TOP is the internationally recognized strategy-based, business-driven approach to delivering Totally Optimized Projects™ (TOP).

1. What is TOP?
2. How is TOP different?
3. Why do we need TOP?
4. What is TOP’s ethos?
5. What are TOP’s Guiding Principles?
6. What are the benefits of TOP?
7. How does TOP optimize projects?
8. How is TOP optimized?
9. How does TOP relate to the ‘standards’?
10. So, What’s my choice?

What is TOP?

TOP can be viewed from several dimensions – as a philosophy, a process, a skill-set. TOP is best described as...

• a step-by-step approach to successfully delivering totally optimized projects,
• based on a set of proven principles
• that underpin a complete, integrated and optimized set of processes
• that equip business staff and project professionals
• to simply, effectively and consistently deliver
• their (optimized) desired business outcomes, associated benefits and value in full
• in less time and for less cost.

TOP is the most complete yet simple approach to projects yet devised.

How is TOP different?

We could list many, many differences, but the following sum up some of the key differences

1. Takes a business perspective – the project perspective is too narrow
2. Takes a holistic perspective – including all of the business elements and roles
3. Fills the gaps and remedies the deficiencies in the current project delivery approaches
4. Equips the business to lead, direct, control and implement their projects
5. Reduces the time and cost to deliver projects
6. Increases the outcomes, benefits and value realized.

Simple.

In addition, it …

TOP™

Totally completely, without the process gaps and deficiencies, or the value losses and destruction, prevalent in current projects

Optimized the best, most practical value out of the options and resources available with maximum efficiency

Projects any change/development activity done outside of business-as-usual.

Why do we need TOP?

Four compelling reasons:

1 Your organization’s capability to deliver projects is critical to its success.

Projects are how you deliver your strategy. Therefore, your organization’s strategy (and future success) is only as good as your (project) capability to deliver it.

Using the common conventional project approaches, organizations’ capability to deliver projects has barely improved over the past 25 years (as measured by project delivery efficiency success rates).

Most projects still miss, lose or destroy more value than they deliver.

TOP directly improves project performance.

2 Your project capability is a business issue.

The key determinant of project success is business involvement.

To misquote Georges Clemenceau

“Projects are too important to be left to the project practitioners.”

However, your business must not just be involved, it must be equipped to lead, direct and drive its projects to success.

For your business to lead, direct and drive projects, you have to change your perspective, challenge some of your belief systems and optimize your approaches.

TOP makes these changes.

3 Your capability needs to be optimized to deliver the results you need.

To optimize your approach you need complete, optimized and integrated processes, tools, templates and techniques.

Complete incorporating the roles and actions of all project participants from the Board to front line staff

Optimized specifically designed to discover and deliver the optimum value for the optimum cost

Integrated end-to-end and top-to-bottom from corporate planning to post-project benefits realization, so as to seamlessly deliver Totally Optimized Projects™ (TOP™).

Only TOP meets all three of these criteria.

4 It routinely increases the realized returns on investment two to three times.

Our research at BCG found that the returns on investment increased exponentially at each level of project optimisation capability.

TOP is specifically designed to move you immediately to capability level 4 where the results routinely delivered are routinely two to three times current actual returns being realized by most organizations

That’s double the value for the same level of investment.

And for less effort and in less time.

Compelling.

What is TOP’s ethos?

1. Every dollar/euro/pound counts
2. Knowing what you’re doing is of little value if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve
3. Every step, every action, every element of a project contributes or confounds optimization – therefore, everything is important
4. Any broken or ineffective link, every deficient or mis-focused process, tool, template or technique sub-optimizes the end results
5. Many existing processes need inverting – they’re focused on the wrong dimension (eg cost and not value)
6. The optimal value is the total realized value net of the costs of delivery and operation

What are TOP’s Guiding Principles?

1. There are only two types of project – optimized and sub-optimized
2. You need to start with the end defined
3. The people in the business know the business better than any project specialists
4. Technology solutions exist to serve the business, not vice versa
5. Software is a set of specific automated processes
6. 90% of the value can often be delivered for 60% of the cost – the TOP optimisation rule.

What are the benefits of TOP?

Totally Optimized Projects deliver optimal results (outcomes), increased benefits and value faster, while reducing the costs of delivery through time, effort and cost optimisation.

Faster Eliminates duplication of effort, streamlines processes, accelerates learning and training

Lower cost Eliminates duplication of projects, reduces wasted effort/time, optimizes cost-to-benefits value, culls poor or failing projects early (and later, if necessary)

Increased value Increases number and value of benefits, optimizes benefits-to-costs to deliver, embeds benefits realization into project delivery, enables early, continuous and progressive benefits delivery, and tracks increases in available value

Improved results Clarifies true measures of success (outcomes/results) in business, project and governance terms – and then aligns the project’s topography to realize them

Simplified Equips business people to easily understand and adopt – and enables previously inexperienced staff to deliver extraordinary results

Leverages skills Builds on existing project management and other skill-sets, refocusing them where necessary to optimize the results and drive the desired TOP behaviour.

How does TOP optimize projects?

Some examples: TOP …

• Increases the search for and identification of benefits and value at the outset
  — too much value can be lost at the outset due to poor scope and requirements definitions
• Culls early projects that are irrelevant, unsupported, unviable, not feasible, not doable or not a priority — too many ideas become projects when they should have been culled or redefined
• Focuses the expenditure onto the most cost-effective (optimal) areas of value
  — few projects can align their costs to the specific benefits, therefore, cost/value optimization is not possible for them
• Focuses each and every element of the project on the successful delivery of the optimized value — ensuring the project plans are designed to deliver the value in the business case (which is rarely the case)
• Tracks and protects the agreed business value to ensure the optimized value is fully realized — ensuring every decision made on the project and in the business is knowingly focused on ensuring and protecting the delivery of the agreed outcomes, benefits and value
• Stops and refocuses or culls projects that are no longer relevant, supported, viable, feasible, doable or a priority — preventing projects being ‘condemned to completion’ once approved regardless of their ability to deliver a viable, valuable business value proposition

How is TOP optimized?

TOP has taken 46 man-years to develop, prove and then simplify so that it can be easily adopted and used by business management and staff. We optimized TOP’s design by simplifying key elements while enforcing the necessary level of specificity.

For example (and these are only a few optimization examples):

• The same key frameworks and processes are used and re-used in different environments. For example, the Change Planning Framework is used to plan the (change) project, benefits realization, issues and risk management
• Similarly with the definition of ‘outcomes’ process – once you have learned how to define a clear, specific, measurable ‘outcome’ statement you can re-use it to specify your business, project, risk, change and issue outcomes.
• As a major driver of project under-performance is sloppy thinking that leads directly to extra work and cost as well as reduced value — the worst possible combination. TOP provides pre-defined ‘tables’ to be completed to ensure clear, specific thinking. These tables are designed to enforce a rigorous way of thinking and a common way of capturing information.
• These disciplines, in turn, highlight poorly thought through projects but the standardization means that disparate projects can be easily compared allowing the optimization of the project portfolio.
• Each element is integrated with all of other the relevant elements. For example, the business case is integrated with the project/change planning, investment management, governance, portfolio analysis and benefits realization processes. Few business cases are either optimized or integrated.

How is TOP delivered/made available?

There is a reluctance to give step-by-step guidance in relation to projects, especially for senior management and experienced practitioners, but one of the greatest problems with projects is that they fail due to missed steps, inappropriate practices and unfounded beliefs. It is therefore necessary to address project optimization at the detailed level.

Each TOP element is comprehensively documented and defined through one or more

• “Understanding …” guides — addressing the organizational mindset through the understanding dimension
• “How to …” guides — providing the step-by-step processes through the project/ program/ portfolio delivery dimension
• “Competency development” — equipping you with individual skills through the competency dimension.

Generating Understanding

The TOP ‘Understanding’ Guides, books and reports equip all project participants, all the way up to the Board, with a common way of thinking and understanding of key project optimization topics such as “Prioritisation,” “Estimating,” “Benefits,” and “Project Risks”.

Too often these topics are mis-understood or need to be redefined as a result of dispelling commonly held myths and erroneous beliefs.

TOP’s ‘understanding’ is often different to the norm as it is defined from the perspective of the strategy and business value lenses (not just the project perspective) and is based on the Eight Self-Evident Truths.

Providing the processes

Each TOP process, tool, template and technique is defined through one or more “How to …” guides. These guides address step-by-step each project process and define the when, why, and how these steps are to be performed by each role (who). The description of each process is complete and easy to action by all relevant parties since it includes every role involved and is integrated top-to-bottom and end-to-end. No more holes to sub-optimize projects and their results!

These guides are supported where necessary by working session guides, slides, reference guides, case studies and templates for easy adoption and use.

Equipping competency

TOP also provides “Competency” coaching, mentoring, education and development courses and materials that address the individual skills dimension of each technique. Being business and value based, TOP techniques are easily learned and adopted by non-expert business staff so everyone can effectively drive their own projects to success.

TOP’s design plus its accelerated learning techniques, equip you to learn and adopt the optimized approaches easily and fast.

All of these materials are available on this website.

How does TOP relate to the ‘standards’?

TOP is not a project or technical management methodology or body of knowledge; there are enough of these already. TOP does not try to reinvent the project management wheel. Most of the existing project delivery ‘standards’ deal with project delivery areas not directly focused on by TOP. However, TOP integrates with and builds on these existing methodologies and standards.

But TOP does realign them where necessary and, at times, adds the meat to the standard’s bones where they are only directional or principles based.

Understandably, these standards are primarily developed from the ‘project perspective’ - therefore, TOP tends to approach common topics from a different perspective to deliver different (optimized) results. For example, Portfolio Management can be viewed as a means of controlling a portfolio of projects (the project view) or as a means of controlling the implementation of the organization’s strategy (the TOP view).

The following diagram illustrates where the existing standards address the TOP 10 Programs and topologies.

More details on how TOP Integrates with the existing standards and methodologies is available on the website.

So, What’s my choice?

Now, there are only two types of projects

Totally optimized and sub-optimized;

Those that deliver value and those that destroy value.

Totally Optimized Projects equips you to consistently deliver totally optimized business results and value.

Or, alternatively, you can continue to use approaches that miss, lose or destroy more value than they deliver.

That’s your choice.

TOP is your solution.