The Charities Project Manifesto was published nearly two years ago. I have been looking at the first 3 parts of the manifesto and asking if it is still relevant and is it being applied in practice.
Part 1. Carry out projects to introduce beneficial change
Quote from a Charity IT project lead….”we delivered the project on time, cost and quality but nobody used it much. There was no real benefit”
Report card C+
In my view not enough people really understand the nature of change management and the importance it should be given to deliver beneficial change!
Part 2. Only do projects which have an appropriate sponsor and supportive, decisive governance.
Quote from a Charity IT project lead….”we had a change in Directors and a new sponsor for the project and they didn’t want to make any decisions ….we acted as a proxy for the Directors in decision making”
Report card C-
In my view many sponsors would benefit from more support and coaching in the role. (…especially if being a sponsor is a new role for them).
Related Blog – Project Management for Charities
Part 3. Understand & commit the skills & resources required.
Quote from a Charity IT project lead….”In the charity space we have to be masters of all things….we have to cover many skills and have a deep subject matter knowledge across all those skill areas in the projects we do”
Report card B-
There are not enough Charities who have a strong project culture. Charities can benefit from more training and support to understand and commit the appropriate skills to change projects and work with partners who have a mature project culture.
One of the reasons that I partner with Verbat Technologies is to broker a relationship between Charities and IT professionals who have the technical capability and project methodology to consistently deliver excellent applications. The offshore model for application development also means that applications can be maintained and supported in a cost effective way. Charities and non-profits who want to improve their project culture can benefit from working with partners like Verbat & ARETEN and experience what a strong project culture can deliver.
About ARETEN;
We provide services for Charity and not for profits including Cloud & CRM implementation, customisation and consulting services and we have some innovative platforms that will really add value to your business.
For our clients we offer assessment, design, customisation, implementation, integration and support services. Our project consulting service offers help throughout the complete life cycle of the project and we run a fully managed service complete with project management staff. We help to improve the project culture within organisations by coaching and mentoring people to manage change projects and to realise the benefits needed.
We are headquartered in the UK and we have a mixture of onshore and offshore expertise and support. We work with some great partners to allow us to provide excellent services.
