Smart City : A new tool for sustainable and smart project management

At the end of 2020, a new contribution has been added to our "Smart City" toolbox for territorial actors: the Smart Project Management Model (SPMM). In line with the 1st Smart City Practical Guide, this model has been developed to help stakeholders manage their projects in a more sustainable and inclusive way, while having a global vision of their progress and the key steps to be completed.

 

Julio Diankenda, Catherine Nguyen and Nathalie Crutzen, the 3 authors of this new tool, give you more details about it:

What does the SPMM consist of ?

With the SPMM, we provide project managers with a methodological tool that allows them to structure and manage their project efficiently, but with a little "extra", since we have integrated the 'Smart' side. Through this model, the objective is to bring innovative projects to life, while relying on collective intelligence and the participation of the different stakeholders, in a logic of sustainability.

As a real tool for reflection, collaboration, communication and also monitoring, the SPMM will provide you with all the essential indications concerning the 4 fundamental steps in the development of a project* :

• The prerequisite phase ;
• The planning phase ;
• The execution of the project;
• The project evaluation.

A tool to optimise the success of sustainable and smart projects in our territories ...

The SPMM is therefore a tool to be used throughout the project, but also afterwards, to evaluate, adjust and refine it progressively. It will enable you, as a project manager or as a supporting partner :

› Structure your ideas/approach

• Synthesise and transcribe the ins and outs of your project in a simple and clear manner
• Identify the guidelines and key elements that compose it
• To better communicate via clear messages and define a common language around this project
• Define guidelines in order to keep in mind the different stages of evolution of the project.

› To facilitate the adhesion 

of the various stakeholders.

› To evaluate

• The relevance of your project
• The success of the process that you will have set up and the key stages of the project (strategic planning, implementation of the various actions). 
• But also its success or failure.

› And, finally, to concretise your project more easily thanks to a systematic follow-up.

… For our towns and cities ...

As the Smart Region academic reference for Wallonia, the role of the Smart City Institute is to support cities and municipalities in their projects of sustainable and smart transition.

Until now, through our collection of Practical Guides, and more precisely our volume 1, we have proposed key steps to implement a sustainable and smart approach on their territory. However, a significant number of municipalities have told us that they are looking for more precise tools to help them structure and implement this approach and their projects. Moreover, the study carried out by our colleague Audrey Lebas last November on the evaluation of Smart City projects within our municipalities highlighted a weak culture of evaluation, a lack of knowledge in this field and the absence of concrete tools to support them. We wanted to start filling these gaps. We therefore designed the SPMM in order to reinforce and complete the methodology proposed in our first Practical Guide.

… But also a tool open to all !

The model we have developed is therefore particularly aimed at project managers within municipalities but also within parapublic organisations such as intermunicipal organisations, LAGs (local action groups), or associations. Of course, it is more broadly aimed at any structure or manager wishing to improve their project management, with a more sustainable and inclusive philosophy.

How to use the SPMM ?

The 2 components of this new tool (the SPMM model and the methodological note) can be downloaded freely via the buttons below. For an optimal use, we advise project leaders to print the model in A3 format. It can then be completed with new ideas (written on post-its for example), and displayed in their workspace.

It can be completed alone, or in collaboration with their teams :

• To reflect and define a vision
• To communicate on your project internally or to stakeholders
• To encourage membership
• To assess its progress
• To check whether the project meets your expectations, the expectations of the users or beneficiaries of the project set up
• To assess the relevance of the project
• …

SPMM : What is its benefit and how to use it?

Explanatory video (in French)