Be a Better Sheepdog Project Ownership Practical Guide

Be a Better Sheepdog

Project Ownership

Practical Guide

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Humour, Analogies, Proverbs

and Cartoons to Help you Remember

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David Willcox

Copyright © 2021 David Willcox

Paperback ISBN 9798733328881

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Cover Design: Chris Chalik

Cartoons: created by David Willcox using the site http://www.toondoo.com/

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

To my many project teammates over 35 years.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

Helen Keller

CONTENTS

1 Introduction and overview

1.1 Why the sheepdog analogy?

1.2 A reminder of some basic project concepts

1.3 A couple of terms to understand early on

1.4 Key things that the Project Owner is responsible for

1.5 Chapter structure of the book

1.5.1 What is success in a project?

1.5.2 The partnership between Project Owner and Project Manager

1.5.3 What does the project need to achieve and what benefits will this bring?

1.5.4 Project Manager owned activities to be aware of

1.5.5 Simplified 3 step process for running a project and Project Owner checklist

1.5.6 The Project Definition explained

2 The two dimensions of project success

2.1 Success should be measurable

2.2 A fictional analogy to help understand success

2.3 Recap to remember

3 The partnership between Project Owner and the Project Manager

3.1 The Project Owner appointed first

3.1.1 Draft a document which sets the scene for the project

3.1.2 Start the Business Case document

3.1.3 Consider whether you would benefit from help in governing the project

3.1.4 Involve yourself in the appointment of the Project Manager

3.2 The Project Manager appointed first

3.3 Early meetings between the Project Owner and Project Manager

3.3.1 The human side, establishing a relationship

3.3.2 Your input is needed to enable the Project Manager to help you

3.4 Recap to remember

4 Do the right project BEFORE Do the project right (Business Case)

4.1 Things to consider in the Business Case

4.2 Beware of the mandatory Get out of Jail Free Card for project justification

4.3 Ideally the Business Case should be kept under review during the project lifecycle

4.4 Benefit Realisation Plan – how benefits will be achieved and measured

4.5 Recap to remember

5 Project Manager owned activities to be aware of

5.1 Stakeholder Management

5.2 Planning and Estimating

5.2.1 Product Based Planning

5.2.2 Definitions to help understand a Plan Schedule

5.2.3 Plan Schedule and critical path

5.2.4 The concept of Plan Stages

5.2.5 Entry gate meetings are useful within plans

5.2.6 Resource Plan leading to team organisational structure

5.3 Risk and Assumption Management

5.3.1 Risk Management process with 4 steps

5.3.2 Assumption Management

5.4 External Dependencies

5.5 Financial Management

5.5.1 Budget reflected in the Project Definition

5.5.2 Budget impact on the Business Case

5.5.3 Tracking costs during the project execution

5.6 Quality Management

5.6.1 Terminology around document status

5.6.2 What is the Quality Plan?

5.6.3 Document quality assurance processes

5.7 Configuration Management

5.8 Monitoring and Control

5.9 Issue Management

5.9.1 Issues escalated to the Project Owner

5.10 Change Management

5.10.1 4 step process and Project Owner involvement

5.10.2 Beware of excessive Change Requests

5.11 Status reporting

5.12 Governance meetings

5.13 Recap to remember

6 Simplified 3 Project Management processes to execute a project and Project Owner checklist

6.1 Introducing the 3 processes to execute a project

6.2 Define a project

6.2.1 Why can’t we just crack on with real activity?

6.3 Do a project

6.3.1 Undertake any tasks on the agreed plan(s)

6.3.2 Ensure resources are provided as per the agreed plan

6.3.3 Read the regular Project Status Report

6.3.4 Hold regular formal governance meetings

6.3.5 Discuss escalated issues with the Project Manager

6.3.6 Chair the Change Authorisation Board (CAB) meetings

6.4 Close a project

6.5 Recap to remember

7 The Project Definition document explained

7.1 Remember the Kipling Poem

7.2 What? –The Project Brief

7.3 Why? - The Business Case

7.4 When, How and Where? - The Plan

7.5 Who? – Resource Plan, Project Organisation, Governance and Stakeholders

7.6 Other elements

7.6.1 What does Project Team success represent?

7.6.2 Quality needs and management approach

7.6.3 Project Controls

7.7 Gaining approval of the Project Definition

7.8 Recap to remember

Appendix A Glossary of terms in italics

Appendix B Example Project Definition

Appendix C About the Author

Appendix D Did you find the book useful?

Preface - Why read this book?

Hopefully you have a vision of what you want to achieve through a project and why the investment in money and resources is necessary. If so, this is excellent news. Within your organisation’s Project Management framework you may be named Project Sponsor, Project Executive or something else (depending on the particular framework). Unfortunately, I think these terms point too much to your being just a figurehead for the project. This is only a part of what you need to do; your role is much deeper than this. That is why I prefer the role name Project Owner, as you need to own the project from inception to completion, even though you will have a Project Manager to manage the project on your behalf day to day.

In my experience of managing successful projects over 35 years and interacting with hundreds of Project Owners I have often had to coach them on what this role entails, so this has been my motivation in writing this book; to enable you to brief yourself on the role.

So what do you need to focus on and what should you be leaving to your Project Manager? Are you dumbfounded by the new Project Management jargon you may be faced with? These questions and others will be answered by the book, as it describes the essence of the role of the Project Owner in a short guide, which is independent of any particular Project Management methodology.

As a sister publication to the Be a Better Sheepdog Project Management Practical Guide aimed at Project Managers it shares a number of similar attributes in that I have used analogies, proverbs and humorous cartoons throughout the book (well, I hope they at least