Realisation: The “tragedy” of projects

Directly after our first MSP course

Introduction

The definition of tragedy is: a very sad event or situation OR a serious play with an unhappy ending.

Well I sensed a mixture of feelings at the end of our first MSP course – sad about becoming aware of the restrictiveness of a project and happy about the realisation that programme management has so much more potential to add value to an organisation.

Having presented hundreds of PRINCE2® courses, I realised that there are thousands of course delegates who complete the week tired, satisfied and full of anticipation to receive their practitioner exam results.  A week or so afterwards, the successful delegates are elated and consider themselves equipped to conquer the “change” world.  They can almost not wait to be given a new project or participate in an existing project – to apply their newly found skills.

Project restrictions

The delegate who has completed their MSP course has been made aware of some glaring restrictions of projects:

1.       They often aren’t informed how their project fits into a parent programme

2.       They often aren’t informed of the origins of the project mandate

3.       They often aren’t told of how their project product contributes to programme capabilities

4.       They aren’t aware of how the Benefits Management workshops identifies the benefits breakdown structure, benefits flow diagram, benefits maps, benefits profiles, benefits realisation plan and benefits management strategy

5.       They aren’t aware of the partnership role of the programme BCM’s (business change managers) who will transition their project product into business-as-usual

6.       They don’t realise that a successful project delivery does necessarily succeed – their project product delivery has to be carefully planted into an operational and maintainable environment and that the operations environment has to receive, accept and support the changes

7.       The success can only be determined when the benefits of changes are realised and they have to be linked to the achievement of strategic objects desired by the organisation’s leadership

8.       When senior management make an investment in change, that investment should yield measureable benefits to confirm a sound ROI – the project doesn’t reach into those areas

Conclusion

The MSP course has taken the course delegates to a higher level of understanding change.  Although PRINCE2® successful delegates can be proud of their achievement, they should realise that they have simply graduated from primary school.

Introduction

The definition of tragedy is: a very sad event or situation OR a serious play with an unhappy ending.

Well I sensed a mixture of feelings at the end of our first MSP course – sad about becoming aware of the restrictiveness of a project and happy about the realisation that programme management has so much more potential to add value to an organisation.

Having presented hundreds of PRINCE2® courses, I realised that there are thousands of course delegates who complete the week tired, satisfied and full of anticipation to receive their practitioner exam results.  A week or so afterwards, the successful delegates are elated and consider themselves equipped to conquer the “change” world.  They can almost not wait to be given a new project or participate in an existing project – to apply their newly found skills.

Project restrictions

The delegate who has completed their MSP course has been made aware of some glaring restrictions of projects:

1.       They often aren’t informed how their project fits into a parent programme

2.       They often aren’t informed of the origins of the project mandate

3.       They often aren’t told of how their project product contributes to programme capabilities

4.       They aren’t aware of how the Benefits Management workshops identifies the benefits breakdown structure, benefits flow diagram, benefits maps, benefits profiles, benefits realisation plan and benefits management strategy

5.       They aren’t aware of the partnership role of the programme BCM’s (business change managers) who will transition their project product into business-as-usual

6.       They don’t realise that a successful project delivery does necessarily succeed – their project product delivery has to be carefully planted into an operational and maintainable environment and that the operations environment has to receive, accept and support the changes

7.       The success can only be determined when the benefits of changes are realised and they have to be linked to the achievement of strategic objects desired by the organisation’s leadership

8.       When senior management make an investment in change, that investment should yield measureable benefits to confirm a sound ROI – the project doesn’t reach into those areas

Conclusion

The MSP course has taken the course delegates to a higher level of understanding change.  Although PRINCE2® successful delegates can be proud of their achievement, they should realise that they have simply graduated from primary school.