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Project Initiation & Guidance

If you would like to run your own projects day to day but need help to do this effectively, our Project Initiation & Guidance Service may be right for you.

PPSL can lead you through a controlled Project Initiation process that will identify the documentation and controls your project needs.  We will then use our extensive library of 'pension project' templates to create these for your quickly and easily.

Your project library will normally include a Project Initiation Document, an initial Project Plan and 'live controls' that enable the effective ongoing management of project risks, issues, actions, meetings, costs and communications.

Once your project is underway, PPSL can act as your 'Wingman', providing your elected Project Manager with ongoing support, advice and guidance.  This can happen through regular one to one review meetings and telephone support.  Anyone who is new to managing projects can easily fall into a rather pointless 'monitoring and reporting' role.  With support from PPSL, your Project Manager will gain the confidence to really lead their projects and actively drive them forward.
 

Project Initiation

Launching from a solid foundation is essential to the success of any project.  To appreciate this, it is worth setting out what an effective project initiation process undertaken by an experienced project manager should establish, in consultation with the stakeholders:
  • Objectives – precisely what do you want to achieve and why? How do your objectives align with the underlying business case and wider corporate and/or pension scheme strategies?
  • Approach – how exactly do you intend to meet your objectives? What quality criteria do you need to satisfy in order to meet your own corporate and industry standards?
  • Project Teams – Who is going to be involved and what are their specific project roles and responsibilities? Do you have all the skills you need in house or do you need help? Who will manage the project teams?
  • Governance – Who are the main project sponsors, owners and stakeholders? How are project related decisions and sign-offs to be achieved? How are issues going to be raised and resolved?
  • Risks, Dependencies & Constraints –  What are the possible barriers to success and how can these be removed or mitigated? What limits apply in terms of costs, timescales, resource availability, etc.  How will you manage all these things during the course of the project?
  • Communication Plan – Who needs to be informed about what and when? As well as the project teams, this could include interested parties outside the project such as scheme members, employees, Trustees, unions, etc.
  • Success Criteria – How will we know that the project has successfully delivered to the agreed objectives? What specific and measurable tests or activities could be performed to prove this?
  • Project Plan – Having determined all of the above, what tasks need to be undertaken to deliver the project? What are the specific, tangible outputs? What is the most effective running order and how should tasks be grouped and managed? What are the dependencies? What are the key project milestones? Who needs to be involved in each task? What else might they be doing? What is the likley impact on 'business as usual' activities? What are the estimated task timescales and when can they actually happen?
  • Contingency Plans - To what extent do you need to make provision in the event that your project does not go to plan or fails altogether, perhaps due to unavoidable or unforeseen risks? If your project is critical to your organisation, you should have agreed back-up plans in place, complete with pre-defined trigger events.

Depending on the size and complexity of your project the initiation process can take anything from a few days to several weeks. This can sound onerous but without a firm foundation it is unlikely that the project will go on to succesfully achieve its objectives. A high quality initiation is key to a high quality project delivery.

In some circumstances, it is possible to get on with certain aspects of your project during the initiation phase. Whilst this is not ideal, constraints sometimes make this unavoidable.  However, provided everyone understands and accepts the risks of a 'flying start' and those risks are properly managed, serious consequences can normally be avoided.

Call Pension Project Solutions Limited on 0117 905 5383 or email us at enquiries@pensionprojects.com to secure the delivery solution that will work for you first time, every time.