The Project Managers' Network
The Project Managers' Network (PMN) is an informal group of staff from across
the University, who are interested in or responsible for change and project
management. The group meet regularly to share experience, best practice and
support each other.
The PMN can also be used to brainstorm problems and solutions to issues you
are having with your project.
If you are interested in joining the group, or if you have any suggestions
for topics that you would like to discuss or hear about at future meetings
please contact the Strategic Projects Office.
Project Managers' Network meetings
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12 June 2018 - Summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 12 June 2018
Training Pathways
We discussed the development of training pathways, cross referencing additional professional development training avaialble elsewhere, and complementary training to help develop personal skills.
We also outlined potential 1 hour bitesized training that participants might find useful.
Paperless Committees
We had a presentation from Karen Bowlby regarding the Paperless Committee
project, which outlined the themes of the project, and showcased the Committee
Portal where the details of all committee information and relevant support
documents are held, and the new systems that will be used, such as Box, and how
these work with various devices.
If you have any particular issues you would like to have discussed, or would
like to deliver a case study or get support for a particular project, please
contact the Change Team on
change@essex.ac.uk.
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30 January 2018 - Summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 30 January 2018
Launch of the enhanced Project Management Framework documents
Leila and Lucy from the Strategic Projects Office talked about the
enhancements that have been made to the Project Management Framework
documentation, including simplified documents for the Mandate, Business Case and
the Progress Reporting Form.
Project monitoring and tools that can help
We looked at the roles and responsibilities during project monitoring, and
identified some methods that can help, including various systems, and the
Project Health Check form.
Introduction to Smartsheet
We will had a quick tour of Smartsheet and talked about some of the ways it
is being used around the University.
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Joint PM and CI Network event - Summary of Meeting
Summary of the joint Project Managers and CI Network Meeting - 9 November 2017
Introduction to new SPO staff
We welcomed Lucy and Leila to the Network. Lucy is a Project Manager and will
work closely with staff in departments and professional service areas on
specific strategic projects.
Leila is a Project Governance Office and her role is split between the
Strategic Projects off and the Governance Office, both in Strategic Planning and
Change. Leila provides support to Project Managers, helps to manage the Project
Management Framework, and provides secretarial support to project related
committees.
Networking
We held a network event where participants could meet with staff working on
similar areas of work and discuss any issues or queries they had with staff from
SPO and the wider network.
Continuous Improvement Tools
We looked at CI tools that can help support
staff working on projects and wider teams, including Visual Display Boards,
RACI, Skills Matrix, BOSCARD, Root cause analysis, evaluating work,
Brainstorming, Spagetti Map and SIPOC. All of which are available on our CI
Tools webpage.
Skills Analysis Survey
Some of you may have completed the skills
analysis survey last year, if so you will be able to review your
results here.
For those of you who haven't heard about it before, the skills analysis is an
opportunity for you to measure your project management skills and identify areas
where you may need additional support. We then use the findings to develop
tailored training and network sessions to try to bridge those gaps. In this
session we will review last year’s results and discuss your training needs for
the upcoming year.
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27 July 2017 - Summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 27 July 2017
This fun interactive session, facilitated by Katie McIntosh, was a fabulous
example of how working together as a project team to identify and rate risks,
gets much greater results than any one team member could hope to achieve. The
session included:
- An overview of what a risk means to a project and the
difference between a project risk and an issue
- How to identify risks. Through the interactive session each
group had to work both individually and as a team to identify
risks, it soon became very clear that, as a result of difference
experience and knowledge, each person had a different perception
of risk and mitigation, which reinforced the understanding that
risk management should not be done in isolation
- How to use a risk matrix to rank risks on likelihood and
impact. By rating the risk the teams were able to identify what
risks would have to be mitigated into order for the project to
proceed and which could be tolerated, or transferred, in the
project plan
- How to write an effective risk statement using the
principles of cause, event and consequence
- Risk Jenga, the teams put their risk ranking to the test to
see if their project could stay upright!
- The teams then thought about how mitigation would affect the
ranking of their risks and the effect this would have on the
viability of their project
The
presentation
has been added to the website. If you have any questions on this, or would like
more information on risk, please see the
risks and issues management toolkit or contact us at
change@essex.ac.uk .
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16 May 2017 - summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 16 May
2017
Project committees workshop
In this session we had a brief introduction in to the
structure of the project committees, including how they feed
in to each other, then moved in to a practical session where we
looked at practical aspects of dealing with the committees.
Areas included:
- The purpose of project committees
- Experiences of staff who have attended the
committees
- Feedback to improve the committees
- Support that SPO could offer when dealing
with any of the project committees
The output from the practical session was gathered and will
be available here shortly.
Learner Analytics Project
Linda Hanna, the Project Manager for Learner Analytics, came
along and told us all about the new Learner Analytics Project.
The project is all about using data we have to help assess
engagement and progress of students, to support them in their
learning and development, and to help identify any issues
students may have as early as possible.
The new project team are based in Strategic Projects Office
and are currently working on consultation with staff and
students, and system development. If you have any queries about
the project, or would like to know more, you can contact the
project team on
laproject@essex.ac.uk.
Systems and Academic Projects Board (SAPB)
The Chair of SAPB, Marc Albano, came along to talk about
Systems and Academic Projects Board (SAPB). He told us about the
remit and membership of the committee, the work they do on
mandates and business cases prior to submission to the Project
Coordination Group (PCG), how they can identify problems with
projects, and what support can be put in place to help get them
back on track.
Marc was clear that they are there to help our project
managers, however he was just as clear about what our project
managers can do to help themselves and get their projects
through to approval stage. On his 'must do' list are:
- Always make sure you secure appropriate
resources for the project - at the times when
they will be needed (be realistic)
- Make sure your time scales are reaslistic -
speak to people and get estimates if you're not
sure
- Consult with all the necessary people - eg
SPO, Business Analysts, Finance, IT Services,
Procurement, key stakeholders
- Complete the finance section of the formal
templates - Finance are there to help with this
and are happy to offer support
- Capture the benefits of the project - make
sure your benefits are measureable, how will you
know that you've been successful, how can you
prove it
Marc also talked about reporting progress on your project,
and highlighted that time, cost and quality are the key
elements, along with honest reporting.
If you have any queries about attending any of the project
committees, completing the formal templates, or any other areas
of project work, get in touch with the team at
change@essex.ac.uk.
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14 March 2017 - summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 14 March
2017
Project Lifecycle costs and Risk Management
Richard Fern and Dan Shedd from finance came along to the session and
delivered an overview of Project lifecycle costs and Risk Management for Project
Managers, explaining the context in which they work, and how they are applied at
the University at a project level.
We then ran a project clinic session which allowed
participants to further explore the issues and solutions, for
both Lifecycle costs and Risk Management, that they have
encountered within their own projects. The outputs from the
clinic will be made available to the Project Managers Network
shortly.
For more information on
Risk Management and
Project Lifecycles please see the Project Managers
One Stop Shop.
Project Objectives
Debbie Brooke and Lisa Collins talked the group through the
principles of setting
project objectives, including why they are needed, how to
write them, and how to ensure you can successfully measure them,
once the project has been delivered.
The group then had the opportunity to put this into practice
with an interactive session, designed to get participants
thinking about SMART objectives using our project examples.
For more information please see our
Project Objectives Toolkit
held within the Project Managers
One Stop Shop.
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9 February 2017 - summary of meeting
Launch of the Project Management Framework
The new PMF was launched, together with over 60 supporting guides, toolkits
and templates.
Introduction by Bryn Morris
- Bryn Morris, our Registrar and Secretary, introduced the
simplified Project Management Framework (PMF) and how it fits in
with the Universities Strategic Plan. Bryn’s introduction
discussed how staff can use the PMF to develop a culture of
change throughout the University, using the templates and
support materials to maximise project efficiencies.
What has changed?
- Debbie Brooke and Lisa Collins guided the group through what
has changed in more detail; talking through the governance
approval process, project templates and the one-stop-shop
document, as well as highlighting what is coming next. This
session showcased the wide range of support materials available,
covering all aspects of managing a project as well as those
specific to the Project Management Framework.
The
presentation and Listen Again
recording of the PMN session are both available online.
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16 November 2016 - summary of meeting
Summary of the Project Managers Network Meeting - 16
November 2016
An update on the Project Management Framework
The enhanced Project Management Framework has been well
received by SAPB and will progress to the December PCG.
Training, including toolkits and kick off meetings, are in the
works but we would love to hear from you how this can most
usefully be rolled out.
Linda Hanna and Vicky Poole Project Manager update
Linda and Vicky talked the group through their move to the
Strategic Projects Office from the faculties and discussed
upcoming work and future project plans! For any further
information or support please email
vpoole@essex.ac.uk or
lhanna@essex.ac.uk
Project Dependencies
Catherine Jaques ran a great troubleshooting session on
project dependencies, in which she detailed some of the issues
she has been experiencing and the group feedback solutions and
tales of good (and bad!) practice. If you have any issues around
projects that you are struggling with and think would make a
good session please do not hesitate to get in touch. More
general information on project dependencies will be uploaded
onto the sharepoint.
Health and Safety in Project Management
Claire Saunders gave the group a very interesting
presentation on health and safety within projects, highlighting
some of the lessons learnt from past projects and what Project
Managers should be looking out for. More details of this have
been included in the presentation and saved on the Project
Managers Network Sharepoint and will form part of the toolkit
training guidance that we will be providing.
Presentations are loaded on to the
Project Sharepoint site following each meeting.
Tools and supporting materials are also uploaded to the
Project Management Tools Sharepoint site.
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14 September 2016 - summary of meeting
Skills Analysis Survey
The results of the Skills Analysis survey were shared with the group, along
with the plans to develop individual reports for all those who completed the
survey. This will allow them to identify areas of work for further development
and support.
Procurement, Finance and Stakeholder Analysis
The findings from a previous session on Procurement, FInance and Stakeholder
Analysis were shared with the group, along with additional research and
responses from the relevant areas.
Updates to the Project Management Framework
An update on progress to the Project Management Framework (PMF) was
presented, along with drafts of the new reporting forms. The new Roles and
Responsibilities document was also showcased. This document outlines all of the
work required at each stage of a project, together with any PMF requirements.
Projects outside of the PMF
We discussed projects that are managed and monitored outside of the PMF, and
how the Strategic Projects Office and the suppoprt materials we have produced
can help to support these.
Feedback and sharing lessons learned
We discussed the best ways of gathering feedback, lessons learned and good
practice, and how these might best be shared and, where appropriate, implemented
within other areas of the University.
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Previous Project Managers' Network meetings