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5 best practice tips for successful project mobilisationA guide for professional services organisations

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How can this guide help me?

What is mobilisation?This phrase formally describes the process of allocating resources – usually people – to your project, and completing an effective kick-off process. Get it right and you can quickly build the momentum required to reach the end goal – a motivated and profitable project team.

What are the challenges?The key challenge involved in mobilisation is rallying the right resources to start work at the right time. During this critical phase, it is all too easy to rush ahead into projects without checking that you have the right team in place. Lack of procedure and disjointed systems can also mean that valuable information – such as handover documents and pre-gained knowledge – can easily be lost in translation. Over the course of the project, any number of ‘real world’ challenges can easily throw your project off-course and affect your utilisation number.

So how can best practices help? Let’s move to our first tip.

Best Practice 1: Build one source of handover informationDuring mobilisation, there’s so much to be done that gathering all the necessary information from different parts of the business can be an extra hassle. This creates a problem for the

project manager. The risk is having critical information held in silos meaning project teams start work without the full picture.

What can I do about it?Today’s business systems can bring together all these sources of information and make it easily accessible to the project team. Once you have defined the process that works for your business and the individual project elements, creating a central source not only provides a single view of your project information but also supports the process, ensuring nothing is missed.

What’s the impact?Each time documents are amended or created, the latest information is available to all, together with details of knowledge gained on previous projects, key stakeholders and any risk elements captured in the bid process (see guide 1). At handover, project managers can focus and prioritise straight away, without chasing sales for information or re-requesting details from the client.

• Project teams go to site fully informed

• No chasing of handover documents

• Creates a solid process, nothing is missed

• No need to re-request client information.

One £28m turnover software company attributes the recent success of project delivery to a watertight, integrated handover process. It pulls data from the CRM system, automatically creating SOWs and avoiding the duplicated effort and errors associated with re-keying. Through this simple and insightful process, reporting is quick and managing the backlog is much easier than before.

Best Practice 2: Balance the right resources against available resourcesThe allocation of resources to a project plan is one of the most difficult in the whole process. How do you know that you are mobilising quickly enough, that the right people are available, and that sufficient controls are in place to re-deploy resources when real world challenges get in the way?

For example, you may have identified that project X requires 5 days effort from a project manager, 15 days from a consultant and 10 days from a designer. Now consider: do you have people with those skills? What is their availability? Do you have the budget to allocate third party resources? What signoff procedures do you need to agree the work?

An over-reliance on Excel spreadsheets, manual planners and anecdotal evidence can make the process doubly difficult. Client expectations can also cloud your thinking, putting pressure on project managers to deliver the ‘A’ team when in fact your ‘B’ team is more than capable of doing a great job!

What can I do about it?One simple yet highly effective tool can handle this particular task. A graphical scheduler can link up to your back office project and finance data to provide a ‘bird’s eye view’ of all your project activity. This is the real power behind the mobilisation process.

What’s the impact?While it looks simple, it serves many purposes. At the top level, a scheduling tool provides a visual work plan that allows project managers to see, at-a-glance, which projects are on-going, complete and in progress. Information about the client,

In the last paper, we shared with you our proven method for reducing risk within the opening stage of the project lifecycle. This follow-on guide builds on these initial ideas to describe the ways that you can improve the mobilisation of your programme or project. This is an approach that we’ve used to mobilise thousands of projects at organisations across the UK.

About ‘Best Practices’What do we mean by Best Practice? Effectively, it is the ability to embed robust tools and processes into your business. The tips covered

here are the end result of over 20 years’ consultancy and project implementations into professional services businesses like yours. Whether you’re a creative agency or telecommunications provider, architect, publisher – in fact, any business where time is money – you will find something of use here.

Who’s it for?This guide will be useful for anyone responsible for managing teams of professional services resource, including project heads, professional services/operations directors and project managers, as well as finance professionals.

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Case study – Plowman Cravenresources used, cost and profitability, should all be easily accessible. By showing activity graphically for the days, weeks and months ahead, project managers can quickly identify opportunities, white space and take action on under-billing.

Match skills to needsFor the allocation itself, a matrix-style grid can show all the people available to work on a specific project, at a specific time. This can take account of any holidays, bookings and other activity. The skill sets of each resource can be matched to project needs, taking the information out of a few peoples’ heads and putting it into a central point that can be quickly understood by project co-ordinators. A good system will also reveal any mismatches between scheduled projects and skills, putting the project manager firmly in the driving seat.

Reduce rekeyingQuality information is key to the success of any scheduling tool. Yet inefficient processes can compromise speed, accuracy and overall usefulness. Timesheets for example: in many companies we visited, this is still a manual process involving rekeying from Excel or paper copies.

In order for a scheduler to work effectively, it must synchronise with information entered into other areas of the business system. This way, the project manager can simply go to the scheduler at the end of the week, click on any completed projects and pre-populate the finance system – safe in the knowledge that this figure represents all the costs incurred.

Having access to skilled and specialist resource is critical for this leading chartered surveyor. Operating worldwide, it needs to know that it can deliver the right people at the right time, no matter how large or complex the project. With its Access solution, it can do just that.

The challengeThe company was using MS Project for project management, spreadsheets for resourcing and a bespoke system for timesheets. Lack of integration between the three different systems made it difficult to plan resources effectively; errors could creep in, affecting reporting and performance. In addition, managing three different software vendors made it difficult to keep the system up-to-date.

What we didAccess FocalPoint was the ideal solution for Plowman Craven. A web-based project portal featuring a range of professional project management modules, it allows non-finance professionals to submit and interact with finance data. Fully integrated, it would put an end to rekeying issues and provide the company with the real-time information it was looking for.

Dynamic informationInstantly, reports are more accurate as David Norris, technical director, describes. “Before, we would have to wait 24 hours for management

information; now information is updated dynamically. This gives us a better indication of our upcoming workload.”

Clarity of resourcesManaging projects is also easier. David continues, “Using Resource Scheduler, we can plan our resources much more effectively than when we were using spreadsheets. Our project teams have their own global resource pool, but we share resources across the business. We now have global visibility.”

Timesheet efficiencyThe process of inputting timesheets is now much faster. “Timesheets are now pre-populated with project, sickness or leave information that’s pulled from the Resource Scheduler. This information is more accurate compared to before when staff were entering timesheets based on their recollection from the previous week.”

ConclusionBy implementing FocalPoint, Plowman Craven has simultaneously reduced rekeying, improved its pipeline analysis and resourcing and – by choosing one software vendor for the complete solution – saved money. “We’ve reduced costs because we’re working with one supplier. If we want to upgrade the system, we can do it very simply with Access,” concludes David.

“We can now plan our resources much more effectively than when we were using spreadsheets. Our project teams have their own global resource pool, but we share resources across the business. We now have global visibility.”David Norris, Plowman Craven

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Key benefits• Take on fixed fee projects with

confidence

• Be proactive, not reactive to changing needs

• Assign competencies on fact, not hearsay

• Simplify the allocation process

• Reduce rekeying and errors.

Since implementing a new skills matrix for resource allocation, a £13.5m turnover training provider has seen a 15% increase in customer satisfaction relating to project delivery. The whole process now requires less manual intervention, since it’s very easy to match the right person to the right job and the projects team is running more efficiently than ever.

Best Practice 3: Track the cost to completeThe day-to-day roundabout of client meetings can often mean that stat-based project reviews get overlooked. As client demands change, the picture becomes ever-complex, especially with many projects to manage and deadlines to meet. Extra costs creep in unnoticed which is problematic for all involved once the final costs are totted up – and the gross profit contribution is down.

To run successful, profitable projects, you need to know exactly where you stand against budget and be able to anticipate the effort required to complete. In many businesses, department heads simply don’t have an easy way of accessing this information.

What can I do about it?We’ve learned that project managers find it very useful to see budget in terms of days. The ‘cost to complete’ figure can be established by capturing cost budgets electronically, allowing you to build a baseline that you can schedule against.

What’s the impact?As requirements change, additional resources can be added as required (see point 4) and budgets and forecasts updated automatically. Alerts can also advise department

heads when profit is at risk. This allows them to quickly prioritise projects that are in danger of exceeding budget – without the effort of time-consuming calculations.

Key benefits• Quick, easy access to KPIs

• Take action before profit is impacted

• Understand cost to complete in meaningful terms.

Best Practice 4: Standardise your change control processThis is closely related to the point above. Any variations to the spec, whether internal or client-driven, can quickly affect your overall margin.

What can I do about it?The ability to monitor on-going forecasted effort against your baseline will give you the information needed to spot potential issues before they arise.

What’s the impact?Having a consistent process for managing change complements the process. A centralised business system should be the focal point for variations – whether it’s a large-scale build or creative project. Inbuilt sign-off workflows eliminate any grey areas, giving stakeholders full visibility of budgets when granting change requests. This way, project teams don’t start work until it’s been fully authorised – protecting your budget, productivity and morale.

Key benefits• Full visibility of change requests

• Changes properly reviewed prior to go-live

• Client fully aware of costs to be recharged

• No nasty surprises at final billing!

Best Practice 5: Monitor tangible utilisation targetsAs a project company, your people are your revenue. It’s up to you to utilise them as best you can. Yet an extra day here, a higher-paid consultant there – these decisions are easily made and can quickly affect your profit.

What can I do about it?Today’s business systems change that mindset. By starting to see your people in utilisation terms (effectively as stock) – your time becomes altogether more valuable.

What’s the impact?Let’s start with the basics: utilisation targets. Your industry doubtless has a benchmark. In order to assess whether you are near this figure, you need good source data, preferably a business system that updates in real-time. Budgets, timesheets, expenses, purchases: in fact any cost relating to any specific project should feed into one central place for timely, accurate reporting.

Representative dataNext: consider whether the data you’re using to monitor utilisation targets is actually representative of the work your people do. Does the figure you’re looking at account for the nuances of flexible working, travel time and office admin? A good system will break this information down to show exactly how time is spent – as well as giving you the overall figures.

Tangible baselineFinally: does your utilisation figure represent something tangible, that you can actually work against? Looking at your % against the number of working days in a month for example gives you a more realistic baseline than a rolling 30 days.

To complete the picture, you need a set of reports. The ability to filter your results by different areas – for example, office, resource, project and team – enables project managers and other key stakeholders to focus on problem areas, understand where/why white space exists and spot problems early on.

Key benefits• Create a realistic benchmark for

your business

• Understand exactly where/how people spend their time

• Spot under-utilisation and take early action

• Establish a baseline for continuous improvement.

Utilisation &

mobilisation

& WIP

Cost capture

flow optimisation

Billing & cash

Opp

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BestPractice

Since changing the structure of its reporting targets to reflect net available days, this £9m turnover consultancy is now able to define and meet utilisation KPIs much more effectively. Forecasting has improved considerably, together with the ability to accurately report performance against the plan.

SummaryHow can implementing best practice around project mobilisation deliver results for your business?

This guide has described how combining robust procedures (centralised information, cost capture, workflow) and tools (resource scheduling, reporting, KPIs) brings compelling benefits to the mobilisation stage of the project lifecycle:

• Cost savings: resources are matched appropriately based on skills & experience – no more costly mistakes

• Time savings: smooth handover between pre-sales & project office – no hunting for documentation, or chasing clients for information

• Greater profits: visibility of cost to complete - allows project managers to take action on underperforming areas

• Improved utilisation: understand how/where people spend time - and establish a baseline for continuous improvement

• Happier clients: robust change control processes ensure delivery matches expectation.

Get in touchWe hope that you’ve found this paper of use and we wish you every success in mobilising your next project. For advice on how we can help you to implement any of the best practices covered in this guide please call 0845 345 3300 or email info@theaccessgroup.com. To see information about Access solutions for project based businesses click here or visit www.theaccessgroup.com

Coming nextPart 3: Managing cost capture & WIPManaging Work in Progress (WIP) is a real headache for FDs, MDs and project managers alike. The next part

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of our Best Practice series explains the challenges and key tips that you can implement to measure and reduce WIP in your organisation.

Piers McLeishConsulting Services Director

Once a specialist in technology and service delivery for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) working with clients such as Barclays and Marks & Spencer, Piers went on to spend nine years at MBNA International Bank. There he led a joint business and technology team responsible for turning strategic business issues into funded I.T. projects before joining Access in 2004.

Aidan BartlettDirector of Professional Services

With over 15 years experience in the software industry and prior to joining Access in 2001, Aidan served as FD at QuoVadx Inc. and then Future Dynamics. During this time he was responsible for setting up global subsidiaries and obtaining investment of over £8m from a major U.K. Private Equity Manager. Aidan started his career at Access as Senior Project Manager and successfully managed over 70 implementations before joining the board in 2004 as Strategic Planning Director.