The Wood for the Trees
Understanding how to move as quickly as possible to meet the challenges of the current situation is key to protecting and growing your business. I’m sure different parts of your businesses are all clamouring to prioritise their critical projects even more than they normally do. This can make it difficult to see what’s really important and to stay focussed on delivering well. Applying these 3 key principles will help you see the wood for the trees and get the job done:
Prioritise Carefully Based on Your Specific Challenges
Work out what's important
I don’t believe things are changing as fast as we think. Consider what directly affects your business (the key factors) and what doesn’t. Manage the key factors as your priority but keep an eye on the others.
Understand your pain points
Different businesses will be feeling different pain. Identify your challenges clearly and specifically, and prioritise them based on their impact. The more specific you are the easier it will be to address them.
Objectively prioritise proposals
To allocate resources to the right projects, define objective, scored, criteria. Make sure these are linked to your pain points. Score each project against the criteria to inform your decision making.
Review, review, review
Review the prioritisation frequently to ensure projects stay aligned to your challenges. Consider stopping projects if their alignment drops. Also review if something exceptional happens that may affect your business or a project.
Clearly Define What Each Project Must Deliver
Define the expected business outcome
Specifying the ‘What’ at a high level allows your experts to break it down in the most effective way. Leave the ‘How’ to them as well (unless you are an expert!). There’s often more than one way to deliver a requirement.
Be clear about the ‘Must Haves’
Focus on the things the project 'Must' deliver and challenge every use case / requirement. There’s a natural tendency to include ‘Shoulds’ in the list of ‘Musts’. In the current situation I suggest the ‘Shoulds’ could wait until the business critical ‘Musts’ have been delivered. If you have capacity, include ‘Shoulds’ which give you maximum benefit.
Break the challenge down
Try to break larger projects down into a set of smaller projects. This allows you to manage your project portfolio more dynamically and deliver value to your business more quickly.
Focus on Benefit
Stay focussed on business benefit at every step. Encourage your project teams to do this as they work through design and implementation. As each project gets into the detail this helps re-enforce the requirement prioritisation described above.
Manage Delivery Properly
I’ve deliberately not mentioned delivery methodologies in this blog. The suggestions below are equally applicable to all of them.
Have the right governance
Projects fail if they have ineffective governance. Make sure you have the right people in the right roles and that politics are left outside the door. In the current situation it’s in everyone’s best interests that the projects are delivered quickly and effectively.
Act on fact not opinion
Don't confuse assumption and opinion with fact. This leads to misunderstanding, delays, and project drift.
Communicate effectively
It’s in everyone’s best interests for the project team and governance to share information freely. This ensures business alignment, quick resolution of issues, and a successful outcome.
Focus on value add
Slowing project teams down with unnecessary tasks and deliverables will stop you moving quickly. Some deliverables are important, and all should add value to the end user or your business.
Have the right team
This may seem obvious, but ensure you have the right people with the right skills in the right roles.
Having an experienced, objective view to help you work through the current challenges can make a significant difference. At Pragmatist Consulting we’ specialise in the areas discussed above and provide a tailored service to help you overcome your challenges. Contact us to find out how we can help you.
Pragmatist Consulting provides a pragmatic, emotionally intelligent business and change consultancy service which we tailor to fit your need. We focus on helping you turn your business problem into a success story.
May 2020