Part 1

Introduction and Overview

What is this book about?

The Pathway Project Management Toolkit™ is a reference book that provides

information on the tools required to deliver IT projects successfully.

This is a practical project management book based on real-world projects and issues. The toolkit is based on lessons learnt from delivering demanding, complex, business-critical IT projects and programmes in the UK.

Delivering IT projects is extremely difficult, and this is proven by the high failure rate. At least 65 per cent of projects are stopped before cutover, go over budget or don’t deliver the expected benefits. This is an astonishing failure rate, and it has been consistent for over two decades. As IT professionals we must do everything we can to reverse this.

This book can’t guarantee success, but it will give you the knowledge to deliver projects and break the cycle of failure. 

Many methodologies, project management books and training courses do not cover essential activities that make the difference between success and failure. The following items are critical elements of delivering projects on time and to budget:

• Dress rehearsals. (The most effective risk management and cutover preparation
• activity a project can complete.)    
• Practical risk management. 
• Project initiation. (Poor project initiation is a major factor in 80 per cent of IT
• project failures.)
• Contingency planning.
• Budget management.
• Holistic security including planning, configuration, and testing.
• Proof of concept activities.
• Aligning the Master Data Management strategy to the project.    
• Selecting methodologies and Agile frameworks.
• Use of hybrid methodology.
• Dependency management across teams.
• Coordinating infrastructure builds in an Agile environment.
• Cutover management.
• Runbook preparation.
• Managing Go/No Go meetings.
• Post go-live support.

Information in this book will enhance your probability of success considerably. Despite decades of use of Waterfall, PRINCE, and Agile methodologies, the failure rate remains consistent. Gaps in the methodologies are a major contributing factor to this.

The project manager’s skill and knowledge are critical. Knowing when to combine methodologies or add additional activities will make the difference between delivery of a system that adds value or a costly failed project after months or years of effort.

It is important to clarify that this statement is not a criticism of the methodologies. They are excellent and have been used to deliver many successful projects. However, despite the increased use of methodologies, the failure rate is not improving. There are many reasons for this:

• Employing an incorrect approach/methodology on a project.
• A methodology not being used appropriately. (Doing nothing more than holding a standup each morning does not make an organisation agile.)
• Lack of training on methodologies.
• Belief that a methodology must be followed to the letter, even if the activities do not add any value to the project or organisation.
• Not understanding the tailoring concept in PRINCE2.
• Gaps in the methodologies.

Topics in this book

The following topics are covered:  

• Project challenges and observations.
• Overview of Agile, PRINCE2®, PRINCE2 Agile®, AgilePM® and Waterfall methodologies.
• Recommendations on the use of methodologies and frameworks.
• Critical activities regardless of methodology.
• Project lifecycle.
• Initiation and governance.
• Project delivery.
• Project management tips. 

What will you get from this book?

• Real-world advice on project management.
• Information on typical project management risks and actions you can take to prevent them from impacting your projects.
• An understanding of when to use PRINCE2, Waterfall, Agile or a hybrid
• methodology.
• Information on dress rehearsals. This is one of the most effective risk management activities you can complete on a project. (In addition to increasing BAU productivity from day one.)
• Knowledge of cutover planning and handover to post go-live support.
• How to manage the complexity of replacing legacy systems.
• An understanding of estimating and information about why estimates are
• usually so inaccurate. 
• A simple method for risk management that is objective and clear to everyone
• rather than, ‘This is my opinion,’ with each stakeholder holding a
• distinct viewpoint.

What it is

A book that is based on experience and lessons learnt from demanding projects across a number of industry sectors and types of projects. (Including charity, transport, finance, hotels, automotive and education.)

Projects that are used to illustrate points in the book include:

• Development of a sales and marketing application. 
• Replacing legacy systems for a media company and an education organisation.
• Projects for banks including building new infrastructure. 
• Managing a major programme for a prestige car manufacturer.
• Developing a safety-critical system for a major chemical manufacturer.

The book can also be used as a reference guide. With this goal in mind, some information is duplicated instead of referring you to a different section.

What it isn’t

It’s not a detailed manual on Agile, Waterfall or PRINCE2, but it does provide an overview of these methodologies. 

Also, some high-level information on managing project security activities is included, but system security is out of scope.

Overview of the topics

Before we get into the details of methodologies, critical activities and managing the complete project lifecycle, the following section provides an overview of the topics that will be covered. 

Methodology 

There is a considerable amount of debate on methodologies for IT projects. You should question anyone that claims that one approach is the best for all projects. This isn’t the case.

We’ll look at the following: 

• Methodology – An overview of Agile, PRINCE2, PRINCE2 Agile and Waterfall methodologies.  
• Using hybrid methodology. (This may be required to deliver a successful
• project.)
• Misunderstanding the Agile Manifesto. Many people believe that items on the right are excluded. This isn’t correct and causes many issues on projects. 
• Selecting the most appropriate methodology for different types of projects.

The way you approach a development project that will be deployed to the existing infrastructure (without any dependencies or data migration) will be very different from the approach on a major enterprise resource planning (ERP) programme that includes new infrastructure, enhanced security, multiple dependencies and complex data migration.