Case study: the impact of a project lifecycle
A project lifecycle provides an efficient and organised approach to undertaking project-based work across a business
Executive summary
A global B2B agency needed to improve efficiencies and profitability in project delivery.
With a large client services team feeding into a single (small) creative team, they were lacking tools, processes, and templates - meaning that projects followed no consistent (or predictable) pattern, resource bookings were often last-minute, briefings were unpredictable, and clients often over-serviced.
Needless to say, profitability suffered as a result.
By identifying a clear project lifecycle - with associated templates and processes to support each task and phase - client services and creative teams became less disjointed, projects were run more consistently and confidently, and project profitability increased.
The challenge
In the service industry where time is money, it's critical that every minute spent by all teams on a project is scoped (in the first instance), well-spent (in doing things that move the project forward) and captured (to inform profitability and future pricing strategies).
In this instance, it was clear that there was no 'one way of doing things' across the client services teams, which was having a great impact on the amount of non-billable time being logged.
Because there was no clear project lifecycle, the project delivery wheel was effectively being reinvented with each new PO.
And with no clear path through to completion, that 'admin' was eating up valuable time that could have been spent on scoped, billable tasks, and closing projects more quickly and profitably, allowing the next one to begin.
The solution
Setting out a series of phases and tasks in the context of a 'project lifecycle' provided the base to a systematic, efficient and organised approach to undertaking project-based work across the business.
Within it were a set of distinct, high-level stages through which a project progresses, in order to move from concept to reality.
By setting it out as such, and asking client teams to work their way through each task (and phase) in turn, the intention was that as a whole, there would be a clear understanding of the expectations around project management - one which was supported by a standardised view of best practice, as well as the relevant supporting tools and templates.
The results
The full - bespoke - project lifecycle was published on the business' intranet, and used both in a full-day enablement session, and also as onboarding for new starters.
Templates to support each phase of the lifecycle - from briefing templates to wash-ups, from kick-off decks to PIR documents - were published and mandated.
Not only did the business start to see time savings (client services had a clear path and check-list to work through, with the critical supporting 'admin' templates), relationships with the creative teams improved, work was resourced and delivered more quickly, risks were better managed, and clients also saw the benefits in faster, more streamlined delivery, and fewer conversations about budget.
What next?
If your business is struggling to deliver consistently, efficiently and profitably, we can help.
We have the experience of developing project lifecycles, implementing tools, systems and processes, and enabling teams to achieve a new set of KPIs.
Get in touch to arrange your free consultation today.
