The UK Department for Education and Skills are major users of Programme and Project Management. To aid programme startup, they have an approach known as The 22 Questions.
As an aid to meeting facilitation, here are the 22 questions as a MindManager mindmap.
I had a good example the other day of the potential of the Stakeholder Power/Impact Matrix .
I was discussing with a colleague the framing of another potential programme, and quite informally drew a rough matrix in front of him. I explained the meaning of the two axes and then with him discussed our first impressions of who should appear on the chart, and where they should be placed.
We found the exercise illuminating, not least because the small discipline of deciding where each person or group should go triggered us to articulate some deep-seated and potentially difficult issues around certain individuals.
I had the opportunity yesterday to draw on some of the material from the MSP Book. We have a project coming up at work that involves the selection of new accommodation, a technical fitout and moving a business department into the new area.
Time is tight, there are challenging cost targets, and several sets of activities in seperate areas which impinge on each other – all of which seem to be reasons for choosing a programme management approach.
I already had set myself an objective to persuade the relevant senior manager that a proper project governance structure was needed (as the technology component is significant I would be on the project board), and in the process of that conversation I met his local project manager who is focusing on the move. Conversation with that individual brought consensus on the need for a programme structure (that PM is also going to be the Programme Manager).
We’ve started drafting a Programme Definition, and I found the relevant section in the book extremely useful as a way of kick-starting the document.
Tags: Programme-Definition