Leader Guide: Delivering Better Projects Faster

Details: Category: Internal Training Academy Support

This Leader Guide sets out training and coaching plans to develop the capabilities of those in Project Team Member, Project Leader and Project Governance roles so that they are able to deliver better projects faster.

Project success doesn't depends on the ability of project stakeholders to solve problems, avoid risks, and take decisions that deliver lasting value.

To do that those in Project Team Member, Project Leader and Project Governance roles need to be able to:

Create superior specifications,
Collaborate with vendors and contractors to deliver them,
Manage and prevent project risks,
Discover latent problems early when they are cheaper to fix,
Develop new insights to deliver additional project value,
Deliver flawless operation from day one,
Optimise new operations.

Foundation Learning Topics

To establish a shared outlook across functions and ensure a smooth path to Day 1 operation, the following training topics should be built into live projects:

The Project Route: Understanding where the key decision points are and how to surface and manage project risks at each project step.
Design Delivery: Getting high-level and detailed design tasks right from the outset.
Factory Readiness: Developing realistic and owned delivery plans.
Operational Change: Building in the capabilities needed to become self sufficient after handover.
Project Mindset: Strengthening collaboration, leadership and decision-making under uncertainty.

Project Governance Topics

To assure compliance with best practices and assure alignment with business outcomes. Topics include:

Project resourcing: Designing, mobilising, and supporting capable capital project teams,
Performance drivers: Understanding equipment functionality, hidden losses, skill gaps, and lifecycle costs,
Standards and checklists: Applying proven frameworks for optioneering and delivery,
Cost modelling: Using Life Cycle Cost (LCC) tools to support investment decisions.

Project Team and Operational Leader Topics

These focus on ensuring factory readiness and vertical start-up:

Developing project plans: Milestone planning, setting exit criteria to define project quality plans.
Using project quality plans: Carrying out witnessed inspection
Project links with other business processes: Capex, PMS, QA, Documentation, Risk management, Legislation
Developing collaborative plans: Action mapping for project scope definition and vendor induction

Outcome

The outcome is faster, more reliable project delivery—achieved through the systematic development of internal capabilities. This not only improves project performance, it builds a stronger, more self-sufficient organisation.

What Project Stakeholders Need To Learn

Project Stakeholders without previous experience of projects need to learn how to:

Develop realistic and achievable project scopes.
Collate and share knowledge about problems which may not be fully understood.
Define tests to validate/commission new assets or processes which have yet to be selected.
Collaborate with outside companies to assess promising solutions
Establish new working relationships, challenge limiting behaviours and provide a forum for learning about novel solutions to the organisation
Coach direct reports past the barriers to higher levels of performance.
Develop the full potential of newly formed operational teams.

Even where some project team members are experienced, there is value in including training in the form of working sessions at key project steps to share ideas, align priorities and identify opportunities to enhance project value added.

Contact us for more information about how working sessions help project stakeholders to make better choices at each project milestone

Developing Project Team Capabilities

Facilitated working sessions provide a combination of training in best practices and practical application support to guide project stakeholder actions to:

Develop a common understanding of the issues to be addressed.
Utilise the full knowledge and experience of the team to agree next steps
Develop a deeper understanding of causal factors and collate lessons learned
Test and refine potential solutions
Implement new ways of working.

Training and Coaching Plan Example

The programme below illustrates how facilitated working sessions develop project stakeholder capability to understand their role and develop the insight to deliver superior results at each step of the project process from concept to beneficial operation.

Diagnostic session:

Early Equipment Management for Manufacturing Leaders

Format: half day on line

This working session provides a "how to" guide to avoiding common project pitfalls and drive up additional project value.

That includes an explanation of Early Equipment Management (EEM) best practice principles and practical activities to enhance the current draft project plan. The final session involves the development of 90 day action plans to apply the lessons learned during the session.

Mobilisation training workshops:

Manufacturing Project Management

Format: 3 day in house training workshop

Successful delivery of Manufacturing Projects depends as much on engaging stakeholders with new thinking and knowledge capture as it does on classic project management tools.

This course covers how to do that to produce winning specifications and the realistic and achievable plans to deliver them.

Learn how to avoid common manufacturing project pitfalls, deliver better value and achieve higher return on investment. Be able to develop a robust project management skill set.

Implementation Support:

Early Equipment Management

Format: In house and remote coaching at project stage gates

EEM extends the traditional project focus of delivering a new asset or engineering platform to that of delivering Operational Excellence. The difference is the humanisation of projects to incorporate not just what will be done but how it is done. This is characterised by increased collaboration between commercial, operations and technical personnel at all project steps.

Project Skills Passport

Project Skills Passports set out the core, intermediate and specialist competencies for each project role. This is used to record demonstrated capabilities as each level of competence is achieved. The outcome is the systematic development of internal capabilities to deliver better projects faster.

Table 1 contains foundation topics to develop a shared project outlook across all roles. This training also helps to surface gaps in underpinning systems and processes so that they can be refined to secure the achievement of flawless operation from day 1.

Table 1: Foundation learning for all Project Roles

Title	Topic	Content	Level	Training Content
The Project Route	The decisions at each stage, the processes to be sure we don't miss things and the processes to prevent issues from being transferred to the next step	Milestone plan, tasks, RACI	Core	Project Road Map
Get the right design	Concept and High Level Design tasks.	Operations “Day in the Life of” design review.	Core	Developing the right approach
Get the design right	Detailed Design and Pre installation tasks	Witnessed inspection and designing the training cascade	Core	Design a robust solution
Managing Project Delivery	Install and commission Factory Readiness Plans	Delivering the training cascade witnessed inspection	Core	Refine the new operation
Managing Operations changes	Developing capability	Skill development, standardisation and compliance.	Intermediate	Detailed Design
Project Mindset	Team leadership, Collaboration and Decision making when data is scarce.	Facilitation principles and techniques	Specialist	Concept. High Level Design, Pre-Installation Planning

The second table covers training topics relating to the project sponsor role of setting design and performance standards. This is a leadership role responsible for communicating with and guiding project leaders and team member decisions so that they deliver design and performance management goals to meet future business needs.

Table 2 Learning Pathways for Project Governance Roles

Title	Topic	Content	Level	Training Module
Defining equipment performance drivers	Understanding functionality, skill gaps, hidden losses and countermeasures, understanding life cycle cost drivers	Module definition, Criticality assessment, OEE, Hidden Losses, Flow, setting targets Module review understanding losses defining commissioning criteria	Core	Enhancing Project Value
Using standards and checklists	Setting Design Standards to guide optioneering	Using design standards to guide decisions when defining options and working with vendors	Core	Designing robust solutions
Developing operational standards and checklists	How to guide design decisions and project management delivery options	Day in the Life of review and design goals. Develop acceptable and optimum criteria	Intermediate	Pre Installation step
LCC cost model	Use of Life Cycle Cost models to understand cost drivers and support option evaluation.	Capital and operational cost streams with parameters for throughput, product mix and effectiveness levels.	Specialist	Planning Steps

Table 3 Learning Pathways for Project Teams and Operational Leaders

The final learning plan covers topics for project team members. This initially refers to a core project team involved in the concept and high level design steps. This team will expand to include operational leaders and front line teams as the project progresses towards day one operation.

Title	Topic	Content	Level	Training Module
Developing project plans	Milestone planning, setting exit criteria to define project quality plans.	Quality plan timing and completion of internal documentation e.g. capex process	Core	Project Road Map
Using project quality plans	Carrying out witnessed inspection	Test criteria	Core	Develop the right approach
Project links with other business processes	Capex, PMS, QA, Documentation, Risk management, Legislation	Capital project underpinning systems and interfaces.	Core	Refine the new operation
Developing collaborative plans	Action mapping for project scope definition and vendor induction	Facilitating cross company events to agree a consolidated project strategy and supporting work streams	Intermediate	Detailed Design
Project governance	How to design, mobilise and support outstanding capital project teams	Project Roles, setting targets. RACI Steps and stage gates	Specialist	Concept

The final learning plan covers topics for project team members. This initially refers to a core project team involved in the concept and high level design steps. This team will expand in the project progresses through the project delivery steps when more detail is added to design and deliver factory readiness plans.