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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