The DICE framework

In project management, the DICE framework is (a) on the surface an acronym for the management issues of Duration, Integrity, Commitment and Effort and (b) a mnemonic to recall the formula factors of D + (2 x I) + (2 x C1) + C2 + E (Aramyan, 2016; BCG, 2022).

Developed by the BCG (Boston Consulting Group), DICE is used to evaluate the how long a project will take (Duration), plus twice the expertise of the project team (2 x Integrity), plus twice the commitment of top management (2 x top management Commitment, or C1) plus the commitment of employees (1 x employee Commitment, or C2), plus the additional mahi required to deliver the project on top of everyone's 'normal' workload (Effort) (Icasas, 2014).

So that's:

D+(I²)+(C1²)+C2+E

I particularly like this model as it is the only one that I have seen that factors in the real roadblocks for making change: the people who are key to the change happening. A factor for power has also been included, that top management have twice the power of employees to see that a project is delivered (or not).

1. "Duration: the length of time until the change program is completed or (for longer programs) the amount of time between milestone reviews. Contrary to popular perception, studies show that a long project that’s reviewed frequently is more likely to succeed than a short project that isn’t reviewed frequently" (BCG, 2022)
2. "Integrity: the project team’s ability, measured by the skills and traits of people on the team, and how it’s configured. Since the success of change programs depends significantly on the quality of teams, companies often succeed by assigning their best people to the effort" (BCG, 2022)
3. "Commitment: the degree to which top management shows visible support for the effort, and how well employees embrace it" (BCG, 2022)
4. "Effort: the additional requirements that the change initiative demands of employees. Project teams must calculate how much work employees will have to do beyond their existing responsibilities to change over to new processes. Ideally, no one’s workload should increase more than 10%" (BCG, 2022). We need to remember that this work is in addition to current expectations though (Aramyan, 2016), which is likely to mean higher turnover, burnout and increased stress. Ideally, we should remove daily operational work from project teams. But this is not always possible.

It would be interesting to know how many organisations actually use this model when planning projects.

Sam

References:

Aramyan, P. (2016). Change management: introducing DICE framework. Easy Projects and Birdview blog. https://explore.easyprojects.net/blog/change-management-introducing-dice-framework

BCG. (2022). DICE® BCG’s DICE tool helps companies better predict project outcomes. Boston Consulting Group. https://www.bcg.com/capabilities/business-transformation/change-management/dice

Icasas, P. (2014). Project Management 101: What is the DICE Framework?. Easy Projects and Birdview blog. https://explore.easyprojects.net/blog/project-management-101-dice-framework