33NOVEMBER 2014

Ever wondered why your organisation’s strategies have limited impact or simply fail? Phil Driver’s book addresses this issue using a simple but powerful model: PRUB (also known as Projects Results Users Benefi ts).

The author’s main theme is that organisations run projects to create results, which people use to create benefi ts. So the book’s central premise is that the organisation must adopt a strategy language (taxonomy) that has associated project verbs for

aspirational, guidance and operational strategies.

The book is well illustrated and provides an easy-to-understand approach to producing a validated strategy. It fi nishes with a summary, checklist, glossary and worked example.

I like how Driver describes a way of handing over created useful assets that produce benefi ts to users and, in so doing, introduces the need for a strategy language, structure and meaning. But it may prove diffi cult to implement the author’s

model throughout a large organisation. Perhaps this will need buy-in from the very top.

As I read the early chapters, I began contacting work colleagues about the simplicity of PRUB and how it can be applied to the way we look at the benefi ts of our interventions – especially in terms of whether users will deploy the results of our interventions. My focus has always been on determining what the project’s benefi ts will be, and developing the SMART metrics to

measure their realisation. I now realise I need to focus on how users will create benefi ts from the project’s results.

The PRUB model is a valuable tool for both the organisation and a professional project manager to have at their disposal.

OVERVIEWImagine an online whiteboard that simplifi es collaboration in real time. You can place virtual Post-it notes on it and rearrange them to meet the needs of the project as and when you need to. You can even exchange messages with other members of your project team while you’re about it.

What you have just visualised is Trello. Trello is a digital wall that you can use for managing your projects and it operates on a wide range of devices, including the iPhone and iPad, Kindle Fire and Windows 8.

BOOKSHELF Project readers review the latest book releases

TRIED & TESTED

Keep on track with TrelloAN ONLINE WHITEBOARD IS A USEFUL WAY TO SIMPLIFY COLLABORATION

Validating Strategies – Linking Projects and Results to Uses and BenefitsAuthor: Phil DriverISBN: 978-1-4724-2781-6Price: £70 (Gower Publishing Ltd)Star rating: 4/5

Trello is completely customisable and a fun way to work with other members of your project team to complete crucial tasks. For more, see www.trello.com

USER REVIEW“We use Trello at our studio to manage design projects. I wish I could share our old production board because it was a dry erase version of Trello. The conversion was so easy for that reason. Now we have fewer production meetings since everyone can see everything in real time. There are fewer emails. We share ideas concepts, notes, proofs...

you name it. Now we even have some dedicated client boards so they get in the game, too. Trello helped to revolutionise the way we do our daily work, to the point of being able to have people working from home. The only change I’d make is the ability to have our own branding and use a sort of widget to incorporate it into our site for clients.”

Which products and gadgets are you using? Get in touch and tell us which project management tools you have tried and tested. Email sally.percy@projectmagazine.co.uk

PHILIP SMELT is principal change manager at Lincolnshire County Council.

He is also chairman of APM’s Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire branch

ALBEY CORONEL creative director of neutral7 design group, Florida

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