Strategy Survival Guide

November
December
January
February
w/c
19 26
3 10 17 24 31 7 14 21
28 4 11 18
“Twin-track” paper
Modelling approach
paper
Interim review of
evidence
Paper on informal care
Interim Report (I)
Interim Report (II)
Final Papers Report to sponsor
minister
Inter-Ministerial Group
Meetings
In addition to the overall project milestone plan, It is helpful to develop workstream-specific milestone plans.
This will ensure that all team members are clear as to expectations and deadlines.
Setting milestones
In Practice: SU Alcohol Misuse Project
On the Alcohol project we found it very important to make sure that everyone on the team was clear
about key milestones and understood how their work fed into meeting the objectives and deadlines. We
used our weekly team meeting to review the project plan and the key tasks for the coming week. This
enabled us to discuss issues and circumstances that might impact on the milestones and think about
how we might manage them.
In the early phase of the alcohol project we had some part-time team members. To ensure that they
could contribute effectively and were kept up to date with progress towards our milestones we used a
“buddying” system where a full-time team member kept in touch and updated a part-time one.
The project’s milestones didn’t just affect the team. It was important to involve and work with external
people who could help us achieve our goals. For example, we developed a good working relationship
with our Sponsor Minister’s Private Office, which helped us get papers cleared by the Minister at short
notice and get papers to them when the Minister was actually in the office.
We always celebrated achieving our milestones. For example, when we published our interim analysis,
completed the draft report and at other important times we celebrated with a cake, a celebratory drink, a
meal or simply leaving the office early for a well earned rest.
Strategy Survival Guide – Strategy Skills
Page 69