Recently we have been working with our valued partners, WNS Global Services to bring you a series of webinars on how to successfully pause, protect and restart key projects.
In our first session we covered the different factors that should be considered at each of these phases and the 6 critical factors for success.
Planning and Governance: It is fundamental to have a very strict planning phase and Governance in place. This is all about providing directional leadership and a proper governance structure. Remember that a “paused” project will restart in the short to medium term, therefore record the decision formally with the appropriate governance bodies. Bring all documentation up to date, (particularly the project plan, status reports, RAID logs, RACI matrix, Collate all documents) and perform a “lessons learned” analysis, to feed in to your project or governance framework.
Some of these actions may seem irrelevant for a project that is being paused, but it is often the case that projects resurface in a different manner and it can be useful to have historic project information available.
Change and Communication: This is all about communication and management of change. Provide reassurance to the team but also be honest. None of us have a crystal ball to define the future but we must try to keep teams motivated and, as leaders, we have the responsibility to explain the potential changes and focus of the projects.
Changes to Business As Usual: In this moment of pause, teams need to optimise their implications in the operations with the objective to arrive to BAU. We have people doing their current operations, working extra time, providing support during this exceptional times and this will need to stabilise soon.
Finance and Funding: Review the existing budget, cash and investments and make sure you have funds available for the restart of the project .
Contractual and commercial: Re-negotiate with some of your external partners/vendors may be needed (for example key T&C’s such as payment terms, scope of the engagement, timelines, etc). You must Re-set expectations early to ensure a successful restart
Technology and infrastructure: please think about changes in technology and infrastructure which will be key for the restart of the project. We have been hearing the word digital for such a long time however must of our clients were not ready to embrace this. Now it becomes a critical success factor.
Our next webinar on wednesday will focus strongly on change and communication, so be sure to sign up if this is of interest.
