Best Practice Users

Acknowledged industry leaders along with public sector organisations all testify to the benefits of PRINCE2 and ITIL. Find out what Visa, Microsoft and many other organisations have to say about the internationally recognised best practice approaches, the benefits they bring and why they would recommend others to take them up.

We welcome further contributions to this part of the website, if you would like to provide a case study on how your organisation has implemented and incorporated Best Practice Guidance, please submit a case study by filling in our case study template. Alternatively if you wish to submit a testimonial simply email us at digital@tso.co.uk titling the email Best Practice User.

Case Studies

Permitted use of Best Management Practice Case Studies

The following Best Management Practice Case Studies may be reproduced on these terms and conditions.

IT Service Management - ITIL

Taking IT out of the corner, Müller Dairy (PDF - 93Kb)
By Angela Steel, Sunrise Software
IT plays an integral role in how companies operate and it is essential that internal departments are managed efficiently. The UK's leading yogurt brand, Müller Dairy is known for its company's strong values and innovative product range. The company recognises the importance of having a successful IT department to assist workflow and identified room for improvement with their internal system making the decision to implement ITIL®.

Using ITIL® at the IRS: A Business Journey (PDF - 128Kb)
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury in the USA. In its five-year strategic plan, covering the period 2009 to 2013, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Douglas Shulman intends to succeed through investing in two strategic foundations – people and technology.
After several months of research and analysis, ITIL® was chosen as the preferred service management framework for the IRS to operate under.

Disney's ITIL® Journey Case Study (PDF - 128Kb)
By Glen Taylor, Vice President of Technology, Architecture and Security, Parks & Resorts, The Walt Disney Company
Disney began adopting ITIL best practice in the mid-2000s.
Hired by the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) to kick-start The Walt Disney Company's Theme Parks and ITIL initiative, Glen Taylor has championed the adoption of ITIL since his appointment in 2008. Already an experienced ITIL adopter, he was keen to move towards an integrated service management approach, backed up by ITIL best practice.

Using ITIL® and PRINCE2™ Together Case Study (PDF - 396Kb)
By Noel Scott, PMP
Setting up service desks in offshore locations is big business. There are various drivers behind such efforts. Some are pure cost savings. Others are to attain quality improvements by leveraging superior language or business skills available in the new location. Some projects can be extremely emotive, and all are certainly challenging projects that need to be handled with care.
Noel Scott was tasked with expanding a company's service desk cost effectively. As the company's existing service desk was reaching capacity, expansion in the current location was not physically viable and therefore the decision was made to set up an offshore location.

P3 Offices - P3O

Skipton Building Society: P30® Case Study
By David Seward, Richard Copley and Matthew Boatwright (PDF - 2.76Mb)
Skipton Building Society is the fourth largest building society in the UK, with assets of about £14.6 billion, 840,000 members and 1200 employees. At the beginning of 2010, after incurring losses in the core business following the market crash in 2008, it faced a substantial challenge in returning the business to profitability while meeting the expectations of its board and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Between April and September 2010, a portfolio and project investment governance framework and portfolio office were implemented to enable Skipton Building Society to validate, prioritize and deliver the necessary business changes with the resources available, at an acceptable risk. This work used various aspects of the Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O®) guidance which is part of the Best Management Practice portfolio, adapted to Skipton Building Society’s needs.

P3O Pilot Case Study: Interview with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (Word document - 507Kb)
By Martin McCann, Project Management Support Officer, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.
Based at Tameside Council in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, Martin McCann has spent the last few years developing and implementing their tailored Project Management Approach. As part of the Transformation Team, his main role is to encourage and support the adoption and application of best practice project and programme management within the organisation. Martin says, "The implementation of the Project Management Approach underpins the Council's Transformation Programme, which has a large number of new and existing projects within its remit. We're facing changes which are both exciting and challenging."

P3O®: No Skeletons in the Cupboard at BT Design Case Study (PDF - 140Kb)
This case study describes how P3O helped the senior management at BT Design make business-critical decisions.
Designed to enable decision-making and support organizations going through large-scale change, Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) is the latest best practice guidance. Programme Manager Chris Barnes discusses how BT Design used P3O to create a Centre of Excellence. Utilizing a highly professional group of evangelists for P3O to maximum effect, BT Design established a portfolio management approach which showed senior management how the business was functioning.

Managing Successful Programmes - MSP

Organizing the ‘greatest show on earth’ (PDF document - 181Kb)
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have a lot to deliver and standards have been set high. Liz Underhill, Head of 2012 Integration and Assurance, Janette Lissaman, 2012 Programme Office Manager, and Heather Sinclair, 2012 Programme Assurance Manager, at the Government Olympic Executive, a directorate of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, talk about the biggest job of their lives and how the methodology Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®) is used on such a large scale event.

Manchester City Council - Transforming City Works: MSP Case Study May 2008 (PDF document - 27Kb)
In 2006 Manchester City Council (MCC) embarked on an ambitious programme to improve operations in order to meet the Government's new social housing standard: Decent Homes 2010. Getting its workforce realigned so that it could deliver to these requirements and beyond, was a top priority. The robust framework of Managing Successful Programmes allowed Manchester City Council to manage the risk while optimising the outcome and benefits.

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 Brings Projects Together at DPS (PDF document - 105Kb)
Almost one million people visit Australia’s Parliament House each year. This structure is one of the largest buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, and is situated on Capital Hill in Canberra. More than 3,500 people work in Parliament House on sitting days, and the building contains 4,700 rooms. The Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) is the principal support agency for Parliament House and works closely with the Department of the Senate and the Department of the House of Representatives to support the operations of the Parliament and its Committees.

British Council: PRINCE2 2009 Pilot Case Study (Word document - 211Kb)
By Sarah Chambers, Head of Programme Management, Global Information Systems.
The Global Information Systems Programme Management team at the British Council has used PRINCE2 2009 to help deliver technical change in many countries around the world. Communication and sharing of information between the UK and other countries is very important to the organisation and they need the robust structure offered by PRINCE2 to help deliver projects in a challenging environment.

Suffolk County Council: PRINCE2 2009 Pilot Case Study (PDF document - 252Kb)
By Kevin Ling, Project Lead.
In 2007 Suffolk County Council started a major transformation programme called 'Securing the Future' to tackle significant budget challenges. As part of this programme a number of specialist support functions were established in April 2008, including a central Programme and Project Management (PPM) team. The new version will be applied to live projects and will improve the training and support we provide to board members, project teams and senior managers.

City of Edinburgh Council: PRINCE2 2005 (Word document - 74Kb)
The Head of Private Housing Services (PHS) within City of Edinburgh Council Housing Department unwittingly became the project sponsor when he approached Employee Development (ED) to find out about project management training. There was also an acknowledgement at this time by Housing Senior Management of the need to enhance project management capability in other areas of the department. This was largely due to an increasing pressure to meet the requirements of the Government's 'Modernisation Agenda' and in particular the introduction of the 'Best Value framework'.

Risk Management - M_o_R

Management of Risk within the Criminal Records Bureau Case Study (PDF - 79.8Kb)
In November 2007 the executive team (ET) and management board (MB) agreed to fully align the Criminal Record Bureau's (CRB) risk management regime with that used across the Home Office. This alignment was designed to assist the integration of the CRB's risk management within the Home Office (as defined in the HO Risk Policy), whilst improving the CRB's day-to-day risk management.

Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management - P3M3

Building NHS Capability in Portfolio, Programme and Project Management: Department of Health, Informatics Policy and Planning (PDF - 103Kb)
This case study reports on a pilot study carried out on the largest publicly funded healthcare provider, the National Health Service, to assess its portfolio, programme and project management at a crucial time of organisational change. The Cabinet Office's Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3®) was used to evaluate three NHS organizations to assess their levels of organizational ability, highlight areas for development and strategize for an improved approach.

Maturity assessments at the London Underground Case Study (PDF - 153Kb)
This case study describes how Best Management Practice's maturity model is helping London Underground to save money, provide a better service and empower its staff. Head of the Capital Programmes Directorate (CPD) Doug Norman chose the Cabinet Office P3M3® Maturity Model to develop an action plan for London Underground improvement which led to the achievement of a Level 3 certification for project management in March 2011.

Use of P3M3® at Manchester City Council Capital Programme Group (PDF - 195Kb)
Manchester City Council's Strategic Planner, Kevin Fletcher describes how the Council's Capital Programme Group adopted the P3M3 approach to identify and target areas for improvement and drive further enhancements and refinements to their existing strategy.

Permitted use of Best Management Practice Case Studies

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