2. Preparing for change

Question 1

Why is a procurement strategy needed?

Answer 1

• Not exceed budget
  
  • Provide return or benefit intended
  • Investment aligns with bigger picture of organisation

Question 2

What does a procurement strategy include?

Answer 2

• Documents process for procuring goods and services
  
  • Make or buy decision - can it be done in house?
  • Supplier selection including
    ○ Selection process
    ○ Decisions to use one, integrated or multiple suppliers
    ○ Plan for negotiation
  • Decision on contractual relatnship
    ○ Conditions and forms of contract - type of contract, laws to comply with, industry standards
    ○ Supplier reimbursement terms
  • Types of contractual relationships

Question 3

What determines a make or buy decision?

Answer 3

• Specifications required
  
  • Capacity, speed and availability
  • Required quality aspirations
  • Internal and external stakeholder engagement

Question 4

What is the process for ensuring a competetive tender?

Answer 4

1. Reserach the market
   
   2. Pre-qualify suppliers
   3. Issue an ITT
   4. Respond to questions
   5. Recieve and evaluation bids
   6. Award contract. Agree terms
   7. Enter contract

Question 5

What types of negotiation technique can be used when agreeing with suppliers?

Answer 5

• Best Alternative to the negotiated agreement (BATNA) - best fallback position - identify alternative positions if agreements aren’t made
  
  • Zone of possible agreement - bargaining range where both parties set minimum targets for acceptable outcome overlap - actual outcome can be anywhere here
  • Win-win - collaborative approach where both parties reach mutually beneficial agreement - problem solving, communication and strong relationships

Question 6

What types of contractual relationships are there?

Answer 6

• Single contract
  
  • Parallel contracts - several suppliers providing similar goods at same time. Multiple relationships
  • Sequential contracts - activity dependent on completion of contract prior to this. Multiple relationships.
  • Prime contracts - supplier sub-contracts to other suppliers of specific goods and/or services

Question 7

What are the types of supplier reimbursement terms?

Answer 7

• Time and materials/ unit price
  ○ Client pays per unit
  ○ Risk of running over lies with client
  ○ Suitable for vague specification - allows scope to evolve
  
  • Cost plus
    ○ Client pays actual cost of work, plus agree for overhead and profit (% or fixed fee)
    ○ Suitable for when earlier start on site required and scope still being developed - emergency works
  • Contract target cost/ price
    ○ Incentivised collaboration - target cost or price agreed, both client and supplier work to achieve it
    ○ Suitable where collaborative relationship
    ○ Risk is shared
  • Fixed price
    ○ Pre-agreed price based on agreed scope
    ○ Risk or running over lies with supplier
    ○ Price may be higher due to higher risk for supplier
    ○ Suitable where scope clearly defined - where transactional relationship preferred

Question 8

• Why are project reviews important?

Answer 8

○ Independent perspective, ensuring details aren’t overlooked, and that plan is progressing as in line with original specification
○ May highlight where project needs to change if requirements fluid from senior stakeholders
Bring together a big picture view of the project combined detailed evidence gathering. It’s a collation of data to inform decision making and communication

Question 9

• What are the different types of reviews and when do they happen?

Answer 9

○ Decision gates - linear: event driven and at end of each stage. Iterative: time-bound and held at end of each iteration
○ Benefits reviews - sponsor does during benefits realisation phase - 6-12 months after project handover
○ Audits - held regularly by independent individuals at set frequency or when certain issue identified

Question 10

• What are the benefits of each type of review

Answer 10

○ Decision gates
§ Improves senior leadership involvement
§ Gains agreement from sponsor and governance board
§ Ensure project on track and delivering benefits originally set out in business case
○ Benefits review
§ Checks project achieving against benefits originally set out in business case
§ Determines what could be done to further enhance benefits
○ Audits
§ Third party confirmation of compliance with regulations etc
§ Supports confidence in robustness of project
§ Helps ensure project is following agreed governance and policies defined in quality management plans

Question 11

• What are the key factors which should be reported on:

Answer 11

○ Progress against schedule
○ Spend - actual against spend
○ Earned value - spend and value it’s achieved
○ Audit findings including non-conformities
○ Risks and issues

Question 12

• What are the key elements of information and data to make project centric decisions?

Answer 12

○ Status reporting - so the PM can understand status of project in relation to cost, schedule and quality against acceptance criteria
○ Estimating the project - so more realistic schedules and costs and be developed using past projects
○ Risk identification - so that need for corrective actions or escalation can be determined
○ Problem solving and options appraisal - so solutions to problems and issues can be generated using past projects
○ Availability of information - to inform decision making at key points by ensuring relevant info available in appropriate format
○ Knowledge and information management - to provide understanding on when to schedule QA and QC activities for the project, by assessing what was done on previous projects and understanding times in cycle to schedule activities to maximise findings

Question 13

• Why might a project need to be re-planned following a review to ensure overall success?

Answer 13

○ Achieving identified scope doesn’t meet requirements
○ Motivation and satisfaction in the team are low
○ Performance of contractors or relationships with the supply chain are poor
○ Committed costs and cash flow exceed forecasts
○ Changes to risk profile or impact on time and cost are needed due to new risks
○ Communication with stakeholders is ineffective

Question 14

• What does assurance do?

Answer 14

○ Objective and independent approach agree by sponsor and other stakeholders
○ Hand in glove with governance and risk management - any weakness in three areas will affect the project and each other element
○ It provides:
§ Confidence to the governance board that project’s on track
§ Supports decision making and change control
§ Improves risk assessment
§ Improves likelihood of project meeting objectives

Question 15

• What are some example of assurance activities?

Answer 15

○ Controls - management system or policies, procedures, standards and procedures to control and minimise risks
○ Compliance - monitoring , audits and QA. Intend to confirm control of risks
○ Independent review - internal or external audits (eg NAO) - provide strategic overview of systems of control

Question 16

• What criteria does an assurance plan need to meet?

Answer 16

○ Independent, objective and proportionate
○ Target greatest risks
○ Clear accountabilities for all assurance arrangements, activities and outputs
○ Timings of cycles and assurance are planned and coordinated
○ Must show governance and clear reporting routes

Question 17

• What is transition management?

Answer 17

○ Planning and doing activities needed to shift outputs of a project into BAU
○ Considers coordination of resources comms and risk to transition with minimal disruption
Requires strategic approach and meticulous planning, and pragmatic approach to problem solving to address change and challenges when going to BAU

Question 18

• What is needed to support a successful transition?

Answer 18

○ Managing stakeholder expectations from the offset to make outputs more likely to be accepted
○ Engaging with end users and sponsors throughout project
○ Aligning needs with outputs where possible
○ Setting path to handover and acceptance by working with stakeholders who will own outputs
○ Ensuring clear communication to reduce risk of PM misunderstanding requirements of end users

Question 19

• What is change impact analysis and how can it be used to help transition management?

Answer 19

○ Method for analysing scope and change to new BAU state to understand impact on people, performance, processes, systems and culture
○ Helps support planning and communication of change
○ It involves the following steps:
1. Define the change and it’s purpose, objectives, scope etc
2. Identify organisational areas including people, performance, processses, culture etc
3. Evaluate the level of impact the change will have on each area
4. Develop an action plan to address the impacts of the change to align with shared vision and communicate reguarly

Question 20

• What are the steps in progressive implementation (knowledge transfer)?

Answer 20

a. Launch - “what’s this”
b. Experimentation - “ i tried it once”
c. Practicing “i use it sometimes
d. Embedded “this is how we do things here”

Question 21

• What are important things to consider in progressive implementation?

Answer 21

○ Relationship between project team and BAU people
○ Sponsor is key champion of this work and needs to take ownership of knowledge transfer etc
○ Extended life cycle approach makes project team accountable for change management - preventing knowledge boundaries between project and BAU teams
○ Learning and development needed to train BAU staff and to promote continuous improvement

Question 22

• What is transition planning and what should it include?

Answer 22

○ Starts and the beginning of the project
○ May include:
§ Acceptance of pertient documentation
§ Acceptance certificates signed by sponsor - agreement that tasks to be completed and criteria to meet to get final approval
§ Transfer of responsibility for the deliverables
§ Formal transition of ownership

Question 23

• What information is provided during handover for linear projects (or at different stages of iterative)?

Answer 23

○ Process maps
○ Project documents
○ Ownership of supplier relationships
○ Ongoing licensing agreements
○ Training on processes etc.

Question 24

• Why is engagement important in handover?

Answer 24

○ Crucial to success of incorporating change as individuals will have vested interest in project’s outcomes
○ Early engagement with those stakeholders impacted important
○ Strategic alignment of goals and understanding of future state through collaborative approach to ensure shared ownership and vision
○ Communicating benefits helps support common understanding of the reason of the project. Benefits champion can support this communication with stakeholders

Question 25

* What are some considerations when agreeing a transition plan?

Answer 25

○ Agreeing a benefits management plan - should be documented by priority, interdependencies, value, timescales, ownership. (MoSCoW can be used - must have, should have, could have, won't have) ○ Mitigating conflict - can happen if acceptance criteria aren't met ○ Transferring risk - remaining risks at project closure need to be transferred

Question 26

* How do different life cycles affect transition planning?

Answer 26

○ Linear - should happen throughout project. Final state only available during transition phase. Important to monitor progress and alignment of deliverables against expectations through assurance and governance ○ Iterative - gain stakeholder buy in on an ongoing basis. Collaborative input to design or ideas from BAU about implementation schedule

Question 27

* Why is benefits management important?

Answer 27

○ Point of project is to deliver beneficial change. Benefits must be clearly presented ○ Identifiying benefits beginning of long benefits management process to make sure benefits are realised

Question 28

* What are the five elements of a benefits management plan?

Answer 28

1. Identification - must now benefits before being managed to show ROI. Can be captured from business case and stakeholders 2. Definition - benefits management plan defines how benefits will be managed through transition into operation + roles and responsibilities involved. Identifies how the benefits will be measured. Benefits (and disbenefits) listed in terms of priority 3. Planning - capturing baseline measurements, agreeing targets and setting timelines for benefits relisation and how they relate to outputs 4. Tracking - monitoring benefits through deployment to inform when changes needed 5. Realisation - when outputs embedded and operation changes for better. Change manager could continue to track realisation, or someone else. Many benefits realised after project has ended - long term monitoring needed

Question 29

* What are the stages in the benefits management life cycle?

Answer 29

○ Way to ensure appropriate benefits identified and realised 1. Identify and quantify - identify and involve stakeholders, align to strategic objectives, benefits maps 2. Value and appraise - produce outline business case, baseline measurements, realistic benefits targets, undertake analysis to understand interests and concerns 3. Plan - benefits and related changes, identify staff to be responsible for realisation, structure benefits in terms of type of change, establish change success criteria 4. Realise - monitor, track and report benefits realisation, optimise changes for maximum realisation, evaluate realised benefits 5. Review results - additional benefits, benefits possible through business changes, benefits possible from further investment 6. Review - assess benefits management - assess benefits management capability development 7. REPEAT

Question 30

* What are some other considerations for benefits management?

Answer 30

○ Transformative impact - new outcomes and benefits are transformational. Organisation must support collaboration ie. Discussion internally and externally around changes. All of these stakeholders have a role to play in achieving change and benefits ○ Ownership - sponsorship for benefits management at board level helps adoption across business. Essential that sponsor understands that accountable for realisation ○ Visibility - increases visibility of failues as well as successes, sometimes reluctance to embrace across organisation. Benefits have shared vision and everyone understands their role in achieving them - outweighs risk ○ Benefits management capability. § Capability improvemen might include □ Benchmarking against other orgs. □ Benefits capability assessments and improvement planning □ Networking and knwoeldge sharing □ Training and benefits tool support ○ Benefits framework § Optional document to support management of benefits across programmes § Sets standards for benefits definition including: □ Benefits mapping □ Measures, rules and guidelines □ Valuation methods □ Evaluation □ Categorisation

Question 31

* How do you align benefits with strategic objectives?

Answer 31

○ Business case § Benefits should be defined here for each project including info on how contribution will achieve business strategy ○ Benefits mapping § Shoudl strategically align to investment decision planning § Projects should bring benefits to investing organsiation - have tangible value, money one example ○ Benefits identification and measurement § Identifiying and agreeing benefits and how measured and managed § Helps assess and track impact or project or benefits on business § End benefits should achieve strategic objective

Question 32

* How do you communicate benefits to stakeholders?

Answer 32

○ Workshops, meetings AGMs, emails, intranet, MS teams, reports ○ Consider most appropriate method in line with organisational culture. Things to consider § Tone and language § Aligning with values including mission statement § Agreed way of doing comms in organisation?

Question 33

* What should be considered when communicating benefits?

Answer 33

○ Benefits are quantified and measurable, and can be used ○ End benefits known following transition - not immediate ○ Benefits and way measured agree with stakeholders agree early on so no surprises ○ Should report interim and immediate findings where possible ○ Benefits reviews held following transition to demonstrate it's working and achieving business case ○ Audits or independent review of how project achieved benefits - helps give confidence to stakeholders on strength of alining benefits to organisational objectives