Individual Examination BT PLC M3!10!05

Individual Examination: British Telecom

Name : Deon du Plessis

Student ID : 6805105201087

Lecturers name : Professor Pieter Steyn

Due Date : 13 May 2010

Unit title : Advanced Diploma in Project Management – M3

Individual assignment: : British Telecom

I, the undersigned Deon du Plessis, hereby declare this assignment to be my own

work. It has not previously been submitted for any other examination”

Deon du Plessis

28th of April 2010

Cape Town

Prepared by: Deon du Plessis Page 1 of

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Created on Sunday, 09 April 2023



CONTENTS

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................................................................3

2 QUESTION1: WHAT ROLE HAS THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

AND THE ISO 9001 STANDARD PLAYED IN BT’S TOTAL QUALITY JOURNEY? 3

2.1 The timelines of major QMS milestones....................................................................................................4

2.2 Customer Focus............................................................................................................................................6

2.3 Employee Involvement and Empowerment...............................................................................................7

2.4 Continuous improvement............................................................................................................................8

2.5 Systems thinking...........................................................................................................................................8

3 QUESTION2: EVALUATE THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE TQM/BUSINESS

EXCELLENCE MODEL IN BT....................................................................................9

3.1 Deming cycle not followed correctly...........................................................................................................9

3.2 Balance Score Card (BSC) not integrated into QMS.............................................................................10

3.3 Assessments.................................................................................................................................................10

3.4 Not all the staff were involved in BEM....................................................................................................10

3.5 KPI and CSF’s not integral to BEM workshops.....................................................................................11

3.6 No programme management in place......................................................................................................11

3.7 Problems with self assessment...................................................................................................................11

3.8 Policy and strategy not communicated clearly........................................................................................12


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4 QUESTION3: HOW COULD BT HAVE IMPROVED IT’S UNDERSTANDING

OF THE SUCCESS OF THE TQM/BUSINESS EXCELLENCE APPROACH?........13

4.1 Implement QMS according to the figure below......................................................................................14

4.2 Set up the continuous improvement programme office..........................................................................15

4.3 Appoint a New Chief Programme Officer (CPO)...................................................................................16

5 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................17

6 REFERENCES..................................................................................................18

1 Executive Summary

On the surface it would appear that British Telecom has addressed each area of

TQM in their effort to implement a QMS system.

They have had good financial results. Their people/staff satisfaction is high. Their

customer satisfaction index high and are termed “loyal”.

What really happened was that they had not implemented TQM correctly. In their

attempt to focus on the customer they had neglected their staff. During Project

Sovereign BT lost 130 000 staff members. This may have been because the strategy

and vision was not shared with all the staff. The outcome was however that they

probably lost many good people.

The main component that was missing from their TQM implementation was Systems

Thinking. They did not implement a system that allowed issues which required

improvement to become new projects. Thus even though they claimed they were

continuously improving, there were very few new initiatives.


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The solution will be to become a true BSPM learning organisation. This will involve

some more changes to the structure where the continuous improvement projects will

be programme managed across the value chain.

2 Question1: What role has the Quality Management system and the ISO 9001

standard played in BT’s total quality journey?

If one looks at the ideal QMS system as portrayed in Figure 4 then one will see that

BT have implemented major parts of the QMS system from the time that they decided

to implement TQM in 1986.

2.1 The timelines of major QMS milestones.

1984: Privatise.

1986: Decide to implement TQM and announce a value system.

Involving everyone workshops held.

Train the managers via the Leadership Programme (employee

involvement).

1991: Project Sovereign Restructure (customer focus).


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1992: Business Excellence model & self assessment:

1993: Project Breakout (continuous improvement).

1994: ISO 9001 certified (systems thinking).

ISO 14001 certified.

Investors in People (IiP) certified.

1995: Balance Score Card adopted.


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To answer the question regarding what role the Quality Management system played

in British Telecom’s Quality journey each of the pillars of TQM will be looked at and

measured against the following statement from the case study “In 1986 BT chose

total quality management as a means of focusing on customer requirement as well

as encouraging teamwork, a positive attitude towards problem solving and a

commitment to continuous improvement.”

The four pillars of TQM are:

Customer Focus

Employee Involvement and Empowerment

Continuous Improvement

Systems Thinking

From the above it is evident that in British Telecom’s statement regarding quality,

each of the four pillars are reflected.

Three of the TQM pillars are also reflected in the new values that British Telecom

deployed, namely:

We put our customers first.

We are professional.

We respect each other.

We work as one team.

We are committed to continuous improvement.


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2.2 Customer Focus

It is said that the overriding objective of a TQM philosophy is customer satisfaction.

The first pillar of TQM being “Customer Focus” also became British Telecom’s

primary focus in their drive towards Quality.

Customer focus became the driver and according to David Thomas, Head of Change

Management, British Telecom, the great restructuring program that British Telecom

embarked on in 1991 was called “Project Sovereign” for the main reason that the

Customer needed to be “king”.

The case study also states that “the company organization was completely

redesigned “to put customers first.””

Thus “Project Sovereign” was born out of TQM and the company was split into three

customer segmented business units, Business Division, Customer Division and

Global Division. They also formed a Networks and Systems infrastructure support

division.

Project Sovereign was a radical transformation project which ended up reducing the

number of staff by more than 50%.( roughly from 250 000 down to 120 000). This is

also in line with TQM, since it is stated that “value chain performance quality is

profoundly dependent on right-sizing human talent”. British Telecom was a state

owned bureaucratically run organisation that was overstaffed thus also making

salaries a wastefully large proportion of their operating expenditure.

When Telkom was privatised, it too gradually reduced the people component from

over 60 000 in 1990 down to just over 20 000 today. For Telkom the salary bill was


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more than 70% of its operating expense when the company was formed which is a

major burden on any organisation and way out of the norm which is about 20%.

2.3 Employee Involvement and Empowerment

“Involving everyone” workshops were held as part of the new strategy to improve the

knowledge of the staff as well as to build teams that are professional, respect one

another and work as one team – with the single minded focus on the customer.

Leadership programmes were arranged for the managers to help them focus on

putting the customer first.

2.4 Continuous improvement

Project Breakout was launched in 1993 to focus on the continuous improvement

pillar of TQM. As stated in the case study “ This comprehensive review of key

business processes provided improvements aimed at generating new revenue,

growing markets, working more efficiently, delighting customers and running

business process that would make BT more competitive”.

2.5 Systems thinking

Systems’ thinking ensures that a system of measurement, appraisal and review is

introduced into the organisation.

British Telecom certified their process’s ISO9001 which has the following benefits:


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Registration to ISO 9001 by an accredited certification body shows committed to

quality, customers, and a willingness to work towards improving efficiency.

It demonstrates the existence of an effective quality management system that

satisfies the rigours of an independent, external audit.

An ISO 9001 certificate enhances company image in the eyes of customers,

employees and shareholders alike.

It also gives a competitive edge to an organisation's marketing.

It is important to note that having ISO 9001 certification does not mean that the

products or services are of the highest quality. It does mean that there are process’s

in place that have been audited by an external body that registers the existence of

proper quality plans, programs, documentation, data and procedures.

British Telecom also introduced annual self assessment together with the Business

Excellence Team that conducted workshops as a way of gathering feedback on the

TQM process. This function was designed to conduct yearly workshops with the

various business units and sub divisions to discuss issues related to quality.

The Balanced Score Card was introduced “to translate British Telecom’s strategy into

action through a set of key objectives, measures and targets”.

ISO 14001 also certified British Telecom as environmentally responsible.

3 Question2: Evaluate the deployment of the TQM/Business Excellence model in

BT.


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3.1 Deming cycle not followed correctly.

Figure 2.

In figure 1 above the famous Deming quality cycle of plan, do, check and then act is

illustrated. When British Telecom deployed TQM/BEM they used their own method

namely awareness, understanding and use. These deployment stages only

address the plan and the do phases of Deming’s quality cycle.

Thus the very important check and act which allows for correction, that can be

viewed as continuous improvement has not been included in the British Telecom’s

Business Excellence model. The very important components of measuring and

correction are thus not part of BT’s TQM/BEM implementation model.

This can be seen by the statement “BT finds it hard to assign directly cause and

effect between TQM and business benefits”. In essence top management was rolling

out the initiatives without getting feedback as to how the initiative was performing.

3.2 Balance Score Card (BSC) not integrated into QMS

Prepared by: Deon du Plessis Page 10

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The BSC was introduced into BT in 1995 after ISO9001 certification was attained in

1994. Even though CSF’s and KPI’s were defined and measure by management

these measurements were not integrated into the QMS system. This is why BT found

it difficult to “assign directly cause and effect between TQM and business benefits”.

3.3 Assessments.

Assessments are only done annually. This means that issues that may have been

identified that could potentially become improvement projects will need to wait for the

assessment to be done.

Potentially there could be a one year delay from identification to the actual

assessment.

3.4 Not all the staff were involved in BEM.

The case study mentions that when the TQM/BEM business model is deployed, then

the roll out of “understanding” does not consistently go down to all the levels of

management. The case study mentions that the roll out goes down to level four most

of the time, meaning that levels five and six managers often do not get involved with

the TQM initiative.

3.5 KPI and CSF’s not integral to BEM workshops.

When the BEM team conduct yearly workshops with divisions the managers of those

divisions are allowed to determine the agenda. The example given in the case study

mentions that one manager wanted to discuss strategy at the workshop.


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What should be discussed are areas where improvement is required when the CSF’s

and KPI’s are measured against set targets which would have been forthcoming from

the BSC.

Unless the correct measurements are discussed it is unlikely that continuous

improvement projects will result from BEM projects.

3.6 No programme management in place.

There is no evidence of a dedicated programme structure that would project manage

any continuous improvement initiatives. It would seem that the BEM department may

be driving some of those initiatives.

3.7 Problems with self assessment.

Self assessment is not the most honest type of measurement. There is the possibility

that people would hide what is not right and only portray what is positive especially in

the quest to be awarded one of the Gold awards. Thus issues may not be raised and

if they are not raised, they will not be addressed and improvement in quality will not

be forthcoming.

Another issue with self assessment is that it is no longer compulsory. This proves

that BT does not understand the value of the assessments since they are not using it

for the correct purpose which is to feed back into the BSC.

Since BT was also involved in the formulation of the EFQM standard, they may have

ended up thinking that they know all about TQM and BEM and thus they do not need

to continue enforcing assessments.

This is why the assertion is made that BT does not have Systems Thinking

instilled within the organisation.


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3.8 Policy and strategy not communicated clearly.

The company strategy is not clearly communicated since in the BEM workshop that

was mentioned the manager wanted to talk about strategy.


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4 Question3: How could BT have improved it’s understanding of the success of

the TQM/Business excellence approach?

BT could have taken the following actions and or plans to have improved the success

of their TQM/BEM approach.


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4.1 Implement QMS according to the figure below.

Figure 1 (Adapted from Prof PG Steyn)


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As previously mentioned in this document, BT has most of the components of a

Quality Management System in place. What they could have done better is to have

implemented the components of the QMS system in the correct sequence. An

example of their errors is only implementing the BSC card after many years and after

ISO9001 certification.

4.2 Set up the continuous improvement programme office.


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Figure 3: BSPM System Schematic

Prof Steyn states: “The BSPM system utilises Total Quality Management (TQM)

principles inter alia having a focus on internal and external customer needs; involving

management and staff at all levels of the organisation in team work; decentralising

managerial decision-making; focusing on continuously improving the products,

services, systems and processes of the organisation; and creating a learning

organisation that stimulates human creativity and knowledge management. The

progress reviews adopted in the BSPM system approach provides maximum

flexibility, agility, innovation, monitoring and control. Coupled with leadership

excellence it assures strategic organisational success” (Steyn P. G., 2003).

Central to the BSPM system is creating high-performance integrated project and

process teams that operate in a coordinated manner across functional boundaries

within the organisation (Matrix Organisational Structure). The main benefits of a

BSPM system are organisational effectiveness and efficiency (doing the right things

and doing them right the first time). (Burke, 2009)

Thus it is recommended that the model above be put into place. This model will

become the vehicle to drive continuous improvement projects. Once the new

structure is in place, this model will allow for continuous improvement to become part

of the normal operational model of the company while being able to focus on the

companies strategic objectives.

4.3 Appoint a Chief Programme Officer (CPO)

For the organisation to succeed, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the full staff

complement need to be well versed in the principles of project and programme

management. Steyn asserts that as programme offices in the organisational structure


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grow in numbers the need for an executive position where programme managers

report increases (Steyn P. G., November 2009 (Vol XI, Issue XI)). It is unthinkable

that they all report to the CEO. Hence, it is recommended that a new CPO be

appointed to significantly support the CEO, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief

Operating Officer (COO) with strategic appraisals and reviews at the executive

leadership level.

5 Conclusion

A bad implementation of quality management is better than no having no quality

management initiatives at all.


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6 References

.

Kaplan, R. S. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard. Boston: Harvard University Press.

Kaplan, R. S. (2001). The Strategy Focused Organisation. Harvard Business School Press

Steyn, P. G. (2009). Module M1 - Project Management: Leading, Creating, Implementing and

Improving (Study Guide). Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management.

Steyn, P. G. (2009). Module M2 - Programme Managing Organisational Performance and

Innovative Improvement (Study Guide). Cranefield College of Project and Programme

Management.

Steyn, P. G. (2006). Programme Managing Organisational Transformation, Change and

Performance Improvement. unpublished beta copy.

Steyn, P. G. (2003). The BSPM System for Leading and Managing the Organizational Value

Chain. Moscow: Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management.

Steyn, P. G. (November 2009 (Vol XI, Issue XI)). The Emergent Role of Chief Programme

Officer (CPO). PM World Today .

Steyn, V. (n.d.). Cranefied College of Project and Programme Management Module 1.

Bibliography

Burke, R. (2009). Project Management Techniques (College Edition). Burke Publishing.

Clements, J. P. (2006). Effective Project Management (International Student Edition).

Thompson South-Western, Canada.

Clements/Gido. (2006). Effective Project Management. Ohio: Thomson South-Western.

Kaplan, R. S. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard. Boston: Harvard University Press.

Kaplan, R. S. (2001). The Strategy Focused Organisation. Harvard Business School Press.

Kerzner, H. (1998). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and

Controlling (6th Edition). New York: John Wiley.

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Kreitner, R. a. (2007). Organizational Behavior (7th Edition). Irwin McGraw-Hill.

Lewin, K. (1997). Resolving Social Conflicts: Field Theory in Social Science. Washington

DC: American Psychological Association.

Multiplin (Director). (2007). Essential Perspective on Project Management [Motion Picture].


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Multiplin (Director). (2007). Project Management Tools and Techniques [Motion Picture].

Partington, D. (2000). Gower Handbook of Project Management (3rd Edition). England:

Gower Publishing.

Steyn, P. G. (2009). Module M1 - Project Management: Leading, Creating, Implementing and

Improving (Study Guide). Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management.

Steyn, P. G. (2009). Module M2 - Programme Managing Organisational Performance and

Innovative Improvement (Study Guide). Cranefield College of Project and Programme

Management.

Steyn, P. G. (2006). Programme Managing Organisational Transformation, Change and

Performance Improvement. unpublished beta copy.

Steyn, P. G. (2003). The BSPM System for Leading and Managing the Organizational Value

Chain. Moscow: Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management.

Steyn, P. G. (November 2009 (Vol XI, Issue XI)). The Emergent Role of Chief Programme

Officer (CPO). PM World Today .

Steyn, V. (n.d.). Cranefied College of Project and Programme Management Module 1.

www.isoqar.com/iso9001/qualintro.htm


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Individual Examination BT PLC M3!10!05