TPM Blog

8.03.2012 - Company profile in 'Health Business' magazine, Feb 2012

TPM’s financial project management excellence

Projects are risky, and projects in technical areas can be difficult to get right. TPM specialises in working with corporate functions, dealing with technical areas such as tax and finance, providing assurance that large and complex projects are effectively delivered and change the business in the way they are intended. TPM’s experience comes from a background working on tax projects and developing the project management capability of professional partnerships.

The company has extensive experience of working with clients in many industry areas, in the private and public sector. Services include managing implementations - for example of new structures, processes or software; and managing transitions, such as changes of supplier. Drawing on best practice, and working alongside existing specialist advisors, TPM ensures projects are implemented successfully and benefits are realised. It focuses on making things happen, providing a robust framework for managing costs, personnel (both internal and external), and managing the quality of outcomes.

TPM understands the often conflicting demands faced by executive-tier management in that it is often difficult to manage the peaks of resource demand when projects arise. Using its expertise and knowledge, TPM enables business leaders to free up in-house resources whilst at the same time achieving high-quality outcomes, within deadlines and budgets.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Tel: 020 8144 3391

info@tpm-projects.co.uk

www.tpm-projects.co.uk

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3.02.2012 - Agile project management

There is an excellent summary of the role of Agile within the project management professsion here; http://aspireeurope.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/agile-is-it-the-new-prince2/

Interestingly, within a day of seeing this, I find myself invited to a conference, the flyer for which claimed the...

"reality of Agile as the de-facto standard for the management, development and delivery of Projects, Programmes and Products in the 21st century, across the Public and Private Sectors."

This claim cannot be justified, and only serves further to devalue the role Agile actually plays in the profession.

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20.01.2012 - TPM Newsletter January 2012

TPM newsletter

January 2012

Third anniversary

TPM is now approaching its third anniversary. It is extraordinary how quickly those years have gone, and it is always interesting to reflect on what has been achieved. Just over a year ago I was providing project management training to a group of consultants in Tblisi, Georgia. That was an interesting assignment; see below. The period since then has been very hectic with Doug and I almost full time applied to a major client programme, completed in December. This was a significant implementation, the largest ‘welfare to work’ implementation in Europe.

This being the social media age I have been dragged (almost literally) into the Twitter-sphere; and set up a TPM blog to complete the transformation. See below for full details.

TPM is moving rapidly into new service areas, which is very exciting. Details are set out under Services Update.

New TPM blog

Click here to access the blog. I am keen to get ideas and of course more items posted - please do let me have any feedback, together with contributions you wish to publish. If you wish to hook up on Twitter you can find me at @johnsrowley.

Services update

Ø Training

TPM delivered project management training to a consultancy business in Tblisi, Georgia, in September 2010. This was our first opportunity to develop a five day training programme. A key aspect for me was that this training gave me the opportunity to develop my thinking further with regard to project management training (as well as my first experience of presenting with simultaneous translation!).

I have long held the view that all available references should be invoked; Project Management Institute, Association for Project Management, Prince2, etc. I do not believe a training course based on the materials of one source can possibly be as powerful. In addition to these sources, on the five day programme I was able to include international and national standards in project management (ISO, BS, etc). I believe this enriched the material further, and look forward to the next opportunity to use these materials. Please contact me or Doug by email or on 020 8144 3391 if you would like to hear more about the training available.

Ø Professional services

TPM prides itself on its ability to apply project management best practice to areas of business that have not traditionally focussed in this area. Professional advisory services fall in this category. In November 2010 I found myself presenting to a group of life actuaries in Birmingham at their national conference – very timely as the actuarial profession has been getting to grips with the challenges of ‘Solvency II’.

In addition we have working recently with businesses in the legal profession as it goes through a period of significant change. Challenges such as those arising from the Legal Services Act, the establishment of ‘legal process outsourcing’ (LPO) businesses, and the extension of services provided in-house by corporate legal counsel, have all changed the market for legal firms. There is much that can be done to support businesses as they confront these changes.

For an overview of services TPM can provide, please here.

More updates will follow. In the meantime I hope you have a very happy, and prosperous, 2012.

John Rowley

January, 2012

Tax Project Management Ltd Registered in England No. 6796984
www.tpm-projects.co.uk Tel: 020 8144 3391

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20.12.2011 - The role of HR and Procurement professionals in engaging project management skills

For those of us in the project management profession there seems to be an issue regarding engaging project management (“PM”) skills in an organisation. The hiring of PM skills may of course arise through the recruitment of a new member of staff or by engaging with a supplier organisation – so HR and Procurement professionals have a critical role here.

The difficulty is that the PM profession doesn’t signal well enough the requirements for PM roles in the UK corporate environment.

The UK corporate preoccupation seems to be with the Prince2 qualification. Whenever you see a PM role advertised, or a service put to tender, the chances are you will find Prince2 specified. For those people not in the know, Prince2 is a project management method closely aligned with the UK public sector. It is a good PM method - it has many strengths. But it also has the (negative) characteristic that it can be achieved by attending a 5 day training course. Therefore many people seek a Prince2 qualification (Foundation or Practitioner) to enhance their chances of getting a PM job, and hence there is a very well developed body of training companies specialising in Prince2. The training companies who specialise in this qualification are very keen to see as wide a take up as possible - it is good business. But - here is the key – Prince2 is just one of many methods. There are many methods developed by corporates that are not Prince2, but are equally valid – indeed more so when the specific requirements of a particular industry are taken into account.

In fact, there is more to project management than ‘methods’. There are professional institutes – Association for Project Management, Project Management Institute – who both promote PM best practice but also codify this in their own ‘Body of Knowledge’ and provide their own professional certifications for practitioners. Some of these certifications are extremely difficult to obtain, and one of those organisations (the APM) is currently seeking the cherished UK chartered status.

So the issue about Prince2 is that whilst it is a good method, it is ‘just’ a method, and not the only one ‘out there’ either. In my view Prince2 does not provide us with the best way of identifying a high calibre project manager, notwithstanding that it is extremely well known and heavily promoted by many organisations. My belief is that we need more balance in the appraisal of PM competencies and experience, and we need therefore to be more mindful of the potential information that an APM or PMI certification can tell us about a candidate/potential supplier.

And HR and Procurement professionals have a key role to play in this process.

[See also my Blog; ‘Worrying trends – a rant in 2010’]

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19.12.2011 - Developments in the legal profession

The legal profession is facing unprecedented pressures. The combined impact of the Legal Services Act, and the challenge of providing efficiencies in service delivery through shared service and business process outsourcing (aka LPO) structures is causing ripples in the profession. Additionally, for professional firms, there is the added challenge of dealing increasingly with in-house counsel, and seeing the scope of services, and margins, come under pressure.

Magic circle firms are responding by applying significant resources to dealing with these issues. The responses from other firms are more patchy.

Through November/December 2011 TPM has been working with Lighthouse (http://www.lighthouseglobal.eu.com) in speaking to firms in the legal sector, engaging with them on how to deal with these pressures, and advising on how to act to protect both revenues and margins.

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