and a target operating model (TOM), in order to move to the new knowledge management way of working. For this to become truly embedded, the organisation’s readiness to change is assessed in order to identify appropriate supporting practices and incentives.

Example models, methods & tools used

Knowledge management programme readiness tool
Programme toolkit (including SIPP)
CoPs
Gamification

Clients we have used this method for

Further reading

Bakr Zade is our resident knowledge management programme expert, you can read more here:
http://www.citi.co.uk/bakr-zade-principal-consultant/

Your thoughts?

What are your thoughts – do you agree with our approach on knowledge management programme, or do the symptoms sound like the ones you are experiencing in your organisation? We would love to hear from you either by adding a comment at the bottom of the page or by emailing one of our consultants at consultants@citi.co.uk – or call +44(0)1908 283610

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What’s the value

Structuring projects enables business sponsors and stakeholders and project delivery professionals to gain clear understanding and agreement around the project from the outset. This reduces the level re-work reducing the likelihood of cost and time overruns. However, be aware of White elephants syndrome.

Why is it valid

Most projects that fail can trace their failure back to difficulties at their very beginning: a lack of shared vision of the project’s outcomes, most often based on misconceptions about what the business wants to achieve, and how this can be practically implemented.

The experience of our clients reveals that around 40% of project work carried out is in fact re-work: correcting mistaken assumptions – restructuring projects that are already ‘in flight’. This is an expensive process, wasteful of time and resources, detrimental to morale, and damaging to relationships between project teams and the businesses they serve.

In order for projects to successfully deliver change, it is essential to focus them with rigour and insight on the desired outcomes to be achieved, and the practicalities of delivering those desired outcomes.

Project structuring builds strong project foundations, builds confidence and encourages collaborative working between the project team and the business stakeholders.

What you will experience

Using an approach that has been very successful for more than two decades with our clients, CITI facilitates focused discussions around the key drivers of the project: problem, objective, critical success factors, deliverables, risks, business impacts and benefits. The aim is to uncover ambiguity and misalignment of perspectives around direction and priorities for the project. By providing a mechanism for positive and insightful challenge to the project, sponsors, business stakeholders and project teams build a clearer (shared) picture of the strategy and appropriate tactics to drive the project forward.

How you might start

Business and project teams begin with what has already been written to describe the project terms of reference.

Working with CITI, the project teams and the business dissect these ideas using a powerful modelling tool for the project, which helps articulate not only the desired outcomes, but how they can be achieved. Through a series of structured challenges, any inconsistencies and misunderstanding are uncovered, and clarity is achieved.

Project structuring results in the establishment of positive working relationships between business and project professionals from the outset of the project, and provides a powerful ‘compass’ for guiding management of the project journey.

Example models, methods & tools used

Mission Model
CSFs
BIP
Stakeholder engagement toolset

Clients we have helped realise this value

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