Managing Projects for Outcomes

A professional development workshop that will show your people how to get your business projects on track—and keep them on track.

Program Overview

About a third of the work undertaken in business is in the form of projects. Project management is acknowledged generally as being an area of persistent weakness for most organisations. The central issue here for managers at all levels is this:

“How am I to run my projects so that they achieve their outcomes, without getting bogged down in bureaucracy?”

The Managing Projects for Outcomes program covers a simple but effective framework for the management of projects in business.

Program Structure

The Managing Projects for Outcomes program is based on two workshops: one of two-days, with another optional third day leading to a professionally endorsed certification.

Why Do Projects Get into Trouble?

Business projects in general have a low success rate. For example, extensive research indicates that over half of those involving information systems and information technology fail completely. There are a number of reasons for this and the most significant appear to be:

• Poor scoping—leading to "scope creep"
• Unclear accountabilities—leading to the collapse of business initiatives into "IT projects"
• Failure to recognise an exercise as a project—leading to poor planning and management
• Unreliable plans—leading to continual fire-fighting
• Low quality planning and analysis—leading to unrealisable goals, budgets and timeframes
• Inadequate resourcing—leading to cost and time overruns

In most cases these problems are avoidable and manageable. An appropriate toolkit is all that organisations need to dramatically improve their project performance—and a pool of competence in the use of that toolkit.

Who Needs to Understand Project Management?

All those who have a stakeholding in an organisation’s initiatives need to understand how projects are planned and managed including project managers, team members and senior executives. Project managers must be able to prepare business cases and monitor progress. Team members must know how to work to a plan. Senior executives must know how to assess business cases, gauge progress throughout the exercise and judge success when the project closes.

Why Manage Projects for Outcomes?

Conventional projects focus on deliverables. Today, projects are all about target outcomes (which eventually translate into benefits). Organisations invest in projects to gain benefits, not to produce deliverables. Successful projects realise their target outcomes. Projects that produce deliverables, but which don’t realise their target outcomes, are failures. Projects must be scoped, planned and managed in such a way that target outcomes are realised.

The 'Managing Projects for Outcomes' Approach

The approach to Managing projects for outcomes involves:

• The ITO model—which explains how the resources and work of a project can be transformed into your target outcomes.
• The Projectus Project Management framework of tools, processes and governance—which allows
  you to plan, monitor, manage and close your projects effectively.

The ITO Model

Managing Projects for Outcomes uses a range of tools and techniques based on John Smyrk’s ITO (Input-Transform-Outcome) model. The ITO model shows how projects are linked to outcomes and so provides a solid foundation for scoping, planning and managing projects.

Within the ITO model, projects are executed left-to-right, but they are scoped right-to-left. To scope a project reliably, you need to establish, in turn:

• What outcomes are being sought?
• What outputs are to be produced—and which customers will use each?

• What work is needed to produce all outputs?
• What budget and resource pool is required?

The Projectus Framework ©

The Projectus framework is made up of two layers:

• project management—concerned with planning, monitoring and closing projects, and
• project governance—concerned with the use of documentation in the assignment and discharge of critical project responsibilities.

During the workshop participants work through all the key elements of both layers with the objective of becoming competent in using the framework within their own business settings.

The Workbook

Each participant is provided with a workbook that forms a practical manual for use in the office. The workbook also contains various other valuable project management resources.

What Sorts of Projects are Addressed by the Workshop?

Managing Projects for Outcomes is directed at the full spectrum of projects in business—from moving office through developing a new product to process improvement and undertakings involving systems and technology.

The Workshop Program

The basic Managing Projects for Outcomes workshop runs over two days. A third optional day leads to professional certification.

Day #1

Introduction:

Setting a context for the workshop

The ITO Model of projects:

The centrepiece of the Projectus© project management Framework

The anatomy of a project:

The structures of a project that make it “plannable”

Process modelling:

How to schedule and resource your project

Outcome realisation:

How to address the three factors that constrain your project's success

Review:

Putting the first day's pieces together

Day #2

Debriefing:

Discussion of key issues from Day#1

Governance:

How to establish a management framework that allows all key stakeholders to play their roles fully and effectively

Defining the project:

How to establish a business case and reliable project plan

Monitoring:

How to track and manage your project

Wrap up:

A review of the entire framework

Day #3 (Optional)

Debriefing:

Discussion of key issues from Day#2

Portfolio management:

How organisations decide on the projects they will fund - and the priorities to be recognised

Project resource management:

Techniques for estimation, resource planning and procurement

Advanced techniques for project planning:

How to scope and plan more complex projects

Advanced techniques for project monitoring:

How to monitor, report on and manage more complex projects

Project closure:

How to learn and benefit from each project experience

Wrap up:

A review of the entire framework

A Thoroughly Proven Program

Managing Projects for Outcomes is derived from a highly successful program in which over 1,000 project stakeholders have participated over the past seven years.

The new program format is based on the original program—but enhanced with the adoption of a number of adult learning techniques.

The Workshop Leader

Managing Projects for Outcomes is designed, developed and delivered by John Smyrk. John is principal of Sigma Management Science—a consultancy that specialises in business project management. He has over thirty years of project experience, complemented with sound academic credentials—being a Visiting Fellow in the Australian Graduate School of Management at the ANU, where he teaches business project management.

The Public Program

Managing Projects for Outcomes is available in both public and private programs. The public programs are open to all participants from all sectors of business and are offered regularly throughout the year.