Jul

8

‘prima donna’

July 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

‘a temperamental person; a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance to criticism or inconvenience’

Sure we all come across these people in general work place, life and when running projects. The world of academia tends to have its fair share of ‘donna’s’ but put one in charge of a major project or programme and your in trouble. The self centric world they exist in does not lend itself to the perceptive, team playing and emphatic nature required that lead to successful outcomes. They also generally piss off everyone around them to no good effect.

The worst part is they end up bullying and scaring people into not challenging their behaviour. What is worst people give into their demands and that makes things worst longer term.

 There are those brave souls who challenge this behaviour. This is not usually a popular past time as more people don’t like trouble or conflict. What would you do? 

Jun

6

‘All Ways Expect The Unexpected’

June 6, 2008 | 2 Comments

It does matter how many projects or programmes you have managed the adage is true. It couldn’t me more true today.

For over 12 months planning had gone into organizing the JISC Innovation Forum 2008. We covered all the risks and planned ahead.Then the unexpected happened. The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) announced industrial action ‘greylisting’ against the Keele
University where we are hosting the event for over 200 projects in July.

The action makes hosting the event there untenable so into issue management mode and re-plan. The show will go on.

At least it is not as bad as the last time we organized one of these events on the 7/7/05.

Unionists are easier to deal with than terrorists.

Apr

16

‘A Family Affair’

April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment

For those who are not familiar with JISC it is useful to explain that JISC is not a single entity but consists of numerous projects, services, innovation centres and the executive each with varying degrees of autonomy. Like any family there is the caring but strict parents, the youthful and independent minded children, and the batty but generous aunts and uncles. They need each other and together achieve more than on their own.

The JISC Conference 2008 held yesterday is like a family wedding where everyone turns up, well dress, displaying their best side to meet relatives they have not seen for ages, new family members and make new friends.

So like a good family member I turned up well dressed (rather dashing in my pin striped suit) and on best behaviour. I spent most of the day catching up with people I have not seen is ages and meeting a few new people along the way. It reminded me of the days when I was a programme manager and the satisfaction of working with projects. My role with JISC now tends to be more behind the scenes and as nan would say ‘I don’t get out much any more’.

Chatting with a few people who had been working on JISC projects on and off for a number of years. I was pleasantly surprised to hear they had noticed an improvement in the way JISC was organising it programmes and projects and that it all made a lot more sense to them. It is reassuring that the work I and my colleagues have been undertaking has had a positive noticeable effect.

Apr

13

‘Growing Pains’

April 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I have been recently asked to advise the VC and senior staff of a leading UK University on adopting programme management across the institution. Which has lead me to reflect on my experience of how Universities manage change, the reasons why it’s difficult to deliver and not always successful.

Universities, colleges and national bodies such as JISC face huge challenges in transforming themselves to keep up with the pace of change around them. HE institutions in particular tend to be based on devolved organisational structures (collegiate in nature) and styles of management which vary across the institution making coordination of institutional change difficult to achieve.

If you listen careful when visiting any educational campus you can hear it creaking and groaning from strain of change, especially when it is institution wide. Departments are running a multitude of projects and initiatives which may or may not be coordinated or even relate to a strategic objective of the institution. Projects and programmes fail to deliver to the satisfaction of senior management and stakeholders. I may be painting a bleak as picture but this is one you may recognise.

During the late 90s the importance of good project management was recognised in order to ensure that important projects such as student records systems were successfully delivered. This resulted in an influx of PRINCE2 trained project managers (of which I was one) into the sector to manage numerous successful projects, establishing the importance of the role of project management and best practice.

Institutions today have pockets of well managed projects but in many cases lack the layer that effectively translates its strategy into institutional wide programmes of change and manages them in a coordinated way. The adoption of portfolio and programmes management (MSP) at an institutional level is very much in its early stages but essential to tackling the challenges faced Universities and Colleges.

If this topic interests you have a look at JISC Infonet who are starting a 2 year programme looking into Strategic Planning and its Implementation.

As the BBC would say if you are affected by the issues raised in this blog or have any comments on its content please contact us.

Apr

11

‘Everything Must Start Somewhere’

April 11, 2008 | 2 Comments

 ’everything must start somewhere’  

The phrase comes to mind when writing the first entry in a blog.

So where do I start? With me I guess. Well it is my blog.

My role with JISC is to ensure that the programmes and projects are well managed and the benefits are shared and felt as widely as possible. Of course I don’t do this alone. I am lucky to have some excellent colleagues in the Innovation Group and others who are skilled in the arts of communications, marketing, partnerships and policy - to name but a few.

I practice the arts of PRINCE2 and MSP as well as being responsible for tackling the big issues such as sustainability, IPR and the realisation of programme benefits. Which makes me a bit of a geek but more like Doctor Who rather than Bill Gates only without the blue box and assistant. I regularly do battle with the forces of chaos overcoming them to restore order to the Universe - well JISC world anyway, the rest of the Universe will have to wait.

Through this blog I hope I can share the innovative approaches JISC has been developing to managing its projects and programmes and discuss the bigger issues.

Next week is the JISC Conference and one session that is close to my heart is the Realising and Sharing Benefits .

Maybe see some of you there if the TRADIS gets the right year this time.Â