How you plan your project will directly determine your likelihood of success. Too often is that the planning is focused mostly on the technical elements and not on the value delivery elements. As the governance team you need to guard against this.

You need to ensure that your project is planned

• as a change project - what has to change to achieve the desired business outcomes and benefits?
• with realistic estimates - adjusted for the current level of certainty (not hoped for)
• with the right resources - knowing what compromises are being made and their consequences
• to deliver the value proposition in the business case (not just a ‘solution’).

For example, you need to plan your resources. A major project was knowingly started with the ‘D’ team, not supported and failed. Surprise, surprise. You need to focus on who is on your project team - by fighting, cajoling, persuading, hijacking or whatever is required to get the ‘A’ team of equivalent on your project as who you have on your project determines your success.

This Guide is an essential support tool for all Sponsors and Governance Team members to enable you effectively govern the planning stage of your project.

How to govern project planning

1. Understanding the end-to-end value delivery process
2. Understanding project planning
3. Understanding why project estimates are so often ‘wrong’
4. The end-to-end project planning process
5. How to govern your project’s ‘solution’ scope
6. How to agree project handover requirements
7. How to evaluate your project’s delivery approach and strategy
8. How to evaluate your project’s plans
9. How to govern your project team selection
10. How to govern consultant selection
11. How to monitor that the project planning stage has been finished

• Project Sponsors/Governance teams - to understand their roles and how to perform them effectively
• Project Practitioners - to understand the governance role in this vital stage of the project
• PPMOs - to enable them to support successful project planning
• Project Investment Committees - to understand the project planning process from a governance point of view
• Executives/Boards - to understand the importance of this planning stage
• Auditors - to understand the nature of importance of this project stage

• Enables you to manage your project scope with a focus on value optimization
• Focuses on resourcing your project correctly and completely
• Enables you to understand the limitations of estimating and its impacts downstream
• Enables you to select the right project team
• Equips you with the basic criteria to select consultants and then manage them

Coming soon