News

It is with great pleasure that we announce the presence of Deloitte (Tax and Legal department) at the Yearly Project Management conference which will take place in Brussels on November 23rd.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE - PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATTERS

“Leading organizations across sectors and geographic borders have been steadily embracing project management as a way to control spending and improve project results. When the recession began, this practice became even more important. Executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates—all vital to surviving the economic crisis.”

This is how the Project Management Institute describes the importance of Project Management in all organizations, and especially in uncertain and risky times like in contemporary economy. Although this seems to be an evident truth, and although many organizations state that they do work with project management principles and strategies, it is still true that:

• For some companies, some established PM processes are in place, but no monitoring or evaluation are foreseen*
• PM is rarely aligned with organization’s objectives*
• The challenges that most PMs emphasize tend to be poor practice, bad planning and bad management decisions*

(*from Axelos_PPM Benchmarking Report 2017)

DELOITTE'S CASE STUDY

With this yearly event QRP International wants to hear the stories of organizations that have implemented Project Management, and specifically decided to start this journey with a well-known method like PRINCE2.

Come and hear the story of Deloitte from the voice of Adriana Bancianu, Senior Manager in Deloitte Tax and Legal Department, and leader of the Global Tax Center Europe's Project Managemenr office (PMO), who from 2010 oversees global teams of Project Managers and tax Specialists. Adriana is now part of the team implementing PRINCE2 as Project Management standard methodology across the Tax Practice of Deloitte Belgium.

"My presentation will be covering the challenges of implementing a project management methodology within a professional services environment. I will explain the audience how Deloitte Belgium Tax and Legal department has managed this change management project, the challenges we faced and the lessons learnt from the 1st phase of the transformation we are still going through."

Most of professionals in the Project Management world already know about Programme, Portfolio and PMO management; some of them already work at PMO level for example, having helped with the set up of a “Centre of Excellence” in their organization. But how do you know what is the right next step after Project Management? How to identify the right action that can fit your needs? We’ve developed 3 webinars to help you answer these questions! Don't worry if you miss one of them, we'll make sure the video is available to be watched! Keep reading for the 1' video about Programme Management! TITLE OF THE WEBINAR: PMO Management: Roles, Techniques and Benefits ABOUT THE EXPERT: Stijn Jassens is PRINCE2 accredited trainer and consultant, MSP and MoP certified, P3O/PMO Expert. He’s a multilingual trainer, able to perform courses in English and Dutch. ABOUT THE WEBINAR: If your focus is on improving the way that projects are done (so that more projects succeed and change is more effective), then you should consider P3O, which explains how to use offices to support projects, programs and portfolios. You can facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management in your organization by implementing a PMO Office. This may be provided through a single permanent office which may exist under several different names e.g. PMO, Portfolio Office, Centre of Excellence, Enterprise or Corporate Programme Office. It may otherwise be provided through a linked set of offices (portfolio office, programme offices, project offices), both permanent (enabling/supporting business objectives and consistency of delivery) and temporary (enabling/supporting specific programmes and projects), providing a mix of central and localized services. To WATCH THE VIDEO follow this link! THE FIRST TWO WEBINARS OF THE SERIES: PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT: Programme Management: Elements and Benefits --> VIDEO PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: Portfolio Management, Benefits of Strategic Alignment --> VIDEO REMAIN UP-TO-DATE! JOIN THE COMMUNITY! Want to remain up-to-date and never miss our FREE learning and informative events? Register to our newsletter at this link

The best way to integrate new knowledge and to put what you're learnt into practice, is to appeal to as much of your senses as possible. Classroom courses and expert trainers make sure to integrate different learning styles to their teaching skills. Let's see in the examples below which ones are the recognized learning styles, and how a trainer can make sure to integrate them into a training class of Project Management:

• Auditory learning: learning through listening and hearing. The expert trainer explains the matter, focusing on the most important parts of the Project Management methodology, highlighting tools and techniques.
• Visual learning: in order to better understand the ideas and concepts, drawings on flip charts can be an important tool to integrate new information. If we take the example of a PRINCE2 training, imagine what impact could have a drawing that explains you the difference between outputs, business change, outcomes and benefits. A picture says more then a thousand words. In some cases, you will even see that these drawings are put on the walls in the training room and are continuously used by the trainer when he/she comes back to this topic.
• Kinesthetic learning: this is what we call “learning by doing”. Classrooms are ideal places to exercise on how to put the theory into practice. Let's take the example of an AgilePM training: an important tool is the PRL (Prioritized Requirements List). What better way to understand how to create this list then to do this in group during the course? It’s a first-hand experience that will help you to put it into practice when you’re back in the office.

Knowing the existence of different learning styles, why is a classroom course the best option to learn? 1) The Trainer as Subject Matter Expert In front of you, there’s a person who’s an expert on the new skills you want to acquire. He/she has real life experience and is able to give practical examples and answer your questions on the spot. There’s also room to tackle subjects and questions outside of the standard context of the course which will enable you to link it immediately to your own working environment. 2) Sharing Experiences and Social Interaction Each of the participants in the course have their backpack filled with experiences from the past. Some are good, other are bad experiences and both are valuable. By sharing those experiences, everybody in the room can learn from those real life examples (even the trainer!). They add an extra dimension to what we’ve just learned and see the link with real life. 3) Expert Trainers Who Make the Learning Experience Engaging and Interesting There’s a good reason why someone is moderating the training. Trainers we are there to help you understand the subject and are able to correct you so that you’re getting it right by the end of the course. Trainers are the glue between the subject and all of the participants and will engage everyone so that it becomes a highly valuable experience. The trainer is also able to instantly adapt the learning experience to the needs of the delegates so that it becomes personalized for each individual. 4) Quiet, Dedicated Time Out of the Office to Really Focus on Your Needs Most of us have a very demanding job with people constantly coming into our office or calling us with, as always, very urgent and critical questions or tasks. This is not the ideal environment to study, learn and develop new skills. Even at home, with the kids or the partner running around the house, you’re not in a good environment to get the most out of a training. A classroom training offers you the possibility to take a distance from home and work so that you can deep dive into something new. You can focus on only one thing which will improve the integration of the skills so that you can put it into practice more quickly. Our trainer and consultant David Maegerman wrote an article about the different learning styles, the reasons why a classroom course has several advantages, and the difference with a distance-online-learning training. Want to have a soft copy of the full article? Follow this link for the free download.  

Most of professionals in the Project Management world already know about Programme, Portfolio and PMO management; some of them already work at PMO level for example, having helped with the set up of a “Centre of Excellence” in their organization. But how do you know what is the right next step after Project Management? How to identify the right action that can fit your needs? We’ve developed 3 webinars to help you answer these questions! Don't worry if you miss one of them, we'll make sure the video is available to be watched! Keep reading for the 2' video about Portfolio Management!

TITLE OF THE WEBINAR: Portfolio Management: Benefits of Strategic Alignment

ABOUT THE EXPERT: Stijn Janssens is PRINCE2 accredited trainer and consultant, MSP and MoP certified, P3O/PMO Expert. He’s a multilingual trainer, able to perform courses in English and Dutch.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR: If you are a manager with a top-down perspective (you are managing a budget and a team, or a group of strategic initiatives), your next step could be MoP Portfolio Management, a one week training with certification. MoP, Management of Portfolios, provides an overview of all change activities including what is in the portfolio, what it is costing, what risks are faced, what progress is being made, and what the impact is on business as usual and the organization’s strategic objectives. MoP helps you answer the question “Are we doing the right projects?” by prioritizing the right projects and programmes to undertake.

To WATCH THE VIDEO follow this link!

Don't miss the lastwebinar of the series: PMO Management - an Introduction --> Register at this link

Want to remain up-to-date and never miss our FREE learning and informative events? Register to our newsletter at this link

Most of professionals in the Project Management world already know about Programme, Portfolio and PMO management; some of them already work at PMO level for example, having helped with the set up of a “Centre of Excellence” in their organization. But how do you know what is the right next step after Project Management? How to identify the right action that can fit your needs? We’ve developed 3 webinars to help you answer these questions! Don't worry if you miss one of them, we'll make sure the video is available to be watched! Keep reading for the 1' video about Programme Management! TITLE OF THE WEBINAR: Programme Management: Elements and Benefits ABOUT THE EXPERT: Stijn Jassens is PRINCE2 accredited trainer and consultant, MSP and MoP certified, P3O/PMO Expert. He’s a multilingual trainer, able to perform courses in English and Dutch. ABOUT THE WEBINAR: If you are a project manager, or a manager, managing bigger-and-bigger projects and driving transformational business change, your next step is Programme Management. MSP, Managing Successful Programmes, represents proven good practice in programme management in successfully delivering transformational change, drawn from the experiences of both public and private sector organisations. MSP defines programme management as “the action of carrying out the coordinated organization, direction and implementation of a dossier of projects and transformational activities (i.e. the programme), to achieve outcomes and realize benefits of strategic importance to the business”. In fact it’s key to understand that a programme is not only a “bigger project”, but can also be a set of coordinated projects. To WATCH THE VIDEO follow this link! Don't miss the second webinar of the series: Portfolio Management, Benefits of Strategic Alignment --> Register at this link Want to know about PMO Management? Follow the third webinar ---> Register at this link Want to remain up-to-date and never miss our FREE learning and informative events? Register to our newsletter at this link

A portfolio management approach to business change is required to ensure that organizations prioritize and invest in the changes that contribute most to the strategy. It provides an overview of all change activities including what is in the portfolio, what it is costing, what risks are faced, what progress is being made, and what the impact is on business as usual and the organization’s strategic objectives. Not only Business as Usual prioritization, Management of Portfolio means to effectively decide to invest in the change initiatives that will contribute to deliver strategic objectives.

TITLE: 100 Days to Implement Management of Portfolios

ABOUT THE ARTICLE: "At the Office for National Statistics (ONS) we collect, analyse and publish important statistics such as population, inflation and gross domestic product. This information is used to inform decisions that affect your life and the lives of everyone in the UK. We were aware that some studies indicated a timescale of 12–18 months to implement portfolio management. However, we decided to embark on a 100-day, high-energy approach to implementing the Cabinet Office’s best-practice standard Management of Portfolios (MoP). During the implementation we derived considerable value from enhanced executive portfolio-level information, portfolio prioritization, consistent portfolio investment appraisals and project sequencing. All of this led to a greater understanding of the portfolio delivery landscape and the ability to make more confident investment decisions with an overall increase in collaborative working and organizational energy". This is how Glen Watson, General Director of the Office for National Statistics explains the decision of implementing MoP.

This Case Study follows the steps of the Portfolio implementation highlighting the key phases of this 100 days project: in the terms of the ONS, the path was to "understand where we are" to define "where we want to go": this includes the analysis of the current situation, the definition of the so called "portfolio cycle", "portfolio plan" and "portfolio office". To summarize, at the end of the paper are indicated 8 top tips (in no particular order) which are the things ONS found critically important when implementing portfolio management within 100 days.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Craig Kilford worked with the Office for National Statistics as Interim Deputy Director of Portfolio Management. As one of the world’s leading portfolio management subject matter experts he is a regular motivational conference speaker, co-author of the Cabinet Office’s Management of Portfolios and author of "Think P3O." Craig blogs regularly at www.MrPortfolioManagement.com where additional information about this case study is available.

TO READ AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL ARTICLE: simply follow this link!