Project productivity tool

The challenge of understanding and addressing the people and organisation dynamics associated with project delivery, (e.g. resistance to change) has been a recurring theme for APM members. Interest in this subject was confirmed at the APM’s Great Change Debate, March 2015. The Enabling Change SIG recognised an opportunity to develop a tool based on evidence and research that will take the APM closer to achieving its 2020 Vision.

This report provides a summary of the research project that was undertaken, approved and funded by the APM’s volunteer research fund. The project was sponsored by the Enabling Change SIG and the timelines for completion were from May 2015 to May 2016.

The main objectives of this research project were to:
● Provide a means of measurement and diagnosis
● Enable project practitioners to quickly explore and identify potential behavioural obstacles at the team / organisational level
● Provide useful indicators for further exploration so necessary action can be taken to minimise the impact of behavioural obstacles and to maximise productivity

The tool can be used to improve the productivity of project and programme teams or the groups and/or team being directly impacted by the change.

Furthermore, the tool can be used as a one-off intervention or as a vehicle for measurement over time to do a trend analysis of the overall scores for benchmarking purposes.

The research version of the tool is available for all APM members to download and use at no cost and comes with instructions on how to use it. The authors have continued refining and developing the tool since completing this study. You may wish to contact them directly to access an updated version and find out about its application.

Download the productivity tool and related documents