|
|
The CCTA project management method PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments, version 2) is widely adopted internationally and is used to describe an approach to projects within the ITIL context. The guidelines below are consistent with a PRINCE2 approach.
A project can be defined as:
A 'temporary organisation' means that a project has a beginning and a clear ending and is conducted alongside day-to-day activities. By doing this, the project activity can be isolated from ongoing work.
PRINCE2 concentrates on creating an appropriate management environment to achieve the stated aim of the project. To achieve this, a PRINCE2 project requires the following to exist:
Before starting a project, an organisation should have a vision about what the results are intended to be. By defining the means necessary to achieve the project result, it is possible to isolate these assets (people, budget, etc) from day-to-day activities. This increases the success rate of the project.
Before a project actually starts, management should have an overall 'feel' for the project and be able to document:
The business case describes the added value of the project for the organisation: why should this project be carried out? Of course, to establish the answer, the project costs and revenues - perhaps this is more accurately described as savings - should be compared. The difficulty in doing this, however, is that while the costs are relatively easy to quantify (people, budget, etc.), this is not the case with revenues. Some ideas that you might find useful are described in Appendix E with its example cost-benefit analysis.
Particularly with process-oriented projects, assessing and describing the revenues/savings is a hard task. This has to do with the fact that process implementation results in higher quality service provision, higher service levels and a more flexible organisation; these are not always quantifiable financial results. Sometimes you find that you are making investments (or incurring costs, depending on your point of view) without knowing clearly the benefit; it is no use telling the budget holder that you sometimes have to take chances to if you're going to succeed. The business case should enable the reader to understand the value of investing in Service Management process improvement.
Successful Service Management should:
Problems with Service Management processes that may be encountered include:
Some of the major issues concerned with defining and running a successful Service Management function and the project to implement it are discussed in Appendix C.
When you build the business case for a project, it is essential that you are clear about what the project costs are and what will be the ongoing running costs of the Service Management processes. Project costs are one-off costs, while the running costs form a commitment for the organisation that may involve long-term contracts with suppliers.
The costs of implementing IT Infrastructure Library processes clearly vary according to the scale of operations. The costs associated with the implementation and running of the processes are roughly categorised as follows:
The costs of failing to provide effective processes can be considerable. Some examples are provided in Appendix E.
A project needs to be managed, as well as to produce something, in order to achieve the stated end result. Managing a project needs to take account of three viewpoints:
A project needs to balance these three views if it is to achieve a viable result that is 'fit for its business purpose' and be achievable within the other constraints of time and cost.
Typically senior managers provide direction in these areas but wish to leave the day-to-day activity of managing the project to a project manager. PRINCE2 identifies a project board to cover these three interests and provide direction and advice to the project manager without being involved in day-to-day activities.
The project board is responsible for ensuring that the project results in the desired outcome and so should ensure that quality assurance is applied to the project in an appropriate manner. This activity needs to be separated from the project manager to ensure the board gets an objective answer to the question 'Are things really going as well as we are being told?'
In a Service Management process-implementation/improvement project, the three viewpoints are likely to be represented thus:
Many contemporary project management methods have a product approach. The advantage is that products - unlike activities - can be described even before the project starts. In this way, a certain outcome of the project can be guaranteed by setting norms for the products to be delivered.
The principle of product planning presupposes good product description and management. For further information, look at PRINCE2 or refer to your own project management approach.
After having defined the results in terms of products, the project manager should work out what other products need to be produced on the way to achieving the final outcome. A clear view of the activities can be built up for those products needed in the short-term (typically three to six months) with a high-level view of what is required in the longer term.
The project manager outlines the total project and produces a detailed plan for short-term activity. At this point, resources can be assigned to the activities to build products in the short term and skills requirements for the longer term can also be assessed.
While it is widely accepted that effective project planning and management are essential to project success, many IT projects continue to be poorly planned and badly managed. Often, people won't back out once (large) investments have been made. "We've already invested heavily in this project, we can't stop now!" has been used more than once in most organisations. Sometimes the runaway cost is the very reason for dissatisfaction and project cancellation should have taken place much earlier. To resist the temptation of an endless pursuit of a positive outcome of the project, an experienced project manager should assign a number of 'go/no-go' decision moments to the project.
This means that before the project is started, it is accepted that it may never be finished successfully. In fact, with each 'go/no-go' decision moment the business case of the project should be re-evaluated. In PRINCE2 these decision points come at the end of 'stages', where project progress to date is assessed and the ongoing viability of the future of the business case (and so the project) is actively revisited before the next stage is started.
Managing Change can only succeed with the correct use of communication. A Service Management project will involve a lot of people but, typically, the outcome will affect the working lives of many more. Implementing or improving Service Management within an organisation requires a change of mindset by IT management and IT employees as well as IT Customers and Users. Communication around this transformation is essential to its success.
In order to ensure that all parties are aware of what is going on and can play a relevant part in the project, it is advisable to clarify how the project will communicate with all interested parties. A well-planned and executed communication plan will have a direct positive contribution to the success of the project.
A good communication plan should be built on a proper conception of what communication is. Communication is more than a one-way information stream. It requires continuous attention to the signals (positive and negative) of the various parties involved. Managing communications effectively involves the following nine steps:
A communication plan describes how target groups, contents and media are connected in a timeframe. Much like a project plan, a communication plan shows how actions, people, means and budgets are to be allocated for the communication process.
|
|
