Strategy Survival Guide

Prime Minister's Strategy Unit

Version 2.1

home | strategy development | strategy skills | site index | access keys

Strategy Skills > Managing the Project

Developing the plan

Involving team members in the development of the work plan and discussions of roles and responsibilities will help to build a good team working environment and to gain commitment. Team members can also offer new experience and insights. Holding an initial team away-day provides a good opportunity for this discussion. However, delays in recruitment may mean that this is not possible.

In order to ensure buy-in and commitment to the project, the project plan should be cleared with the sponsor, key stakeholders and, if the project has one, the Steering Group.

The project plan may take the following structure:

Example Project Plan

Define the background to and drivers of the project;
Define the problem that the project is to address and key questions to be answered;
Set out initial analysis of available evidence. This should:

Identify key trends andissues;
Identify key drivers of change;
Identify work underway in related areas, both domestically and internationally;
Set out thinking on possible ways forward and methodology.

Identify the project time scales and key milestones;
Define the individual work phases that will be required for delivery, the key milestones/events and aims/outputs from each work phase. This plan should set out the activities required to achieve these outputs, and identify who will be responsible for delivery and by when;
Identify the skills needed to take the work forward and the team working arrangements;
Identify the potential risks to the successful delivery of the project;
Determine the political sensitivity and feasibility of the issue;
Identify the key stakeholders;
Determine whether and how the project is to be communicated within relevant departments and externally, and set out the reasoning for this;
Identify initial thoughts on potential implementation;
Identify the assumptions you will be making regarding the project budget;
Identify the project governance arrangements: sponsor minister and whether you will be having a project steering board and/or advisory group; and
Identify project evaluation arrangements and success indicators.

The project plan should not be a static document to be placed on a shelf and ignored once the project is up and running. It should be a live document that is regularly revisited and revised.

References

For more detailed information of all aspects of programme and project management, see the Office of Government Commerce website, which provides information on the principles and concepts of programme and project management and provides a helpful summary of the key stages and management activities required for delivering successful outcomes. The site also covers programme and project management techniques in detail, including:

OGC's successful delivery toolkit, which describes proven good practice for procurement, programmes, projects, risk and service management.
An introduction to the PRINCE2 Project Management Methodology.
OGC's 22 Questions - From "what is our vision?" through to "what's the plan?" 22 Questions to help you consider your project.
Programme and Project Documentation - description of the contents of some of the commonly used documentation for planning, managing, monitoring and controlling progress on programmes and projects.

Developing the plan

In Practice: Joint SU & HO Police Reform Project

The project management plan was developed jointly by the Strategy Unit and Home Office teams over the first few weeks of the project. The plan provided the means by which the work was integrated and co-ordinated.

Several early pieces of work have informed the project plan:

a project proposal note and agreed terms of reference for the project;
development of issue trees to help identify key issues and logical structures for the workstreams;
initial data gathering to draw together the dominant evidence on different crime areas and the effectiveness of the police response.

Based on the above and the Strategy Unit's project plan template, the SU team undertook a first cut for discussion with the Home Office. Several iterations were then discussed at team meetings, covering in particular the ground rules on project governance as well as the analytical approach. The basic structure developed for the plan covers:

project plan template

The Strategy Unit maintained responsibility for pulling drafts together, but sought specific input from the Home Office in several areas given their policy expertise and the need to draw on the ongoing programme of work in the Home Office on options for police reform. (So, for example, the Home Office led on the detail of key stakeholders, and how and when to engage with them.)

Separate brainstorms (including senior management from both sides) were held to flesh out the work programme and activity approach - linking this to the issue trees, work phasing, overall timelines, and agreeing the detail of workstream splits, activity and outputs. A high-level work programme was then drafted for inclusion in the project plan.

The draft project plan was then put to the project steering group and relevant Ministers for comment.

^ top