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14th Jun 10
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Are you wondering what PRINCE2 is all about or whether you need PRINCE2 qualifications? If you answered yes you are in good company.
PRINCE2, which stands for ‘PRojects IN Controlled Environments’, was developed by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) back in the 1990s and has gradually become the standard for project management in the UK and across the world.
Some, dare I say it, older project managers that I know are feeling a little bit aggrieved that employers are beginning to make PRINCE2 qualifications a requirement. I do not blame them as training in PRINCE2 does not come cheap and why do they need it if they have been running successful projects for many years?
There are two levels of training for the prince project management methodology 1. Foundation and 2. Practitioner. Some training providers run both together over a five day period, but that is very intense with a price tag of around £750 upwards and of course not all training is of the same quality.
Here are some things to think about before you rush off and sign up for a training course.
(1) Why do you want the training?
Are you looking at taking the course because you are in a tough market and it will help your competitiveness? If you are already a practicing project manager then getting certified may be an advantage in the job market, but if you are just starting out I recommend that you get a copy of OGC PRINCE2 manual first as that will give you an idea of what is involved – you may just be wasting your money if you train before you have any experience.
(2) What type of projects will you be managing?
While PRINCE2 is designed to be flexible and used in all types of project scenario it can be a bit unwieldy for smaller or less complex projects. I know for a fact that some public sector bodies’ think it is overkill for projects to, for example, develop and implement strategy or carrying out efficiency reviews. Think about the complexity of the projects you expect to be involved with and consider whether you could get by with just using the OGC PRINCE2 manual as a guide.
(3) What is your role on the projects?
If you are going to play a support role and you do decide to get trained you may only need to do the Practitioner level. Support roles include for example project administration, marketing or technical support.
(4) Could you persuade your employer to pay for your training?
If you are already employed in project management or are looking to progress to a more senior role in project management with your current employer, see whether they will invest in your professional development.
If you are the employers and you are thinking about sending your employees on a course check what the options are, perhaps one or two staff could be trained and act as internal specialists to pass on their skills, so you do not need to spend a small fortune training the whole project team.
(5) Do you need formal training or could you train yourself?
Getting hold of a copy of PRINCE2 and using it as a guide is an option. Many people have taught themselves and the new 2009 version has been slimmed down so it is a bit more user friendly. Until you have looked at the manual you will not know what you are getting into and whether it is right for you.
I have set out a few things to think about before you embark on a training course in prince project management methodology and now that you have got started I am sure you can think of a few of your own.
If you want to know more about what is covered in the prince project management methodology or want to find out what people are saying about the 2009 manual read my blog on the subject.
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Prioritizing System
To set up your own priority system, list all of your pending activities and then group them according to their level of importance. How you assign value to a task is not as important as long as you use the same format each day. Many people use an A, B, C system, and others use a 1, 2, 3 format. Here are suggested criteria for assignment:
Priority A-Must do or critical items. Some things must be done because of management directives, local, state, or federal regulations, importance to customers or clients, deadlines, or opportunities they provide for your success or advancement (e.g., state tax reports, actions requested by a customer, or application for a position in the organization with a specific cutoff date for submission).
Priority B-Should do. Items in this category are of medium value. Although they may contribute to customer satisfaction and improved performance, they are not essential or do not have critical deadlines (e.g., mailing an unsolicited information kit to a customer about a new product or developing a proposal for changing an existing system or process).
Priority C-Nice to do. This is the lowest category and includes tasks that are not a direct link to customer satisfaction. They may even be fun or interesting, but could be omitted or left undone. Postponing or scheduling such priorities until a slower time period will likely have little or no impact on customer service (e.g., meeting with team members to brainstorm ideas for a more efficient layout of cubicles, cleaning old e-mail files, or neatly lining up the products on a shelf).
Note: As you go through your e-mail and voice mail messages at the times you have scheduled throughout the day, prioritize them, and add them to your list of things to do.
The key to effective time management is to have a plan and work that plan. If you control your time, you and your customers both stand to gain from your efforts.
ossibR ad��$`$uctive activities that can be done during the waiting period.
Overproduction – This ties in directly with inventory and waiting. Overproducing and waiting results in excessive inventory. A client of mine used to make product and then package it in finished goods based on customer forecast. Many times when the orders came in, the customer wanted different packaging than forecast so my client had to open up finished goods boxes, take the product out of packages and repackage them per the customer order. A waste of time, packaging materials and warehouse space as well as the opportunity cost of working on other orders.
In this case, the solution was to manufacture goods based on better customer forecasts (push) and then package and ship based on customer order (pull). This reduced inventory and rework as well as shipping orders more quickly.
Takeaway – look for ways to get better information to better forecast needs and figure out ways to maximize production efficiencies so finished goods can be shipped immediately upon completion.
Overprocessing – This is usually an issue when one sub-process is much more efficient than other sub-processes. For example, you run the payment processing section for a credit card operation. You decided to buy a high speed envelope opener that opens 60 envelopes/minute. Sounds great except for the fact that your staff can only process 30 payments per minute. The increased speed in letter opening does not increase the throughput at the end of the process. The money spent on this machine is wasted if it does not result in increased throughput for the whole process.
Takeaway – you must look at an entire process and measure it from beginning to end. Increased speed in one sub-process does not necessarily result in better total results. A processes’ throughput is only as good as its biggest bottleneck!
Defects – We’ve all heard the phrase, “do it right the first time” and that is the essence of this element. Defects in outputs (products, documents, deliverables, etc.) that causes the output to be disposed of or to need rework results in wasted materials, time and scheduling as well as missing customer delivery dates or client due dates.
I had a client that had a large department devoted entirely to back office error correction based on incomplete or inaccurate data that was input by customers via the web. By making some web form adjustments that required data to be input a certain way and rejecting customer submissions unless they were complete and accurate, we eliminated the “waste” of error correction by eliminating the problem at the source.
Takeaway – build quality into your processes so no rework is required. Determine the root cause of defects and eliminate the problem at the source and refuse to implement “band aid” solutions related to the symptoms.
I have found that by intentionally looking for waste based on these seven elements, I see waste everywhere. It’s like putting on different glasses and seeing a different world in front of you. For the next week, I challenge you take the seven elements (acronym is TIM WOOD for memory purposes) and look for them intentionally in all that you do.
I believe you will be amazed at how many wasteful things you will see through the course of the week and it will inspire you to get more “lean” in all that you do. Different lenses show you different things. Please let me know what you see!
Tags: management, Project Management Methodology
