Process or Technology?
Which comes first when
implementing Project
Portfolio Management?
Kiron D. Bondale – Solution Q Inc. [email protected]
Come see us at Booth #229 at
ProjectWorld!
Agenda
•
Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
overview
•
How should most PPM initiatives start?
•
The three pillars of PPM
•
What happens when you start with
process?
•
What happens when you start with
technology?
•
Recommendation
Project Portfolio Management
(PPM) Overview
• A strategic method of maximizing the value
of an organization’s project investments
• Principles of project portfolio management
were derived from financial portfolio
management
• Balancing risk against reward
• Optimizing “bang for the buck”
• PPM is about “doing the right projects”
while Enterprise Project Management is
about “doing projects right”
How should most PPM initiatives start?
• “Where does it hurt?”
• Identify project or resource management pain points • Too many projects, not enough resources
• Every project is critical, which do we do first? • Stealth & zombie projects
• Project failures
• “A journey of a thousand miles…”
• PPM is a journey, not a destination
• Develop an improvement roadmap with short, medium & long term objectives
• “Show me the money!”
The three pillars of PPM
• Organization
• Executive sponsorship
• Do you have/need a PMO?
• Do you have/need a portfolio steering committee?
• Processes • Project intake • Portfolio evaluation • Resource management • Project management • Technology • Project repository
• Document/knowledge management system • Resource pool
• Reporting engine • Time entry system
What happens when you
start with process?
• Common approach supported by most
trade journals
• Effort is invested in creating or modifying
PPM & PM processes
• Processes are deployed without underlying
supporting technology
What happens when you
start with process?
• Issues for project resources
• Time entry – manual entry is prone to data error and non-compliance
• Progress reporting – manually intensive completion of reports or time consumed in phone calls or e-mail
messages
• Issues for project managers
• Significant effort spent on project administration (creating reports, compiling data, chasing team members for status or time updates)
• Issues for functional or resource managers
• Inability to visualize resource capacity & demand data results in poor resource allocation decisions
What happens when you
start with process?
• Issues for PMOs
• Significant effort spent producing portfolio reports for different stakeholders which are out-of-date as soon as they are produced
• Significant effort spent developing and maintaining home-grown templates, systems & reports
• One firm had 50% of a skilled FTE dedicated to manual reporting
• Issues for executive management
• Decision-making based on information which might be incomplete or inaccurate
• Decision-making based on limited visibility into project portfolio and resource availability and allocation
• Lack of compliance with processes & reduction in
benefits achieved from PPM
What happens when you start with
technology?
• Issues with PPM tools that provide
“out-of-the-box” processes
• Processes need to be flexible to fit the culture
and objectives for your organization – one of
key causes of PMO failures is lack of fit
• Impact: Staff struggle with change from familiar
procedures to the new (often “heavy”)
What happens when you start with
technology?
• Issues with PPM tools that provide no
built-in processes
• Lack of process only makes existing chaos
worse - garbage in, garbage out
• If the data being presented to executive
management is out of date or inconsistent, it is
worse than if they are being presented with no
data
Recommendation
1. Charter & plan the PPM initiative like any
other strategic project
2. Define a value proposition-supported
improvements roadmap
3. Secure funding for initial phase
4. Communicate the improvement
roadmap to the organization
Recommendation
5. Define
simple processes supported by key
governance decisions
• What is a project?
• How are projects requested and approved? • How are projects prioritized?
• What are criteria for project termination?
• What is expected for planning & tracking a project? • Who can approve what types of decisions?
6. Develop & staff supporting organization
structures
• Process owners • Process controllers
Recommendation
7. Procure, install & configure supporting tools
• Resource pool • Project portfolio • Time entry
• Canned reports and support for ad hoc reporting capabilities
8. Define simple guidelines and standards for use
of the tools
• How will % complete be reported on tasks? • When does time entry have to be completed?
Recommendation
9. Deploy the processes & tools at the same time
• Can you answer the “what is in it for me” question for all affected staff?
10. Monitor compliance, continue coaching, and fine
tune the processes and tools
11. Once behavioral and procedural changes have
been assimilated, kick off the next phase
A picture is worth a thousand
words…
Define/modify processes Implement PPM tool to support processes Implement processes Define governance model Create PPM & PM capability roadmapMonitor & tune processes Gap assessment or needs analysis Define short-term objectives Ready for More? Define/modify processes Enhance PPM tool to support processes Implement processes
Monitor & tune processes Ready for More? Define/modify processes Enhance PPM tool to support processes Implement processes
Monitor & tune processes
And so on... Motivation for
