UNIT 5030 PLANNING AND MANAGING CONSULTANCY INTERVENTIONS

Pathways to CMI Level 5 in Professional Consulting Unit 5030 Planning and Managing Consultancy Interventions

Copyright © School of Business London Ltd, Registered in England & Wales (Company Reg. No: 08967560), 44 Broadway, E15 1XH, London, United Kingdom First edition 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright.

UNIT 5030 PLANNING AND MANAGING CONSULTANCY INTERVENTIONS

ABOUT THIS WORKBOOK .................................................................................................. 4 The Unit............................................................................................................................................................... 4

SECTION-1 UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO ADOPT A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO MANAGING CONSULTANCY INTERVENTIONS ............................ 6 1.1 Different types of Consultancy interventions and approaches available to a consultant ............................................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Evaluate the role of planning in consultancy interventions ................................................... 13 1.3 Explain the stages of the Consultancy Cycle .............................................................................. 22 1.4 Identify the inputs and deliverables at each stage of the consultancy process ............ 32 1.5 Explain how to overcome challenges and risks which may arise during the consultancy cycle........................................................................................................................................... 38 1.6 Evaluate the importance of scoping for consultancy interventions .................................... 48

SECTION-2 BE ABLE TO USE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN A CONSULTANCY INTERVENTION ..................................................................................... 58 2.1 Identify the components of an effective Project Management plan ................................... 58 2.2 Evaluate the need for budgeting of financial and non-financial resources ...................... 70 2.3 Develop systems and practices to identify and manage potential risk to the achievement of the project objectives .................................................................................................. 81 2.4 Identify an appropriate infrastructure to support project delivery ..................................... 95 2.5 Assess the impact of the consultant’s own role and skills in project delivery.............. 102 2.6 Evaluate the importance of the project leader quality assuring the work of the project team .................................................................................................................................................. 113

SECTION-3 KNOW HOW TO CONDUCT A CONSULTANCY INTERVENTION ...................................................................................................................................................121 3.1 Identify the resource implications for gathering different types of data/information and evaluate their contribution to the project ................................................................................. 121 3.2 Select a range of data analysis tools/models and evaluate the contribution to the success of an intervention project in using a range of tools/models ...................................... 131 3.3 Explain how to develop a cohesive set of conclusions/findings ......................................... 139 3.4 Describe the process of developing recommendations from the analysis ..................... 146

About this workbook

The Unit This unit is about understanding the stages of the consultancy cycle and how to manage interventions effectively.

The main purpose of this workbook is to support you as you study for the Chartered Management Institute Level 5 Qualification — Professional Consulting, so it specifically focuses on the content of the syllabus for Unit 5030, Planning and Managing Consultancy Interventions.

This workbook provides underpinning knowledge and develops understanding to improve your skills as well as to prepare you for future assessment. If you are studying towards the Level 5 in Professional Consulting then, if you choose to do so, you will be assessed on ‘your knowledge and understanding of’ the following learning outcomes:

Learning Outcomes L O 1.

Understand the need to adopt a structured approach to managing consultancy interventions.

Assessment Criteria 1. Discuss different types of consultancy interventions and approaches available to a consultant 2. Evaluate the role of planning in consultancy interventions 3. Explain the stages of the consultancy cycle 4. Identify the inputs and deliverables at each stage of the consultancy cycle 5. Explain how to overcome challenges and risks which may arise during the consultancy cycle 6. Evaluate the importance of scoping to a consultancy intervention

L O 2.

Be able to use project management techniques in a consultancy intervention

1. Identify the components of an effective project plan 2. Evaluate the need for budgeting of financial and non-financial resources 3. Develop systems and practices to identify and manage potential risks to the achievement of project objectives 4. Identify an appropriate infrastructure to support project delivery 5. Assess the impact of the consultant’s own role and skills in project delivery 6. Evaluate the importance of the project leader quality assuring the work of the project team

L O 3.

Know how to conduct a consultancy intervention

1. Identify the resource implications for gathering different types of data/information and evaluate their contribution to the project 2. Select a range of data analysis tools/models and evaluate the contribution to the success of an intervention project in using a range of tools/models 3. Explain how to develop a cohesive set of conclusions/findings 4. Describe the process of developing recommendations from the analysis

SECTION-1 UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO ADOPT A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO MANAGING CONSULTANCY INTERVENTIONS 1.1 Different types of Consultancy interventions and approaches available to a consultant

Consultants can be found in nearly every sector and firm. They are hired by banks, insurance, law firms, retail businesses, government organisations, into procurement divisions, and auditing tasks, to name a few popular industries and roles for consultants. They do everything from evaluating management efficiency through to protecting computer systems from hackers. Some pitch themselves as problem-solvers, subject matter experts, generalists, strategists and technical specialists. For a decent article about how to (or not to) approach consultancy and impress potential clients please take some time to read an article, The Three Types of Consulting Approaches by Lewis Auder (2014). (The URL is provided below in our references.)

Two popular definitions of ‘consultant’ can be found below: Engaged in the business of giving expert advice to people working in a professional or technical field. (Cambridge Online Dictionary: 2020) The provision to businesses of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organisation in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of additional resources; and/or the implementation of solutions. (Iconsulting.com)

The diversity of roles within the consulting space offer many opportunities for individuals to specialise in areas that appeal to them. Nevertheless, there are

also risks, because companies will not retain external consultants who either do not show clear value to their business, or who cannot demonstrate sufficiently enhanced levels of specialist expertise that cannot be accessed from within the existing (internal) employee pool.

Tip 1: Consultants are often paid by the hour, or by the day, therefore they must be perceived to add value to their client business.

Consulting roles usually fit into one of five main categories: strategy consulting, financial consulting, information technology consulting, operations consulting and human resources consulting.

To help you get a sense of which types of consulting you might be most interested in, we provide an overview of these five categories below.

Strategy consulting Strategy consulting focuses upon the assistance of shaping the longer-term vision of a company. Such consultancy roles become available because very busy internal senior executives are often diverted from longer term goal achievement by the ‘cut and thrust’ of day-to-day business development and management.

The goal of strategic consultants is to see the bigger picture, and to identify ways in which to increase the company's overall profitability and competitiveness. They form strategies to reach long-term goals and oversee the implementation of these, ensuring that the firm does not get diverted off-course by the turbulence of everyday events and market conditions. Such consultants will need to be able to communicate the overall (strategic) business vision by honing defining its longer-term objectives and mission.

Firms that are best known for pure strategy services are McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Each have most informative websites that will help you to develop your strategic consultancy skillset.

Case Study Example:

The client is a food retailer who specialise in low-calorie healthy products. They begin to notice their competitive edge slipping and profits are nosediving. They seek the expertise of a retail strategy consultant. The consultant identifies a major point of difference between the client and its more successful competition.

The client is advised to provide higher energy food products for the increased target audiences that go to gyms and fitness classes. The consultant then develops a successful strategy to expand the retailer’s products, marketing and distribution channels in this segment. During a three-year transformation plan profits rise from 4% to 18%, equivalent to £36m, in financial year 3. The project team cost £6m over three years. The Return on Investment (ROI) is several thousand per cent and the consulting team use this project as a golden case study to win future business.

Financial consulting Financial consultants assess a client’s financial position in order to develop and propose a plan on how to better manage the money-side of the business. This is likely to involve providing information and advice on investment strategies, tax issues and how to manage the everyday business expenses. Financial consulting also covers insurance advice and saving (efficiency) strategies. One of the surest ways to make healthy profits is to control costs (spending).

The so-called ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PWC and Ernst & Young - are well known for their financial consulting services, although they do offer services in other areas too. This type of consulting could be the perfect match for individuals with a finance, economics or business-related degree.

Example: Our healthy food retail client has now expanded globally. Revenues are huge, but costs seem to be spiralling out of control. Supplier costs appear to rise heavily and a weak Pound sterling is blamed. Not quite feeling confident that the weaker Pound is the reason, the resurgent retailer now seeks the advice of a team of qualified financial consultants, with imports and exports market expertise, to better understand the international market and provide advice on tax and other financial regulatory laws they need to be aware of (Ainsworth: 1997).

Tip 2: Most consultants will need to have industry-specific qualifications to carry out and advise on the tasks that they are undertaking on behalf of their client

Operations consulting In larger organisations there are often more inefficiencies such as task duplication, departmental mission creep and overly siloed managers. It is not uncommon in larger organisations for employees to suggest that they were unaware certain people, teams or even company locations even existed!

Operations consultants specifically look at the systems that clients use to reach their goals and work to enhance their efficiency. They assess all levels of operations including production, sales, distribution and customer service. They are interested in how processes can be refined in terms of costs, time, staff involvement and steps required, to best meet targets. From this, we can see that operations consultants can experience ‘mission creep’ into a whole range of systems. Therefore, it is vital that they are both strong at project management as well as defining and agreeing the scope of their original task.

Strategy consulting and operations consulting are closely linked. As we have seen, Strategy Consultants should focus on long term goals. Whereas operations consultants evaluate the behind-the-scenes structures and systems that enable fulfilment of these goals. Many leading consultancy firms offer both of these services.

One firm that has a strong business footprint in operational consultancy is Partners in Performance (PIP). Moreover, the ‘Big 4’ advisory firms have a strong presence in operations consultancy for larger firms and government organisations.

Continuing our Case Study example from above: An operations consultant might now be commissioned by the retail client to improve their production costs, making the production lines and supply chains leaner, which ultimately allows the client to sell their healthy retail products at a cheaper rate, making them

much more competitive as well as much more attractive in emerging markets where consumers might be less wealthy.

Information technology consulting (IT consulting) A consultant in this area provides advice on how to best use technology to enhance a client’s business. With concerns around data security and privacy, and the advent of legislation such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2018), IT consulting has increasingly come to include cyber security and information security risk management services. Such consultancy could involve designing unique software application for a company, designing a safe piece of customer payment software, assisting a firm-wide transition from PC’s to Macs, or testing the efficiency and security of current devices and programs within the business. External auditors often come into businesses to audit security procedures and official national or international standards. (Companies are likely to lose contracts or face large fines if they are not compliant with data regulations.)

Consulting work in this area is called by many titles including: tech consulting, IT advisory, business technology services or IT consulting. With hacking highly prevalent, and employees brining their own devices into work (BYOD) IT consultants are increasingly being called upon to ensure there are no security breaches and sensitive information is kept confidential. Such consultants can be typically called Cyber Security or Information Security advisers (Talwar et al: 2015).

Prominent firms in this space are Accenture, PA Consulting and BAE. Case study example: The retail food client has now decided to launch their own app - ‘fastenergy’ - for retail staff to manage sales on the shop floor. They utilise IT consultants to oversee the app’s development, and install a secure, encrypted, payment platform, then troubleshoot any issues and train staff in the use of the new system. They use consultants to war game and stress test the new app for cyber vulnerabilities, before it is released publicly into the consumer market. The tests initially fail, because the app has vulnerabilities that were exploited by a penetration tester. However, each consultant has signed a non-

disclosure agreement (documents designed by legal consultants) and therefore the glitch remains private to the company and the team of consultants.

Human Resources consulting (HR consulting) Human Resources (HR) consultants handle matters concerning a firm’s employees – co-ordinating their personal development and documentation – in alignment with the business’s daily requirements and overall strategy. They deal with the people side of business! (Grout and Fisher: 2011) They work with clients in the recruitment and transition phases to place the best people in the correct roles. They research and implement well-being systems, attend to communication issues and handle remuneration and change management. They're expected to become experts in a company's culture, and therefore have the capacity to consult on whether two companies could successfully merge without a clash of ethos. HR consultancy firms also manage outsourcing.

Many UK and US consultants or aspiring consultants might have heard of Randstad or ManpowerGroup? These are popular brands in HR consulting.

Case study example: Our food retail client – and its ‘fastenergy app’ - has decided to open specialised stores with health and wellbeing instructors who will be involved with a lot of remote working. They seek the expertise of a HR consulting firm to restructure the business and build management and operational teams who are suited to working in the new market.

Reflective Learning: During this section we have looked at the different types and sectors of consultancy interventions and why clients might wish to use consultancy services. But now it is time for you to imagine that you are a consultant in your chosen profession? What type of approach will you take to potential clients and what will be your areas of expertise to add value to their company? Write down your answers in your notebook.

Further Reading: Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership.

Chichester: Capstone Press Dale Carnegie Training (2009) Leadership Mastery. London: Simon & Schuster Talwar, R. (ed.) (2015) The Future Of Business: Critical Insights Into A Rapidly Changing World. New York: Futurescapes

References: Auder, L. (2014) The Three Types of Consulting Approaches, Consulting 101 Career Management, accessed on 10/01/2020 at: http://blog.consulting101book.com/3-types-consulting-approaches/ Cambridge Online Dictionary Iconsulting accessed on 07/01/2020 at: http://www.iconsulting.org.uk/purchasing-consultancy/why-use-an-icconsultant/what-is-consulting Ainsworth, J., (1997) How to Become a Successful Financial Consultant: Making a Living Investing Other People's Money. London: John Wiley & Sons Talwar, R. (ed.) (2015) The Future Of Business: Critical Insights Into A Rapidly Changing World. New York: Futurescapes Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership.

Chichester: Capstone Press

1.2 Evaluate the role of planning in consultancy interventions

For good reasons, there are many famous quotes about the importance of planning by prominent leaders. Here’s just two: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antione de Saint-Exupery “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin Planning for your consultancy role is absolutely critical. Companies and their management have invested time, money and personal credibility in bringing consultants on-board (Rumelt: 2012). Once on-board, they – and their teams will expect a consultant to deliver.

Therefore, a critical question that consultants must ask themselves is how will they shape their projects to make them successful? When thinking about planning, it is worth thinking in three phases.

1. Pitching (in advance of and during the ‘pitch’ to clients) (Bettger: 1992) 2. Strategy (how do we know what we are going to do, and when?)

3. Execution (how do we ensure that these things actually get done?)

Breaking down your consultancy interventions into plans is therefore much more manageable if the overall processes and tasks are deconstructed and mapped out.

Each of these plans must be treated differently, and with the appropriate attention and resourcing.

Tip 1: You can disagree about what is included within a plan, but you must agree with company management about what the plan is intended to accomplish. (Ensure that there is senior buy-in.)

Now let’s look at three types of plans that are important for a professional consultant. We will examine what the purpose of each is, and what warning signs might be triggered if something isn't going smoothly in each stage.

You will see that all of these planning phases interact with each other.

1. During the Pitch

Why do we have a plan at this stage?

To understand the scope of a project, that we are the right ‘fit’ for the client, and that the client is the right ‘fit’ for us. It is ill-advised to press ahead with a project that has a big chance of failing because the two organisations cannot agree on the scope, objectives or type of approach (Bettger 1992 revised). For planning and sales pitches there are few better books than Frank Bettger’s famous guide provided within our references (below).

What should our plan do?

•

Address the client's needs (as far as they are understood, these should be stated in an agreement such as a delivery schedule or appendix of roles and responsibilities attached to a Memorandum of Understanding or legal contract)

•

Reflect the limitations of what we can offer and what the client can execute

•

Get the right order of magnitude (span and size and ‘commitment’) for project size

Benefits of presenting a draft plan to the pitch

1. It is usually the first time that you are dealing with this audience. In the limited timespan of your pitch a good ‘draft’ plan will demonstrate your competence, experience and grasp of the challenge.

2. Optical presentations and plans command authority and help to build interpersonal trust (Adair: 2009).

3. A good draft plan helps to encourage dialogue and mutual brainstorming with people that you don’t know. This immediately brings down social barriers and builds personal chemistry.

A good plan at pitch stage is, essentially, a straightforward summary of what needs to happen and in what order. It's where everything begins, before the engagement has even started; it serves as a roadmap that all parties can provisionally buy in to.

Tip 2: The other piece of data that is presented concurrently with the plan shown is a draft budget, which is essentially the size of the project or the proposed bandwidth that your consultancy team will dedicate to it.

We should be able to estimate a budget with costs on a monthly basis. While every project is different, there are a lot of things we can estimate with a good degree of accuracy. Tasks to include within your costings include the management-side of your project. A good rule of thumb is to include management and controls activity within your fees because if you don’t, these strict management and project controls might get jettisoned during busy times.

Such a lapse in control, poses a risk to your project and professional credibility.

Therefore, consider building in to the budget:

•

Weekly meetings

•

Project management (time spent scheduling)

•

Monthly reports

•

Some common research reports (this may vary wildly, but it helps to have an average we can point to)

•

Business tools required (such as software) (Bingley: 2015)

All of the above is essential. It is usual for clients to build in strict calendars for delivery of reports. And to make contract payment conditional on receiving such management data and in an accurate manner. The management controls process carries risk for the consultant though. Because – if from the outset –

they agree to unreasonable monitoring and audit scheduling, this is likely to harm your relationship with a client rather than help it.

Case Study:

We have changed the names of the enterprises for this case study. Protocol Web Services Ltd. Agreed a deal with a Government department to complete unfinished website redesigns and to complete domain migrations. A prior contractor had walked away for unexplained reasons. One Government IT director insisted on an extremely detailed monitoring schedule after the pitch and began introducing arbitrary deadlines for various deliverables. The agreed project duration would coincide with the launch of a new site. The justifications for this (on the client's end) were both to get a better understanding of the work being done for internal development reasons. Due to exhaustive reporting and monitoring work, the consultant team was not able to launch the newly designed website on time. Because of the strict language of their arrangement, there was no flexibility to adapt their delivery strategy or extend the contract duration to accommodate. The work was of a high quality, but the consultant team suffered a late delivery penalty of around 10% which significantly impacted their profit margin as well as caused a ‘drag’ on other client projects.

Reflective learning - Key lessons

Spend half an hour considering three key lessons from the consultant’s perspective of this case study. Jot down your considerations in a notebook.

2. Strategy Phase

As we have seen, agreeing the scope and project conditions at the pitch stage is crucial. The Strategy Stage is therefore all about designing and communicating what we are going to do, and when.

Some clients will present a barrage of questions that threatens to undermine the rest of the scheduled work you're trying to do. In the worst cases, results might be demanded when what you're trying to prioritize is which work should be done.

Tip 3: A client can adjust the priorities of elements within this strategy, but be careful that you do not begin to do more work than there are hours available. For consultants kept on a monthly retainer, it is worth agreeing how many hours their monthly fee equates to and devising a Gantt chart of agreed tasks with timelines. If you work beyond your hours, you are effectively cutting your hourly rate.

A further risk for a consultant is related to time-management. Consultants often like to be highly action-oriented and target ‘quick wins’ and easy enhancements that can quickly build their credibility and trust with the client. Nevertheless, after a few easy outcomes (perhaps a web redesign or the installation of a new CRM software tool), consultants can often see their relationship dry up with the client because they no longer have value. Therefore, consultants must become of more strategic value to their clients.

Leading business leadership author, Professor Richard Rumelt, defines strategy:

“A good strategy is a coherent mix of policy and action designed to surmount a high-stakes challenge.”

For Rumelt, strategy has three elements. These three elements are (1) a cleareyed diagnosis of the challenge being faced, (2) an overall guiding policy explaining how the challenge will be met, and (3) a set of coherent actions designed to focus energy and resources.”

A good approach therefore, for any consultant, is to establish a rapport with the client and its senior team. Figure out the three strategic elements that apply to them and become, de facto, their guide for business challenges and issues related to direction. Demonstrate to them that you are not pursuing narrow personal commercial interests but are actively engaged and interested in growing their business and providing them with a significant Return on Investment (ROI).

Eventually, you'll work out a sequence of work that fits your schedule and addresses the needs of the client. Once you get to that point, you need to figure out how to execute the work. Later (in 2.1) we will examine more closely specific project plans.

3. Execution Phase

Why do we have a plan at the Execution stage?

To work out how we're going to do the work that needs to get done. At this point we're finally we're dealing with something that actually looks like a proper schedule—a real to-do list. Tasks need to be chunked into pieces that are clearly delineated and actionable.

What should this plan do?

•

Lay out exactly what actions need to be taken

•

Let everyone know who is accountable

•

Let everybody know the timescales

What should we watch out for?

•

Tasks that aren't well-defined

•

Tasks that are defined by outcomes

•

Employee to task mismatch

•

Necessary time needed to coach, explain and teach, is not built in

•

Realistic schedules (taking in to consideration other business and personal commitments)

Reflective exercise Internet research:

1. Identify and familiarise yourself with three published ‘activity schedules’ in Google spreadsheets from open source online searches.

2. Identify and familiarise yourself with three published ‘Action Plans’ from open source online searches.

3. Overall, what is your preferred plan and why?

Tip 4: A common problem observed in working with clients in "execution" mode is the tendency to create tasks that aren't welldefined. For instance, if I have "keyword research report" as a line item in my to-do list, I know I'm doing it wrong. Get more specific: Pull data from Searchmetrics, the Google Keyword tool, and Analytics; do analysis in Excel; and so forth.

How to keep track

There are as many methods of keeping track of to-do lists. Such tools for basic projects can be as simple as Gantt charts available within MS Project.

Consultants and project managers also use more advanced management tools such as OmniFocus and Asana obsession. The important thing is that at some point, in order to go from a "strategy" phase to actually accomplishing something, you have to come up with a list of actions, and this is the execution phase’s core purpose.

Summary:

Planning gets better with practice. It will have a positive effect on all the projects you work on. However, most plans change and are significantly impacted by events. You can disagree about what's in a plan, but you must agree about what the plan is intended to accomplish (Tecce: 2009).

No matter how well you think you know the client, break your consultancy projects down into three phases. These are, typically, the pitch stage, the strategy stage and the execution stage.

Reflective Learning:

Identify and examine a consultancy project that went wrong. How did it go wrong and how were these errors related to poor planning?

Further Reading:

Meredith Belbin, R. (2010) Team Roles at Work. London: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition Rumelt. R, (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and why it Matters. London: Profile Books

References:

Rumelt, R., (2012) Good Strategy Bad Strategy, New York, Profile Books Bettger (1992) How I raised myself from failure to success in selling. New York: Simon & Schuster

Adair, J. (2009) Effective Communication – The most important management tool of all. London: Pan Books Bingley, R., (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press

1.3 Explain the stages of the Consultancy Cycle

The consultancy cycle is the line of processes from inception to conclusion that should be applied by consultants in their approaches to project management as well as wider professional outputs. It is important to realise that there are many organisations and key business thinkers who have designed their own preferred ‘consultancy cycle’. For the purposes of this course programme we have provided two examples below of consultancy cycles below (Hammond: 2020): Figure 1: Johnny Hammond six-step consultancy cycle framework

Source: JohnnyHammond.com, staged consultancy process: https://johnnyhammond.co.uk/approach/ Figure 2: Advanced Management Skills’ consultancy cycle framework

Source: https://amskills.com/consulting-course/04-building-effective-clientrelationships/04-3-lesson-the-consultancy-cycle/

When applied in reality, this framework sits underneath most of the three stages of consultation planning that we looked at in section 1.2. But let’s take some time in this section to explain each stage from Figure 2 in much more detail.

Marketing Marketing is done by consulting firms to raise their profile and encourage potential clients to contact them to generate business. Here are some of the main marketing activities used by consultants to raise awareness of their professional services: •

Web site [e.g. an online brochure outlining the consultant’s expertise]

•

Newsletters and White Papers [e.g. thought pieces sent regularly to potential clients]

•

Case studies [e.g. examples of consultants work normally featuring a very satisfied client]

•

Articles in the business press [e.g. comments on topical issues]

•

Networking [e.g. hosting and visiting conferences and using social media to build professional networks] (Adair: 2009)

Consultants make a considerable effort in marketing and with skill this will result in a steady stream of potential clients. However, there are some risks associated with not getting the marketing right. These include: •

Not researching client needs

•

No ‘Unique Selling Point’

•

Unimaginative or unprofessional language

First Client Contact: This is the first time the client contacts the consultant about a specific engagement, usually by email or phone. During the first phone conversation with a client the consultant has a short time to impress them sufficiently to be invited to a follow-up meeting and hopefully to write a proposal. During first contact the consultant needs to establish a rapport, gather facts about the potential engagement and agree the next steps (Bettger: 1992). This is a skilled and complex interaction normally handled by the senior managers within large consulting firms. The client contact checklist or CRM software tool (such as SalesForce or Zoho) is a good place to start capturing relevant client information.

Consultants need to be prepared at all times for clients to contact them. If they get it right, they will land interesting and profitable consulting engagements. However, there are a number of risks associated with not getting the first contact right. These include: •

Being unprepared for calls

•

Poor phone line (e.g. mobile phone)

•

Inefficient switchboard

•

Voice mail only

•

Sounding anxious or overly flexible

Client Scoping Meeting(s): In most cases client scoping meeting(s) are required between the client and consultant to work out the details of the engagement. These will then be

incorporated in the proposal. Thorough preparation is required for these meetings. Typical risks of scoping meeting(s) are: •

Being late

•

Poor background research

•

No agenda – meeting too long / short

•

Poor meeting facilities

•

No next steps

•

Inappropriate appearance

•

Not listening

•

Incorrect assumptions

•

Lack of credibility – referees

Client Proposal or Terms of Reference: As discussed in 1.2, the consulting proposal is a potential contract setting out the work to be performed, fees and other relevant factors. Typical risks of proposals are: •

Doesn’t appeal to client’s colleagues

•

No client references or testimonials

•

Wrong scope – does not identify client situation or need

•

Lack of clarity, e.g. unclear deliverables

•

Too generic or too detailed

•

Previous client details embedded in file

•

Too expensive

•

Under priced

•

Unrealistic benefits

•

Unclear or unrealistic timescales

•

Wrong team plus poor professional profiles

•

Missing key details (Adair: 2009)

Pitching & Negotiating: Pitching is where you, the consultant, present your proposal to the client team. This is the consultant’s central opportunity to impress and persuade the potential client. Some good methods to achieve this include:

•

Prepare thoroughly and anticipate how the client might react

•

Have a clear and, if possible, an inspirational central message

•

Be imaginative and enthusiastic! Powerful presentation techniques (Rasiel: 1999)

•

Use ‘collateral’ from previous work for credibility

•

Be clear and concise – communicate key points

•

Practice delivery – eye contact, body language and engage client in genuine dialogue Negotiating is where you enter into a conversation with the client to agree fees and other key engagement details. This might not be done at the first meeting but saved for a second meeting to ‘nail down’ detail. (Some cultures are embarrassed to talk financial details at the first meeting.)

Your consultancy approach will vary considerably and should be based on lots of market research. For example, if you offer a unique service then the chances are that you can set your own price. If your service is widely available from competitors, then you potentially need to match their price.

Typical pitching and negotiating risks include:

•

Being late

•

Faulty demonstration equipment

•

Being unprepared

•

Not being enthusiastic or inspiring

•

Not listening to key people

•

Inappropriate appearance

•

Too aggressive

•

Appearing desperate

•

Offering too much (overselling)

•

Under pricing

•

Taking on too much work

•

Rolling over to the client

•

Too expensive

•

Not closing (Bettger: 1992)

First Actions:

This is where you as a consultant meet the client team for the first time.

This could be in a meeting or workshop. It’s a golden opportunity to impress them and get them organised to do the tasks agreed in your proposal. You need to build a great rapport with the client team and get them committed to their deliverables. Typical risks of ‘First Actions’ include: •

No venue or poor venue booked

•

Lack of mandate from senior management

•

No agenda

•

Not setting the scene

•

Wrong assumptions

•

Lack of clarity of outcomes

•

No project communication plan

•

No next steps

Project Execution: This is where the consultant’s team carry out the work itemised in the work plan in the client proposal. Now is the time to develop and implement your action plan. The main activities may include: •

Planning [i.e. detailed planning of achieving client objective]

•

Information [i.e. fact finding and research behind working out the best ways to achieve the objective]

•

Analysis [i.e. analysis of relevant research data]

•

Evaluation [i.e. analysis and ranking of client options]

•

Reporting [i.e. client communications plan including final report and ensuring positive distribution of messages about your project intervention, explaining ROI]

•

Implementation [i.e. client implements recommendations, possibly with your help]

•

Follow-up - review with client (and internally) to identify improvements Typical project execution risks include:

•

Poorly executed work plan

•

Lack of client commitment

•

Priorities change, changes within client management team

•

Schedule slips

•

Scope creep

•

The business environment changes

•

Changes in legislation

•

Disproved initial hypothesis

Reporting: Client communications and reporting are an important feature of the consultancy cycle. For many smaller engagements, the consultant’s sole deliverable is the final report or presentation with their recommendations.

For large engagements, it is not unusual for the engagement to have an extensive communications plan involving many of the stakeholders. If this is the case, consultants frequently work closely with the client’s in-house communications team who are well place to help. Typical ‘reporting’ risks include:

•

No communications plan

•

Wrong style / media

•

Not proof-read (e.g. errors, typos, jargon)

•

Missing the point

•

Poor data or wrong results

•

Biased presentations and reports

•

Technology failure

•

Over critical of client

•

Ignored by key stakeholders

•

No clear action plans

Client Implementation: Implementation plays a major role in the successful outcome of consulting engagements despite normally being beyond the initial scope. This is where the value of the consulting engagement is captured by the client. Typical ‘implementation’ risks include:

•

Recommendations ignored

•

Recommendations don’t work

•

Lack of ownership

•

Lack of resources (people / skills / cash)

•

The world changes

•

Change in legislation / government

•

Loss of champion

•

Poor communication

•

Staff resistance

•

Lack of training

Follow-up: Follow-up or benefits realisation is where consultants and clients work together to ensure that full value has been achieved following an engagement. Follow-up is often not done at all either because the client / consultant is too busy or there is no tracking system. The risks of this are: •

Full value is not delivered by the engagement

•

No lessons learnt

•

No positive case study emerges that can be used as a positive marketing tool in the future

•

Client moves from job role

Summary The consultancy cycle is a useful framework to understand the main elements of the consulting process and in particular how to secure the best possible interactions with the client. Nevertheless, there is no one dominant model or framework. There are a multiplicity of available frameworks and depending on the type of consultancy project or its size, will help to determine the consultancy approach. Likewise, the client will have their own reporting mechanisms that your consultancy cycle will need to align to

(Maister: 2002). However, any consultancy cycle will need to include four key stages: 1) Marketing and pitching 2) Strategy development 3) Implementation 4) Monitoring and review

Reflective Learning Exercise: Using the internet, research a major consultancy project. For one hour conduct further reading and explain how the project lead followed various stages of the consultancy cycle.

Further Reading:

Rumelt. R, (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and why it Matters. London: Profile Books Bettger (1992) How I raised myself from failure to success in selling. New York: Simon & Schuster Eathan Rasiel (1999) The McKinsey Way: Using the techniques of the world’s top strategic consultants to help you and your business. London: McGraw-Hill Professional

References:

JohnnyHammond.com (2020), staged consultancy process: https://johnnyhammond.co.uk/approach/ Adair. J., (2009) Effective Communication: The most important management skill of all. London: Pan Books

Bettger (1992) How I raised myself from failure to success in selling. New York: Simon & Schuster Op. Cit., Adair (2009) Op. Cit., Bettger (1992) Eathan Rasiel (1999) The McKinsey Way: Using the techniques of the world’s top strategic consultants to help you and your business. London: McGraw-Hill Professional Maister, D., (2002) The Trusted Advisor. London: Simon & Schuster

1.4 Identify the inputs and deliverables at each stage of the consultancy process In section 1.3 we provided overviews of two popular consultancy cycle frameworks and throughout the core text provided some examples of possible inputs into each stage of the cycle from Marketing (at the beginning) to client implementation and follow-up. You should by now have also read into several implementation and action plans, as well as project scenarios, in order to consolidate your learning about consultancy types, consultancy phases and consultancy cycles (Kerzner: 2013). At this juncture, we will reflect more upon inputs and deliverables within a consultancy project. Let’s at the outset define some key consultancy and project terminology.

Project ‘Inputs’ are those things that we use in the project to implement it. For example, in any project, inputs would include physical things like human resource (personnel), information resources such as computers, telephones and databases, finances in the form of money, machinery such a vehicles and equipment, such as public address systems among others. Inputs ensure that it is possible to deliver the intended results of a project. A major reason why many projects fail is because the inputs have not been sufficiently thought through and planned for prior to execution (Kerzner: 2013).

Whilst a project deliverable must represent something tangible – a concrete product or service, such as a piece of software, an IT migration, or a marketing video. A specific deliverable might coincide with a ‘milestone’ within the project but, ultimately, a deliverable must be a specific outcome that than be identified and measured as a planned achievement. Popular project deliverables for consultants to achieve are completing final reports or delivering high-impact presentations. Deliverables are often described as project outputs. Outputs are usually what the project has achieved in the short term (Dale Carnegie Training: 2009). An easy way to think about outputs is to quantify the project activities that have a direct link on the project goal. For example, if the overall goal was to ensure that all one thousand staff received EU GDPR competence training within 12 months, a key deliverable might be that the Senior Management Team all complete their training within the first two months.

In summary, a project deliverable:

•

Usually signals the completion of a specific project phase

•

Acts as an important sign for the client

•

Must be tangible (i.e. a product or service)

•

A point for the client to sign-off on project status

Figure 1: Project Inputs continuum

Source: Project Management Evaluate Blog: https://evaluateblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/aa.jpg

A major challenge for consultants is to not confuse a project ‘deliverable’ with a project ‘milestone’. One of the major differences between milestones versus deliverables is that a deliverable must represent a tangible achievement related to the project goal, whereas a milestone can simply be a conceptual change or important moment for the project, such as a goal point whereby the team can clearly see that, for example, one quarter or half the objective has been achieved (Kerzner: 2013). Achieving milestones, therefore, can be a highly motivating force within a workforce that is working towards large and distant project deliverables.

Due to their importance, deliverables are usually contractually obligated requirements, detailed in agreements drawn up between two related parties – the consultant and the client. The documentation precisely articulates the description of a deliverable, as well as the delivery timeline and payment terms.

Reflective Learning 1: Use the internet to conduct some further research on project deliverables. From a client perspective, why do you think project deliverables are so important? Jot down your ideas about the client benefits in your notebook.

Project Management (PM) as a business discipline has been enhanced and refined to the point that it now has its own international organisation dedicated to writing and advising on standards. The Project Management Institute (PMI) acts as the world’s leading body for the discipline and runs committees of subject matter experts in order to produce guidance across a range of scenarios and settings. The centre piece of PMI’s work is to produce a Body of Knowledge that acts as a guide for all PM professionals as well as serving as a critical document for business consultants who apply the PM mindset and structures to their daily methods of work (PMI: 2017). The Body of Knowledge is updated every few years and the latest version is summarised, and can be ordered for a fee, from the PMI at a URL link that we provide within the references section.

Reflective Learning 2 Below is a very simple table that outlines the given nine phases of the consultancy cycle outlined in section 1.3. We have added to the table columns for Inputs and Deliverables and an imagined timeline. We have filled out some examples of inputs and timelines by providing three examples at each stage up until the Scoping Meeting(s) stage. Your task is to complete the table in your notebook by finding three examples of inputs and deliverables for the following consultancy project: Your team is tasked to implement EU GDPR data security training and compliance across a retail business of 20,000 employees and 150 sites.

The complete your table by adding in realistic timescales.

Phase

Inputs

Deliverables

Timescale

Marketing

Industry events

3 events per year

Jan, Feb, March

Cold calls

50 calls per

and monthly

Email news

month to new

bulletins

contacts One email circular per week

First Contact

Research

CRM with client

potential client

info field

Jan 31

Prepare offices

Office facilities

Ensure 24/7

available

contact details

24/7 telephone

work

answering service

Scoping

Conduct meetings

Develop pipeline

Meeting(s)

with 10 new

of 10 advanceable

prospects

new prospects

Ensure follow-up

Follow-up comms

communications

with brochure and

to each

follow-up actions

Allocate account

with timescales

managers

Conduct

Feb 28

preliminary research and due diligence Proposal Pitching & Negotiating First actions Project Execution Reporting Client Implementation and Follow-up * Please note that a useful example of deliverables and milestones can be found in the template example published by the US Public Health agency at: https://www.phe.gov/about/amcg/contracts/Documents/contract-milestonessample.pdf

Summary There is no fixed solution as to how, as a consultant, one should design and execute their overall action plans. Certain types of sectors and clients tend to shape the approach that a consultant can take. It is worth reflecting, that the consultant is the service provider, therefore they should try to align as much as possible to the client’s organisational culture, otherwise the project will struggle to win success. As such, in order to achieve success, consultants should consider researching the culture of companies that they are seeking to work with, well before the proposal stage. A very important White Paper was produced by organisational culture analyst firm, Senn Delaney, that identified problematic issues that disrupted mergers and acquisitions within US retail and healthcare industries (Senn: 2014). Consultants involved in these cases often undoubtedly identified the correct inputs and worked to the right deliverables, but the projects ultimately failed because the organisational fit between two groups of people was simply too wide a gap.

Further Reading: Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership.

Chichester: Capstone Press Dale Carnegie Training (2009) Leadership Mastery. London: Simon & Schuster US Public Health Online (2020) example project deliverables and milestone chart accessed on 10/01/2020 at: https://www.phe.gov/about/amcg/contracts/Documents/contract-milestonessample.pdf

References: Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling Ibid.

Dale Carnegie Training (2009) Leadership Mastery. London: Simon & Schuster PMI (2017) A Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/guide-Project-ManagementKnowledge-Guides/dp/1628251840/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/259-35841874519039?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1628251840&pd_rd_r=e069f1da-131e4998-addc5978d97a89db&pd_rd_w=SVweZ&pd_rd_wg=yk64H&pf_rd_p=e44592b5-e56d44c2-a4f9dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=3KDYAV3WQQFGYFT2DX69&psc=1&refRID=3KDYAV3W QQFGYFT2DX69 Senn, L. (2014) Cultural clash in mergers and acquisitions, Los Angeles, Senn Delaney. Accessed on 10/01/2020 at: http://knowledge.senndelaney.com/docs/thought_papers/pdf/SennDelaney_cult ureclash_UK.pdf US Public Health Online (2020) example project deliverables and milestone chart accessed on 10/01/2020 at: https://www.phe.gov/about/amcg/contracts/Documents/contract-milestonessample.pdf

1.5 Explain how to overcome challenges and risks which may arise during the consultancy cycle

Many consultants will experience severe delivery challenges and require effective ways to transitioned through it. As former UK prime minister Winston Churchill famously said: “If you are going through hell, keep going.”

Consultants often develop their skills by working on a series of smaller or medium-sized projects for a couple of years, then proceed to become involved in bigger projects often as the lead-contractor. Such larger challenges can be exciting and (if they go well) tremendous for the consultant’s CV. But, with larger-scale consultancy projects, arrives larger-scale risk. Particularly when hiring in the right experts becomes an expensive up-front cost.

In this section we look at the major challenges and risks of stepping up and managing larger consultancy projects, and how to overcome these challenges.

1. Larger projects need more control For the most part, bigger projects are more complex, uncertain and risky, either because the impact of the project is greater, the scale of the team required is larger and also because there are more users and stakeholders (PMI: 2017).

In order to manage this added complexity, there is a need for the project manager to utilise a mature project management method so that they can exercise a greater level of control. Project Management (PM) is a set of methods and approaches that allows us to control a risky and uncertain initiative, and we will cover the popular methods later in this module. As a general rule-of-thumb, the more complex and uncertain the project, the more control and structure we need Kerzner: 2013).

2. Bring in the right experts Often within consultancy there is a temptation (perhaps to keep costs down and important allies onboard) to ask existing friends and colleagues to support the project. However, the implications of misrunning a project that is technically more challenging or that has a more complex domain is profoundly important upon a consultant’s reputation and livelihood (Bingley: 2013).

Most big consultancy projects will be initiatives whereby there will be demands to use and master new technology, new materials, new processes, new designs or new techniques. This is clearly a step up in complexity from smaller or medium-sized consultancy projects whereby the project manager/consultant often doubles-up as the subject matter expert.

When the domain is more challenging, the consultant will require a team of qualified experts to help them deliver to a high standard and meet the expected deliverables. The consultancy project will require a subject matter expert who is responsible for specifying what it is that needs to get built. This person could be a certified expert who might be required to sign-off on specific legal documentation. Or a particular software or systems expert who understands the user’s needs and who can document and articulate them in a way that enables the rest of the team to design or produce exactly what is required. Cutting costs on bringing in such expertise, can lead to huge time and cost overruns in the longer-term, particularly if damage is caused to the clients’ systems or customers.

3. Further testing A more technically complex domain also means that more effort is required to Quality Assure and test the product or service that you are going to provide.

Consultant teams are required to ensure that everyone on the team understands how the product will be quality assured and what is required

specifically of them. Consultants often need to agree whose role it is to create the test plans and who will be carrying out the actual tests. Wherever possible, involve the end users in the testing in addition to the project team.

Consultants will be responsible for checking (and in some cases, arranging) for additional insurances and liability coverage.

Other methods that can consultants to reduce risk is to prototype the deliverable solution and to roll it out gradually – perhaps across a pilot group or control group, involving fewer sensitive areas of the client’s business.

Prototyping is a great way to trial whether your product is going to work effectively, and it gives the users sight of what will be. Gradually releasing or rolling out a product to different user groups or market segments, further helps to reduce risk and control the project. For a conjunction of harmonising speedy progress to meet deliverables as well as ensuring quality control during the process, a useful book has been produced by George, Maxey and Rowlands (2004) which has become a staple publication upon the bookshelves of consultants and Project Managers. Adopting Lean Six Sigma management approaches the experts apply the DMAIC 5-phases model – covered elsewhere in this module - to various scenarios and cases. To remind ourselves: Figure 1: DMAIC and its application to Quality Control:

Source: http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/news/six-sigma-dmaic/ Exercise - Please now pause at this point and read further into the DMAIC model. Ask yourself: how can using this model assist with Quality Control across an entire project that I may be managing?

4. Consultants need to form teams, these will need their leadership Another significant change when running a bigger project is that the consultant, perhaps used to working alone, now has a team. This means however that there is a need for the consultant to step up and become a real leader – not just a task allocator. A team needs to be led by an inspiring Project Manager who makes the team feel that they belong, that their contributions matter, and that taken together, the team is well worth the client’s precious investment of time and money (Belbin: 2010).

Consultants can overcome challenges to team leadership by one-to-one conversations, team building activities and by ensuring that members are really engaged and included within the process of achieving an inspiring set of goals. Often within consultancy teams, members become sunk by the detail and withdraw into silos. This is because many consultants and ‘associates’ don’t feel that they are fully part of the client’s organisation because they are not a full-time employee. Therefore, consultant leaders should provide extra layers of team development support and encouragement. One method that is particularly effective is organising mentoring and information exchanges within the team. There are also lots of podcasts and books on the topic of building great teams including Susan Wheelan’s Creating Effective Teams (2009) and Meredith Belbin’s classic: Team Roles at Work (2010).

5. Analyse, manage the stakeholders On bigger projects consultants are also likely to have more stakeholders to interface with – that’s people who have an interest in the project or who are affected by it.

To consider and understand who all of the stakeholders might be, you need a formal approach for understanding who they are, what their needs are and how to best involve them and communicate with them. This is known as ‘stakeholder analysis’ and the task in complex environments has been called ‘stakeholder mapping’. Increasingly, considerations include corporate social responsibility duties and negative publicity considerations (Goodpaster: 1998) (Blokdijk: 2015).

As any good consultant begins a project, they will make a conscious effort to first identify all the stakeholders and then analyse each person. They might even document their key findings and share them across the team. They will seek to find out what each person’s stake or interest in the project is, what a successful project looks like to them, and how each key stakeholder would to be communicated with. Consider making an effort to tailor your communication to each of the key stakeholders. For example, some stakeholders would be happy to receive a weekly status report, others would prefer a regular meet-up and others will demand that they are called/contacted whenever something significant happens.

Now, read more into ‘stakeholder analysis’ before you progress into our next given exercise.

Reflective Exercise: Imagine that you are an external consultant in charge of changing the procurement of IT systems from one police force, to a group of three police forces. In your notebook, identify a list of primary and secondary stakeholders who might be significantly and directly

impacted by your consultancy project management task and approach.

6. Put in place formal governance On a bigger project a consultant will also need to understand the formal governance structure and escalation paths. This needs to be done with as much tact and diplomacy as possible, because they will already have a key contact and liaison allocated to them within the client company. (This is often the person who signed-off on hiring them.) On big consultancy projects, a governance structure is sometimes about agreeing who should attend the weekly working group meeting and who sits on the steering committee.

Whereas the working group will meet weekly to work through the detail of the project, the steering committee is a monthly forum for the project’s senior decision-makers. It might be the case that the consultant is also required to attend a similar process on the client side.

This is mostly a place whereby the consultant will inform the committee about progress and whereby they might seek guidance around major risks or issues that are beyond your remit. As consultants present to client committees and team meetings, they should be well aware of the politics in the room and what each person is looking to gain from the meeting. (Projects often fail due to internal foot-dragging and resistance for employees who have not developed a relationship with the external adviser/consultant.) (Belbin: 2010) If some of the steering committee members have a tendency to derail the meeting, deploy an offensive diplomatic method and seek to meet with each key person beforehand to prepare them and to talk them through any sensitive topics and provide them with a sense of importance and inclusivity.

7. Control scope As there are more moving parts on a larger project – more dependencies, more stakeholders and more uncertainty – it also means that scope is more

likely to change as an external consultant tries to progress through their project towards hitting the deliverables.

Changes to scope aren’t necessarily a problem as long as the consultant remains in management control of them and ensures that the changes make sense and don’t erode the overall purpose of their mission.

One way to handle this is by implementing an effective change control process which helps any manager to log the changes and analyse the impact that they will have on the project’s time, cost, quality and business benefits.

Many consultants get anxious when their clients ask for a change, but as long as they carry out a thorough impact analysis and clearly communicate it, they should remain on the right track. If the change is worth implementing, then the consultant should get it formally approved by the steering committee (or senior management team) and ensure that extra time or budget are allocated (Tecce: 2009).

8. Stay on top of the risks We have already stated that the level of risk is likely to be much higher on a larger-scale mission or project. For this reason, the consultant will require a more formal and structured project management approach. One of the elements that form part of such a structured approach is a formal risk management process that will help them to stay on top of the tasks as well as pro-actively do something about the many things that could go wrong. List out all of the risks and insert ideas and actions for reducing or eliminating the risk.

The first step in staying on top of risks is for the consultant leader to make it a joint responsibility of the entire consulting team. They might achieve this by organising regular risk management workshops; for example, the team leader might ask the team to brainstorm everything that they worry about going wrong.

Secondly, consultants should assess each risk in terms of its likelihood and potential business impact. After determining what the top risks are, decide what to do about them and assign an owner to each. In this way, the consultant team can create its own risk culture, which everyone is a part of and whereby the leader doesn’t end up owning all the risks (which is extraordinarily time-consuming).

Summary When consultants make the transition from managing smaller and mediumsized projects to larger ones, they will need to employ a much more structured project management approach, as larger projects contain more risk and uncertainty.

They will need to identify the right experts, with the correct qualifications, in order to implement the tasks and reach the deliverables. Furthermore, because the impact is high on a large project, they will need to conduct stakeholder analysis and really understand how best to communicate with the entire range of audiences who are impacted (not just the client).

Consultant leaders also should focus on creating a collaborative culture whereby they jointly agree how to assure the quality of your project, control scope and manage risks. One of the secrets to running larger projects is to get better at spreading the workload. This subsidiarity, trust and delegation is often hardest to achieve in the mindset of most consultants, who, tend to thrive and survive on working alone and up against the clock.

Further Reading:

Meredith Belbin, R. (2010) Team Roles at Work. London: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition

Rumelt. R, (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and why it Matters. London: Profile Books Lewis, S., (2011) Positive Psychology at Work: How Positive Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry Create Inspiring Organizations. Wiley-Blackwell.

Chichester UK

References:

PMI (2017) A Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/guide-Project-ManagementKnowledge-Guides/dp/1628251840/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/259-35841874519039?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1628251840&pd_rd_r=e069f1da-131e4998-addc5978d97a89db&pd_rd_w=SVweZ&pd_rd_wg=yk64H&pf_rd_p=e44592b5e56d-44c2-a4f9dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=3KDYAV3WQQFGYFT2DX69&psc=1&refRID=3KDYAV 3WQQFGYFT2DX69 Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons

George, Maxey and Rowlands (2004) The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed: A Quick Reference Guide to 70 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed. London: McGraw-Hill

Bingley, R. (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press

Meredith Belbin, R. (2010) Team Roles at Work. London: Routledge; 2nd Revised

edition Goodpaster, K., (1998) Business ethics and stakeholder analysis (Working paper / Division of Research, Harvard Business School)

Blokdijk, G., (2015) Stakeholder Analysis - Simple Steps to Win, Insights and Opportunities for Maxing Out Success. US: Complete Publishing

Wheelan, S. (2009) Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders. London: Sage Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press

1.6 Evaluate the importance of scoping for consultancy interventions A Scope of Work (SoW) is deemed the best way to manage consultancy projects wand to avoid mission creep as well as other attendant issues such as client’s overreaching and overdemanding beyond initial agreements.

A Scope of Work (SOW) is a document that defines how a project will be executed through specific tasks, activities, deliverables, and timelines. It also provides important legal protections for both you and your client. While many executives associate SOWs with large-company projects, they are equally important for small businesses. SOWs can be useful for anybody who is working with a client on a project that they must complete in a specific time frame for a specific price.

A SOW is therefore essential to any contractor-client relationship. This document helps to determine and set boundaries, provides guidelines for how to measure performance against project goals, and outlines payment terms. It can help create a positive start to your working relationship with a client as well as avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings further along the line (Weiss: 2010).

The main job of a SOW is to deconstruct the consultant and the client’s vision for a project into clearly laid out details. The SOW is, thus, an essential communication tool—used to discuss and agree on project expectations, objectives, and roles that will help keep both legal parties on track. When writing a SOW, it is really important for a consultant to clearly articulate these details because they and the client will sign the document, making it a contractual obligation.

A clear and comprehensive SOW can help outline processes to deal with disputes if they arise, which can minimize future frustration. For example, some clients may ask for small additions, changes, or deliverables to a project that result in scope creep over time. However, if you have a SOW in place, this is a document you can fall back on. If the requested changes don’t fall within the scope of the SOW, then the consultant can discuss a new plan, budget, and timeline to add additional work to the project.

SOWs should also help avoid billing and fee income issues. Including payment information such as project cost, methods, and due dates in your SOW can hold clients accountable. Remember, a SOW is a contract your client has signed— they have agreed to payment terms and must adhere to them.

What can be included within a SOW? Consultants should be keen to develop a SOW at the very beginning of a new project so that they can use it to discuss and manage expectations from the start. While the content of any specific SOW will depend on a particular project, or reflect the protocols of a particular sector, they will likely need to include the following: •

The purpose of the project

•

The work that will be performed

•

The work that will not be performed

•

A process for a change in instructions from the client

•

Roles and responsibilities

•

A timeline for the proposed work

•

How performance will be measured

•

Payment terms

The SOW should be considered as a blueprint for any consultancy project. It should contain clear terms, conditions, agreements, and processes. While the consultant should be as specific as they can about objectives and deliverables, they should also be careful to build in reasonable adaptability and to be realistic when working with clients on this document; clients are more likely to develop respect for ‘world wise’ consultants who are upfront in anticipating and communicating potential legal pitfalls for each side.

Based upon 25 years of business consultancy expertise, business leadership expert, Malcolm Adler, has developed a popular 5-part framework and mnemonic to explain how consultants should best manage ‘scope’. Adler writes the mnemonic SCOPE and explains it further below:

S: Stakes C: Clarity O: Ownership P: People E: Expectations

Stakes Before thinking about scope as terms of reference, ask these qualifying questions to yourself and others in your business about the proposed project under the umbrella question, “What is at stake?”

•

If we don’t do this project, what are the consequences?

•

If we don’t fully succeed, what are the consequences?

•

What other major projects are underway or planned? Where does this project rank in importance relative to the others?

•

Does this project truly matter to the owners, the board, CEO and/or other top executives?

•

Does it need to be done now? (Tecce: 2009)

Such questions can often be summed up with the blanket challenge, “What’s the burning platform?”

If the answers to these questions are not sufficiently obvious and strong, perhaps the project needs to be reconsidered. If the project is large but these imperatives are not present, there is heightened risk from the outset.

In such circumstances, it pays to consider delaying, breaking it down in to smaller components or even merging with another higher priority project if compatible.

In essence, make sure you honestly and objectively scope your organisation’s genuine commitment to the project before doing anything else.

Clarity Assuming project objectives have been set, tested and approved, the crucial moment is reached. This is the area that most people think of first when using the word scope – how do you scope a project so you can release it to the market to engage a consultant?

The scope you provide in a request for proposal (RFP) should ideally include the following components: •

High-level activities to be undertaken

•

Expected deliverables

•

Governance arrangements, e.g. project sponsor, steering committee, project director

•

Support

•

Timeline

•

Logistics

•

Budget parameters

Defining an initial set of activities (or tasks) and associated deliverables is the core of creating a scope.

Ownership Who is the most senior person who will own the project? This does not just mean who is the sponsor or the person whose initials will appear against it on a board paper.

It means who will be the passionate advocate and the spear carrier? Who is sufficiently senior to lead and win the fight to retain resources, defend the budget and drive the timeline when other pressures come on? Who will be the visionary who keeps everyone motivated by painting the bright future that success will enable? Who will make sure that everyone stays aligned and moving collaboratively in the same direction as one team? Who will relentlessly advocate for the improved customer experience that the project is designed to enable and tweak it when needed to achieve that goal?

This level of inspiring, passionate leadership may sound rare, but if the stakes are high enough, it should be present. A seasoned consultant will want to know this from the outset.

People In addition to the project owner/leader, most projects of any scale and importance will require the active engagement of a range of other people internally.

They may fall in to a number of categories set, along with key aspects of internal scoping that apply to each if a project is to be successful.

These categories are divided up into minor, moderate and major, and are assigned based on their required level of involvement and the amount of time and budget required to make best use of their input (Kerzner: 2013).

Expectations The final area that often determines success or failure in a project is unrealistic expectations by the client side. According to Adler: “This risk is particularly high with inexperienced hirers and/or SMEs who carefully manage every dollar in their business!” (Adler: 2017) Strategies to manage customer and client expectations are many and several good ideas and further reading can be found at Teamsupport.com’s popular website for business*.

Case Study: In September 2019, Diamond Leaf Fabricators advised its staff that their new factory and offices out in semi-rural Angle Vale would be ready for completion by the end of April 2020. DIAMOND LEAF was a responsible company and liked to keep their premises clean and tidy and their staff happy. The new premises at Angle Vale were developed on a 4.5-hectare site, previously used for grain crops. Consequently, DIAMOND LEAF decided that significant landscaping would be required to enhance the amenity of the otherwise bare land. The senior executive group pictured some land contouring with an attractive green lawn, and trees and shrubs to soften the impact of otherwise stark commercial buildings. Accordingly, they notionally allocated $232,000 for the project, and

developed a tender document that called for the work to be completed by the time they moved to the new premises. They then invited proposals for landscaping and quotes for the work. A company called Pootles Industries submitted an artist's sketch for the DIAMOND LEAF evaluation team to picture what the landscaping would look like.

Pootles was selected with a bid of $175,000, substantially lower than any other submission. Pootles then prepared a detailed landscaping plan based on existing drawings of the site provided in the tender. Pootles met with the DIAMOND LEAF senior executives to agree project start date, access and security of plant and equipment, and a fixed price contract. A contract was duly signed.

The project was scoped and planned by Pootles, with specific milestones for site works, irrigation, turf laying, and tree and shrub planting. Pootles had undertaken many similar jobs on city sites in the past and based on the knowledge and skills of the project team, they did not think that a formal project management plan would be needed. All they wanted was agreement on the scope of the project and the key deliverable dates. From experience, they wanted to deal with only one person from DIAMOND LEAF and it was agreed that the finance manager, a senior executive, would be responsible for the project.

Pootles commenced work on the 16th of November 2019 with site preparation including weed eradication. Work progressed smoothly until 20th of January 2020, when heavy vehicles delivering machinery, plant and equipment to the site significantly damaged the newly prepared and levelled ground for the lawn.

The Pootles project manager arranged his first meeting with the DIAMOND LEAF finance manager to complain that he would have to re-do the site for the lawn which would take an extra 3-5 days.

The finance manager agreed that it was not Pootles’s fault and that work would have to be re-done, but as there was no more funding available, he suggested that the project manager make the savings somewhere else from within the project. This was agreed but not documented.

By the end of January, the landscaping site works were finished, and the irrigation system was installed. Planting was to be done in three phases – shrubs, bushes and small trees first, then larger trees and finally the lawn.

Shrub planting would take approximately 4 days, trees 7 days and the lawn

would be laid in three separate operations over 2 days. On the first day after the planting commenced, some of the project team noticed a few small plants seemed to be missing or broken off. These were quickly replaced. Within the first 3 days after the last planting, however, it was noted that around 35% of the plantings had been destroyed by rabbits or hares (as it was later determined.

The Project Manager was very concerned and called another meeting with the DIAMOND LEAF finance manager. Although sympathetic, the finance manager agreed that tree guards needed to be placed around trees but that was a contingency that the Pootles Company should have considered. The Pootles project manager indicated that pests were DIAMOND LEAF’s problem and again the finance manager indicated that Pootles should make savings elsewhere within its contract. The Pootles project manager reviewed his budget and costs and determined that the only way to re-coup the losses from having to replant the shrubs and protect them, was to plant fewer plants and smaller trees which came at a much lower cost. Another way to make some savings was to try and re-design the irrigation system using fewer sprinklers. Instant lawn was tentatively ordered for around the middle of March 2020 so that delivery would miss the hottest part of the year.

Unfortunately, the commercial lawn growers had heavy demand at that time and advised that the last shipment could only be made by mid-February 2020. This was necessary to allow them time to plant new lawn ready for winter and spring clients. Pootles had no choice but to accepted delivery in mid-February 2020. As it turned out, it was particularly hot when the lawn delivery was made over the 2 days, with hot gusty northerly winds. By the third week of February 2020, the project was ahead of schedule by about three weeks due to the early delivery of the lawn, although the larger trees and plants had yet to be been planted.

Unfortunately, water coverage of the lawn proved to be barely enough in windy conditions and, with the sprinkler head reduction, did not fully water all areas.

By this time Pootles was over-budget by about $24,000. Since the original project was scoped and started, the original finance manager had secured a new position with another company and was set to leave in the third week of February 2020, just as the lawn started to brown off and die in patches. The new finance manager, who started one week later, was asked by the company to continue in the role of her predecessor on the project. The Pootles project

manager, spotting an opportunity, advised the new finance manager that about $25,000-$30,000 more was needed for the project to be completed, as was agreed by the previous finance manager.

The new DIAMOND LEAF finance manager was not sure how to deal with this, having no background information on the project. She tried to contact the original finance manager, but he was off on holiday prior to taking up his new position. The new DIAMOND LEAF finance manager reviewed the budget for the project and finding that there existed a fixed price contract with no contingency amounts, notified the Pootles project manager accordingly.

The Pootles project manager informed her of the problems caused by the heavy vehicles earlier in the project and the devastation by wild animals. Because of the refusal to provide more money, the Pootles project manager had reduced significantly the size of the larger trees that were to be planted later in March/April 2020 to try and contain the budget deficit and make savings.

The project concluded with Pootles being three weeks ahead of schedule, but $25,100 (14.3%) over budget. The executives of DIAMOND LEAF were not happy with the project at its conclusion. Through the finance manager, they indicated that the lawn was dead in patches, the plants were small and that as a result it was not like the drawing that they had been provided at tender stage.

They insisted that either these issues be rectified, or the contracted amount be reduced.

Pootles responded that a number of verbal agreements had been reached and that Pootles had fulfilled its obligations, indeed had lost money on the contract.

The dispute was then referred to the respective legal representatives of each company for resolution, but the antagonism between the parties meant that the dispute ended up in court. The lack of written documentation and agreement meant that DIAMOND LEAF’s arguments were upheld by the Court.

Reflective learning: Make notes in your notebook.

As a professional project manager, you have been requested by both legal representatives to conduct a Post-Project Review. Bear in mind

that you are acting independently, may be asked to give evidence, and must reflect strict impartiality. In possession of the above information . ..

1. What would you advise the court to do?

2. What would your advice be to Pootles management team?

Further Reading:

Weiss, A. (2010) Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional’s Guide to growing a Practice. (4th Ed.) New York: McGraw Hill Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons

References: Weiss, A. (2010) Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional’s Guide to growing a Practice. (4th Ed.) New York: McGraw Hill Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons

Adler, M., (2017) How to scope like a management consultant, accessed on 10/01/2020 at: https://www.mybusiness.com.au/sales/3103-how-to-scopeprojects-like-a-management-consultant

Teamsupport.com (2020) 5 Strategies for managing customer expectations, accessed on 10/01/2020 at: https://www.teamsupport.com/blog/5-tipsmanaging-customer-expectations

SECTION-2 BE ABLE TO USE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN A CONSULTANCY INTERVENTION

2.1 Identify the components of an effective Project Management plan What is project management? How does it differ from simply "management" and how does project management in the workplace differ from a personal project such as refurbishing a house? And, of course, could it be the type of career that will suit you?

Project management is essentially aimed at producing an end-product that will effect some change for the benefit of the organisation that instigated the project. It is the initiation, planning and control of a range of tasks required to deliver this end product, which could be a physical product, it could be new software or something less tangible like a new way of working.

A key factor that distinguishes project management from just management is that it has this final deliverable and a finite timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project manager needs a wide range of skills; often technical skills, certainly people management skills and good business awareness.

For all but the simplest projects a formal approach to managing a project works best. The control imposed by a formal approach is essential when there are complexities such as new technology, inter-dependent tasks, teams spread across several departments or companies, or where teams are located in different parts of the world; all common occurrences in many business projects.

Because every project will involve some type of change, change management is an integral part of the PM process. And because there is change there are likely to be risks so risk management is also thrown into the project management mix.

So what have I said already about projects that require formal management?

According to experts Barker and Cole (2009) they: •

Produce something new or altered: tangible or intangible

•

Have a finite timespan: a definite start and end

•

Likely to be complex in terms of work or groups involved

•

Require the management of change

•

Require the management of risks Projects crop up in almost all industries and businesses, for instance:

•

Transport and infrastructure

•

IT

•

Product manufacture

•

Building and construction

•

Regulatory changes in finance and law (Kerzner: 2013) There are standard project management processes used to plan and control tasks, budgets and schedules, to communicate between the different people involved and deal with risks. These processes are usually ongoing throughout the project.

There are also various phases of a project that will have a defined start and end within the overall project lifespan. For instance, the requirements gathering phase often occurs in the early part of the project.

So a project has a range of processes that occur throughout its life (monitoring, controlling, communicating etc.) and a range of phases (initiation, requirements, planning etc.) that occur roughly chronologically.

Project management processes Monitoring Planning is carried out in the early stages of a project but there should be ongoing monitoring to ensure the project remains on budget and schedule; that resources are available, and the expected benefits can be delivered. Estimates, deadlines and milestones may need to be altered as the project progresses.

Control No project is without problems, but the project manager needs to control them, so they do not adversely affect the end result. The control phase also deals with risk management.

Communication Good communication is one of the most important factors affecting project success. Many problems can be avoided if there is open, honest communication between everyone involved on a project; written and verbal, formal and informal.

People management A project manager is responsible for managing the individuals working on the project as well as the tasks and risks. In complex projects there may be segregated levels of people management, but every project manager will have some responsibility for individuals. That includes motivating people, delivering constructive feedback etc.

The Project Management Lifecycle - Project management in 5 phases

The most prominent frameworks for Project Management, including that issued

by AMBOK, the association for project managers, illustrates five PM process phases. Here is a typical PM lifecycle diagram: Figure 4: Project Management Lifecycle:

Source: https://www.orangescrum.com/tutorial/introduction-to-projectmanagement/project-management-life-cycle

Let’s look at each phase in more detail and these are elaborated in the useful book by Harold Kerzner (2013) titled: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling.

Initiation This first stage of a project defines the business case, the justification for the project, which will be used to ensure the project stays on track. It also states what the project is intended to achieve, how that will be achieved and the scope of the work; this is important for controlling subsequent change requests. In this phase, those involved in the project will be assigned their responsibilities.

Planning and Requirements The planning and (resource) requirements documentation describes the aims of the project in detail including timescales and constraints. It should also define the criteria that will constitute a successful project and will be used to manage the expectations of the stakeholders. Many projects use an iterative process to reach agreement on the requirements, although some projects take an 'agile'

approach to project management. (You should familiarise yourself with the ‘Agile’ model of Project Management by way of further online research, if you are not already familiar with this model.)

The project plan includes details about how the project work will be carried out, how it will be monitored and controlled, how communication will be facilitated and information about costs and timescales. But once a project is underway it is typically the project schedule where most attention is focused. All tasks need to be scheduled in the most efficient order to ensure tasks with inter-dependencies are completed when required and to enable several tasks to be performed in parallel. There are many project management tools available to assist with scheduling, one of the most common being the Gantt Chart that we will demonstrate in a few paragraphs time.

Execution The person or group assigned to carry out a task will need to know, in detail, what the task involves as well as any dependencies and timescales, and will also need to understand the criteria by which each task is deemed complete.

Leadership and close management, support and mentoring at this stage is absolutely vital (Grout and Fisher: 2011).

Closure Once there is an approved end product the project can be formally closed and a final review held to learn from both the successes and the mistakes and take that experience forward to the next project.

There are many different techniques and tools that a project manager can use to control a project schedule on a day-to-day basis and for managing dependencies, change and risks. However, it is important to distinguish between techniques and tools, so you understand the technique before using a software tool. The ability to use a software tool is not necessarily an indication of a detailed knowledge of, or effective use of, the technique behind it. You can also use Excel to make your own plan - even for something as 'simple' as organising your Christmas dinner prep.

Figure 1: Simple Gantt project schedule:

(Source: Contextures.com)

What is a Gantt Chart?

The underlying concept of a Gantt chart is to map out which tasks can be done in parallel and which need to be done sequentially. If we combine this with the project resources, we can explore the trade-off between the scope (doing more or less work), cost (using more or less resources) and the time scales for the project. By adding more resources or reducing the scope the project manager can see the effect on the end date.

A Gantt chart displays information visually as a type of bar chart in a clear and easy-to-understand way and is used for the following activities: •

Establish the initial project schedule

•

Allocate resources

•

Monitor and report progress

•

Control and communicate the schedule

•

Display milestones

•

Identify and report problems (Kerzner: 2013)

To create a chart, you need to know all of the individual tasks required to complete the project, an estimate of how long each task will take and which tasks are dependent on others. The very process of pulling this information together helps a project manager focus on the essential parts of the project and begin to establish a realistic timeframe for completion.

Disadvantages of a Gantt Chart But Gantt charts are not perfect and all too often they become overly complex with too many dependencies and activities. This is a trap many new project managers fall into when they start using planning tools. It is much better to produce a clear and simple plan that shows the main work packages in summary, than a plan with so much detail the overall impression of project progress is lost. Let the work package manager put together the day-to-day detail of the activities within a work package, while the project schedule concentrates on the interfaces between project teams.

Neither are they good at showing the relative priorities of individual tasks and the resources expended on a task. Tasks are prioritised more to scheduling, not their importance to the project. For example, they can clearly show the elapsed time of a task but cannot so easily communicate how many people may be needed to complete that task. So, if not backed up by other data they can give a misleading impression to stakeholders. This is where using additional techniques such as a precedence diagram (sometimes called a PERT chart), for instance, becomes useful A precedence diagram is another powerful project management technique which is particularly useful for identifying complex inter-dependencies and showing relative priorities of activities and, hence, highlighting the tasks most critical to project success. If you are not familiar with this, please now conduct your own further online research.

Good examples of Gantt charts for business: Software tools such as MS Project, Asana. TeamGantt and Airtable are often used by advanced consultants to draft project plans within Gantt charts. It is worth recalling that project plan charts are always a product of specific business

goals and cultures and therefore, although templates can be very useful, they sometimes do require much more advanced adaption by project management experts and qualified PMs. Nevertheless, we provide some examples for you to learn from below: 3 Simple Gantt chart examples can be seen at the popular Project Engineer website (2020): https://www.projectengineer.net/3-simple-gantt-chartexamples/

Summary video Now let’s take some time to watch this useful video by Project Management expert Chris Croft (2013) who summarises – in his video called Project Management in 8 Minutes - some of what we have learned so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkuUBcmmBpk

Reflective EXERCISE Imagine that you are an IT consultant. Devise a Project Management Plan using a Gantt chart for introducing five cyber security measures within your workplace, or an imagined workplace. Write your answers in your course notebook.

Case study: Applying Project Management principles to the real world.

The example of PM approaches rolled out in data security projects …

The following piece of work applies the key concepts and rules of project management to the increasingly important sphere of business data security.

Here we will show just how project management rules can really help to execute a major project. Most crucially, we explore how to make the business case for a project; in this case a data security project.

For security and IT projects to be effective, IT and security professionals need to implement solid project management practice. An experienced project management team (not necessarily made up of technical specialists) can help ensure that client projects are executed smoothly, stay on budget and are completed within the timeframe that was agreed upon.

In your opening presentation to decision-makers, take time to explain 5 core benefits of practicing project management within the sphere of your chosen change management field. For a data security project, we might offer the following rationale to the Executive Board: 1.

Streamlined Project Execution – overview of changes, outputs, outcomes

and timelines 2.

Strategic Alignment of systems – key financial saving

3.

Optimized Resource Allocation – duplication eliminated

4.

Continuous Improvement – dashboard monitoring and management

5.

Problem Resolution and Risk Management – compliance adhered to

Benefit #1: Streamlined Project Execution According to a project management survey by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., “executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates”. The business benefits of a project management office (PMO) go without saying, and similar credit goes to the value of project management for cybersecurity projects specifically.

Strict project management practice can help your data security project to be on budget and on schedule.

An overall project manager will also enforce that your project has clearly-defined deliverables, that it is executed with the agreed-upon results in mind, and that related findings, changes and important steps are communicated to all relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.

Benefit #2: Strategic Alignment For a cybersecurity project to be successful, it must be aligned to the overall business strategy and goals.

If you don’t have a solid business reason for why your organization should implement this project, chances are you won’t be able to prove its effectiveness and importance down the road.

In fact, your data security projects should be aligned with: •

the amount and relevance of data you process,

•

your level of threat exposure,

•

your risk appetite, and

•

the applicability of regulatory requirements.

A data security project manager can keep your cybersecurity projects in check and make sure that they are executed with overall corporate goals in mind and can deliver measurable return on investment (ROI). Often, it is this high-level overview that IT and security professionals tend to oversee in their hectic dayto-day jobs (Bingley: 2015).

Benefit #3: Optimized Resource Allocation The cyber security skills shortage has hit a record high in recent years, and is projected to worsen in the coming years, according to ISACA’s study “State of Cybersecurity 2018”. If you are one of the few lucky companies out there with qualified cybersecurity resources, you will know that their time is very limited, to say the least.

A cybersecurity project manager will be able to optimize resource allocation, make sure that critical resources are working on critical projects, and make sure to assign projects to the right resources.

By optimizing resources, IT and security professionals can ensure that cybersecurity projects are executed with optimal performance in mind and that resource capacities are respected. Lastly, your executive team will be happy to

know that you’re managing your cybersecurity project in an efficient manner that won’t waste resources.

Benefit #4: Continuous Improvement As the saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.

A solid project management practices for your cybersecurity projects can help your organization learn from mistakes, avoid similar mistakes in the future and thereby facilitate the continuous improvement of processes, procedures and projects.

Often overlooked in the busy schedules of IT and security professionals, proper documentation about a project will not only serve as business intelligence, but also save time and resources for similar projects in the future.

A project manager will include begin with and run lessons-learned (isomorphic) discussion to identify natural elements of a successful cybersecurity project.

Benefit #5: Problem Resolution and Risk Management Lastly, project management is important because it ensures that your cybersecurity project risks are properly managed, mitigated and communicated.

Before the start of a cybersecurity project, a good project manager will identify and list the potential risks of the project, communicate them to the main stakeholders, and provide and evaluation for whether the project should be executed or not – despite its risks. Once the project has started, a cybersecurity project manager will keep these risks in mind, look out for additional risks along the way and keep all involved parties informed.

If problems arise, a project manager can play the role of a mediator between internal teams and resources, but also between the internal and external spheres. Having an objective instance involved in your data ecurity project will ensure that potential problems (e.g. delays, confusion about deliverables, budget deviations) are uncovered, addressed and resolved in a professional and timely manner.

Summary During this section we showed the importance of structured Project Management. We identified the components of a successful project plan, the PM lifecycle, as well as some popular software tools that help consultants and project managers in their work. Then we took the increasingly important sphere of data security and applied an imagined project management approach in order to discuss the benefits of undertaking such work in the first place. Now, as we reach the final section of this module, we will need to take into consideration a central feature and influencer of business planning: access to finance and budgeting.

Further Reading:

Barker, S., and Cole, R. (2009) Brilliant Project Management, what the best project managers know, do and say. London: FT Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership.

Chichester: Capstone Press References: Barker, S., and Cole, R. (2009) Brilliant Project Management, what the best project managers know, do and say. London: FT Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership.

Chichester: Capstone Press Bingley, R., (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press

Croft, C., (2013) Project Management in 8 Minutes. YouTube. Video accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkuUBcmmBpk

2.2 Evaluate the need for budgeting of financial and non-financial resources

The Project Management Institute publishes the "Project Management Body of Knowledge," which defines how to calculate the budget at completion, budgeted cost of work performed, and budgeted cost of work scheduled (PMI: 2017).

These standard calculations help the project manager monitor project progress, stay within the budget and report the project's status using universally recognized terms. An easy way to visualise a framework for cost management has been provided by project management specialists, Cleopatra: Figure 1: Cost Management lifecycle framework:

Source: https://www.costmanagement.eu/blog-article/198-cost-managementexplained-in-4-steps)

1. Scoping The first step to an effectively managed project budget is ‘scoping’, to ensure project requirements are accurately identified, documented and confirmed with all stakeholders — and that these are communicated to all parties involved. This crucial step should be completed before budgets are set. Many projects have been initiated around needs but executed around wants, automatically putting projects at risk of budget overruns that leave everyone disappointed.

2. Resource Planning This is a more detailed step. Resource planning begins in the scope and execution plan development process during which the work breakdown structure, organisational breakdown structure (OBS), work packages, and execution strategy are developed. The OBS establishes categories of labour resources or responsibilities; this categorisation facilitates resource planning because all resources are someone’s responsibility as reflected in the OBS. Resource estimating (usually a part of cost estimating) determines the activity’s resource quantities needed (hours, tools, materials, etc.) while schedule planning and development determines the work activities to be performed.

Resource planning then takes the estimated resource quantities, evaluates resource availability and limitations considering project circumstances, and then optimizes how the available resources (which are often limited) will be used in the activities over time.

3. Cost Estimating Cost estimating is the predictive process used to quantify, cost, and price the resources required by the scope of an investment option, activity, or project (Yescombe: 2013). It involves the application of techniques that convert quantified technical and programmatic information about an asset or project into finance and resource information. The outputs of estimating are used

primarily as inputs for business planning, cost analysis, and decisions or for project cost and schedule control processes. The cost estimating process is generally applied during each phase of the asset or project life cycle as the asset or project scope is defined, modified, and refined. As the level of scope definition increases, the estimating methods used become more definitive and produce estimates with increasingly narrow probabilistic cost distributions.

4. Cost control Cost control is concerned with measuring variances from the cost baseline and taking effective corrective action to achieve minimum costs. Procedures are applied to monitor expenditures and performance against the progress of a project. All changes to the cost baseline need to be recorded and the expected final total costs are continuously forecasted. When actual cost information becomes available an important part of cost control is to explain what is causing the variance from the cost baseline. Based on this analysis corrective action might be required to avoid cost overruns (Yescombe: 2013).

Other Project Management budgetary considerations: Expect the unexpected: Budget for contingencies When it comes time to estimate costs, consultants are required to be realistic.

They should ensure that they get input from all significant stakeholders. More importantly, build in contingencies. This step is essential. You need to factor in things outside of your control, such as external environmental considerations that may impact pricing of supplies, resources, labour, financing, product/service shortages, currency exchanges and so on (Bingley: 2015). For example, as the UK prepared to exit the EU, the value of the UK Pound rose and fell more turbulently than was usual. This generated extra supply costs for some business, but (as the Pound fell) yielded more customers for UK services and products because they became cheaper on international markets.

Today’s price or exchange rate therefore may not carry through to the later stages of a project. They are impacted by events such as election results and risks of economic uncertainty. Project Managers must also ensure that vendors

can deliver on their promises and prepare a backup plan. Getting input from other stakeholders and vetting suppliers and vendors can go a long way to setting a more realistic budget that can be met, even if there are unforeseen circumstances that impact costs.

We will see towards the end of this section, that many project managers get caught off-guard with escalating costs, with suppliers that couldn’t meet quoted obligations or other major cost issues. Consultants in charge of project budgets often use free project management budget software, to help with this, such as SmartSheet, Project Budget Manager or AceProject, to draft and debate project expenses.

Develop relevant KPIs You can’t effectively manage a project budget without establishing key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs help you ascertain how much has been spent on a project, the extent to which the project’s actual budget differs from what was planned, and so on. Here are just a few commonly known and used project KPIs that are essential to effective project budget management: •

Actual cost (AC), also known as actual cost of work performed (ACWP), shows how much money has been spent on a project to date.

•

Cost variance (CV) indicates whether the estimated project cost is above or below the set baseline.

•

Earned value (EV), aka budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP), shows the approved budget for performed project activities up to a particular time.

•

Planned value (PV), aka budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS), is the estimated cost for project activities planned/scheduled as of reporting date.

•

Return on investment (ROI) shows a project's profitability and whether the benefits have exceeded the costs (Yescombe: 2013).

Revisit, review, re-forecast

A project left to run without budget management and re-forecasting will lead to failure. Frequent budget oversight is essential in preventing budgets from getting too far out of hand. For example, a 10 percent budget overrun is far easier to correct than a 50 percent overrun, and if you don’t keep an eye on your budget and re-forecast, that 10 percent overrun can turn into a 50 percent overrun before you know it. Your chances of keeping a project on track with frequent budget review are far greater than if you forecast once and forget about it.

Other Management Practices Just as a project’s budget needs to be constantly revisited to keep it on track, so too do the project’s resource usage, since the people working on a project contribute to its cost (Tecce: 2009). Project managers should review the number of people currently working on a project and the project's future resource needs on a weekly basis. Doing so will ensure that you're fully utilising the resources you have and that you have the right resources ready for the rest of the project.

Regularly revisiting the resource forecast will help keep your project budget on track. Scope creep is one of the leading causes of project overruns. As unplanned work finds its way into your project, billable hours mount, and the project budget can get out of control. Project managers must carefully manage scope by creating change orders for work that isn't covered by the project's initial requirements. Change orders authorise additional funding for the project to cover the cost of extra work and thus keep the project aligned with its new budget.

Keep everyone informed and accountable An important part of staying on budget is to make sure all team members are aware of the current budget status as well. Keep the project team informed of the project budget forecast. An informed team is an empowered team that takes ownership of its projects. By keeping the team informed of the budget status, they will be more likely to watch their project charges and far less likely to

charge extra “grey area” hours to your project — hours they know they worked but weren’t clear about what they were working on.

The project budget must be a living part of your projects — something you review with your team and stakeholders on a regular basis. Project managers who carefully watch budgets throughout the lives of their projects will keep stakeholders and management happy and thus experience greater project and career success (Yescombe: 2013).

Consultant’s in charge of procurement Often, when you come into a project, there is already an expectation of how much it will cost or how much time it will take. When you make an estimate early in the project without knowing much about it, that estimate is called a rough order-of-magnitude estimate (or a ballpark estimate). This estimate will become more refined as time goes on and you learn more about the project.

Here are some tools and techniques for estimating cost (Yescombe: 2013): •

Determination of resource cost rates: People who will be working on the project all work at a specific rate. Any materials you use to build the project (e.g., wood or wiring) will be charged at a rate too. Determining resource costs means figuring out what the rate for labour and materials will be.

•

Vendor bid analysis: Sometimes you will need to work with an external contractor to get your project done. You might even have more than one contractor bid on the job. This tool is about evaluating those bids and choosing the one you will accept.

•

Reserve analysis: You need to set aside some money for cost overruns. If you know that your project has a risk of something expensive happening, it is better to have some cash available to deal with it. Reserve analysis means putting some cash away in case of overruns.

•

Cost of quality: You will need to figure the cost of all your quality-related activities into the overall budget. Since it’s cheaper to find bugs earlier in the project than later, there are always quality costs associated with everything your

project produces. Cost of quality is just a way of tracking the cost of those activities. It is the amount of money it takes to do the project right.

Once you apply all the tools in this process, you will arrive at an estimate for how much your project will cost. It’s important to keep all of your supporting estimate information. That way, you know the assumptions made when you were coming up with the numbers. Now you are ready to build your budget plan.

Overruns: Why projects go bad According to management consultancy firm, McKinsey, there are three main reasons for failure (Flyvberg: 2014).

Over optimism and overcomplexity. In order to justify a project, sometimes costs and timelines are systematically underestimated and benefits systematically overestimated. Infrastructure project expert B. Flyvbjerg (2014) argues that project managers competing for funding, massage the data until they come under the limit of what is deemed affordable. Stating the real cost, he asserts, would make a project unpalatable. According to Flyvberg, a McKinsey & Co. contributor, from the outset, such projects are on a fast track to failure.

A common example of this comes when big projects cross state or national borders and involve a mix of private and government spending. For example, a new railway could involve three national governments, numerous local governments, different environmental and health standards, varied degrees of skills and wage expectations, and dozens of private contractors, suppliers, and end users. Just one issue can stall the process indefinitely. In one case, for example, it took two countries a decade to work out the diplomatic considerations that allowed them to build a hydroelectric dam. All too often, these complicating issues are not deeply considered or priced to the fullest before launching a project (Flyvberg: 2014).

According to Flyvberg, a useful reality check is to compare the project under consideration to similar projects that have already been completed. Known as “reference-class forecasting,” this process addresses confirmation bias by forcing decision makers to consider cases that don’t necessarily justify the preferred course of action. For example, if a city wants to build a ten-kilometre metro line

with four stations, it should look at other cities that have built similar lines to understand the true cost and time dynamics.

Poor execution. Having delivered an unrealistically low project budget, the temptation is to cut corners to maintain cost assumptions and protect the (typically slim) profit margins for the engineering and construction firms that have been contracted to deliver the project. Project execution, from design and planning through construction, is riddled with problems such as incomplete design, lack of clear scope, ill-advised shortcuts, and even mathematical errors in scheduling and risk assessment. A McKinsey study of 48 troubled megaprojects showed that poor execution was responsible for cost and time overruns in 73 percent of the cases; for the rest, these were due to politics, such as new governments or laws (Flyvberg: 2014). In part, execution is poor because many projects are so complex that what might seem like routine issues can become major struggles. For example, if steel does not arrive at the job site on time, the delay can stall the entire project.

Another challenge is low productivity. While the manufacturing sector has approximately doubled its productivity over the past two decades, construction productivity has remained flat or even declined. Wages, however, have continued to rise faster than inflation in many markets, resulting in higher costs for the same results.

Weakness in organizational design and capabilities. Many entities involved in building megaprojects have an organizational setup in which the project director sits four or five levels down from the top leadership. The following structure is common: •

Layer 1: Subcontractor to contractor

•

Layer 2: Contractors to construction manager or managing contractor

•

Layer 3: Construction manager to owner’s representative

•

Layer 4: Owner’s representative to project sponsor

•

Layer 5: Project sponsor to business executive

This is a problem because each layer will have a view on how time and costs can be compressed. For example, the first three layers are looking for more work and more money, while the later ones are looking to deliver on time and budget.

Also, the authority to make final decisions is often remote from the action.

According to McKinsey & Co., capabilities, or lack thereof, are another issue.

Large projects are typically either sponsored by the government or by an entrepreneur with bold aspirations; they can take 10 to 15 years to finish. Even individuals who build large infrastructure projects for a living may execute only three or four megaprojects in a lifetime. Because each one is unique, the learning curve is steep every time, and the skills needed are scarce. All these problems are compounded by the speed at which projects get started. Starting from scratch, megaprojects may have to create organizations of several thousand people in 12 to 18 months—a significant operational and managerial challenge equivalent to creating a new start-up company.

Reflective Learning For a list of the largest cost overrun projects in history, please conduct further reading at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_overrun Then scroll down to find case studies in your area of residence.

UK examples can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Parliament_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Trams

Exercise – identify a case study that involved serious cost overruns.

Explain how and where the budgeting for resources went wrong. (Spend one hour writing notes in your notebook.)

Further Reading: PMI (2017) A Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/guide-Project-ManagementKnowledge-Guides/dp/1628251840/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/259-35841874519039?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1628251840&pd_rd_r=e069f1da-131e4998-addc5978d97a89db&pd_rd_w=SVweZ&pd_rd_wg=yk64H&pf_rd_p=e44592b5-e56d44c2-a4f9dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=3KDYAV3WQQFGYFT2DX69&psc=1&refRID=3KDYAV3W QQFGYFT2DX69 Yescombe, E., (2013) Principles of Project Finance. US: Academic Press

References: PMI (2017) A Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/guide-Project-ManagementKnowledge-Guides/dp/1628251840/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/259-35841874519039?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1628251840&pd_rd_r=e069f1da-131e4998-addc5978d97a89db&pd_rd_w=SVweZ&pd_rd_wg=yk64H&pf_rd_p=e44592b5-e56d44c2-a4f9dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=3KDYAV3WQQFGYFT2DX69&psc=1&refRID=3KDYAV3W QQFGYFT2DX69 Yescombe, E., (2013) Principles of Project Finance. US: Academic Press

Bingley, R., The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities. Oxford: OUP Flyvbjerg, B., (2014) “What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview,” Project Management Journal, 2014, Volume 45, Number 2, pp. 6–19 Infrastructure Productivity (2013) How to save £1 trillion per year. McKinsey Global Institute January 2013

2.3 Develop systems and practices to identify and manage potential risk to the achievement of the project objectives

Anticipating threats and risks posed to project outcomes, workers and organisations in such environments is both business-critical and life-saving.

Certain types of risk-assessment work will also demand that mangers and consultants integrate their own firm’s risk analysis with the other pre-exiting organisational resilience strategies that may already be firmly embedded by the client, and thus familiar to some of the client or own team. The merger of different risk assessment approaches can often create the most difficult hurdles for any consultant who knows what the client has to do to improve security or project infrastructure but is often hitting a cultural wall with the client, or their support team, because the new suggestions destabilise existing workplace structures or emergency plans that a client is comfortable with.

Consultants therefore “should push as much as possible to develop a close and effective partnership with the senior directors at headquarters level,” says Jon Hill, Managing Director of Operations Group, a UK-based training and consultancy deployment company. “It may be that consultants have the local or technical expertise and would have been specifically recruited for these attributes. But they still must ensure that their proposed risk assessment and mitigation plans are accepted and integrated by the client before an operation. A difficult conversation or two to set out parameters beforehand can save several megawatts of tension and recriminations at a later date, especially after a crisis (Bingley: 2015).”

It is this author’s firm view that, at the time of writing, it is impossible to see into the future. Therefore, as a corollary, it remains impossible to predict the size, scale and type of a project risk. Despite this rather inconvenient fact, a risk assessment process is the critical ingredient to any successful project management and milestone management process. Security management guru John Fay wrote: “A good deal of the analytical input comes from knowing the

current nature of the threat, tapping into one’s base of experience and applying good old-fashioned common sense” (Fay: 2006).

But now there is also fair criticism from within some project management spheres that projects are becoming over-planned or micro-managed by a surge of well-intended managers and stakeholders (Bingley: 2015). This is a moot point. Alternatively, time and opportunity for background research and quality assurance may well be scarce. But if some do lapse into this unfortunate mode of unthinking project ‘autopilot’ then how will they be able to see any major risks emerging?

According to Project Management Risk expert, David McCreery: Risk is uncertainty and is highest at the start but the risks are not always obvious and often need to be teased out. This needs a collaborative effort to identify what the risks are, especially if you don’t have experience or background in a particular sector.

McCreery adds: Review your risk register regularly. Hold risk workshops which run through the risks and check whether your mitigations have been implemented and are still valid. The risk register is fundamental to the project manager’s role; it’s not something I suggest you can delegate, though you can delegate elements, such as mitigations. (McCreery: 2017) A further dilemma may be to what extent external consultants, should enter the sphere of Health and Safety operations within their assessments? This is often a private and sensitive domain for client organisations who like to keep their security and safety policies and procedures for internal eyes only. For the successful functioning of both security and safety remits, it is far better for there to be overlap rather than underlap. Even if this does mean figuratively ‘stepping on a few toes’ within the client and/or principal’s sphere. In the aftermath of a serious safety glitch, such as a principal being caught up in a house fire, or slipping and cutting their head badly, to pithily argue a job demarcation line, could well lose a consultant the prospect of repeat business!

In order to bring some sense of control and structure to assist in the preplanning for risk-based scenarios, this book now will outline three simple risk assessment models (Bingley: 2015 and Fay 2006) that seem to be favoured:

Model 1: HSE Five Step Risk Assessment:

Step 1: Identify the hazards Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution Step 4: Record your findings and implement them Step 5: Review your assessment and update if necessary (UK Health and Safety Executive, Identify the Hazards, 2014)

Such a hazard identification process does begin to propel an organisation into a risk consideration culture, without necessarily demanding that the likelihood and severity of risks be much debated or calculated. In environments where risk analysis and risk management approaches may not yet have matured, (such as civilian environments, or in some emerging markets), the HSE hazard identification tool may be an ideal starting point to engage local customers.

Some security firms’ have been known to offer a free initial, basic, risk assessment.

Figure 1: Quantitative Risk Assessment Matrix:

Source: JISC at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/risk-management/qualitativerisk-analysis

This type of risk assessment matrix enables assessors to allocate simple scored ratings to the likelihood of threats occurring. They then estimate any potential impact that will ‘hit’ the victim organisation. Ratings out of three, five, or seven, are most common-place with quantitative risk calculations. Colour codes are then usually deployed into the matrix in order to illuminate what risks should be prioritised (or passed over) for treatment. A shade of red will usually indicate a high or major risk. Yellow to amber may indicate a medium/moderate risk. While light yellow or green background shading often indicates a negligible/low risk.

This model provides a more visible and memorable matrix for team members and influential managers/directors. It is, in essence, a scorecard with ratings.

But it can lead to internal organisational pontification and sign-off issues as fellow colleagues sometimes become too absorbed in debating the scoring and challenging the scorers!

Figure 2: Qualitative Risk Assessment Matrix

Source: Advanced Diving Systems website, 2014 (14)

Again, with this model, results are colour coded with green indicating a lower and possibly acceptable risk. Yellow/amber indicates a medium risk which is usually acceptable to an organisation provided that some mitigation measures are put into effect. Red indicates an unacceptable level of risk and tangible action should be immediately taken. This method again provides a clear visualisation of whether additional measures should be taken.

Case study: UK Health and Safety and the consideration of risk assessments It does not matter where you are from in the world, we ask that you read this overview of Health and Safety laws in the UK and the legal obligations and duties that fall upon employers and employees. As a consultant, your contribution will often be viewed as directive actions emanating from senior management, therefore your obligations and actions will tend to be viewed in any court case as part of the management approach (Bingley: 2015).

UK Health and Safety Act Work Acts:

•

Individuals are vulnerable to the operations of organisations – Accidents happen!

•

Deaths and/or injuries not only impact on the individual but also on the organisation/business

•

Individuals and organisations are legally obliged

•

You may be held responsible. There are lots of legal precedents where careless bosses (or those proven to be) have been sent to prison

Consider – Who is at Risk?

•

Employees

•

Contractors and sub-contractors

•

Clients & customers

•

Suppliers

•

Visitors

•

Anyone else?

What Hazards/Threats may individuals be exposed to?

•

Slips, trips and falls

•

Falling objects/structures

•

Hazardous materials

•

Fire

•

Explosions

•

Water hazards/drowning

What Hazards/Threats may individuals be exposed to?

•

Machinery

•

Traffic

•

Travel

•

Overloading/overcrowding

•

Poor Planning

•

Actions/omissions of personnel

•

Negligence

Hazards and Threats should be prevented and mitigated by carrying out Risk Management. For real detail about conducting such a process, turn to Chapter Six. It is the responsibility of management to prevent, as far as practicable, risks from hazards and threats, or any combination thereof from materialising.

Sources of Main UK Health and Safety Legislation: •

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

•

Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

•

HM Government has the responsibility for enacting laws and regulations within the UK

•

EU: Legislation and directives impact UK workplace practices – these were absorbed into UK legislation prior to the UK’s exit from the European Union in 2020

•

Regulations of Health and Safety in the UK are led by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC). The executive department of the HSC is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

HASAW Acts, Statutory Instruments & Regulations:

The HSE owns a significant amount of primary and secondary legislation. The primary legislation comprises the Acts of Parliament, including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The secondary legislation is made up of Statutory Instruments (Sls), often referred to as ‘regulations’. It is enforced by the HSE and Local Authorities.

What does Health and Safety Regulation really mean? H&S Laws & Regulations require a response from employers: •

Employers have a duty to protect people

•

If found guilty of non-compliance or negligence, employers face legal penalties

•

Employers must ensure that a thorough risk assessment of all aspects of the organisation’s operations has been conducted with regard to the potential effect on personnel

However, responsibility does not solely rest with the employer. It is also the responsibility of every employee and individual on the organisation’s property (including those travelling offsite) to ensure that they do not cause hazards to themselves or other personnel by: •

Their own actions

•

Their own negligence

•

Their own omissions

Responsibilities of the Employer and Employee:

•

Management must therefore inform employees and any/all other individuals what must/must not be done by raising awareness, instilling a sense of responsibility and ultimately by ensuring compliance.

Consider: •

How might management best go about this?

•

What problems are likely to be encountered?

•

How might these be overcome?

Employers must: •

Ensure as far as possible that health, safety and welfare are maintained in the workplace.

•

Appoint a ‘competent person’.

•

“A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the particular help you need” (HSE)

•

Employers are encouraged to look within first.

All employers must: Business with more than 5 employees must: •

Hold an official record of risk assessments.

•

Have a formal Health and Safety Policy

All businesses must: •

Ensure that staff understand and comply with the Health and Safety Policy

Responsibilities of the Employee: Employees have a responsibility to ensure they: •

Take reasonable care of their own Health and Safety

•

Take reasonable care they don’t put other people at risk by what they do – or don’t do in the course of their work

•

Co-operate with the employer regarding Health and Safety

•

Do not misuse or interfere with anything provided for health, safety or welfare

•

By law, a Risk Assessment is required. Basic risk assessment approaches outlined by the HSE are outlined below.

Risk Assessments – Definitions: •

A HAZARD is anything that may cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, an open drawer, etc

•

“The RISK is the chance, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these and other hazards together with an indication of how serious the harm could be,” writes the HSE

Risk Assessments – 5 Steps to Success: •

Identify the hazards.

•

Identify who may be harmed and how.

•

Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions.

•

Record your findings and implement them.

•

Review your assessment and update as necessary (UK: HSE: 2014).

Step 1 – Identify the Hazards

•

How? -

Visual inspection.

-

Questioning of personnel.

-

Questionnaires.

•

Who can provide information -

Staff, suppliers......

•

Attention to detail essential.

•

Think outside own operations/premises....

Step 2 – Identify who may be harmed and how

A range of people may be harmed and their vulnerability will be influenced by a variety of factors including: •

Work performed.

•

Work location.

•

Knowledge/awareness of hazards and risks.

•

Actual harm that may be caused – death, injury....

•

Others including age etc.

Step 3 – Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions:

•

Prioritise. Some risks will be more serious than others...

•

In Health and Safety it is rare that a risk is regarded as acceptable, so doing nothing is not normally an option.

•

The HSE indicates that what is done should correspond with best practice and regulation.

Decide on Precautions: •

Can work be conducted in a less risky way? Not always...

•

Can access to the hazard be prevented? Not always…

•

Can work be organised to reduce exposure to the hazard?

•

Can PPE be issued? Problems?

Step 4 – Record and Implement Findings Record •

How?

•

Where?

•

Why?

Implement: Now having assessed the risks, decide on precautions that must be implemented.

Step 5 – Review and Reassess •

Over time operations may change, therefore new risks may appear or old ones change in priority.

•

Changes require a reassessment of the risk.

•

All changes to the risk and ways to deal with it must be communicated.

Requirements for Health and Safety Protection: •

Within the working environment there are a number of general requirements for Health and Safety measures to be implemented. These do however vary according to the specific industry or environmental requirements necessary. Additional considerations could include:

•

Maintenance – Facilities, machinery, equipment and vehicles etc.

•

Ventilation – adequate provision of uncontaminated air

•

Temperatures – laid down by regulation

•

Lighting – adequate for work and movement

•

Cleanliness – workplaces should be clean with waste removed

•

Floors and Traffic Routes – sufficient routes to allow for safe movement. Consider height/width, speed limits, condition of surfaces, etc.

•

Falls – Consider use of fences, rails, harnesses and dangers of falling objects – stacking of material, etc.

•

Transparent/Translucent – these type of surfaces must be clear of materials and marked so that they can be seen

•

Sanitary/Wash facilities – accessible, clean, well lit, provided with hot/cold water, soap and means of drying

•

Drinking water – provided by upward jet or suitable cups

•

Clothing and changing – appropriate facilities where there is a need to change

•

Rest and meals – suitable and sufficient facilities

Further reading:

Kendrick, T. (2015) Identifying and Managing Project Risk, London: AMACOM Bingley, R., (2015) The Security Consultants Handbook. Ely: ITGP Barker, S. and Cole, R. (2012) Brilliant Project Management. London: FT Press

References:

Bingley, R., (2015) The Security Consultants Handbook, Ely: ITGP

Fay, J., (2006), Contemporary Security Management – Second Edition, Oxford: Elsevier McCreery (2017) How to identify and manage risk in projects, accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.axelos.com/news/blogs/november-2017/how-toidentify-and-manage-risk-in-projects

UK HSE (2014) Identify the Hazards, accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/identify-the-hazards.htm

2.4 Identify an appropriate infrastructure to support project delivery

What is infrastructure, in the case of Project Management? Infrastructure provides support for projects, programmes and portfolios, and is the focal point for the development and maintenance of P3 management within an organisation.

Infrastructure can be existing within a company or can be purchased in at the project’s inception in order to support deliverables (Mema and Al-Thani: 2018).

The governance of P3 project management requires a permanent organisational infrastructure that supports the temporary organisational structures of projects, programmes and portfolios. Many different names are given to the structures that ‘own’ P3 management within an organisation. The terms EPMO (Enterprise Project Management Office), PSO (Project, Programme or Portfolio Support Office), Project Services or Centre of Excellence are all in common use (APM: 2019). The name often reflects the scope of responsibilities. For example, a Project Support Office will provide predominantly administrative support to a project, while a Centre of Excellence will often be responsible for improving P3 management maturity.

Routine administration is required on all projects, programmes and portfolios.

On small projects this may be performed by the consultant project manager, but on medium to large projects and all programmes and portfolios, a P3 manager needs support in handling day-to-day administration (Association for Project Management: 2020). Some projects and most programmes and portfolios also require specialist skills in areas such as risk, quality or finance. Separating the finances out for a specific project, and also ensuring that the overall project has a budget (that is proactively managed) is key to delivering a successful project (Ochieng: 2017).

Project Administration For larger projects, an administrative support function can operate at different levels depending upon how it is constituted. It may provide:

•

administrative help in areas such as planning, risk management, change control etc.;

•

the secretariat for meetings and logistical services for members of the management team;

•

technical support including collecting, analysing and presenting progress information, managing interdependencies and handling communications with stakeholders;

•

assurance of governance structures and standard project management practices through audits, health checks and phase end reviews.

A sophisticated infrastructure may also cover:

•

provision of subject matter expertise to ensure that there is access to all necessary tools and techniques;

•

training, coaching and mentoring for the project, programme or portfolio management team;

•

maintaining the infrastructure, momentum and drive to support communities of practice;

•

improving, embedding and measuring capabilities to achieve higher levels of maturity;

•

owning and deploying standard tools and techniques.

The P3 management infrastructure may range from a single person to a large team containing many different roles and specialists including, among others:

•

planners and schedulers;

•

cost engineers;

•

subject matter experts;

•

assurance staff;

•

configuration managers (Mema and Al-Thani: 2018)

The overall infrastructure may be divided into multiple offices, some temporary and some permanent. For example, a support office might provide administrative support to a specific project or programme. This is then disbanded once the work is complete. In contrast, a community of practice, or centre of excellence, has a permanent support role independent of the creation and completion of any individual piece of work (McKinsey & Co. 2017).

The shape of the infrastructure will reflect its environment, but its component groups must always have a clearly defined purpose and scope. The roles and levels of authority of these groups must be communicated to the delivery team(s) and reinforced periodically (APM: 2019 and Ochieng 2017).

Project In the project dimension, the main focus is on administrative and technical support. Where a project is part of a programme or portfolio, the project support function will be provided by the programme or portfolio office. On smaller, stand-alone projects that cannot justify the overhead of a support function, the support work will fall on the project manager’s shoulders. This is often a consultant role. Some organisations will have central functions for planning, cost management, procurement etc., that may be able to provide assistance in these circumstances. Engagement with the project sponsor will be a key driver behind success all of the way through the project’s journey.

According to the APM, with the support of the sponsor, the project manager of a small, stand-alone project should seek as much help with day-to-day administration as possible. Taking shortcuts in the administration of even the smallest project is often a cause of failure (APM website: 2019). Beyond day-today management of the project, the project manager should be provided with other types of support. This may include continuing professional development (CPD) through communities of practice, career advice or managing the transition between one project and the next. It is this broad support for the profession and discipline of project management that is provided by the governance infrastructure.

Project Programme Programmes are large enough to carry the overhead of a support function and may also have access to a central support function.

Programme support functions must have the expertise to cover the additional services required by programmes. These typically include supporting change management, benefits realisation and project interfaces.

The programme management team decide how to constitute the support organisation across the programme, e.g. whether one support function will serve the programme and all its component projects, or whether some, or all, projects will have separate project support functions.

Project Portfolio Some organisations will have multiple departmental or regional portfolios, while others might have a single, organisation-wide portfolio. In the latter case, the portfolio and the governance infrastructure are effectively the same thing. This is often referred to as an EPMO and is a permanent organisational structure.

Infrastructure Plans Depending on your type of project, you will need to consult with other team members and devise an Infrastructure Deployment Plan (or another equally suitable title). There are various structures and configurations to this type of plan and the ‘rule of thumb’ is that it should be designed to suit your project and your organisation; it should not be a copy from another organisation’s template that has been shoehorned into your business. Designing this plan involves much research and detail and is achieved best by gathering together different departments and colleagues and ascertaining what physical resources already exist within the business that can become support infrastructure for your

project’s goals. This planning area is vulnerable to errors and overestimates of existing resource. Because just because, for example, a company owns 10 highspec printers, that could be used for a major sustained marketing campaign, does not mean to say that they are a) all working and b) all available!

Infrastructure plans therefore require research and anticipation around work patterns and key spikes in existing business activity.

A suitable example of a very simple Infrastructure Development Plan can be found at the website within the exercise below. It is based around a major IT project.

Reflective Exercise 1: Go to the website: https://templatescart.com/tag/it+infrastructure+deployment+plan.html

- or

Google the search phrase ‘Infrastructure Development Plan example’

Then …. in your private notebook … Imagine that you are a new Online retail bank with just ten sites (around 20 staff each) across the south of your home country. Your transactions are around 20,000 per day to the value of £2m per day. The banks payment systems keep experiencing downtime and you have been tasked as an internal consultant by the CEO to overhaul/ replace the payments system with new software and enhanced staff numbers, because customer-wait-times are too long and customers are frustrated that they can’t carry out basic online transaction tasks. What (existing and new) infrastructure might you require for this project? Put your ideas with timescales into an Infrastructure Plan with SMART measurables and deliverables for your team.

Reflective Exercise 2:

Please read the following article by the world’s most well-known management consultancy, McKinsey & Co. (2017) https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-andinfrastructure/our-insights/optimizing-performance-in-infrastructureproject-delivery In your private notebook, to what extent do you agree with McKinsey’s four strategies to reduce variables?

Further reading:

Association of Project Management(APM) (2019) Body of Knowledge (7th Ed.), accessible via: https://www.apm.org.uk/book-shop/apm-body-of-knowledge7th-edition/ Ochieng, A., (2017) Major Infrastructure Projects: Planning for Delivery. London.

Red Globe Press Mema, T and Al-Thani, F (2018) Financing Infrastructure Projects. (2nd Ed.) ICE Publishing

References:

Mema, T and Al-Thani, F (2018) Financing Infrastructure Projects. (2nd Ed.) ICE Publishing APM (2020) Infrastructure definition, accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.apm.org.uk/body-of-knowledge/context/governance/infrastructure/ Ochieng, A., (2017) Major Infrastructure Projects: Planning for Delivery. London.

Red Globe Press

McKinsey & Co. (2017) Optimizing performance in infrastructure project delivery.

Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capitalprojects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/optimizing-performance-ininfrastructure-project-delivery

2.5 Assess the impact of the consultant’s own role and skills in project delivery

Overall Leadership of a Consultant We’ve already learnt how consultants can be found in nearly every sector and firm. They are hired by banks, insurance, law firms, retail businesses, government organisations, into procurement divisions, and auditing tasks, to name a few popular industries and roles for consultants. They do everything from evaluating management efficiency through to protecting computer systems from hackers. Some pitch themselves as problem-solvers, subject matter experts, generalists, strategists and technical specialists. To remind ourselves, two popular definitions of ‘consultant’ can be found below: Engaged in the business of giving expert advice to people working in a professional or technical field (Cambridge Online Dictionary) The provision to businesses of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organisation in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of additional resources; and/or the implementation of solutions. (Iconsulting.com) Both of these definitions share an underpinning rationale for bringing in a consultant: that is to provide the client company or team with leadership in their specified sphere of expertise. Consultants who do not project themselves as leaders will become lost within most business environments.

We will now take you through a highly popular leadership model advocated by business professor Stephen Covey in his famous book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey: 1989).

1. Be Proactive: Achieve extraordinary results by consistently executing R & I (resourcefulness and initiative) to break through barriers.

2. Begin with the end in mind: Develop an outcome-oriented mindset in every activity they engage in—projects, meetings, presentations, contributions, etc.

3. Put first things first: Eliminate energy and time-wasting tendencies by focusing and executing on the team’s wildly important goals with a weekly planning schedule.

4. Think win-win: Lead teams that are motivated to perform superbly through a shared expectation and accountability process. Step from independence to interdependence. Identify mutual reward and mutual interest for both parties.

5. Seek first to understand. Then to be understood. Create an atmosphere of helpful give-and-take by taking the time to fully understand issues and give candid and accurate feedback.

6. Synergise: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Principlecentred leadership that “catalyses, unifies and unleashes the greatest powers within people (Covey: 1989).”

7. Sharpen the saw. Preserving and enhancing the self and your colleagues.

Renew and replenish the four dimensions of our nature: physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional.

Covey and his followers have routinely used the following Venn Diagram to exhibit the core principles of his research and how the various interrelated dimensions can be said to overlap and feed into each other: Figure 1: Covey’s Habits model:

Source: https://notonlyluck.com/2013/02/07/habits-as-a-competitiveadvantage-for-startups/ Some leadership thinkers rely heavily on Covey’s approach and argue that those who optimise each habit dimension can provide consultants and smaller companies with “competitive advantage” over their rivals (Melonakos: 2013).

Nevertheless, because consultants tend to be paid incrementally and focused within a silo of business expertise, perhaps the most popular challenge that they face is in relation to communications in terms of a) getting others to understand their instructions b) demonstrating client value

Consultants and Communications A fun way to underline the difficulty of team and organisational communications is to conduct a version of the telephone game. Organise for a team member to receive a simple set of instructions via the telephone. Then, without writing them down, convey these instructions to the next colleague, and so on, along a chain of individuals. The end-result is often very much at odds with those original orders.

Book author and communications expert, Naomi Karten writes: “A common misconception is that communication gaps are caused by too little communication. Some are, certainly. Often, however, the problem is the reverse: too much communication. Often, too, the problem isn’t simply the quantity of communication but the kind: Gaps are frequently caused by misdirected, one-way, poorly timed, or badly worded communications (Karten: 2013).” In a world of rapid, and possibly much more public communications, poor written communications can wreak a lot of damage upon workplace relationships and the overall process of team and organisational communications. Brianna Davis, an author for the popular Lee Hopkins communications sector blog, describes a sensible remedy: “Taking a minute to review your work can save you tons of apologizing time later” (88).

Nevertheless, this is easier said than done. A layer of peer reviews upon important communications is advised.

Figure 2: Brianna Davis’s top tips to avoid communications mistakes: Failure to review: don’t let spellcheck and autocorrect do all the work, computers still aren’t quite up to the task of editing messages and memos the way that people are.

Too many words: The sheer volume of communication hitting us means that time can’t be spent … reading anything that is too long. … If you just need an approval on a request, send the simple request.

Appropriate-ness – You may be really mad about a setback, but the words you use to express your anger can be remembered long after the setback is corrected. Act, react, and speak appropriately, or forever be remembered as “that guy who goes crazy.”

Failure to praise – If someone is doing something right, let them know.

This can boost the self-esteem and productivity of whoever is hearing it, and

also ensure that the thing you like is done the way you like it time after time.

Criticism –If someone is doing something incorrectly, it is important to [carefully] highlight it as soon as possible to ensure it is done correctly in future.

Say what you mean, mean what you say – Being taken at your word is still [very] important. The only difference is that instead of a handshake, there are now emails and much more to prove what you said.

Being closed off - Having others fear communicating with you—or that communication with you is a pointless process—can hinder you far more than help you.

Source: Abridged version of Brianna Davis’s ‘Top Ten Business Communications Mistakes’

Using or avoiding certain types of body language is also critical in avoiding or defusing conflict. Body Language expert James Borg states that: “More communication is conveyed through the eyes than any other part of the body” (Borg: 2008). Borg points out that the lowering of eyes might be perceived as untrustworthiness or submissiveness. Conversely, over-zealous eye contact may appear aggressive or even convey sexual attraction, extremely inappropriate within a business environment. Unfocused and flitting eye contact - particularly repeated glances over the shoulder, to the wrists (where a watch may be), or towards a phone - explicitly suggests a lack of focus and attention to the person and conversation in motion. This is not a good message to convey if one is trying to engage, motivate or even pacify an aggressive or hostile person.

The seminal work of Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends And Influence People, is literally an encyclopaedia of business protocols. The book has an enduring and pervasive relevance to most, if not all, business activity. One passage will serve entrepreneurs business managers very well indeed:

Why talk about what we want. That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it. But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want.

So the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it. (Carnegie: 1936)

Case Study: Miscommunication of the highest order: The Charge of the Light Brigade: In 1853, Russia invaded the Balkans. Soon after, following hyperbolic media coverage, Britain and France deployed forces into The Crimea in order to protect Turkey, with whom they held Treaty obligations. There were strong fears about access to important surrounding sea-routes. After a series of skirmishes with Russia, the British Army and her Allies were generally thought to have gained the upper hand during the Battle of Balaclava in 1854. That was until the illfated order for the Charge of the Light Brigade, commanded by the 7th Earl of Cardigan, straight into a phalanx of Russian artillery in Autumn, 1854. Out of 674 soldiers who loyally followed seemingly inexplicable orders to attack Russian gun positions, 247 perished or were wounded.

Cardigan was euphorically welcomed back into Britain as a war hero by crowds of enthusiasts and awarded an audience with Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria. But doubts soon began to surface in relation to the kamikaze nature of the Light Brigade’s operation. Moreover, suspicion also grew around the truth of Cardigan’s self-aggrandising claims. Harsh accounts from returning ground troops, and critical reflections from fellow senior officers, opposition Russian officers and war correspondents (William Russell and George Ryan), finally amalgamated into a new, rather inconvenient truth: The Charge of the Light Brigade had been one of Britain’s largest military leadership disasters of all time.

How could this have happened?

The interesting fusion of personal feuds, rivalries, and deficient decision-making, all prevalent in this military debacle, have caused gallons of ink and thousands of printer cartridges to be spent ever since. Military and business coaches alike have tried to make sense of these traumatic events that occurred in a location dubbed the “valley of death” by poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

The Earl of Raglan was appointed overall commander of British armed forces, principally because he had served as military secretary to Duke of Wellington.

Wellington was widely held to be a preeminent strategic military genius since his pivotal leadership at Waterloo in 1815. Although Raglan was a decent political operator in British circles, he had no practical experience of military leadership in the field. Four decades later, it was hoped that some of Wellington’s strategic military genius might have rubbed off on his successor.

The Cavalry Brigade at Balaclava was made up of a Light and Heavy Brigade commanded overall by Lord Lucan. And Earl Cardigan, who was in charge of the Light Brigade, was subordinate to Lord Lucan. However, by a twist of coincidence both men were brothers-in-law to one another. Cardigan believed that Lord Lucan mistreated his sister. He therefore barely spoke with Lucan. Instead he preferred to liaise directly and wherever possible with the conciliatory personality of the overall British commander, Lord Raglan.

Fully aware of bad blood between his commanders, yet keen keep the peace, Raglan implored both men to bury their differences and work together. Neither showed any prospect of being able to do so. On the 25th October, 1854, large numbers of Russian units began to threaten British supply lines down in the valley. On a hilltop alongside his staff officers, Raglan’s team looked down onto a ridge and spotted some Russian soldiers who began to remove British artillery guns from the scene. Believing that this incident disgraced the British Army’s good name, Raglan sent four orders via messengers downhill in quick succession to Lucan, stipulating that the Cavalry Brigades should stop the guns being taken away from the ridge and therefore attack the Russian positions. Raglan failed to appreciate the physical ground-view that Lucan and Cardigan, and also their troops, were experiencing.

From lower down, in the valley, the order’s final recipient, Lucan, could only see another Russian gunnery position. Confused, but not pressing the messenger for

certain clarifications, Lucan passed the messages down to Cardigan, the Light Brigade commander in the valley. From his position, his team could not see the guns upon a ridge being removed by Russians. They just saw the Russian artillery guns pointing at them. They assumed, incorrectly, that the somewhat suicidal order, related to the visible gunnery positions inside the valley. Lucan was also reportedly irked that he had been criticised by Raglan’s team for being too cautious in the past.

Possibly too proud to ask his hated brother-in-law for clarification, and aware that he may look like a coward, Cardigan failed to vent his fears and ask for clarification. He prepared his men to attack a line of Russian guns, that, ultimately Lord Raglan could not see from the hills.

The messenger from Raglan to Lucan who carried the fourth order was one Captain Louis Nolan, staff officer to Lord Raglan. Nolan was a precocious young cavalry officer who had developed deep-seated frustration in Balaclava towards the conduct of aristocratic British commanding officers in Crimea. Safely on the hilltop working alongside his boss, and also guilty of not seeing any direct threat from Russian gunners upon the Light Brigade, Nolan galloped down to the ridge and curtly gave Raglan’s order to Lucan: attack the guns. When asked for clarification by Lucan, Nolan was reported to have brusquely waved his arms in the general direction of the Russians and said: “There are your enemy. There are your guns, my Lord.”

Lucan did not demur this time. He relayed the fourth and final order onto his brother-in-law, Cardigan. This time Cardigan did reply that, “I shall never be able to bring a man back”, before launching his regiments forward directly towards Russian gun positions without any further delay.

Private Thomas Dudley of the 17th Lancers wrote in his account of the scene: “When we received the order, not a man could seem to believe it ... Not a word or a whisper. On – on we went! Oh! If you could have seen the faces of that doomed 800 men at that moment; every man’s features fixed, his teeth clenched, and as rigid as death, still it was on – on!” Another described the attack as a “perfect madness”. Captain William Morgan, also of the 17th Lancers, wrote to his father the charge had been “gallant, brilliant (but, as all add, useless)”. He said the order arrived “as we must believe, by mistake”.

The main protagonists in this error-strewn operation, Raglan, Cardigan and the 3rd Earl of Lucan, all survived the infamous Charge. Lucan was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant General and then Field Marshal. Cardigan’s war hero status became slightly dented although Queen Victoria made him a Knight in the Order of Bath. He spoke irregularly on politics from his parliamentary seat in Westminster’s House of Lords.

All expressed concern at the poor communication of Raglan’s orders by his staff officer, Captain Nolan. But Nolan did not survive to defend his reputation falling with his comrades that very same afternoon.

Reflective Exercise: In your private notebook. Imagine that you are brought in to manage a lorry freight logistics company and put in charge of scheduling. You have 250 trucks in your country to manage and the previous manager and their deputy have both resigned with immediate effect due to stress. The CEO has offered you a huge amount of remuneration to complete and finish the scheduling and to recover the firm’s deteriorating reputation. Aided by a new deputy and also an administrative assistant, you work 16 hours per day, six days per week, and get the roster and distribution network back up-and-running in a most competent way. But many internal employees at other sites can’t see the success; they just keep hearing the ‘scare stories’ when things go wrong. Also, the CEO and senior management team is based at the other location. Moreover, although the performance has massively improved, one truck failed to meet its schedule and was delivering theatre equipment to a theatre run by a high-profile celebrity who was due to host ‘Pop Idol’ from that location.

TASK: Devise a communication action plan to improve your internal and external profile for the distribution team.

Summary

The diversity of roles within the consulting space offer many opportunities for individuals to specialise in areas that appeal to them. Nevertheless, there are also risks, because companies will not retain external consultants who either do not show clear value to their business, or who cannot demonstrate sufficiently enhanced levels of specialist expertise that cannot be accessed from within the existing (internal) employee pool. As we stated at the beginning of this module, consultants are often paid by the hour, or by the day, therefore they must be perceived to add value to their client business.

Further Reading:

Covey, S. (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. London: Simon & Schuster Gill, R. (2006) Theory and Practice of Leadership. London: Sage Adair, J. (1997) Effective Communication: The most important management tool of all. London: Pan Books

References:

Covey, S. (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. London: Simon & Schuster Melonakos, J., (2013) Not only luck: Habits as a competitive advantage for startups. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://notonlyluck.com/2013/02/07/habits-asa-competitive-advantage-for-startups/ Karten, N., (2013) Mind the Gap: Communication Gaps and How to Close Them. accessed and downloaded on 05/01/2020 at: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2122831 Davis, B., (2014) Top Ten Communications Mistakes – A Guide for Gen Y, accessed and downloaded on 05/01/2020 at:

http://www.leehopkins.net/2011/11/14/top-ten-business-communicationmistakesa-guide-for-gen-y/ Borg, J. (2008), Body Language, p.28, Harlow: Pearson Carnegie, D., (1936), How To Win Friends And Influence People, p.37, Chancellor Press

2.6 Evaluate the importance of the project leader quality assuring the work of the project team Quality Assurance (QA) is often a formal process within service contracts and projects. It can be taken to mean the maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production. There has been a significant amount of research and study allocated to understanding more about the role of QA across the past several decades and such research tended to originate from major defence and aviation engineering projects whereby the cost of any failure could be human lives. QA has evolved to become the sub-discipline within Project Management that deals with compliance and conformity with agreed service levels as well as legal and technical requirements that could be stipulated by governments for within that sector. Many QA standards are so important that they have become refined and absorbed into expected rules and guidance codified by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). According to W. Edwards Deming, prominent business modelling expert, QA is a strict and formal discipline within any business to ensure the highest levels of professionalism and customer satisfaction (W. Edwards Deming: 2012).

According to ISO 8402:1996, i.e. Quality Management and Quality Assurance Vocabulary standard states that Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or a service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.

According to ISO 9000:2000, i.e. the set of International Quality Standards and Guidelines for Quality Management Systems states that Quality is the degree to which a set of existing characteristics fulfil requirements.

Simply put, you can say that “quality is about meeting the customers’ requirements” and the deliverable being fit for use. When a product meets or exceeds customers’ requirements and needs one can say that the product is of high quality. Conversely, if it is not meeting its stated requirements the product

is said to be of low quality. A very solid example of a business Quality Assurance process has been kindly provided online by the automotive firm, Magna Tyres:

Figure 1: Quality Assurance Process, continuous improvement model:

Source: https://magnatyres.com/quality-management-and-control/

QA therefore assures the quality of the product meaning that this process ensures that the product generated from the process is defect free and conforms to all stated customer requirements and supplier service level agreements. It is said to be a process-based approach whose primary objective is to prevent defects in deliverables at the planning stage to avoid rework, which increases process costs (W. Edwards Deming: 2012). Quality Assurance can also be viewed upon as a proactive process and it places great importance upon planning, documentation, and guidelines finalisation (sign-off) that will be needed to assure the quality. This process begins at the very start of the project to compare the product’s requirements and expectations. Once all requirements and expectations are recognised, a plan is developed to meet these requirements and expectations.

Tools used in the Quality Assurance Process There are fundamentally three tools utilized in quality management – process analysis, quality audit and quality management and control tools. In process analysis, one analyses the process to spot any enhancements, find the root cause of any problem that comes up, and recognise any non-value added activities. (Such activities are therefore viewed as meaningless and require abandoning by strict Project Managers.)

In Quality Audit, a panel of external experts come and review the process and procedures. If they discover any discrepancies, they will recommend corrective action or an enhancement in the process. It is an excellent tool to ensure the best practice and approved procedures are being followed.

Many Project consultants will seek to get an overview of their QA processes by designing a visual diagram such as a QA wheel (see below).

Figure 2: Quality Assurance Wheel:

Source: Zarantech

Differences between Quality Control and Quality Assurance •

Quality Assurance stresses on defect prevention and Quality Control focuses on defect identification.

•

In quality Assurance, one checks if the plan was efficient enough to avoid any forecasted defect. In Quality Control one attempts to find defects and correct them while creating the product.

•

Quality Assurance is a proactive process whereas Quality Control is a reactive process.

•

Quality Assurance is a process-based approach whereas Quality Control is a product-based approach.

•

Quality Assurance includes processes managing quality, and Quality Control is used to validate the product quality.

•

Quality Audit is an example of Quality Assurance. Inspection and testing are great examples of the Quality Control process.

According to W. Edwards Deming and strategy author, Professor Richard Rumelt (2012), the following are some clear benefits of these processes: •

High quality output = more customers

•

High quality products engender pride and workplace fulfilment. QA and QC, thus, promote high levels of confidence and a motivated team

•

Provides customer satisfaction, which positively impacts your consultancy brand and helps individuals and organisations to grow their business

•

Minimises waste

•

Increase the efficiency of operations, sometimes by a large factor

•

Less rework and after-sale support are needed. This will save a lot of time and money

Figure 3: QA v QC comparison chart:

Source: https://www.sam-solutions.com/blog/quality-assurance-vs-qualitycontrol-the-difference-and-comparison/

According to consultancy SaM solutions, Quality Assurance and Quality Control are closely intertwined and their objective is also the same, which is to deliver a defect-free product. Both processes are therefore core components of any quality management plan and working together, enhance each other. Failing to implement either of them will lead to failure of quality management in the consultant’s project.

Quality Assurance is thus one of the prime growth areas in the Project Management space and one of the most rapidly progressing areas in software creation.

QA Activities: Planning, Auditing and Analysing Project Quality Quality Assurance activities are those tasks the quality team execute to review the quality requirements, audit the results of control measurements and analyse quality performance in order to make sure that correct and consistently highquality standards and procedures are appropriately applied within the project.

But what are the steps to help a QA team progress to achieving quality outcomes. Below is an excellent diagram that enables us to visualise the role and objective of the QA team: Figure 4: Quality Assurance staircase

Source: TMM1 Framework 1 cited at Zarantech.com

Provided below are the three key activities of Quality Assurance:

Develop a Quality Assurance Plan First steps first, any consultant should familiarise themselves with the QA processes and steps and work out how they apply to their specific task and environment. Collect the relevant project standard information and define compliance criteria such as how to make a Quality Assurance plan. The first Quality Assurance activity must include planning the overall process for assuring quality. Its purpose is to formulate a Quality Assurance plan template which is a highly efficient tool to assure quality in a project and identify/monitor problems and challenges that may arise during project execution. The quality team is required to utilise such a plan to do the rest of the Quality Assurance activities, such as Audit and Analysis.

The essential core steps in creating a Quality Assurance plan template are sequential and begin with setting up goals of project assurance as to why the project would need Quality Assurance. The next step would be to designate responsibilities to QA team members, then decide the hierarchy of management such as who will carry out the Quality Assurance activities. Recognise a set of measurements and metrics to be used to measure quality levels and performance which involves ALSO checking whether the project itself is performed under appropriate quality levels.

Reflective Exercise: In your private notebook. Imagine a major workbased project. It could be from your own work or an imagined or real external case study.

Design and devise a Quality Assurance plan for a major project of transformational change. Moreover, how would you – as lead consultant, reporting in to the Chief Operating Officer – ensure that your project was itself conforming to the highest standards of Project Management?

Further Reading:

ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems – Vocabulary. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/29280.html W. Edwards Deming (2012) The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. London: McGraw-Hill Education George, M. and Maxey, G (2004) The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed: A Quick Reference Guide to 70 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed.

London: McGraw-Hill Education

References:

ISO 8402: 1994 Quality Management and Quality Assurance – Vocabulary.

Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/20115.html. ISO 8402:1996 Quality Management and Quality Assurance, followed but is not accessible from ISO online: ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems – Vocabulary. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/29280.html Magenta Tyres (2020) Quality Management and Control: Premium Quality.

Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://magnatyres.com/quality-management-andcontrol/ Zarantech.com (2019) What is Quality Assurance in Project Management?

Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.zarantech.com/blog/quality-assuranceproject-management/ SaM Solutions (2020) Quality Control vs. Quality Assurance (Difference and Comparison). Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.samsolutions.com/blog/quality-assurance-vs-quality-control-the-difference-andcomparison/ Rumelt, R. (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. London: Profile Books

SECTION-3 KNOW HOW TO CONDUCT A CONSULTANCY INTERVENTION 3.1 Identify the resource implications for gathering different types of data/information and evaluate their contribution to the project Before we begin any project we require Information in order to design, shape, inform and review our activity. But what is ‘information’? When we consider information, we are ideally looking for business intelligence that is relevant, targeted and that can be used to inform follow-up action. Spending lots of time gathering (often unnecessary) data and information is not a good investment for a firm, and consultants’ caught doing this will be challenged by their clients or even by external media. Thus, when we talk about data and information within business and business projects, we are sometimes referring more specifically to ‘business intelligence’.

According to the website Intelligence101.com (2020) the difference between ‘information’ and ‘intelligence’ can be explained as the following: What's the difference between information and intelligence? Information is knowledge communicated about a particular fact or circumstance. Intelligence is all about finding out information, determining what it means – and then using it to take action!

Business intelligence Overview Usually companies and consultants are looking to sensibly and proportionately allocate their resources in order to achieve strategic objectives. In striving for their outcomes, against ferocious competition, they may ask for employees and business divisions to work to SMART objective; these being … specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Moreover, the discipline of management and project management is often implemented by the use of individual employee targets that are established as Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs), where specific individual and team targets and performance requests can be measured and recorded. Such methods generate information that is an intelligence product because it is targetable, actionable and relevant (Bingley: 2015).

Such methods are used by firms to drive forward activity, a sense of corporate interoperability, to reinforce quality controls and a sense of fairness. To explain the last point by way of an example: Everybody supposedly fits into one clear system of corporate rules. For example, with Key Performance Indicators, everybody from the CEO to the facilities officers subscribe to targets, development plans and corporate objectives that are accountable to the Executive Board. Furthermore, the delivery of overall key project deliverables and contributing milestones, all require data gathering techniques in order to support and evidence progress to project sponsors.

Data gathering and information research departments are thus nowadays expected to directly support and align to core business goals in any firm (Tecce: 2009). Moreover, this is to be done in a structured and coherent way. There is nowadays little tolerance for random ‘background briefings’ and snippets from in-house subject matter experts, which may have impressed and reassured Executive Boards in the past. Significant reputational loss, punitive legal penalties, market sanctions, and bottom-line cash loss, are the consequences that any business can expect if it stumbles haphazardly from gathering core information and data sets in a random and ill-disciplined manner (Bingley: 2015). For example, keeping poorly documented and poorly secured employee personal details, including ID and prior qualifications, can lead to huge fines and public shaming via the 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation.

Several influencing factors have therefore converged, at time of writing, which have established a global-market-wide desire for intelligence-led decisionmaking. The quantification of business management approaches, ICT convergence, the expansion of corporate litigation, and the efficiency squeeze ushered in by the latest international financial crisis, are all factors that have driven up demand by Executive Boards and Corporate Governance committees to insist that they become equipped for decision-making with timely, accurate and relevant information. The idea of an activity trap has been posed by crisis

management academic Geary Sikich and others who carried out isomorphic learning lessons on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, caused accidentally by an explosive blow-out of an oil platform owned by a subsidiary to the oil major, BP. Management academics noted that in some large firms, the overall commercial goal becomes eclipsed by an entrenched fulfilment to traditional process. Companies become automated and inflexible, unable to adapt to changing conditions within their operating environment. Poor ground intelligence has been identified as a contributor in many corporate disasters. But this is often not the case. It’s the inability of a big organisation to adapt fast enough to the new information or incoming ‘intelligence’ that is so often the problem (Sikich: 2013).

In response to such concerns, many firms and senior executives, now seek specific business intelligence reporting either in-house or contracted in by specialist research consultants. The Business Innovation Council has adopted “intelligence-led” business decision-making approaches, where a blend of “current, estimative and research” intelligence products are woven together to help inform executive decision-makers about strategy and courses of action to take, reports Computer Weekly magazine (Computer Weekly: 2019). Some CEOs report that their entire corporate agenda setting is intelligence-led because they could not possibly fix medium to long-term objectives without the most appropriate, up-to-date insights, which can help to facilitate the best possible decision-making cultures.

Where does Information/Data and Business Intelligence fit into the Risk Management process?

Figure 1: Risk Management Model:

Source: Striking Project Management: https://strikingprojectmanagement.com/qualitative-risk-analysis/

In contrast to merely utilising intelligence at the beginning of the risk management process (Identify & Analyse Exposures), business information/intelligence activity and reporting can play a critical role throughout the entire risk management process and its core five phases (see Figure 1).

Organisations will wish to stick to strategy and objectives. But those that are more adaptive - and are therefore able to avoid or mitigate emerging risks or exploit emerging opportunities – tend to be those that have embraced and embedded business intelligence techniques within their own organisational cultures. Just as people who carry out regular exercise and health checks tend to enjoy a better longevity, in the sphere of organisational performance and resilience, it’s precisely the same; active knowledge-gathering of upcoming problems, followed by exercise and adaptive techniques to evade the risk, are also core ingredients for corporate survival and prosperity. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored,” the Brave New World novelist Aldous Huxley poignantly wrote (Huxley: 2007 revised).

Integrity and compliance:

Gathering business intelligence is sometimes controversial because it often involves gathering information related to employees, stakeholders and competitors. The integrity of information, source protection and legal compliance are all critical responsibilities for a project team. Such skills and methods will help safeguard business intelligence functions, the project’s viability and also the client organisation’s overall reputation. If information is gathered or handled illegally, or source identities compromised, the consequences for a corporate body, or government organisation, can be severe.

In some sectors, such as Banking and Insurance, business intelligence functions are ubiquitous processes that underpin and influence almost every other sphere of work. Business intelligence functions can include financial risk monitoring, anti-fraud detection, due diligence around new depositors; these stricter due diligence measures are warmly welcomed by many consumers and stakeholders including the media and political decision-makers, especially since the 2007/8 banking crash, caused in part by too much bad debt poisoning the wells of the banking sector (Bingley: 2015).

Each organisation is different, with a unique culture, mix of employees and a unique combination of incoming events which undoubtedly impact it (Lipkin and Perrymore: 2012). Therefore, it may well be that many organisations establish their own ways to read, anticipate and map-out their own operating environments. Management tools which help us to draw a map of our business environment are as critically important to the lives of private firms as navigation charts are to the survival of sailors. It is therefore worth familiarising ourselves with some widely familiar business-environment analysis models. Essentially, these are information gathering models to follow. If deployed correctly, these management tools can hugely assist consultants and project managers to harness control of resources and target operations to optimum effect.

Three business information management models: PESTLE, PORTER’s and SWOT:

A widely favoured business tool is for business researchers and analysts to work to the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) model to evaluate important external and internal forces that can impact and organisation. On the positive side PESTLE can provide structured information that can then be exploited by a firm, because it has a coherent list of forces at work in its own operating environment. PESTLE, and other variations to this famous mnemonic out there, really does help business planners to dig under the skin of an operating environment. PESTLE challenges organisational autopilot and collective comfort zones. Like all of these business analysis tools that we’re looking at in this Chapter, PESTLE provides for a crucial episode of corporate reflective learning. This management tool also nurtures a sense of belonging, and corporate purpose, to all executives who play their part in devising the PESTLE. Figure 2: PESTLE Model

Source: Polemic Digital: https://www.polemicdigital.com/pestle-strategic-visionfuture-seo/

Reflective Exercise: In your private notebook. Imagine your own workplace or an external firm. Going through the PESTLE, list-out the significant threats and challenges to your business over the next five years. How will these impact any major projects led by external consultants?

Professor Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model helps firms to summarise the five competitive forces that provide a risk or opportunities for them within an industrial sector (12). These can literally be identified and listed under the following categories, Porter suggests: 1) Threat of new entrants 2) Threat of substitute products or services 3) Bargaining power of buyers 4) Bargaining power of suppliers 5) Competitive rivalry between firms Figure 3: Porter’s Five Forces Model:

Source: Strategic Management Insight: https://strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/porters-five-forces.html However, it might be that a firm choses to look more internally at the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT): the team, product and brand that it has at its disposal to take on the world. SWOT analysis, credited to

management academic Albert Humphrey, has been a very popular management tool deployed for several decades (Bingley: 2015). This model enables teams and firms to articulate and address some weaker points in a positive and transformational manner … rather than allocating individual blame to individuals or departments. This is because SWOT analysis tends to be collectivist and can be concluded by focusing on the more positive organisational elements (strengths and opportunities) towards the end of the exercise. This modus operandi should leave the team forum satisfied and reassured, if not entirely exhilarated.

Figure 4: SWOT Analysis Model:

Source: Modlhub: http://modlhub.com/decision-making-and-planning/swotanalysis-template Summary The three information gathering/management models above can all be considered effective and well-known corporate business tools to provide and

intelligence-led decision making. If you get five or ten minutes to address a CSuite (senior executive board) officer, give consideration to deploying some or all of these in a presentable and engaging manner to your target audience. One key benefit is that information laid out in this format in a presentation is optically very strong for the audience/recipient.

Reflective Exercise: In your private notebook. Hopefully, as you have read through the course content and further reading materials below, you will have noticed that significant resource implications arise from gathering accurate, relevant and actionable information (business intelligence).

Perhaps the first resource implication is providing the right Human Resources in order to find and refine the wider information/data sets into actionable business intelligence. Spend at least two hours identifying and explaining some other resource implications for data gathering within an international company. You can choose either a global bank based in London, or an international hotel chain based in Qatar, for your scenario.

Further Reading: Hair, J. (2015) Essentials of Business Research Methods. US: ME Sharpe Sikich, G., (2013) Enterprise Risk Management Lessons From the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Accessed at ‘Continuity Central’ on 20/1/2020 at: http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0790.html Hasan, R. (2013) Apple Inc. An Analysis of PESTEL Analysis. US: Grin Verlag

References:

Intelligence101.com (2020) definition was accessed on 20/1/2020 at: http://www.intelligence101.com/information-vs-intelligence/ Bingley. R., (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: ITGP

Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press Op. Cit. Bingley (2015) Sikich, G., (2013) Enterprise Risk Management Lessons From the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Accessed at ‘Continuity Central’ on 20/1/2020 at: http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0790.html Computer Weekly (2019) Many companies fail to empower employee datadriven decision-making. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252472588/Many-companies-fail-toempower-employee-data-driven-decision-making Huxley, A., (2007) Brave New World (Revised Ed.). London: Vintage Classics Op. Cit. Bingley (2015) Lipkin, N, and Perrymore, A., (2009) Y in the Workplace: Managing the ‘Me First’ Generation. Franklin Lakes, US: Career Press Op. Cit. Bingley (2015)

3.2 Select a range of data analysis tools/models and evaluate the contribution to the success of an intervention project in using a range of tools/models Data analysis is the process of working on data with the purpose of arranging it correctly, explaining it, making it presentable, and finding a conclusion from that data. As we learned in 3.1, data analysis is conducted for finding useful information from data to make rational decisions. During 3.1, we introduced to some core overarching management of information concepts, such as PESTLE and SWOT. In this section, we will provide an overview of the operations of data analytics; the gathering, synthesising, interpreting and presenting of key data sets.

As it is done for decision making, it is important to understand the sole purpose of data analysis. To re-emphasise . . . the main purpose of data analysis is interpretation, evaluation & organisation of data and to make the data presentable (Foreman: 2013).

There are two methods of data analysis: 1. Qualitative Analysis – underlying meanings, motivations, interpretations 2. Quantitative Analysis – statistics, probabilities and trends. Potentially predictive.

Qualitative Analysis: Qualitative Analysis is done through interviews, openended surveys and observations.

Quantitative Analysis: Quantitative Analysis is done through surveys, statistical analysis and experiments.

The Data Analytics Process includes: 1. Data Collection 2. Working on and honing data quality 3. Building the model

4. Training the model 5. Running the model with full data (SoftwareTestingHelp.com: 2019).

Some tips to analyse the data are: •

Remove unnecessary data before the analysis.

•

Separate data sets. Keep core data with integrity. (I.e., that it is not corruptible.) You should not perform the analysis on a master copy of data (Hurley: 2019) (SoftwareTestingHelp.com; 2019).

Key concepts within the field of Data Analysis Data analysis is done with the purpose of finding answers to specific questions.

Data analytics techniques are similar to business analytics and business intelligence.

Data Mining is about finding the different patterns in data. For this, various mathematical and computational algorithms are applied to data and new data will get generated.

Data Modelling is about how companies organise or manage the data. Here, various methodologies and techniques are applied to data. Data analysis is required for data modelling (SoftwareTestingHelp.com: 2019) Modern companies that harness technology and wide-scale use of data analytics can enjoy enormous returns on investment. However, without robust and insightful data management approaches with projects and firms, employees can often become overwhelmed by “information overload” (Pijpers: 2010). Achieving strict, structured management approaches around information gathering, refining and storage has now become a critical operational task for all businesses.

Five Popular Business Analytic Tools In this section, we will take a look at five popular business data analysis software tools in brief detail along. (There are so many out there and we recommend that you search ‘data analytics tools’ and spend a couple of hours familiarising yourselves with the options.)

1. Zoho Analytics Is a self-service Business Information (BI) and analytics platform. It allows users to create insightful dashboards and visually analyse any data. It features an AIpowered assistant that allows users to ask questions and get intelligent answers in the form of meaningful reports.

Features: •

100+ readymade connectors for popular business apps, cloud drives, and databases.

•

Wide variety of visualisation options in the form of Charts, Pivot tables, Summary views, KPI widgets, and Custom themed dashboards.

•

Unified business analytics that analyses data from across business apps.

•

Augmented analytics using an AI and ML-powered intelligent assistant that can understand queries asked in natural language.

•

White label solutions for embedded analytics and BI/analytics portals.

Best Features: Intelligent assistant, unified business analytics, white-label / embedded BI, 100+ connectors with pre-built reports and dashboards.

Verdict: The tool provides smart data alerts and forecasting. It makes use of AI, ML and NLP technologies.

Website: https://www.zoho.com/analytics/

2. Tableau Public

Tableau Public will help you to create charts, graphs, applications, dashboards, and maps. It allows you to share and publish all your creations. It can be used on Windows and Mac operating systems.

It provides solutions for desktop and server and has an online solution too.

Tableau Online will allow you to connect with any data, from anywhere. Tableau Public provides six products, which include Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online, Tableau Prep, Tableau Public, and Tableau Reader.

Features: •

It provides automatic phone and tablet layouts.

•

It enables you to customise these layouts.

•

You can create transparent filters, parameters, and highlighters.

•

You can see the preview of the dashboard zones.

•

It allows you to join datasets, based on location.

•

With the help of Tableau Online, you can connect with cloud databases, Amazon Redshift, and Google BigQuery.

•

Tableau Prep provides features like immediate results, which will allow you to directly select and edit the values.

Verdict: Tableau Public provides many solutions with different features for each solution. The system is easy to use. This tool can be used by an organisation of any size.

Website; https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/

3. RapidMiner RapidMiner is a software platform for data preparation, machine learning, deep learning, text mining, and predictive model deployment. It provides all data prep capabilities.

The tool will help data scientists and analysts in improving their productivity through automated machine learning. You will not have to write the code, to do the data analysis with the help of RapidMiner Radoop.

Features: •

Built-in security controls.

•

Radoop eliminates the need to write the code.

•

It has a visual workflow designer for Hadoop and Sparx

•

Radoop enables you to use large datasets for training in Hadoop.

•

Centralised workflow management. Great for project Managers.

•

It provides support for Kerberos, Hadoop impersonation, and sentry/ranger.

•

It groups the requests and reuses Spark containers for smart optimisation of processes.

•

Team Collaboration.

Verdict: Tool is easy to use. It provides a powerful GUI – Graphical User Interface (screen). Even beginners can use this tool.

No coding skills are required. Great tool for machine learning. RapidMiner provides five products for data analysis, RapidMiner Studio, RapidMiner Auto Model, RapidMiner Turbo Prep, RapidMiner Server, and RapidMiner Radoop.

Website: https://rapidminer.com/

4. OpenRefine OpenRefine is a free and open-source data analysis software.

Even if your data is in a mess, OpenRefine will help you to clean, transform, and extend it. This tool will help you to transform data from one form to another. It will also help you to extend the data using web services and external data. At the time of writing, it is available in fourteen languages.

Features:

•

You will be able to work with large data sets easily.

•

It allows you to link and extend the data using web services.

•

For some services, you can upload the data to a central database through OpenRefine.

•

You can clean and transform the data.

•

It allows you to import CSV, TSV, XML, RDF, JSON, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Fusion Tables.

•

You can export the data in TSV, CSV, HTML table, and Microsoft Excel.

Verdict: This desktop application can be used by small, medium, and large companies. It allows you to select multiple rows using filters and apply commands. It supports many file formats for import and export. At the time of writing, you can open a functioning account for free.

Website: http://openrefine.org/

5. Google Fusion Tables It is a web application that will help you to gather, visualise, and share the information in data tables. It can work with large data sets. You can filter the data from thousands of rows. You can visualise the data through charts, maps, and network graphs.

Features: •

Automatically saves the data to Google Drive.

•

You can search and view public fusion tables.

•

Data tables can be uploaded from spreadsheets, CSV, and KML.

•

Using Fusion Tables API, you can insert, update, and delete the data programmatically as well.

•

Data can be exported in CSV or KML file formats.

•

It allows you to publish your data and the published data will always show the real-time data values.

•

You can merge two tables. This feature will allow you to merge other people’s data.

•

Even after merging, if the data of one table is updated then you will see this updated data in the merged table. Location tables can be converted into maps.

Verdict: As it is a free web-based application, it can be accessed through a browser on any system. With fusion tables, you can work with large data sets. It allows to merge table of the other people with yours, but at the same time, it also provides privacy options. You can easily share the data through links.

Reflective Exercise

In your private notebooks. Pijpers cites “information overload” as being a significant risk for employees and project managers. Imagine that you are data management director for a multinational insurance firm specialising in military vehicles. You are tasked to run a project team that looks at the risk facing your clients who exist in almost every country. What data sources and data analytics tools would you choose to assist with this project and why?

Further Reading:

Foreman, J. (2013) Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight. London: Wiley Hurley, R. (2019) Predictive Analytics: The Secret to Predicting Future Events Using Big Data and Data Science Techniques Such as Data Mining, Predictive Modelling, Statistics, Data Analysis, and Machine Learning. Amazon Media (Kindle) Pijpers, G. (2010) Information Overload: a system for better managing everyday data. London: Wiley

References: Foreman, J. (2013) Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight. London: Wiley SoftwareTestingHelp.com (2019) 10 Best Data Analysis Tools For Perfect Data Management. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/data-analysis-tools/ Ibid.

Ibid.

Hurley, R. (2019) Predictive Analytics: The Secret to Predicting Future Events Using Big Data and Data Science Techniques Such as Data Mining, Predictive Modelling, Statistics, Data Analysis, and Machine Learning. Amazon Media (Kindle) Pijpers, G. (2010) Information Overload: a system for better managing everyday data. London: Wiley

3.3 Explain how to develop a cohesive set of conclusions/findings

Why do organisations gather data/information and intelligence?

Before we move forward to consider how to develop a coherent and useful data analysis/research findings (business intelligence), let’s pause at this section of the module and ask ourselves: why are we gathering the data? Because, the answer to this question will determine how a consultant/researcher should approach their task. What information types do they require? What are the likely sources? What tools and infrastructure will be needed? Where will activities and findings be safely stored? Typically, firms and organisations go about researching and gathering data in order to: •

To achieve competitive advantage

•

Better information can help target scare resources and/or reduce duplication

•

To achieve prior warning around a major incident which could save lives, prevent injuries or huge financial losses

•

Identify threats and exposure to risks

•

To detect and prosecute criminal activity

•

Acquire sensitive knowledge to ‘control’ the subject or situation, typically, with important negotiations in mind (Bingley: 2015)

All of these reasons boil down to one single overall aim for gathering intelligence: to reduce uncertainty.

Case Study: How is the intelligence cycle organised?

Like most conceptual applications in the security sphere, there is no single, authoritative conceptual model that can be said to illustrate the end-to-end development of an intelligence product. Given the kinetic nature of security management scenarios, and vastly differing operational conditions from task to task, there simply cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. But the CIA model

outlined below does draw for us a convenient and plausible intelligence model that is often emulated by other organisations: Figure1: The ‘Action-on’ CIA Intelligence Cycle Model:

Source: Goodman and Omand (2009): https://www.cia.gov/library/center-forthe-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-52-no4/teaching-intelligence-analysts-in-the-uk.html

For any organisation, public or private sector, business intelligence cycles tend to include at least four core components:

Direction: The beginning of the process. The client informs the Intelligence Manager what they need or wish to know. A recurring challenge is ‘information void’, whereby decision-makers often do not know enough about what they need to know, in order to give clear direction in the first instance. This is because they begin the task with a negligible amount of useful existing intelligence. This stage can also be used to issue feedback and change tactical direction in response to prior intelligence shortcomings.

Collection: Raw data and information is collected from a variety of sources which may help intelligence analysts at the next stage of the cycle. Sources could be: Geospatial (GEOINT), Human (HUMINT), Imagery (IMINT), Intercepted Digital Communications (SIGINT), Measurement and Signature (MASINT), Open Source (OSINT). For business, marketing analytics and search engine optimisation analytics will be critical insights to develop and grow the business.

Processing/Elucidating/Analysing: The human analysis and assessment of available information, collated, synthesised and processed into timely, relevant and accurate intelligence. Successful assessment and interpretation of data by intelligence analysts is akin to correctly piecing together available jigsaw pieces, within a given timeframe, to establish the most accurate situational picture possible for the client.

Dissemination: The process of moving and communicating the actionable intelligence reports to the client and/or any given end-user. This must happen in a secure manner which will not compromise any of the three prior phases of the intelligence cycle. For example, a detailed report about a competitor’s successful product launch, should only be circulated to a specified audience. In some environments, including IT and Banking, it is appropriate to classify information as confidential or not-so, in order for specified audiences to receive the information. IT might also set access controls, in which certain team and individuals have access to key server areas or shared drives.

Information Hierarchy: Of course, production of any relevant information and appropriate knowledge sharing can be very useful to business and Government decision-makers within any commercial or regulatory operating environment. But merely gathering useful information, or employing company researchers to do so, still potentially falls far short of the specific benefits that a disciplined Business Intelligence processes can usher in. Business Intelligence is the impartial pursuit of insightful and highly refined information that will reduce operational uncertainty for organisations. For example, reports from daily newspapers may well tell us that

hackers were attacking IT networks run by commercial banks. This will, indeed, be very useful for a security manager in Manhattan, New York. But they might not be able to action this information other than to issue a general warning to staff, perhaps to urge them to be more vigilant and report anything suspicious.

Yet more specific and insightful knowledge, such as prior methods, trends and timings, the most popular targets, the scale of expertise and research used by perpetrators, or if there was a suspected underlying reason why some banks or staff networks were prioritised as a target, could all be fairly construed as snippets of actionable business intelligence.

As such, business intelligence is considered by many to sit at the apex of knowledge management models, and is often referred to ‘insight’ or ‘wisdom’, as we see below: Figure 2: Knowledge Hierarchy Pyramid

Source: CERT Guidance into the DIKW knowledge hierarchy model, accessed at: https://www.certguidance.com/explaining-dikw-hierarchy/

Reflective Exercise 1:

In your private notebook. See the Knowledge Hierarchy above. Now consider a project that involves researching data gathered about a competitor’s successful new car model launch. Explain in more detail how your team would move through the stages of business intelligence research (see Figure 1 Intelligence Cycle) in order to produce some Courses of Action (CoA) that you recommend to your Executive Board.

(CoAs should be based on advanced, insightful, refined information that would be considered ‘Wisdom’ within Figure 2.)

Knowledge Hierarchy explained: Data: Raw information gathered or received from a third party which has not been analysed or subject to any form of processing.

Information: This could be data has been sifted or subject to a basic to moderate degree of processing such as translation, cross-referencing, formatting, comparative analysis and double-checking.

Knowledge: Supporting information, or pre-existing understanding and comprehension, which is required to help assess, evaluate, organise and process incoming data and information into actionable intelligence.

Intelligence Outcomes: We have seen that intelligence products are principally designed to provide critical insights into defined ‘subjects’ or target areas. Demands for intelligence can often come in the form of Priority Information Requests (PIRs) or slightly less urgent Information Requests.

As we have established, intelligence is information which is refined, assessed and disseminated usually with the intention to trigger or assist certain action by the client/end-user. Conversely, intelligence can also be used to keep a watching brief on potential adversaries, or monitor certain threats and risks in order to confirm NFA. Intelligence gathering therefore helps to provide context and

clarity to our decision-making. It can help to clear a logical pathway through an operating environment riddled with uncertainty; a domain that the great Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously described as the “fog of war’ (von Clausewitz revised: 1993). Forms of intelligence products can include: •

Identify incumbent organisational and personnel weaknesses and Courses of Action (COA)

•

Identifying risks to employees and the organisation through Threat Assessments

•

Target/Competitor Group Profiling (TGP) and Monitoring

•

Issuing Early Warning to decision-makers.

We have shown that providing such information to decision-makers must be evidence-led and fulfil certain criteria to refine its raw elements. Also significant is the manner in which critical information is presented. If key information is not presented in a convincing and persuasive manner, then all of the hard work that went in to the research will be lost within the commercial ‘fog of war’. What’s more, a consultant conducting a poor presentation, or who appears poorly briefed when asked a question, will struggle to find that they have future work promises fulfilled. In presenting information findings, ensure that it runs in a coherent manner in alignment with the stated company strategy (Rumelt: 2012).

Reflective Exercise 2:

Take some time to read Michele Kiss’s (2018) article – 10 Tips for presenting data at the following URL: https://resources.observepoint.com/blog/10-tips-for-presenting-data In your own private notebook, consider and reflect upon your own skills.

How effective are you at presenting in each of the ten ways that communications expert Michelle Kiss advocates?

Further Reading:

CERT Guidance (2019) DIKW Model: Explaining the DIKW Pyramid or DIKW Hierarchy. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.certguidance.com/explaining-dikw-hierarchy/ Rumelt, R. (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. London: Profile Books

References:

Bingley, R. (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press Goodman and Omand (2009): Teaching Intelligence Analysts in the UK. CSI Publications (Vol. 52 No. 4) accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csipublications/csi-studies/studies/vol-52-no-4/teaching-intelligence-analysts-inthe-uk.html CERT Guidance (2019) DIKW Model: Explaining the DIKW Pyramid or DIKW Hierarchy. Accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://www.certguidance.com/explaining-dikw-hierarchy/ Von Clausevitz, C. (1993) On War. London: David Campbell Publishers Rumelt, R. (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. London: Profile Books Kiss, M. (2018) Ten Tips for Presenting Data: accessed on 19/1/2020 at: https://resources.observepoint.com/blog/10-tips-for-presenting-data

3.4 Describe the process of developing recommendations from the analysis Being able to collect the right data is one thing but making it extremely useful to the business or project requires a different skill- and mindset. Data research and analytics is often perceived as complicated and suited to more isolated individuals within the business; therefore, achieving buy-in behind data and research findings has always been a significant challenge to external consultants. One additional factor is that internal and external stakeholders might view the consultant to be inherently biased in favour of findings that support a justification for future work (Maister: 2002)! Taking into consideration the work of several academic experts within the field of consultancy and change management, we therefore provide a synopsis of eight dimensions that overlap to enhance the process of turning raw data into analytics and then actionable recommendations (Kotter: 2012) (Maister: 2002):

1. Smart Recruitment Tools can collect data, but people - who understand the business - build insights.

Smart people are required to find the useful data, translate it into data-driven stories of useful knowledge - the insights. It's a team effort where combining internal business experts with external analysts might be your best bet.

2. Ask stakeholders Go the extra mile to answer all of your stakeholders’ questions. This means tapping into the stakeholders’ aspirations and challenges by asking the right questions. Remember, if things go wrong, or not to planned, these are the significant people who might step in to save you and your team.

3. Measuring the correct variables

It's a must to formulate a clear business question before you start your next data analysis. You can easily waste hours of your time by getting lost in your data. And coming up with "insights" that are already known or not deemed important can be highly frustrating as well! You can't manage what you can’t measure (Drucker: 2001). Don’t overly worry about other company approaches.

Every business is different and has its own unique research demands. Don’t fit the research outcomes, and the actions that the evidence suggests, to suit wider market wisdoms; because often the supposed experts have been proved to be wrong, or too slow to identify transformative events (Bingley: 2015).

Let's assume you run an ecommerce site. In this case you probably want to know: •

Which channels drive the most conversions?

•

What are your leaking buckets? (places where people leave your website)

•

Whether people use multiple devices before purchasing your products?

•

What are the look-to-buy ratios for your individual products and product categories?

•

What landing pages need to be improved and in which channel?

You need to think in advance about what is important for your business. It all starts with a clear measurement plan for your project/business and a good set of KPIs for the team/project members.

4. Segmentation Segment from the outset. By grouping visitors that have some attributes in common, you can start digging deeper. Choosing which segments to study depends on the business question you are trying to answer. Identifying segments will greatly enhance your understanding of how your customers behave. You can use this information for setting up an optimisation plan. Digital analytics tools like Google Analytics come with a lot of inbuilt segments and provide you with all the freedom to customize them to your needs.

Figure 1: Google Analytics Example:

Source: Monster Insights accessed at: https://www.monsterinsights.com/howto-create-google-analytics-advanced-segments/

5. Present well and make it visual The way in which you present your data will make a huge difference in the outcome. Do you remember these presentations that only include numbers and words? Think back for a moment to your best ever classroom teacher? How did they engage you and inspire you to remember their content? Presenting data analytics is no different. Rehearse and play around with your data sets. Try to disprove your findings and ask yourself uncomfortable questions beforehand.

Anticipate what the experts and intelligent executives in the room might ask?

What might they try to trip you up on? It's important to verbalise your data set and story with as much what, how and why behind it. This will turn your data into insights and profitable business decisions.

6. Understand existing biases within data Don’t build your findings upon poor statistical foundations. There are lies, damn lies and statistics! Think back to the last anonymous survey that you completed.

How accurate were you in your answers? Everyone has got data and their own personal data driven insight (opinion). In most cases superior understanding of

context leads to the best research, which in turn can inform the best possible decision-making.

Make sure to establish context for the data you are seeing. What do these numbers mean? Are they important? Does it really affect the business? And how is the data collected?

7. Build an optimisation plan Consider using the Sigma Six ‘Define Measure Analyse Improve Control’ process (DMAIC) to improve your business. It's one of the Six Sigma concepts you can directly apply in your situation.

In sum: •

Define the problem or hypothesis, stakeholders and scope of analysis.

•

Measure relevant data and conduct basic analysis to spot anomalies.

•

Analyse correlations and patterns, put your statistics and visualisation skills to work.

•

Improvement based on insights and showing several options to explore.

•

Control the change by deploying Quality Control tests and monitoring KPIs.

Figure 2: DMAIC Model visualised:

Source: GoleanSixSigma.com: https://goleansixsigma.com/dmaic-five-basicphases-of-lean-six-sigma/ 8. Cross-organisation involvement and research All persons within a business community or division will have vital data: knowledge, opinions and networks. A healthy pan-organisational approach is the foundation of enhanced outcomes. Inspire, motivate and be curious about the data and the possibilities it has for your organisation and consultancy role. Treat any obstacles first and improve the communication between the business and analytics leaders (Tecce: 2009).

Reflective Exercise: In your private notebook. Read the following article – How to create Google Analytics advanced segments – step-by-step by Lindsay Liedke (2019): https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-create-google-analytics-advancedsegments/

Devise an advanced segmented Google Analytics plan to turn raw information from a large, busy car showroom that sells vehicles including ten car makes and small to medium sized vans. The business is a stand-alone, one-site business, in a major city. But the business is looking to expand to a neighbouring city, then perhaps another, next year.

Once the company has expanded into three cities, do you feel the Google Analytics tool is suitable for this project

Further Reading:

Meredith Belbin, R. (2010) Team Roles at Work. London: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition Maister, D., (2002) The Trusted Advisor. London: Simon & Schuster Drucker, P. (2001) Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: Harper Business

References:

Maister, D., (2002) The Trusted Advisor. London: Simon & Schuster Kotter, J. (2012) Leading Change. Cambridge USA, Harvard Business Review Press; 1R edition Drucker, P. (2001) Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: Harper Business Bingley, R. (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press

Tecce, D. (2009) Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press Lindsay Liedke (2019) How to create Google Analytics advanced segments – step-by-step, accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-create-google-analytics-advancedsegments/