Why do projects fail? Lack of executive sponsorship? Lack of funding? Poor planning or project governance? Lack of buy-in at all levels? The reasons go on and on – but the Centre of Excellence approach doesn’t touch on this. We prefer to ask, “Why do projects succeed? How do ideas become action and how do concepts come to fruition?”

BLTC Group’s Centre of Excellence approach (COE) puts into place an effective framework on which to guide a project from germination to harvest. We plan on success rather than avoiding failure.

Sometimes a project can start to look like “Who’s on First” corporate style. Who’s supposed to do this? What’s he supposed to do? I don’t know who’s doing the rest. As you can imagine, your project is about to devolve into a mess; an expensive, time-consuming mess. This is what a RACI document can help you prevent. Its purpose is to identify roles and responsibilities for a given project. It can tell you who’s on first.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Proper planning prevents poor performance. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. You’ve heard them all; planning is important. But it is also complex, intensive, and requires a little finesse with a crystal ball. Of projects that experience schedule slippage, 60 percent use no planning tools or methods; another 30 percent used planning methodology but not tools. Who knows what happens to the other 10 percent, but the majority tracked slippage back to lack of proper planning. This is why many PMI methodology tools are designed to aid this crucial step. Let’s take a look at three tools that can help a project start on the right note.