TNO is the innovative and innovative research institute in the Netherlands. TNO plays a crucial role in the sustainability, safety, health and digital developments of the Netherlands and the European Union. All these innovations are created in a project-based way, making TNO a leading professional organization in the field of project management. In cooperation with Projects Insight, TNO has further improved the project management approach, so that projects can be carried out more efficiently and more resources can be made available for innovations.
Even though TNO has been working on a project basis for years, it remains possible to improve project management. The trick, however, is to make this a continuous and structured process and not to always respond to things that “happen” by chance. Projects Insight's Project Excellence philosophy provides an approach that works and leads to improvements. In doing so, a monthly Project Health Check process acts as a flywheel for continuous learning not only as individuals but also as an organization.
At TNO, we have designed a monthly Project Health Check process under the name Project Fitness. This process empowers project managers and gives line management the opportunity to think along and offer help to the project manager. In addition, this process helps identify project management improvements within TNO.
How does that work?
Like many organizations, at TNO, a skilled project manager is appointed at the start of a project to make the project a success. And preferably, the project manager is also already involved in the project's acquisition process. But the skilled project manager also sometimes faces challenges in projects. In projects, there are so many factors that influence the implementation of the project that, as a project manager, you must continuously look ahead to prevent possible problems. However, in your daily hustle and bustle with team, customer, work and meetings, among others, time flies by and regular reflection is sometimes skipped.
The Project Fitness report at TNO is then a wake-up call that, as a project manager, you should take some time to zoom out and look ahead. Of course, it's better to do this weekly or even daily, but we all know how it works in practice sometimes. In the monthly wake-up call, the project manager reflects on concerns, challenges and risks in the future. By sharing these concerns, challenges and risks openly and transparently in a timely manner, you can make use of TNO's knowledge and experience for solutions. This starts with your own manager, but can easily be scaled up to other parts of the TNO organization. This depends on the impact of the care you have, the risk you see, or the challenge you have in front of you. You also have the opportunity to discuss the issues you see with an experienced project manager from the Project Excellence team. The TNO organization then offers help to the project manager, while the project manager remains at the helm of the project.
Easy and fast
The Project Fitness process is supported by a user-friendly and well-organized application. The strength of the application is that it is not statically organized, but supports the entire process. Line managers have a quick and easy overview of all projects within the department, and selecting projects to discuss is also efficient and convenient. Project managers are immediately provided with all available (financial) project information and, in fact, only report their concerns, risks and challenges. In addition, project managers are also challenged to describe the actions they are already taking themselves. Because everyone saves a lot of time each month through ease of use and overview, the investment in the application is quickly recouped.
Overview provides timely insight
Ultimately, all this information provides an overview of projects, from which you, as a manager, can easily select projects to discuss and, as an organization, you also have the opportunity to offer help to the project manager. Because we look ahead every month, concerns, risks and challenges are identified and named in time by the project manager. This ensures that we can also take timely measures to prevent things and avoids many invisible costs for solving problems (such as the many ad-hoc meetings that are necessary when problems occur). In addition, the Project Health Check has proven that project losses are reduced by up to 70%.
And the continuous improvement?
This is in several areas. The structured way of working quickly makes it clear which issues are at play in multiple places and what their causes are. An improvement action can then be targeted at this. This can be done in many areas, such as entering additional reviews during the acquisition process, improving templates and tools, or offering training or coaching in a specific part of the field of project management. The Project Excellence team acts as the initiator and driver of the improvement actions.
Ultimately, the success at TNO does not lie in the system or the process, but in the behavior of people. Every month, project managers reflect on their project and projects are discussed. As a result, possible problems are identified earlier and mitigating actions are taken earlier and more effectively. This requires openness and transparency, but also appreciating this openness and actively contributing ideas as management to resolve issues. It requires a mentality of preventing problems in projects together and thereby delivering more value to our clients together.
In fact, it is a project management development process for everyone involved. In addition, you can always improve the best way of working at TNO, so that the same mistakes are made fewer and fewer and causes for issues are eliminated.
Thanks to Project Excellence, TNO is getting a little better every time and our projects are also getting better. This is good for our customers, good for TNO and ensures more and more innovations with impact.
Want to know more?
Get in touch with us!
Mark van den Brink
Project Excellence Program Manager
TNO
Sjacco de Vos
Project Excellence advisor
Projects Insight
Sjacco.de.Vos@ProjectsInsight.nl
