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Case study

Client:  European Patent Office
Sector:  Government

Benefits Experienced by the Client:
Effective Consistent Project Management

1. Effective project management focused on delivering benefits and ensuring best use of resources
2. Continued embedding of PRINCE2® to provide a consistent project management approach across all participating departments
3. A common language and documentation for projects across the organisation
4. Programme management capacity that enables best use of resources to deliver the benefits needed to meet the organisation’s strategic objectives

In addition to the expected benefits, bringing together staff from different teams and offices throughout Europe enabled them to learn about each others work and improve communication across the organisation.

Strategic Objective:
Consistent Project Management Capability

The European Patent Office (EPO) provides a uniform application procedure for individual inventors and companies seeking patent protection in up to 38 European countries. And the increasing volume of work and the ongoing focus of the EPO to support innovation, competitiveness and economic growth for Europe means there is a constant stream of business improvement projects being delivered throughout the organisation.

There were a number of different project management processes being used around the organisation and they wanted to further embed the PRINCE2 best practice methodology to provide a consistency of approach and common language for projects and make it possible to evaluate the financial and resource cost and potential benefit of each project.
Support was required to ensure that the projects delivered were the ones that would best support the achievement of the organisation’s objectives.

The Solution Provided:
Practical Project Management

PRINCE2 foundation and practitioner level courses were delivered on site, in the client’s offices in Munich and The Hague, for a wide range of staff from across the organisation.

All training for the European Patent Office was delivered using scenarios developed to reflect the organisation’s work that would be applicable to all departments and all locations.

Programme management master classes were delivered for key senior staff and followed by practical workshops in benefits management, to develop the capacity to manage programmes which would deliver the changes and benefits necessary to achieve the organisation’s objectives.

At the clients request a further practical project management workshop was delivered to provide additional skills training, hints and tips and a practical MS Project module to support development of everyday project skills.

Working together:
The client’s objective as a project 

The chance to work with the European Patent Office came through an internationally advertised tender for PRINCE2 training.

The 6 day field study requested in the tender involved interviewing a range of senior managers to gain an effective understanding of organisational objectives, culture and practices which enabled the team to develop bespoke scenarios for use in PRINCE2 and project management training.

It also identified the need for a programme approach to ensure that the correct projects were implemented to achieve organisational objectives, and whilst programme management was not part of the original tender it was agreed that this work should be included. So Maven Training provided MSP™ (Managing Successful Programmes) training, along with master classes and workshops to develop this capacity.

The Maven Training / European Patent Office relationship means that development needs can be discussed as they arise and, if necessary, training can be provided to address those needs such as the practical project management training and the benefits management workshops which made a big difference.

The Client and Delegate Experience 

As an organisation to work with…
“Very positive [feedback] indeed thanks to your flexibility and capability to adapt to our requests. It has been very much appreciated.” 
“We are very impressed by the broad variety of highly professional trainers you offer.” 

And as a training experience…
“Trainer is very knowledgeable in subject – based on experience in field.” 
“I really appreciated the presenter’s ‘common sense’ comments on how to take corrective action.” 
“I enjoyed very much the lively and good methodology of the trainer, descriptions and visual flipchart aids were really good and even MS Project seemed to me a “friendly” tool.” 

The Maven Project Team

Melanie Franklin has extensive experience in the areas of project, programme and change management in both commercial and public sector organisations. She is also the author of a series of books on the skills needed to support successful projects and programmes.

Tiffany Childs’s dynamic training style and project management experience on high profile projects and working with organisations with elected councils provides an effective understanding of the culture and constraints of public service projects.

Darren Ley delivers training in a friendly ‘non prescriptive’ style, incorporating delegates experiences and has extensive experience running a project support office, training public sector organisations (including Police, Fire Authorities and Councils) and developing the materials for accredited PRINCE2 training courses.

Polly Murphy brings considerable programme management skills from industry and the public sector to deliver practical training and facilitate effective programme workshops.

The Next Chapter:
The Conversation Continues…

Maven Training and the European Patent Office continue to talk about development needs and a business analysis and user requirements course is currently being developed.