Organizing and Managing Innovation
Project Structure
Key elements include establishing a project structure, developing a project plan and budget, recruiting resources, project training of project teams and facilitating project team meetings, and communication between project members and the community.
The project structure includes a Steering Committee made up of key representatives of your organization, along with key stakeholders and customers. This committee meets monthly to provide guidance and remove barriers for the project teams.
The second element of the project structure consists of project teams for each new innovation. These teams meet weekly, review and update project plans, solve problems, and agree on plans for the following week. They attend monthly Steering Committee meetings to report on progress and share information.
The third element of the project structure includes project Subject Matter Experts such as customers, technical specialists, research personnel, and others who provide research, education, information, and council to accommodate project design and implementation plans. The project manager facilitates decision making events, attends and updates project status at steering committee meetings, facilitates project team meetings, and tracks project tasks and financial activities.
Project management utilizes many of the leadership behaviors discussed previously and will be referenced as we discuss key elements of leading innovation design or redesign initiatives. The beginning involves defining project goals in measurable terms. For example, the innovation goal of XYZ company is to design a fish finding system for up to minute tracking of fish by December 15, 2016.
Defining the goal serves to determine estimates for elapsed time for project completion, project scope regarding time, personnel, material supplies (computers, manuals, networking equipment, and so on), resources (consultants, access to data, and so on), and finally cost estimates based on time and scope deliberations (Figure 14.1).
Figure 14.1 Project scope
Project Management Roadmap
There are four key elements or steps involved in leading an innovation project through to successful completion. Figure 14.2 illustrates each step including Initiate, Plan, Implement, and Close out the project.
Figure 14.2 Project roles and tasks
For a project of any sort to be successful, there are several roles to be filled during the project lifecycle. Those roles include:
Sponsor: Provides authorization and funding for the project. Additionally provides information for project goals and objectives and makes final decision on project plans and execution.
Customer: Persons receiving program services. Provide project requirements, goals and objectives, and communicates with the project manager and team leader during the project and may attend team meetings.
Stakeholders: Anyone affected by the project. May not receive the services of the project but have a stake in the project such as resource providers, community members and suppliers. They may attend team meetings and benchmark updates.
Project manager: Manages the project and team members, communicates regularly with the sponsor, customers, and designated stakeholders on progress, and is accountable for bringing the project in on time and within budget.
Team leader: May be the project manager or someone who manages parts of the project and is accountable for communicating with and motivating team members, ensuring other project groups are communicated with, and delivering his/her part of the project in on time and within budget.
Team members: Members are specialists who possess critical knowledge and skills required for the project.
Resource manager: Provides resources for the project such as information technology, materials, technical knowledge, and facilities.
Administrative support: Provides administrative support for scheduling, updating project data, reporting plans, and coordinating team member activities.
The business case is designed in the Initiate Phase and is used to request project funding and/or organizational support for your initiative. The process is similar to many fund application processes used by grantees and has been helpful to others when thinking through the key elements of the innovation to be attempted.
Plan The Plan
The purpose of Project Planning (Figure 14.3) is to:
Figure 14.3 Project plan
A. Develop measurable goals and objectives for the project.
B. Identify stakeholders who will be affected by the project and develop collaboration between the project team and stakeholders.
C. Determine the cost and scope of the project.
D. Identify tasks, expertise needed, responsibilities, authority, target dates and timelines.
E. Anticipate risk.
F. Secure support and approvals and develop a budget.
The purpose of the project goal is to provide clear focus for the project. Project objectives are used to determine project resources and budget.
Goal statements include required action, costs, and timeline for the project.
Examples:
1. Develop three storybooks for ages 3 to 5 by March 30, 2009, within the budget of $28,000.
2. Conduct energy audit of 20 county buildings to identify short- and long-term initiatives for increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs by April 15, 2017.
Once the goals are established, you are in position to determine how feasible your initiative may be. Considerations include project scope, deliverables, resources, and potential constraints. A worksheet for determining your project’s feasibility is illustrated in Figure 14.4.
Figure 14.4 Feasibility worksheet
The Work Plan
Work Breakdown Structure
A key element of the plan is organizing tasks for scheduling your work and fine-tuning the budget. Mind mapping is a proven tool for effectively and efficiently identifying and categorizing tasks. The goal is stated in the circle and tasks to accomplish the goal are brainstormed and listed on branches (Figure 14.5).
Figure 14.5 Work breakdown structure
After organizing tasks, the resources and budget can be determined. The worksheet shown in Figure 14.6 is a tool for determining a budget for your project.
Figure 14.6 Budget example
Gantt Charts were developed to depict the project plan and provide a means for monitoring and communicating progress by project milestones (Figure 14.7). Smaller projects may use an Action Planning format instead for monitoring progress and problem solving (Figure 14.8).
Figure 14.7 Gantt chart
Figure 14.8 Action plan
Approval Process
1. To avoid problems, it is advisable to obtain approval for moving ahead at each stage of the project.
2. Once your plan is developed, the project should be approved with a signature by the project sponsor.
3. The team or project sponsor can use the action planning form described earlier, a Gantt chart, or other agreed upon document for obtaining needed review and approvals at each stage or milestone of your project.
Communicate and Evaluate
Project teams will have a schedule for communicating progress and obtaining approval for changes and to proceed to next milestone.
Typically, a weekly or biweekly meeting will be scheduled with the project sponsor and key stakeholders for information sharing and decision making on the project.
In those meetings, the project team will review their Gantt Chart or Action Plan worksheet and solicit input and support from sponsor and stakeholders.
Those meetings should begin with the project plan review meeting in which final approval for the plan is obtained, processes for purchasing are agreed upon, and a meeting schedule is determined.