PROJECT MANAGEMENT - BUSINESS CASES AND GATEWAYS

After the project business case is established, Gateway’s review 1 would be carried out to examine the justifications and arguments presented. The reviewing board will be looking for benefits and disbenefits that might have been overlooked or assumptions that appear to be unrealistic.

If all is well, the project will go forward to the next stage in which a detailed delivery strategy is worked out. The ‘Who? How? When? What?’ questions are addressed here. For example:

·           Who will be on the project team?

·           How much will be subcontracted?

·           What exactly will be delivered and by when?

Review 2 will look critically at these decisions and objectives. Only when the reviewing board is satisfied that the project is sufficiently well-defined and specified will it give the go-ahead to receive tenders from outside suppliers.

After the competitive tenders have been received, the next stage will be signing a supply contract and committing the organisation to substantial expenditure. Before that is done, Review 3 will look at the tenders received, their costs, the standing and competence of the suppliers and whether – now that costs are known more accurately – the project still offers value for money (net benefits).

Assuming the supply contract is signed, then investment in the project will start. It could be an IT project requiring software design, writing and testing; it could be a project to reorganise the structure and reporting lines of the company; it could be a project to merge with a rival organisation. However, before action is taken and the software or plans are implemented, it is important to review what is proposed. There is no point in trying to implement proposals that are not-tested, incomplete or poorly designed. So Review 4 will look at the project plans and see if they are sufficiently robust and comprehensive to attempt to implement. It will also be necessary to ensure that the organisation is ready for implementation of the plans.

Review 5 then looks at the results that the project is delivering. Have the expected benefits materialised? If not, then why not? Can shortfalls in benefits or unexpected disbenefits be corrected? Review 5 could be carried out several times as the new solution gradually settles down and management problems are ironed out.

Note carefully the purpose of Review 0. This should be carried on continuously throughout the project and is there to keep questioning whether the original business case on which the project was predicated remains valid. No matter how meticulously a project is managed, changing events can suddenly undermine a business case. For example, a project to build a new factory can suddenly look uneconomic if the economy suffers a sharp fall. Or, further investment in a project might be pointless if its completion seems to be in jeopardy because funds have become very tight.

REVIEWING THE RESULTS

After a project has been implemented, there are three types of review that should be performed, reflecting different perspectives.

·           A post-project review. This examines how the project went in terms of how the project team and how the project manager performed and identifying what aspects of planning and review went well and what didn’t go so well. Was the project completed within time and budget? The focus here is on the project. Lessons learnt are fed back into the project management system. For example, if the project estimation was poor, then better methods of estimation might be integrated into the project management process to help ensure that future estimates are more accurate.

·           A post-implementation review. This is essentially the Gateway review 5 and it examines what the project achieved (its product or outcome) and should compare the post-implementation observations and measurements with the hoped-for benefits that were the basis of the original business case. As part of this review, it

·           will be important to gather information from key stakeholders. The initial focus here is on the product or outcome produced by the project. Does it meet its objectives? Lessons learnt are fed back into the product production process – for example, in the development of a website, technical mistakes might be fed back into the software development process to help ensure that they do not happen again in the future.

·           Benefits realisation is a type of post-implementation review. It focuses on the realisation of the anticipated business benefits. As mentioned before, it could be performed several times, reflecting the expected benefits timing defined in the formal investment appraisal. A product might be successfully delivered (for example, a new website or the merger of two organisations); however, the anticipated business benefits may not be delivered. Lessons learnt in benefits realisation are fed back into the benefits management process. For example, this could lead to better ways of classifying benefits. It is important to recognise that an appropriate product might be delivered (a website), but the anticipated business benefits may never accrue. The reasons for this have to be investigated and understood. Perhaps the initial business case was over-optimistic or perhaps external business factors have changed that prevent the business benefits from being delivered.

Without these reviews, an organisation will be condemned to repeating any mistakes it may have made and will be unable to make use of any lessons learned.

Ken Garrett is a freelance author and lecturer

Reference (1) Benefits Management: Delivering Value from IS and IT Investments, John Ward and Elizabeth Daniel, Wiley, 2006.

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