Project Practitioners Toolset (PPT)

A comprehensive suite of project management products designed to achieve excellence in the organisation’s project delivery capability

Each product in the suite may be implemented or executed:

• On its own;
• In conjunction with any other; or
• As a complete Toolset.

Though complimentary to each other, each brings its own benefits and all can be simply tailored to meet client-specific requirements.

The Project Practitioners Toolset comprises of:

• Project Management Method (PPM): A simple-to-use but comprehensive structured method for managing projects of all types – including a project managers training course, a toolset and a reference handbook.
• Project Sponsors Insight (PSI): A short, intensive workshop and forum exploring the crucial role of the sponsor in delivering successful projects.
• Project Health Check (PHC): A rapid but thorough independent assessment of the health of in-flight projects, combining project management expertise with a reliable diagnostic tool.
• Project Definition Workshop (PDW): An intensive, facilitated workshop to unambiguously define the key parameters binding a project, ensuring its alignment to the organisation’s strategy and objective.
• Project Managers Assessment (PPA): A proven, structured method for assessing the competency level of project managers – for recruitment or personal development.
• Project Managers Development (PPD): A means to systematically enhance the organisation’s capabilities for successful project delivery by establishing and nurturing an internal professional community for project managers.

To find out more about how a PPT can help your team, please contact us here. Alternatively, find more details on the various components below.

Practical Project Management (PPM)

A simple-to-use, comprehensive structured method for successfully managing projects of all types, the product comprises a training course, a toolset and a reference handbook

Practical Project Management (PPM) – The Method and Training covers all the major facets of successful project management. Topics include:

• What is a Project?
• The Project Lifecycle
• Key Roles & Responsibilities
• Project Definition
• Project Planning & Scheduling
• Risks, Issues and Dependencies
• Supplier Management
• Progress Reviewing & Reporting
• Change Control
• Project Accounting
• Risk Management
• Project Closedown.

PPM: Simple to learn and apply – even for inexperienced project managers

• Fully documented – with a toolset and handbook to put into practice on day one
• Proven in practice, PPM greatly increases the chances of project success
• Based on long-standing industry-standard methods, PPM will remain pertinent and future-proof for years to come
• Applying the PPM method as a standard across the organisation’s project portfolio greatly facilitates management governance and control while easing the transfer of project managers between projects
• PPM can be applied across a wide range of project types. It can be easily tailored to client requirements and embedded within wider project portfolio management or PMO procedures.

To find out more about how a PPM can help your team, please contact us here.

Project Sponsors Insight (PSI)

A short, intensive workshop and forum on the crucial role of the sponsor in the delivery of successful projects

Project Sponsors Insight (PSI) – themed “The Essential Sponsor” – provides valuable and lasting assistance to senior and top-tier executives by:

• Helping them to comprehend the importance of their role in successful project delivery,
• Providing guidance on how to shape and direct the delivery of projects for which they are responsible,
• Showing how proven tools and techniques will significantly improve their effectiveness in the role
• Understanding the crucial relationship between the roles of the project manager and the sponsor,
• Showing how to ensure their projects can attain and maintain the right profile , prominence and support within their organisation,
• Ensuring relevance to delegates through workshop exercises on clients’ live projects,
• Including a comprehensive sponsor’s self-assessment scorecard.

To find out more about how a PSI can help your team, please contact us here.

Project Health Checks (PHC)

Rapid, effective, independent assessment of the health of in-flight projects by combining experienced project management expertise with a reliable diagnostic tool

Project Health Checks (PHC) – Providing an early warning system on the health of in-flight projects.

• Provides an independent, unbiased view generated by a reliable diagnostic tool proven in the field,
• Short, tightly-focused reviews avoiding lengthy unstructured inquiries (which may only add further delay to an already late project),
• Can be used on an on-going basis to conduct unbiased internal health checks on other key projects now and in the future,
• Using the PHC diagnostic tool across the whole project portfolio can reveal endemic or systematic problems which may be compromising an organisation’s entire project delivery capability,
• Focuses on highly indicative diagnostic criteria applicable to all projects and programmes – in any industry or enterprise.

PHC – Accurately assessing the health of on-going projects of any size or complexity.

• A simple-to-use diagnostic scorecard with in-built guidance and edits which automatically produces a completed report document,
• Can be used either as a senior management audit tool or for self-assessment by individual project managers to help reveal environmental, structural or intrinsic flaws in projects, which, for those absorbed in managing them, are often difficult to recognise.

To find out more about how a PHC can help your team, please contact us here.

Project Definition Workshop (PDW)

An intensive, facilitated workshop to unambiguously define the key parameters binding a project, ensuring its alignment to the organization’s strategy, goals and objectives

Project Definition Workshop (PDW) – normally conducted in a single day, the PDW is a tightly-focused, efficient method of ensuring any new project is meticulously defined and exquisitely aligned with the enterprise’s corporate strategy and objectives.

ISG’s Project Definition Workshop provides and ensures:

• A structured means of achieving an accurate definition of the project,
• A sound foundation for project planning, and for management and control over project execution,
• A definition thoroughly explored and debated by the key participants and stakeholders,
• Senior management buy-in and commitment to the success of the project,
• A common understanding of the aims of the project, its success criteria and the means of achieving its objectives.

More than any other project activity, the achievement of a sound, precise definition is fundamental to the on-going management and control of the project and absolutely crucial to its ultimate success.

To find out more about how a PDW can help your team, please contact us here.

Project Managers Assessment (PMA)

A proven, structured method for assessing the competency level of project managers – for both recruitment and personal development

Project Managers Assessment (PMA) provides a valuable means of dispassionately assessing the practical competency of project managers. The assessment process employs structured interviewing techniques, conducted by experienced project managers and is based on proven competency models for project management.

• Standard, unbiased assessments using proven competency models and well-established interviewing techniques – based on what project managers have done, not just on what they know;
• The assessment process is uses a standard workbook which greatly reduces preparation time while predefined interview questions and assessment criteria ensure a short, tightly-focused process and
• PMA can be used on an on-going basis to conduct unbiased assessments both at recruitment time and to ensure in-house project managers are assigned tasks within their competencies.

PMA: Accurate, unbiased assessment of any project manager’s experience and skills level.

• All projects are risky undertakings – assigning the right level of project management competency to the right projects is a key factor in reducing the risk of failed projects and
• PMAs are also particularly helpful when creating targeted personal development plans for in-house project managers.

To find out more about how a PMA can help your team, please contact us here.

Project Managers Development (PMD)

A structured approach to developing excellence in project management capability within any organisation or enterprise

Project Managers Development (PMD) provides the means to systematically enhance the organisation’s capabilities for successful project delivery by establishing and nurturing an internal professional community for its project managers.

PMD provides the organisation as a whole, and its project managers as individuals, with a structure for setting and achieving well-defined goals for the development of project management skills.

PMD benefits the organisation by providing:

• A way of defining standards of proficiency for its project managers and a method of recruiting and developing project managers to meet those standards;
• The means to match project managers to projects based on their standard of proficiency;
• A way for the enterprise to mark project managers’ progress within the profession;
• A visible demonstration of the enterprise’s professional approach to project management;
• A clear development path for in-house project managers so they will feel valued, better motivated and less likely to leave.

PMD benefits individual project managers by providing:

• Membership of an internally recognised professional body of project managers;
• A well-defined framework for individual skills development plans;
• Acquisition of new skills through a combination of formal training and coaching by more experienced project managers;
• Assignment to projects matched the individual’s capabilities;
• Formal recognition of progress in the profession;
• For individuals aspiring to become project managers, a formal method of registering that interest.

To find out more about how a PMD can help your team, please contact us here.