Five lessons Learnt on Project Development and Service Design

Having guided and managed quite a number of projects and service programs, I would love to share some of the lessons I observed and learnt across Government projects and programs in NSW. This is not just for NSW projects - I hope some of these learnings will also help my peers and friends in other Australian Jurisdictions and countries.

If you have any comments and would love to chat more, please let me know and I would love to connect with like-minded people who want to make a difference.

 Be evidence-based

Over the years, I found that projects often lack evidence base on key areas of project development or service design, and this issue is particularly rampant in areas such as service need, option analysis, scope definition, and justification. 

I can go on forever about evidence-based decision making (this is one of my favourite topics and where my passion lies), but generally I would ask the following guiding questions when I am in a project/program:

1.      Is the problem clearly identified? Do we really understand the magnitude of the problem?

2.      What evidence do we have in justifying WHY the solution is the best?

3.      Do we have a framework for key decisions? What are our guiding principles?

4.      Do we have clear evidence between the output and the desired outcomes? Is there any quantitative analysis or research completed?

They are not something ground-breaking, but persistence is key. Being evidence-based in what we do is a bit like running a marathon – it is not about doing it for a short period, but it is a commitment to do it persistently over time.

Be organised

One of the other common pitfalls is a general lack of organisation on information provision. It reflects a deeper issue, which is about information management and sharing. If a project can’t organise information internally, what’s the hope of information being organised and shared with decision makers and with key stakeholders??

Being organised doesn’t mean just having the information available, it is really about providing a roadmap for individuals so they can digest the information at the right sequence, and with less effort.

Find champions

Lack of meaningful stakeholder engagement is detrimental to success. Everyone talks about stakeholder engagement but we often forget about it until it is too late. 

Finding the right project champions really help projects gathering momentum and resources within the organisation, and having stakeholder champions really help projects gather community and general support, especially in a Government setting.

If possible, I would definitely recommend trying to get stakeholder support in writing too, which is really going to help in project development, business cases, and assurance processes.

Plan and address risks, opportunities and issues right from project start

Often when I come into a project close to a key decision point, I would discover many risks and issues are yet to be closed and therefore a project would not meet the government expectation or assurance criteria to move onto the next phase. By that time, it is almost too late to do anything meaningful to address those obvious risks and issues unless the decision is delayed.

I definitely would recommend a quick review at the beginning of each project development cycle, to workshop and understand the key risks, issues and opportunities. This should give the team a list of actions to work through, or at least be part of the project development, and they should largely be addressed, or at least there will be a plan to address them. This would also help focusing the team on key issues and opportunities so the team can structure its decision making and development processes around them.

Be proactive

Another common pitfall of projects is that they are not proactive enough in managing issues during project development. Note I use the term “enough” as this is all relative. I firmly believe having a successful project takes people with courage, the right skills, and a very proactive mindset. When the other parties are not doing enough, raise the issues, tackle the issues early, and try to bridge the gap. Don’t just wait for any issues and risks to eventuate – go manage it!