Failing to plan is a plan to fail, so the old saying goes. As projects require many artefacts at the launch of a project, one that is often missing is an execution strategy, which could make or break its ability to succeed.
Any seasoned project practitioner knows the document load that comes with establishing and executing projects well: project management plans, project charters, master schedules, resourcing plans and many more.
The old adage of failing to plan is a plan to fail is apt in project delivery because there are many pathways to be evaluated to solving a business problem and it’s rare to define only one that will lead to successful outcomes.
However, one of the most valuable contributors to navigating those pathways is defining an execution strategy, which provides the high-level, strategic approach that shows how a project might achieve its objectives.
Consider Your Mode of Metaphorical Transport
An execution strategy is a bit like planning a trip. There are many modes of transport that will help you reach your destination – a car, a plan, a boat, chartered tour, or in some more obscure ones, it may be multimodal. There are factors that are going to influence how you choose to get there, like whether you’re travelling in a group, the needs and preferences that need to be accommodated, how much time you have, and the budget that’s available, all of which influence which decisions you need to make.
Each decision point will present pros and cons and you’ll have to consider which is going to help you get there based on your own goals for your trip. If speed to destination is important, perhaps booking the next commercial flight is the smart play, get there comfortably with supplies you can carry on and quick as you can. Maybe the car is a better way forward, you can carry more gear with loaded roof racks and trailers to have all the kit needed for the adventure, it may take more time but be a more cost-effective solution.
There are all elements – time, speed, cost – that influence execution in projects and they are relevant to the importance of what a good execution strategy must consider, for example:
- The needs and expectations of the stakeholders;
- The purpose, objectives and benefits that influence decisions you need to make;
- The scope, resources, and dependences in the project; and
- The associated risks and change considerations.
A well-defined execution strategy will provide the elements that support a project’s success:
- It will align the stakeholders and SteerCo members around a single approach that they agree/deem to be the best way forward to deliver the project and its benefits
- It will provide the project team with a framework for detailed planning, sizing, and prioritisation to gain forwad traction.
Let’s break these down further.
Aligning Your Stakeholders
A boat will gather momentum when everyone is rowing in the same direction: that is the power of aligning stakeholders, sponsors, and the project team around an execution strategy.
Everyone involved is on the same page about the order of work and the project’s priorities, when resources or support needs to be applied, and how to address disagreements in the project. The execution strategy will have debated and finalised these considerations before the project is deep in execution and becomes very expensive to rework.
In its early state, an execution strategy is a bit like an options paper in which each option for the project has a cost profile, risk profile, benefits profile, and other pros and cons. There will typically be some form of sliding scale that illustrates where more aggressive approaches bring benefits forward but carry greater risk or the more conservative approaches that allow for smaller end-to-end pieces that allow for lessons to be learned before ramping up. The latter may take more time to complete but be more diligent on cost.
It’s an important opportunity to agree a way forward before the inevitable challenges arise in projects and a valuable way of mitigating against projects derailing.
Unlock both planning and progress
Project teams can get bogged down in detailed project planning, trying to present a workable project schedule and as various teams and resources come together with their own views, the bottom-up approach can become a bit like boiling the ocean.
An execution strategy can break the deadlock of planning challenges by applying guiding principles that allow teams to break into planning, task allocation, and progress quickly. It provides the framework to work within that teams can often more effectively apply and come up with the best ways to make it work.
Naturally, to be successful, the execution strategy cannot be divorced from any practical reality. It must take into account the teams’ capabilities and constraints and enable them to build a plan they can be confident is workable and meets expectations. It also provides them with a clear understanding of what ‘good looks like’ and helps to identify quickly if something isn’t workable so that it can be raised quickly and effectively.
Applying an Execution Strategy
An execution strategy doesn’t need to be its own document – it can be a set of slides in a SteerCo presentation or an options paper. What is important is that the debate occurs and consensus is reached on how the project will be undertaken.
Most execution strategies boil down to a few approaches:
The Big Bang
This is an approach that implements everything, all at once. It has the potential to be high-risk if the implementation is poor as the impact is far-reaching.
The Phased Approach
This approach splits the project into logical phases to de-risk completion, bring forward benefits, work around any constraints, and address dependencies between phases. For example, prioritising development of digital front end assets in the first phase and planning to develop process automation using those new digital assets in a later phase.
The Stream Approach
This approach includes running concurrent and related streams of work independently to allow each stream to focus on their deliverables and time frames, without impacting each other with delays and dependency.
The Staggered Approach
A staggered approach is similar to a phased approach, however a staggered (or staged) approach is more vertically aligned in contrast to the phased approach, which is more horizontally aligned. An example would be developing a pilot to solicit feedback and then roll out more end-to-end features to more users.
Execution Strategy Avoids Most Surprises
The above approaches don’t represent a complete list of considerations for execution and execution strategy can go far deeper into change management and go-live decisions (parallel runs, soft launches and so on). However it’s an important conversation to have when designing business cases, high-level project planning, and when writing a project charter.
Project Managers do not like surprises any more than sponsors or stakeholders do; the conversation around execution strategy allows for a meaningful way to identify points of difference, opinion, and contention early in the life cycle, which buys the project team the time to develop a successful plan and provide the sponsors with the confidence of good strategic thinking.
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