Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success; stakeholder analysis template

A stakeholder is anyone, or group, who can positively or negatively affect the outcome of the project. This post introduces two Excel template worksheets for stakeholder identification and management.

Prior to a project’s go-ahead this template identifies groups and individuals with a stake in the success, and failure. The effort makes sure we understand the key concerns and motivations of these audiences in order to mitigate risk to over-look or under-appreciate stakeholder position.

Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success; impact analysis template

An impact analysis is an early-phase assessment to identify all stakeholders, their needs, their awareness, and their insight into the project – these people are not only sponsors and customers, but the people you want to invite people into the change. Involvement impacts success.

Just like a pebble tossed into a pond, projects cause ripples that carry beyond the initial splash. Projects sponsors who fail to link the change a project has to people, process, and technology risk project success and project adoption.

Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success, part 1

To deliver what someone expects, when someone expects, and the price someone agrees to requires an ability to define scope.

When a project fails, resources are lost and organization pressure increases. The more projects that fail the more resistant people are to associate with, work on, or fund new projects.

This is a first in a series of scope and project management blogs and templates to improve project delivery with a set of tools and principles to understand and manage project scope, from impact assessment through stakeholder communication.

The cost of culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500

If companies were built to last, than 4 of 10, almost 50%, would still remain on the the Fortune 500 a mere 10 years later.

Sustained success has less to do with market forces than company values; less to do with competitive position than personal beliefs; less to do with resource advantages than vision. Sustained success has to do with managing culture.

Organization change without an awareness of what drives the organization’s culture may be the reason close to 90% of all projects fail. Culture is key to remain great.

Why your business strategy is a project portfolio

The ability to scope and deliver a project is a competitive advantage.

The best organizations realize project management capability as a strategic differentiator, the lagging organizations only staff project management skills within Information Technology departments.

I now rely on the term portfolio planning to describe the translation of strategy to a group of project options an organization can undertake. A portfolio view projects priority using the same risk and return criteria capital expenditures and other financial or strategic commitments are evaluated.

The devil in the details — the strategic plan

I find people have a tendency to become too involved too quickly with tactics. Tactics include what to buy, what to build, what to move. Strategy is why build, why buy, why move.

Much of your organization is involved in the detail of execution, it is illogical they are not strategically aligned. When your team discovers tactics they deliver align to organization goals there is clear purpose in what they do.

Purpose provides motivation.

The meat of the strategic planning process is the goals-objectives-actions value chain. People may have other definitions for goals, objectives, and actions, and bristle at the rigidity of the definitions, however, a single use for each term will remove interpretation and confusion.