Effective management of projects and initiatives 21 june2010

Effective Management of

Projects and Initiatives

Project Office

ForecastStrategyIndividual Initiatives

Benefit Realization

Project / Initiative

Management

Review Meetings

Program Delivery thru

initiatives

2

Facts• Balanced Scorecard drives business strategy• Scorecards have strategic targets that need to be achieved• Initiatives drive the measures that realize targets• Initiatives not managed properly or not on track will fail to deliver the strategic goal• Failure of an initiative will impact the business results within the scorecard

, Therefore it is important that• There is proper alignment between the initiative and the strategic objective• There is proper governance and control on all initiatives being driven • There is an office that tracks the benefits of the initiatives and signs off the initiative once it

has delivered its intended purpose satisfactorily with the involvement of all the stakeholders, specially the “customer” or user of the initiative.

Projects and Initiatives will be addressed as projects in this document.

Why Management of Projects?

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• We have culled out initiatives or sets of initiatives from all scorecards, that are congruent (are similar in nature) and that are impacting one or more than one objectives. E.g. most of the initiatives below (table 1) under each brand are driving product upgrading through renovation and refurbishment across hotels. We have named this congruence as “Superior Product Offering”.

• To ensure that there is uniformity of understanding across brands and hotels, there needs to be a central organization or Program Office that is created specially for this purpose, which drives this across the

organization, tracking the challenges, identifying what works and sharing that with other hotels, ensuring timely delivery and the benefits expected out of these initiatives are being delivered.

Congruent Initiative Title

Lux Intl Lux India Premium Gateway

Superior Product Offering

Put in place a blue print for time bound renovation/up gradation of all properties to ensure market competitiveness

Prepare and implement renovation / refurbishment plan (SM)

Periodic Product Upgradation & Renovation plan( MMP/ GM)

Capex Utilisation

Continuously review new trends in product design technology in-room facilities and other hardware to enhance guest experience

Renovation Plan

Identify pre-opening team New Prototype Launch

Master critical path check-list

Why Management of Projects?

Table 1: Example of congruent initiatives within the Taj scorecards

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• The Program Office is responsible for managing of congruent initiatives across multiple hotels and functions

• This is achieved though the creation of a project organization consisting of key stakeholders that are assigned specific responsibilities pertaining to the project management and delivery of identified projects/initiatives.

• The project organization should have the following roles:

– Project Board / Steering Committee– Project Accountable Executive– Senior User– Senior Supplier

• Each role is described in the following pages

• Large projects may include Change Managers and Benefit Realization Managers whose responsibilities pertain to managing the new processes after the change including employee motivation / counseling and continuous tracking of benefits realized through the project delivery

Program Office

Program Office

Project Board(Steering Committee)

Project Assurance

Senior UserAccountable

ExecutiveSenior Supplier

Project Owner / Manager

Team Members

5

Project Organisation Structure• A Project Organisation structure is a temporary structure

specifically designed to manage the project to its successful conclusion to meet the requirements defined in the Business Case

• The structure allows for channels of communication to decision-making forums and should be backed up by job descriptions that specify the responsibilities, goals, limits of authority, relationships, skills, knowledge and experience required for all roles in the project organisation

• The Project Manager role cannot be shared, neither can the Project Manager or Project Board decision-making roles be delegated.

• The Project Board may, however, delegate some or all of its Project Assurance responsibilities but it still remains accountable for these.

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

6

(Typically the Man Com for Corp/ Hotel Senior Mgmt for hotels)

• Is responsible for ‘Owning’ the Business Case and Vision of the future business or function that the project will deliver

• Is responsible for approving all major plans and authorises any major deviation from agreed Stage Plans

• Is responsible for signing off the completion of each stage as well as authorising the start of the next stage

• Is responsible for ensuring that required resources are committed and arbitrates on any conflicts within the project or negotiates a solution to any problems between the project and external bodies

• Is responsible for any delegation of its Project Assurance responsibilities

• Should meet at least once every month or as decided to review the progress of the program.

The Project Board or Steering Committee

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

7

(Typically the Sr. VP/COO for Corp and GM for Hotels)

• Ultimately responsible for the success of the Project and the realisation of the benefits

• Forms and chairs Project Steering Committee (Board) and manages key stakeholder relationships

• Appoints the Benefits Owners, Project Managers and Business Change Managers

• Authorises customer expenditure and set stage tolerances

• Ensures adequate resources to the Project at all times

• Owns the Business Case - from production to realisation

• Approves the end of project, lessons learnt and ensures Post Project Review undertaken to assess benefits realised

• Supports the Project Manager

• His role begins before the project begins and ends only after the benefits have been realised and the project has been signed off as closed. These are detailed in the following sheet.

Project Accountable Executive

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

8

Discharging Accountable Executive duties

• Assurance that:

● All products have been

delivered satisfactorily

● The Acceptance criteria

have been met

• Plans are in place for all

handover activities

• Ensure that the hand over to

the business and operations

is effected

• Give guidance and direction

• Review each Stage and approve the

next

• If measures are broken, project goes

into exception

• Project Manager’s responsibility to tell

you before this occurs

• Management by exception

• Review Stage Plans and any

Exception Plans

• Approve any changes

• Agree actions from continual lessons

learnt cycles and communicate to the

business

Agree everyone’s responsibilities

with the project manager

Confirm overarching Tolerances

(typically on cost and time)

Agree how to operate Quality

Assurance

Project Assurance roles – will the

Board members do this or

delegated to others?

Commitment of resources for the

Project

• End Project Report. Lessons

Learnt Report. Notify closure

to Corporate Management

• Agree plans and measures that the

project manager can work within

• Agree and distribute lessons learnt

The start of a Project by accepting

the Project Brief

Approval of Business Case

At the end of a ProjectDuring a ProjectAt the start of a Project

Ap

pro

val

Ag

ree

and

Ass

ure

9

(Typically the Head of the function for Corp and HOD for Hotels that will benefit from the project)

• This role would be filled by a Senior Business Stakeholder

• Represents those who will use the final products

• Communication between users and the project

• Ensuring the specification of the needs of those who will use the final product(s) is accurate, complete and unambiguous

• Ensure that any user resources required for the project are made available

• Ensures that the end products will meet user requirements and are capable of realising the benefits


Senior User

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

10

(Typically the Heads of the function for Corp and HOD for Hotels that support the project delivery)

• Represents those providing the end products

• Ensure that supplier resources required for the project are available.

• Accountable for the quality of products delivered by supplier.

• Promotes and maintain focus on the desired project outcome from the point of view of supplier management (e.g. resolve supplier requirements and priority conflicts).

• Advises on the supplier selection with respect to development strategy, design and methods


• Represents the interests of those designing, developing, facilitating, procuring, implementing and possibly operating and maintaining the project products

• The Senior supplier is accountable for the quality of products delivered by the supplier.

• The Senior Supplier role must have the authority to commit or acquire supplier resources required

Senior Supplier

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

11

Project Assurance

Benefits Realized (Finance)

• Manages the finances of the project including budgets, disbursement etc

• Measures the actual benefits realized from the project. These may be during or after the project has completed. A Project is not signed off unless the Benefits have been realised and approved by the Finance Head.

(Typically the Financial and HR Heads at the Corporate or the Hotel level to measure benefits realized (Finance) and managing change (HR).

Change Management (HR)

• Manages the HR element of a project including reassignment of staff as per the project deliverable

• Responsible for managing the “softer’ elements of a project change including counselling of staff impacted; L&D training needs, appraising of project team member performance while they were part of the project team.

• Measures the actual benefits realized from the project in terms of the people benefits. These may be during or after the project has completed. A Project is not signed off unless the Benefits have been realised and approved by the HR Head.

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

12

Project/Initiative Manager/Owner

(Typically Directors, GM, Managers for Corp and Department Heads/ Managers for Hotels)

• Ultimately responsible for driving the day to day activities of the individual initiative / project.

• Conducts project/initiative review meetings with the project team on a periodic basis and guides the project as required.

• Participates and provides updates to the Accountable Executive during Project meeting

• Proposes expenditure based on estimates received by the team to the Accountable Executive for approval

• Prepares the end of project, lessons learnt

• Provides Post Project Review to the Accountable Executive

• Seeks help/guidance from Accountable Executive when required

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

13

Project/Initiative Team Member

(Typically Directors, GM, Managers, staff for Corp and Department Heads/ Managers, Supervisors, staff for Hotels)

• Responsible for working and implementing the day to day activities of the individual initiative / project and as directed by the Project manager, as required.

• Participates and provides updates to the Project manager during Project Reviews

• Seeks help/guidance from Project Manager whenever required

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

14

Link to the project template

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

Program Office


Project Assurance




Team Members

E

E

E

E

F

F

G

G

B

B

D

DC

C

C

AA

A

Each item on the template is linked to an owner in the project management process.

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Project Office to drive Congruent

Projects/ Initiatives

Forecast to achieve specific target

Top Mgmt defines Strategy

Individual projects/ Initiatives for

hotels/ functions

Benefit Realization tracked to measure

actual v/s plan

Project / Initiative Management

Review Meetings at all levels

Program Delivery thru individual

Project / Initiative Delivery

Schematic Representation