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Implementing Effective Change Management

Getting change management to  “bite” is really tough, all the training in the world will not make it happen without providing the energy to gain momentum.  This is an area that we have specialised in and delivered on a number of occasions for clients.

One from our archives, but in this case study from 2014, we gained one of the prestigious TJ Awards awards for the management training and development programme at Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The Aspire Academy team who delivered the assignment were Robert Cole and David King.

We designed and implemented an approach that pulled together a disparate group of change people across a number of sites into a coherent and functioning organisation.

Designing project controls

Whether you are building a wind turbine farm or delivering a small IT upgrade in your company, you will need to make sure your project is under control.

Rod Sowden in full flow
‘Listen up guys’

If there are not appropriate controls in place the project will lose momentum and focus and stray off course. The problems may take time to become evident, but it is worth remembering that projects do not go wrong overnight. They go wrong because of small and unnoticed changes or failures that in themselves don’t alert the project board, but when aggregated can lead to failure and waste.

If you are not 100% confident around what you have to do in this space, why not have a read of our FAQ on designing project controls

PRINCE2 Product Description

The value of the content of some of the best practice guides can often be lost in the detail of the manual and the focus on passing an exam. Therefore, we have pulled out some of the areas that we think will be of the most value to people so that they can act as a quick reference guide.

We have created a large range of these references that we hope will be useful to you, please stay in touch and let us know what you think.

Talking About Project Management to the Ugandan Young Leaders

This is a really nice video from our archive when we were working closely with a charity to deliver project management in Uganda.

On a visit to Uganda last week, Rob Newman (the Tag Rugby Trust Treasurer) had a heart warming chat with the Uganda young leaders about project management. As part of our fundraising, we are creating a project management eLearning course and raising money for tablets to enhance the young leaders knowledge skill set for the future. We are proud to be a part of creating a future for these bright young people.

Managing project costs

Performance against forecasted budget is an essential reporting requirement. The main costs for a project will come under two headings: resources and assets. The control activities around costs are very much linked to the controls around time as the time required from the resources represents significant costs.

Rod Sowden in full flow
Listen up guys

If this is an area that you are interested in finding out more about, why not have a look at our guidance page and example technique

12 things you should know about PMQ (APMP)

APM – Project Management Qualification (PMQ) is the flagship qualification of the Association for Project Management. Tens of thousands of project managers have chosen to obtain the internationally recognised International Project Management Association Level D certification.

If we can help with your professional development – let us know and we will let you know how

Via

PRINCE2 Benefits Management Approach

The value of the content of some of the best practice guides can often be lost in the detail of the manual and the focus on passing an exam. Therefore, we have pulled out some of the areas that we think will be of the most value to people so that they can act as a quick reference guide.

We have created a large range of these references that we hope will be useful to you, please stay in touch and let us know what you think.

Programme Management Business Case in a Nutshell

Rod Sowden the Aspire Europe Managing Director (and lead author of the current versions of MSP® and P3M3®) talks about the Business Case works at the programme level.

Hope you enjoy!

Visit and Subscribe to our NEW YouTube Channel here

MSP® and P3M3® are [registered] trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

Deadly Sins: Adopting Agile

Over the last year or two we have reviewed a number of programmes and projects that are using an “agile” approach. There are a number of common problems which have come to light that should be of interest to any organisation setting out on an agile endeavour for the first time.

Agile, Lean or project management are not cures for unproductive or incompetent teams, weak leadership or poor performance management.

All methods have their place and can add value and improve performance but none on their own are a panacea as they all depend on the capability of the people involved.
This article sets out some of the key lessons that we have taken from our reviews.

If you would like to know more about Agile, why not consider one of our training courses

A Practical Guide to Project Planning: Ten Key things

Ten things that will you find in the Practical Guide to project planning – a step by step guide that you won’t find in other
planning books:

  1. It is written with you in mind! We are not expecting you to be a guru, building the Olympic Park or managing High Speed 2, everyday projects are hard enough
  2. Successful planning is about people and behaviours! Rather than techniques and tools, the data needed for planning is assembled through a number of activities, not making up numbers to feed into a software package
  3. Business projects are different to technical projects! So we have used a business project as the case study, these tend to be less predictable and have elements of different project types in them
  4. Moderating optimism! We have included guidance on setting priorities, estimation and helping to moderate the optimism bias gives you more chance of finishing successfully
  5. Planning lifecycle! We have used a lifecycle that shows the stages and events that trigger planning activities, instead of giving you a list of techniques, we bring it to life for you. The focus is on “How” to plan rather than telling you “what” to do
  6. Techniques at the right time! Every step of the way we offer a technique to use at each point, with an explanation of what it does and how you should use it
  7. Worked examples! We illustrate each technique with a worked example based on a case study that provides an example of everyday challenges we face
  8. Templates and tools! All part of the process, but effective planning is based on having the right information available at the right time, the focus of the book is on systematically collecting this information
  9. Useful check-lists! Common areas of failure for most projects, to help you avoid making them, we also include an example template on how to assemble your planning information
  10. Clear responsibilities and tasks for all the main roles involved with planning, which is everyone involved with the project!

For more information on  the book and how to buy from The TSO, click here