The team and project matters

A key aspect of our approach is that we prefer to work in partnership with our clients (and their clients and partners) by forming teams with members drawn from our own and our client’s staff.

This approach fuses the detailed knowledge of the client’s staff with the specialist skills of our team, enabling 3SIXTY Systems to build on their understanding of the client’s “business”, objectives and day-to-day operational issues, and where necessary to challenge them.  It also ensures appropriate knowledge transfer to the client’s staff and a legacy working relationship that facilitates future support and maintenance activities.  Clearly this approach depends on the availability of appropriate client staff members to participate in the project.
 
3SIXTY Systems’ strong project management reputation is built on the key attributes of ownership, accountability and responsibility.  We will build a close understanding of your business, aims and objectives as they relate to this particular project, a process that we have already started during the pilot phase.

Our investment in creating this understanding enables us to be proactive in proposing solutions to benefit or transform your business.  Our existing relationship with clients is one of “trusted adviser” and “honest broker”, facilitating the introduction and deployment of information and knowledge management infrastructures, ensuring at all times that clients is benefiting from our experience.  We have worked to build a relationship based on an open and “no surprises” dialogue, creating a position of trust and respect between us.

Key project roles & responsibilities

3SIXTY Systems Programme Director

• Liaison with Customer Project Manager and Business Sponsor regarding overall programme direction.
• Overall quality assurance and successful delivery of the consulting, development and deployment programmes.

3SIXTY Systems Project Manager

• Liaises with 3SIXTY Systems Programme Director and with Customer Project  Manager regarding the overall project implementation.
• Management of 3SIXTY Systems resources.
• Attends review meetings and represents 3SIXTY Systems on any project review boards or steering group.

Principal Technical Consultant

• Ensures the successful delivery of the new customer 3SLive implementation and supports the deployment programmes.
• Attends review meetings and provides technical input as required.

Methodology / frequency for communication with project team and board

3SIXTY Systems suggests that weekly project meetings and monthly project board meetings be established. We recognise however, that a client may have existing procedure in place and would be acceptable for the customer project; in such an instance 3SIXTY Systems will work with the client to establish an effective methodology for communicating with the project team and project board.

3SIXTY Systems will, if required, implement standardised reporting templates to allow meeting notes to be easily and effectively disseminated. Therefore the weekly project meeting reports will be circulated to the project board and the project team. However if there are existing documents, 3SIXTY Systems will be happy to work with client’s preferred methodology.

Each month, the 3SIXTY Systems Project Manager will summarise the weekly meeting notes so that the 3SIXTY Systems Project Director can deliver a focused report to the project board.

Weekly status reports

The target audience for the weekly report should be clearly defined by the project structure.  The 3SIXTY Systems template usually includes:

• Progress against plan (% complete compared with planned % complete)
• Budget versus actual expense
• Summary of activities for the week by objective
• Indication of activities for the following week
• Summary of the issue log
• Summary of the status of change requests

Monthly status report

The monthly status report will be written in preparation for the monthly project steering committee review. It will cover the same information as the weekly report, but adds to these items:

• A review of project scope
• Any specific issues or external factors affecting staf

As a result of the summary being accepted by the project board, a newsletter will be published to update any interested third parties.  The frequency of the newsletter will be one per quarter and will effectively be a summary of the reports given to the project board within that quarter. 3SIXTY Systems is aware that there are already communication procedures for passing information to the regions, therefore we would work with the client to deliver the document in the most effective and appropriate method.

Apart from this formal communication, there will be a flexible approach to communications within the project team. With this approach it is anticipated that a functional team will develop that is extremely effective.  The added value to this approach is that new ideas, issues and information are captured at the lowest level, and quickly disseminated throughout the group.

The basis for change decisions during the project

3SIXTY Systems provides a structured approach to assist change in projects. We will explore all potential avenues of choice in a structured and rational manner.  Once assessed, the team will evaluate the overall impact upon the project to ensure that the alternatives are assessed with consideration of side effects that may be induced by the solution. New change decisions incorporated into the overall project plan will need to be formally documented.  If the project manager considers that the cost will be affected, he will notify the finance officer immediately.

Change can be driven from either end, i.e. top down or bottom up. However, it is the responsibility of the project board to endorse change as required.  The 3SIXTY Systems Project Director and the Project Manager will work with the board to access the risks and benefits involved in changes, and then help the project board in the alignment of the new strategy with the existing project plan and milestones therein.
 
As a result, the project team is well placed to translate the changes into deliverables within the overall project and work together to manage/deliver the individual tasks/milestones.

Methodology for implementing and managing change

Change requires a full risk and benefit analysis.  3SIXTY Systems would suggest that the customer and 3SIXTY Systems adopt the PRINCE 2 methodology, although we would support any preferred methodology suggested by the project board.

The 3SIXTY Systems Project Manager would assist the client project board to access the risks and benefits, and translate the changes into deliverables within the project.