Setting up for success

Projects are complex and are often innovative - in what they are aiming to achieve and/or in the solutions that are put in place to deliver them. They involve multiple stakeholders. And in today's challenging economic environment, you not only need to plan projects with less resources, but also demonstrate to stakeholders that the significant funds committed will deliver value for money.

These potentially overwhelming challenges put significant stress and strain on an organisation's capability and capacity to deliver. You'll need confidence in your ability to answer some key questions.

How confident are you?

What can go wrong?

Projects may be very different but there's one thing they all share: risk. Will you fulfill your objectives? Deliver on time and to budget? Can management stay focused on your core business needs while you're involved in it? Are you looking at financing - or even insolvency? These are all important questions.

There are many things that can go wrong with a project - from wrong or poor funding to late deliveries and cost overruns. The risks to your organisation are clear:

  • Reduced return on investment - higher costs and missed market opportunities
  • Burden on management time - from stakeholder concerns to contractual disputes
  • Impact on business as usual - including staff time and operational changes
  • Reputational damage - lasting impact on your business

Getting it right

Effective project management is at the heart of any organisation's success. Getting it right means having a dedicated team of people with a shared vision, doing the right things at the right time. It means:

  • Choosing the right projects, which support your business strategy, and are based on realistic business cases and objectives;
  • Implementing processes and systems that cover all key risks as well as producing project status information that is reliable and timely;
  • Ensuring that key roles are filled by highly motivated people with the necessary skills and expertise;
  • Regularly assessing governance, risk and quality management as well as procurement strategies, forecast out-turn and management reporting, throughout the project lifecycle;
  • Capturing relevant learning points as your project progresses.

How we work with our clients

PwC has a tried and tested structure for scoping, implementing and reviewing projects. We know that successful change is underpinned by high quality project management. Enhanced with tools and techniques developed over years of experience on projects of all sizes and across a range of contexts, our methodologies enable our practitioners to hone in on your priorities and begin adding value from day one.

Are you doing the right things?

We help our clients by providing constructive challenge around what they are doing and why. We bring an independent perspective on whether projects are really supporting an organisation's strategic objectives.

Are they achievable?

We work with our clients to review their projects to identify whether they can successfully deliver them - do they have the capacity, the capability and the appetite? We provide an objective and expert review of their commitments and challenges.

Could you do them better?

Through our extensive experience of delivery we have identified 12 core elements for successful projects. We work with our clients to assess the robustness of their projects against these and support them in addressing any issues identified.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.