Knowledge
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Creating understanding and sharing knowledge.
Your guide to understanding
For ease of reference click on the image below to navigate to a key area of specialisation:
Project Management
The act of planning, organizing, and managing a singular initiative to achieve a predefined goal or outcome
Program Management &
PMO Governance
Program management encompasses the management of multiple projects (programs) to align to business objectives to improve organizational performance.
Strategic Planning & Execution
strategic guidance to an organization by defining its goals, creating policies and plans to reach those goals, and allocating resources for effective execution of the plans.
Helpful Tools
(coming soon)
Providing you with tools and templates to assist you in your journey.
Project Management
Project management is a crucial discipline that ensures projects are completed on time, within budget, and to the desired quality standards. It involves planning, organizing, and overseeing resources to achieve specific goals effectively. The importance of project management lies in its ability to minimize risks, enhance teamwork, and increase efficiency, ultimately leading to successful project outcomes.
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This is realised by following the following core principles:
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Using approved Project Management Methodologies to track and manage projects effectively
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Facilitating collaboration, fostering accountability and a quality first approach
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Tailoring an approach and plan to suit the business to ensure relevance and value.
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By implementing robust project management practices, businesses can navigate complexities and deliver value to stakeholders. This value chain is achieved by:
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My Approach
Each Project Management Professional has their own way of delivering value. Although this is always founded on the basic principles and methodologies of Project Management the delivery still remains unique.
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What makes me different?
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Hybrid approach to Methodologies
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Tailor to suit the needs of a client to maximise understanding and alignment
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Take a simplified approach to deliver pragmatic solutions
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Core Project Methodologies I make use of:
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PMBOK Waterfall
An iterative approach which is planned in advance to deliver a project through phases and stages
Agile
A continuous development methodology that employs different Agile Methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, Crystal and associated structures.
Lean Six Sigma
An approach where a focus on value and the reduction of waste is at the forefront of planning. This combined with a maturity capability model ensures delivery that is clearly defined, measured and controlled.
program management & PMO Governance
(Fractional strategic Project Management)
Aligning projects and programs with organizational goals is critical to achieving success.
A well-structured Project Management Office (PMO) serves as the backbone for project and program management, ensuring efficiency, consistency, and strategic alignment. Here, we delve into the essentials of setting up a PMO, managing programs effectively, and understanding the critical differences between projects and programs to maximize the value of your initiatives.
The Foundations of creating a PMO
A PMO is more than a framework; it’s the guiding force that provides structure, governance, and best practices for managing projects and programs. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining an existing PMO, these steps are essential:
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Define the Vision and Goals:
Align the PMO’s mission with your organization’s strategic objectives. Clearly articulate how the PMO will contribute to achieving these goals.
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Establish Governance:
Create standardized processes, templates, and tools to ensure consistency. Governance also includes defining decision-making protocols and performance metrics.
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Stakeholder Engagement:
Gain buy-in from leadership and stakeholders. Communicate the value the PMO brings in terms of improved visibility, resource optimization, and risk mitigation.
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Build the Team:
Assemble skilled professionals who can champion project and program management methodologies, foster collaboration, and drive results.
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Continuous Improvement:
Regularly assess the PMO’s performance, adapt to changing needs, and integrate feedback to enhance its impact.
What is a fractional strategic Project manager?
A fractional strategic project manager is a highly skilled professional who offers their expertise in project and program management on a part-time, temporary, or contract basis.
They work with organizations to address specific needs without the commitment of hiring a full-time manager. Their role focuses on delivering strategic value, including setting up a Project Management Office (PMO), establishing governance structures, and overseeing program planning and execution.
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Key characteristics of a fractional strategic project manager include:
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Strategic Expertise:
They have a deep understanding of aligning projects and programs with organizational goals to achieve long-term success.
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Flexibility:
They offer services tailored to the organization's current requirements and can scale their involvement based on workload or budget constraints.
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Cost-Effectiveness:
Organizations gain access to top-tier talent for strategic initiatives without incurring the expenses associated with full-time hires.
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Quick Impact:
With their experience, they can deliver results efficiently, making them an excellent choice for time-sensitive projects or organizational transformations.
In essence, a fractional strategic project manager combines the flexibility of a consultant with the hands-on leadership of a project manager to help organizations achieve their objectives.
How I can Assist
As a fractional strategic project manager with extensive experience, I bring a unique ability to transform how your organization approaches PMO creation, governance, and program planning.
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By working with me, you gain:
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Expertise in PMO Creation:
I leverage my deep knowledge of PMO structures and best practices to design a tailored framework that aligns perfectly with your organizational needs.
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Governance Development:
I establish clear processes, metrics, and tools to ensure consistency and accountability across all initiatives, setting the stage for sustained success.
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Program Planning and Oversight:
I facilitate the integration and alignment of projects within programs, ensuring your strategic objectives are met with efficiency and precision.
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Flexibility and Cost-Efficiency:
My services provide high-level expertise without the long-term commitment of a full-time hire, offering you the best of both worlds: exceptional results and financial prudence.
Here’s how I can help you with PMO creation, governance & program planning:
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Tailored PMO Frameworks:
I design structures that align with your organization's goals and scale as your needs evolve.
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Proven Governance Strategies:
I implement robust governance models to ensure accountability, consistency, and alignment across projects and programs.
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Strategic Oversight:
My expertise in program planning ensures your initiatives align seamlessly with strategic objectives while delivering measurable value.
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Cost-Effective Expertise:
By partnering with me, you access top-tier talent without the expense or commitment of a full-time role.
Strategic Management
What is strategy?
It is the ability to establish where you want to go. Be able to plan how your going to get there and what is required. It's not only focused on how to reach your destination but to plan and establish the approach to your journey. That being said, it is important that we enjoy the journey, see sights along the way and make use of the lessons we learn to use when we get to our destination. It's not a linear mission but a continuous one. Always growing, developing maturity as we learn and understand better about ourselves, our capabilities and our next step.
How this is achieved
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A pragmatic and programmatic approach to strategy formulation and implementation.
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Establish short term objectives with measurable key results to address performance issues and deliverables - output and performance based approach.
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Define the outputs required and align to a medium term objective to establish the required benefit and measure the outcome. - mission based approach. This is supported by Smart objectives grouped into programmes with overarching themes.
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Map and plot the path towards long term goals and develop a maturity model to measure achieving the strategy. Reducing overall waste and improving capability. This will lead to enhanced growth, culture establishment and development of a long term strategy and vision.
Important to note that flexibility is required to ensure planned outcomes and benefits that are clearly planned and defined. It has to be realistically achievable before taking action, with adequate risk and impact assessment throughout the process.
By accepting the use of an emergent strategy, capability can then be developed and enhanced maturity for the long term will organically be attained. This will serve to bolster a logical approach to realising mission based objectives while reducing waste along the way. Making it a more programmatic approach to cultural adoption and development of a true measurable vision.
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Sometimes it is important to take a step back, assess where you are as a company before deciding where your going. The notion of a truly top down approach should only include the consideration of governance and the measurement of concrete kpis to ensure performance. However a bottom down approach should be constantly reviewed to guide changes that are pragmatic and realistically attainable. This includes constant operational planning, to manage and develop day to day activities. Enchancing performance on a functional level. Where project planning serves to reach overarching objectives to facilitate organisational change and growth.
By taking this approach a clear road map supported with a mission based approach can be used to achieve the vision of the company. But it is crucial that the vision is clear from the onset and is relevant and realistically achievable. In laments terms, a notion of how and what is required must be envisioned, otherwise it is just a dream.
Why is this important for companies?
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Too many companies, fail to understand why they are doing this and align who they really want to be to who they are. The key drive should always be experiencing and learning from the journey while knowing where you are starting from and what the end destination is. It should never only be just to get to the destination but learning from the journey to plan your next trip. That is the true essence of strategy.
So in simple terms, stopping to smell the flowers is important to make sure you enjoy and learn from your experience. Like a holiday, you never focus on just reaching the distantion but the perceived experience as well.