Category Archives: Project Management

Change Management: How to overcome stakeholders’ resistance to change

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Following up on some recent tweets on employee motivation and engagement, I was reacquainted with Gleicher’s Formula for Change, published by Beckhard and Harris (also known as Beckhard and Harris’s Change Equation). Although I agreed with the formula when I first saw it several years ago, I rather dismissed it as a statement of the obvious. On reflection, it is a more powerful tool in change management than I first gave it credit. Continue reading →

Procurement for Projects: Supply Planning (Part 2) – 3 Key Elements; 6 Tools & Techniques

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This article is the second in a series written specifically as guidance for project managers. 

Many projects suffer from the late involvement, or absence, of the procurement professional. It is the Project Manager’s responsibility to determine the requirement (or not) for specialist procurement skills. The series sets out to educate project managers in the essential considerations, and to inform the PM’s decision as to the need for specialist procurement resource.

The first article (Part 1) answered the question, “When and why do project managers need supply planning?” This article covers three key elements of supply planning – requirements analysis, supply market analysis, and risk management – and six tools and techniques used in the supply planning process.  Continue reading →

Procurement for Projects: Supply Planning (Part 1)

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This article is the first in a series written specifically as guidance for project managers.  Superficially the requirements of projects and ‘business as usual’ may seem different. For the experienced practitioner, procurement for projects has much in common with other procurement practice, ideally drawing on a range of techniques from a comprehensive tool set.

Many projects suffer from the late involvement, or absence, of the procurement professional. It is the Project Manager’s responsibility to determine the requirement (or not) for specialist procurement skills. Irrespective of the makeup of the project team, it is most important that the procurement cycle is considered and planned from the project outset. This series sets out to explain why, to educate project managers in the essential considerations, and to inform the PM’s decision as to the need for specialist resource. Continue reading →

Procurement for Projects? …or Business as Usual?

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In a recent exchange on Twitter, I was asked if I had any writing on procurement in the context of projects, as there is very little coverage about this topic for Project Managers.

Is procurement for projects different from other procurement?

There are opposing arguments, on the one hand that procurement for projects is very different from other procurement, on the other hand, that the ideal approaches to procurement are very similar whether for projects or not, and that the approaches become different only as one makes compromises. Such compromises would arise as a consequence of differences in objectives for projects and ‘business as usual’ (BAU), and from constraints in the capability of the procurement resource. Compromises may also be forced by late involvement of appropriate procurement expertise. Continue reading →

Change Management: 7 Essential Elements of Stakeholder Engagement

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Stakeholder engagement is a critical factor in the success of business change, especially business transformations, which may require significant cultural change. Business transformation typically involves people, process and systems changes which need to be delivered in order to produce a step change within the business. The design of effective processes and application of appropriate technology is not enough to ensure success. Insufficient acceptance and adoption of the new processes, arising from inadequate engagement of stakeholders, is a common cause of transformation failures. Continue reading →