Project and Change Management on Business Case Optimising Procurement Process Documentation PMGT5020

The opportunity that was discovered, wastes were identified during my Gemba walk Business case practice (Optimising Procurement Documentation Process) that was submitted as Part 1, this is a follow up document - Part 2 - describing in detail how it relates to lean transformation project.

1. Selected Project Management Methodology and Lifecyle

In my case study, the Agile Project management methodology was the suitable option as there must have been active involvement of Stakeholders/customers from beginning to the end. ThePMBOK Guidetakes the view that stakeholder influence occurs up front and then declines throughout the rest of the project (PMI, 2004, p. 21). In agile projects, however, the stakeholders influence remains strong and does not decrease until the product is released and the project is over. (Sliger, 2008)

That was not the only reason why Agile methodology was suitable option, also there was very limited time, instants feedbacks and collaboration needed from the stakeholders. Additionally, process improvements always required until the stakeholders satisfaction was fulfilled, and wastes were eliminated. Long story short, all of the above listed principles were adding up the definition on Agile Project management methodology rather than Waterfall, as also Agile project management methodology focusing on whole project to be finalised in smaller parts and as result those finished parts will add up to produce the big part-final product (project completion). Please refer to Figure 1 shown below for the visual representation of Agile Project Management Lifecyle and further on how it was reflected in my case study.

There were three stakeholders, Procurement, Project Team and external bidders. After discovering the issue/waste before taking any action, what Document Manager was done first to set up a follow up meeting with Procurement department who also was the voice of the other stakeholder (Project team and Bidders) to understand the current process, its tools, issues/wastes, and stakeholders requirements. During that meeting, preliminary solutions listed, going forward steps were listed and responsibilities for creating the tasks were assigned along with the due dates. There was only three weeks until the next RFI package submission, therefore the process optimisation project had to be finalised by that time.

After the meeting, first responsibility was on the Document Management team to evaluate the different solutions from the eDMS point of view to find the best approach to solve the issues or eliminating the wastes (time, resources, communication). After deciding on the best possible solution, draft version of the new workflow had been created in alignment with meeting notes and was sent to Procurement department for their review and approval. Creation of new workflow had to be done within a week.

After releasing the new process document beginning of the second week (also second iteration), procurement team responsibilities were to give written confirmation to Document management on implementing the workflow on the eDMS physically and inform other stakeholders (Project team and Bidders) about the new workflow and its tool to give heads up. In parallel activity Document Management team had to integrate the agreed process to eDMS. After all the team members completed their tasks, by the end of the second week there was new workflow and integration to eDMS were completed.

As last and final outcome of the optimisation project what was left for the 3^rd week was testing and formally rolling out the optimised RFI process to all project team. At the beginning of that week different scenarios tested and some alterations were made in a live eDMS environment with procurement team. For the second half, training manuals created and scheduled for both Internally (all project team) and externally (bidders).

After the completion of optimising the procurement documentation process, this process was reviewed by myself 2 months on weekly basis and collected feedbacks for the continues improvement, eliminating all the wastes along the way.

2. Five Lean Principles and their Relation to Business Case

Please see below 5 lean principles listed according Project Management Institute (PMI) and its relation to my case study on Optimisation of Procurement Documentation Process.

3. Change Necessary Approach by using ADKAR

Procurement department had a workflow before the new workflow was rolled out. Even if they were working inefficiently and wasting a lot of time and energy on RFI documentation exchange they were used to be working like that. Maybe they were never going to be aware the time and resources that they were spending if the document submissions were not delayed. Actually, after that point everyone in the project was aware as it was going to be shown on the project schedule. If procurement team has not been contacted the Document Manager by themselves, I would show the monthly updated schedule to the Procurement Manager and ask the reason of it by pointing out its consequence to project and make them aware of the problem. After listening the reasons of their delay, I would suggest that a change is necessary and point out to them that if they have more efficient and atomised way of working, how they could have work-life balance (could finish earlier and enjoy with family longer), quality and efficiency on their work, basically more free time to do more important things in their lists to awaken their desire on this change. Once they see those points and agree on the change, as this is relating to Document Management, I would suggest them to contact them and discuss how to integrate their current workflow and needs to the projects eDMS (having knowledge of the system capabilities) as they would be the expertise in that matter. After that I would align with Document Management team on the next steps and making sure that regular document management system trainings on the usage of the platform to make everyone in the project have knowledge on the tool was provided. In relation to that I would suggest to Document Management to create a platform only for training purposes of the eDMS (not live-project platform) to be able to make the team/procurement to try the new workflow steps by themselves in assistance of Document management. That would give them the opportunity to practice themselves and ability to use the platform.

After completion of the first 4 steps of the ADKAR model, the only remaining step would be the Reinforcement and I would do that by doing regular catch ups with parties (stakeholders) involved in the process and in those meetings, I would highlight the Pros of the new way of working such as the schedule, the project as well as their personal life.