From engagement to project completion, our team manages all aspects of programme and project management utilising our skilled team’s expertise. In a normal engagement with us, clients will ask for our assistance help them implement or roll out a new or upgraded service. This is our opportunity to bring the experience we have in implementing ICT projects to the practical process successfully completing this work. Our focus is helping our clients realise the benefits of the implementation.  

An external PM is best placed to sit on a client project team, working directly with internal resources and external suppliers for the project. It can be tempting to use the supplier of the product or service to manage the overall project. This is a mistake because the supplier project plan will be focused (correctly) on the requirements of their team in order to roll out their service. They don’t know the client’s internal resource and timing constraints. 

However, a supplier should generate a project plan that will be a key part of the project planning. Using this and working with our client, we build out a fit for purpose project plan and associated documentation called a project initiation document or charter. This is a detailed plan of what is going to be done and when. It will cover: 

• Costs for the project 

• Timing of the various phases or milestones of the project 

• Internal and external resources needed 

• The agreed approach of what and how the project will roll out 

• Risks that can be identified and planned for 

• Areas that are within the boundaries of the project and items that are excluded. 

 It is designed to have members of the project team and, if necessary wider stakeholders, think carefully about the project. This helps the project run smoothly, anticipate problems and to plan resources. 

However, many IT projects in New Zealand are what we call ‘light touch’ projects and don’t require heavy project management oversight, although we highly recommend they follow the same basic structure. We help clients with both of these.

What are the different types of project that we see? There are two main types of project management: complex and light touch. 

Complex projects have some or all of these characteristics: 

• They are often large cost items  

• They are high profile within an organisation and the consequences of failure are high 

• They have resources across multiple departments and suppliers, that is, meaning there is a lot of coordination 

• There is a high degree of change and with implications for staff, customers or suppliers 

• A formal reporting structure is required 

• The project manager takes a driving style. This means they are constantly checking the project progress, looking for weaknesses or risks and working strongly with the team to overcome these. They challenge the project status and look for areas to improve or things that may have been overlooked 

• The project management effort for these projects is normally between 3 and 5 days per week. 

Light touch projects: 

• Representing the customer in projects involving external suppliers.

• Are more straightforward projects often with familiarity within a business (that is, similar projects have been completed before) 

• Use fewer internal and external resources, with less cross department engagement 

• Require less change management  

• Have a less formal, but still essential, reporting structure

• In these cases, project managers rely on staff and suppliers to do the work they commit to on schedule without a high degree of follow-up 

• Project management effort for these projects would be between .5 and 2 days per week. 

 Practically, projects can be a mixture of both and very often there is a high front loading of project effort to get a project established before a more routine rollout.

Edge Consulting is an independent IT Consulting business based in Christchurch. We work around the country and can combine both technical resources and project managers with lots of practical experience with the range of ICT project common in New Zealand.

Our clients use our services because:

• We have an experienced team with capacity and access to our company’s extensive technical and management resources.

• Because we don’t represent a supplier our efforts are transparent and dedicated to completing the project for our client

• We provide a more independent or perhaps more objective project management services because we are not part of the supplier nor customer organisation

• Our team is easy to work with and many come from technical backgrounds or experience in the technology, meaning they have deep insights into the technology being rolled out. This helps anticipate problems and allows faster and smoother running projects. 

• We use modern tools (AdaptiveWork) to allow us to manage projects and provide oversight of these on a regular basis and use a team approach within our business to help our team solve project problems as they come up.

 Our clients tell us this reduces project timeframes and disruption helping bring the benefits of the work faster at a lower cost.

Should I use the supplier’s project manager? 

It is tempting to use project management resources from the supplier of the products or services being purchased. These are often bundled in with the overall solution. This project management is primarily used to organise supplier resources and tasks and cannot help with your team or internal constraints.  Regardless of the project management resource you use, it needs to sit on your side of the business, not the supplier side. It is recommended to also engage an independent PM who can keep the overview of the entire project and provide a more objective level of project management to the project keeping all parties aligned and on track

Should I use a technical person to manage the project? 

It is false economy having your technical people manage their projects. It is not a good idea. Managing technical project issues is not the same as more generally managing the project – they are different skill sets.

The risk with technical project managers is that when issues arise they tend to lose focus on the bigger picture, dive into the technical details, when trying to resolve the issue on hand. Often a cause of project delay and increased project costs.

A dedicated project manager, even in a light touch mode, helps to keep projects moving forward faster, reducing costs, staff stress and getting the benefits of the new solution more quickly. 

What is the cost of project management? 

Complex projects require between 3 and 5 days per week of management, while ‘light touch’ project management is between half a day and 2 days per week. As a general guide for project costs see our IT Budget Guide.  The cost of project management is usually offset against the cost of delays and extra risks.

Another way of thinking about this is to consider the cost of project management against the cost of project delay, cost overrun, or failure.

What skills do you expect a project manager to have? 

While qualifications and experience are important because they provide structure and reduce project risk, we look for personable people who work well with teams, keep calm under stressful circumstances  have an organising nature and  avoid procrastination.  

How long does a project take? 

It depends on the project, but a rough guide is 2-3 months for light touch projects with more complex projects often span over 12 months. 

What project tool does Edge Consulting use? 

We use a project and programme management tool called AdaptiveWork, which was formally known as Clarizen. This is our preferred customer engagement tool. It is a cloud-based service that has extensive reporting tools. These helps our clients understand how their projects are going and participate in the project. Sometimes our clients ask us to use their project management tool, which we do and use our service for more basic time keeping. Other tools commonly used are Microsoft Teams (planner or tasks), Excel or Microsoft Project, Jira and ServiceNow.

How do you bill for services 

Our services are based on a professional estimate for work on a fair hour’s pay for a fair hour’s work basis. This as two key benefits for clients. We don’t load our rates or effort for unforeseen events or risk, and if we complete work under what we expect then that is all our clients pay for. 

What are examples of light touch or complex projects?

 Examples of light touch projects are as follows:

A rollout of new printers across an organisation, Refresh of Test and Development environments from Production, Inter organisation applications, IT services installation in building outfits. Replacement of IT equipment across organisation sites/stores.

What are the advantages of external project managers?

While there is a difference in cost between external project managers and internal staff, although this is often overstated, here are some advantages of using external resources:

• They are hired for a particular job, meaning they can focus on the needs of that project

• External project managers tend not to get loaded up with extra projects meaning they have dedicated time to work on your project

• External project managers are not there for Friday morning teas or staff presentations, their focus is simply the project they are working on

• Organisations must balance the cost of a project manager against the cost of a (senior) manager managing a project

• hese factors are related and the outcome is that external project managers tend to get through their work more efficiently. This means projects are completed faster and with less risk.

What is the difference between project and program or programme management?

Project management undertakes the following tasks:

• Assistance with the setup and initiation of projects

• Managing the delivery of projects from initiation up to their closure

• Sensible application of good Project Management practice

• With the interest of the organisation at heart

• Contributing to a positive and productive project environment.

• Programme Management is more concerned about groups of related projects:

• Turning project portfolios into ready-to-start programmes that need to be delivered to achieve their desired business outcomes

• Managing the delivery of programmes from their initiation up to the closure of the programme's last project

• Focus on the application of good Programme Management practice, adapted to the organisation’s way of working

Why use a project manager? 

• It is globally accepted that using project management increases the likelihood of project success. This saves money and brings forward the benefits of the project

• Professional project managers are specialised and qualified in managing projects

• Using a project manager reduces the workload of managers who are otherwise tasked with the management of a project

• Why would you use an unexperienced or unqualified person to manage an often important and costly change initiative and increase the likelihood of failure?