The MOST Model

A while back, I looked at the SIO model. This month, I have another acronym to share: MOST.  MOST is a bit like SIO, in that it is a way of creating granular levels within an organisation so that you focus on the right type of information for the right type of task.  You can use it within a project to ensure that everything is aligned, and it is also useful at Portfolio or corporate level.

MOST stands for:

• Mission
• Objectives
• Strategies
• Tactics.

As you can imagine, this can apply to pretty much anything and it lends itself very well to setting project structure.
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The SIO Model

Have you heard of the SIO model?  It’s a way to ensure that you are always operating at the right level for your project, and in fact it is an approach that sits within wider business management theory, not just project management.

SIO stands for:

• Strategise
• Implement
• Operate

These are the three levels of activity that all organisations should do.  Project and programme managers can operate at all of these, and as someone leading a project, it is likely that you will get involved with tasks at each of these levels throughout the lifecycle of the project.  Together, the three levels ensure the translation of strategic thinking into sustainable action.
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Don’t forget these stakeholders!

Last month I looked at activities that project managers occasionally leave out of their project plans.  Missing out tasks presents a risk to the success of the project.  Missing out people is also a potential problem for project managers and their teams.  Failing to engage people at the right time can create serious issues on the project as key staff won’t know what they are supposed to be doing or be able to actively engage in the appropriate way.

That’s assuming, of course, that they are positive about the project in the first place and that you missing them off the list is an accident they are prepared to overlook.  Stakeholders who have negative feelings about the project need even more careful managing.  Miss someone off of your key communications and you could easily switch a stakeholder from being indifferent about your project to being a voice of conflict in the whole thing.
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Don’t forget these tasks!

Project managers set out with the best intentions to deliver the best quality deliverables.  That’s nothing new.  But one of the reasons things sometimes go awry is that we forget to include key items on the project plan, and then we need to spend time and effort working on them, which throws everything else out.

A plan is more than just a schedule, so making sure that everything somehow gets on to your Seavus Project Planner Gantt chart is only half the story.  Plans also include the documentation behind each line including quality measures and a definition of the deliverable.  Things that get missed of the list of tasks also don’t get scoped and estimated, and that’s how a project team’s time can get eaten up doing things that aren’t included in the scope of work.

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Strategizing Project Delivery

The purpose of strategy is to provide direction and concentration of effort as organizations continually strive to improve their position or gain the upper hand within the marketplace. Basically, it’s a struggle for advantage, and the one with the best advantage wins. It’s that simple. On what areas must businesses concentrate? Businesses clearly have to:

• Gain new advantages that increase or improve customer satisfaction, which will differentiate them from their competitors
• Either eliminate or minimize their competitors
• Achieve speed to market
• Re-engineer business processes for improved competitiveness
• Align their organizations to the latest economic trends
• Implement the strategy through projects
• Evaluate the success of the strategy by measuring project success

From project management’s point of view, there is no need to manage any project if the project manager has no idea why it’s being done in the first place. It’s crucial for any project manager to address the larger issues of the business strategy and see where the project fits in the overall framework. It isn’t easy—but it needs to be done.

Therefore, organizations must focus on project management as the key business driver that will achieve these advantages for them. With sound project management methodology and processes in place, project management is able to support the overall business strategy of an organization with these logical benefits:

1. Reduced delivery costs. Project management can provide products and services more cheaply by following a structured and formalized project methodology and by ensuring that excessive costs are not spent without due consideration.

2. Quicker product to market. The advantage permits the business to deliver products or services more efficiently than the competitors and the business is able to react more favorably to market demands.

3. Focused advantage. The projects will be focused more on the client needs and products, instead of having a solution that does not deliver the expected returns.

4. Quality and timely deliverables. Project management builds quality into the products or services right from the start, ensuring that the right things are developed at the right specification.

5. Proven customer advantage. Project management gains advantages for their organization by working together with the customer and by accommodating their needs and requirements.

Summary

Today’s organizations are challenged, as they need to keep pace with competitive markets, client needs, and marketplace trends. Winning is basically about who has the upper hand – either with new technology or quicker project implementations. The only winners will be those executives who are able to reinvent their companies quickly enough to take full advantage of the efficiencies that solid project management practices can offer.