Having a Prince

Well as many of our readers will be familiar with Prince 2, I thought I might incorporate that into this blog. As you will know Prince 2 is very versatile and can be tailored to fit a variety of projects, so I had an interesting project that I thought I would compare it to. My wife and I are having a baby, so I thought it might be interesting to see how this would fit into Prince 2!

First and foremost we have the mandate, now this came in the instance of being planned however it was still a surprising and exciting time. When we found out we were pregnant, we followed this up with lots of reading and research. I learned many things at this stage, for example you have to wait 20 weeks until you know if you are having a boy or girl. Much like in a project at work, when you receive a mandate you start to look at all the different aspects, and begin to gather information.

This formed the bases of our business case, or more literally a shopping list of requirements. Through reading books, internet pages, and about 1,000,000 product reviews we soon came up with what we needed to buy, when we needed it, and what we needed to do. I soon learned that the project budget would need to be in the thousands! This information lead to a business case, and the beginning of a plan. This was of course thoroughly reviewed by the project board which consisted of grandparents to be, doctors, and the nosy neighbour. We implemented tools to track progress, by using our Facebook pages to keep everyone updated.

Our plan looked something like this:

• Weeks 8 – 12 – Keep it quiet, it was exciting but this stage was all about secrecy until the first doctor’s appointment. Deal with morning sickness, and researching. This then produced an initial shopping list.
• Stage Boundary – First doctors scan
• Weeks 12 – 20 – Tell friends and family, and refine shopping list by getting rid of all the stuff we hoped others would buy us. Make space in the house for the baby. This lead to building fitted wardrobes to clear out a bedroom for the little one.
• Stage Boundary – Second doctors scan
• Weeks 20 – 30 – Now that all is normal and healthy with the baby, start shopping with items from list. This resulted in long Saturdays at the shops and Sunday’s building flat pack furniture and decorating the bedroom. After this stage all is ready and waiting for the baby.
• Stage Boundary – Neo Natal Classes
• Weeks 30 -36 – Waiting patiently for the little one, and monitoring all movements and thoughts that it may come early. I have an important role here to keep the Mommy calm, and ensure all preparation is complete. Outputs from this stage are a hospital bag, and excitement.
• Stage Boundary – Follow up with midwife
• Weeks 36 – 40 – Wait patiently for the little one, and ensure the mother stays calm
• Closing the project – Well this is expected to be the most exciting and scariest part, and is when the little one arrives and fills us all with joy!

Now you may be thinking that this approach trivializes the important and large occasion that having a baby is. However, I feel that this shows how using a structured approach can take an overwhelming and complicated task and make it look quite reasonable and simple. We are currently 32 weeks so are building up to the last stage of the project, so my next blog might be a bit different! Let’s remember now that a project is a temporary team of people working together to implement change. So my next blog after the baby is due will focus on business as usual, or as I’m told crying babies and dirty diapers!

Luke Stegall

Project manager/Business analyst