In my early (and I stress early) high school years, the girls could be split into one of two camps- the ‘Take That’ fan club or the ‘Backstreet Boys’ one.  I clearly remember arriving at school on the day Take That broke up. Friends were huddled together red-faced and teary-eyed, sobbing in classroom corners and whimpering in toilet cubicles.  Those were the ones that made it in- many were simply too distraught.

I went to school that day because I was in fact a Backstreet Boys fan (although let’s be clear, if it had been Backstreet Boys that had broken up that day, I’d still have gone to school). Despite this, I can still mumble through the odd Take That chorus and it was whilst tunelessly humming along to ‘Everything changes’ on the radio this morning that the topic of this blog post popped into my head.

Since starting my KTP in June 2010, only two original members of the six-person project team remain (with three new team members since recruited). The four that left did so because they relocated and were no longer based at the company or the university full-time.  As the Associate, I could take this to mean one of two things. Either:

a) I’m the world’s worst KTP Associate and am not only rubbish at my job but so unbearable to work with that it drives people to actively search for other jobs or

b) Peoples’ lives change, their situations change, and KTP contract or not- sometimes this means the project team will also change.

The song does say ‘everything changes but you’; however, Associates can also move on before their contract ends. Like any other job, over the course of three years (the lifetime of this KTP) people may leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons; however, unlike most jobs, KTPs are exceptionally well-planned projects.

As a recently-qualified PRINCE2 project manager, I know that all good projects are well- planned long before proposed project start date.  The KTP grant proposal document filled in by the project team before the Associate is hired, illustrates just this level of planning. Among other things, it details the project aim(s), the business case, projected project costs and the proposed work plan for the Associate.  This means that, in the event that someone in the project team leaves unexpectedly, there is a robust plan in place which enables the project to continue and helps to minimise any disruption to the existing team and the other project stakeholders.

It’s why, despite some considerable change in members of the project team, our project is still well on track.

One of the biggest benefits of having a project team is to provide academic and industrial experience, knowledge and support. New team members, I’ve realised, provide this much needed support along with fresh insight, new experiences and new ideas that that can help re-energise the project.

So as Gary, Mark, Howard Jason and Robbie rightly say, whilst everything  (else) may well change, the crucial aims, outcomes and outputs of the original project definitely need not.