Project Management == Herding Cats?
By Glen B. Alleman
Previous discussions on agility, Balanced Scorecard, and earned value are coming together to form the basis of Project Portfolio Management. This topic receives periodic attention in the IT world as products come and go. Much like “enterprise” anything, PPM has an enterprise pitch that needs to be examined closely before proceeding.
Portfolio Management
Since our Program Office is based on Microsoft Project Server, this is the natural place to start when considering portfolio management. Project portfolio management provides a view of projects to reveal redundancies, allocate resources, and report progress to plan across all the projects, not just a few. More importantly it provides an “investment management” view of the projects. Not just how much a project will cost but also the anticipated risk and return on investment compared to other projects in the portfolio.
Before this information can be used in decision–making, the portfolio of projects must meet several criteria. Performance data must represent the actual value delivered from the investment. The performance metrics must be connected to the strategies of the organization. The project selection process must be guided by the organization’s strategic goals not just the tactical needs of individual groups.
Before projects can be ready for portfolio management they must possess certain attributes.
- The clear start and end date – what is the drop–dead date?
- A definition of “done” – what needs to be in for this project “earn its keep?”
- A business case – on what day does this project breakeven?
- A priority ranking – what projects are more or less important than this one?
These attributes seem “obvious” at first glance, but it is breathtaking how many projects don’t posses these simple attributes. The project owners may think they do but under closer examination, it’s actually hard to put hard numbers to these attributes. No vague, hand waving, “we need this.” But as Detective Joe Friday was fond of saying “just the facts mam.”
Successful management of IT project portfolios assumes that the best candidates for success are selected for deployment. To identify candidate projects, the strategic goals of the organizations must be identified. From these goals, initiatives are created. Collections of projects supporting the initiatives are then assembled. Metrics for the projects are installed, followed by data capture and assessment. Feedback from the assessment is then used to verify the impact of the strategy on the organization.
In our organization, PPM is being deployed in an incremental and agile manner. No “big design up front. No “design, code, test.” No, formal requirements analysis document that sits on the shelf.
The Foundation of Portfolio Management
Instead we proceed incrementally, sometimes with false starts and retreats to install a system for managing our 300 or so projects. To prepare for a successful deployment of PPM, four supporting processes are used.
- A Balanced Scorecard strategy to define priorities and establish a connection between every project and a specific strategy and objective.
- A public registry of projects, resources, and deliverables housed in Microsoft Project 2002 Server.
- An Earned Value performance reporting and measurement processes to make visible performance metrics for cost and schedule.
- A process to select, classify, measure, and guide the implementation for collections of IT projects.
The Business Value of Project Management
These project management processes have been discussed in previous columns. Now they come together to impact the strategic value for Project Management to the business, not just to the project management community. It starts with Balanced Scorecard. Without a clearly defined set of strategic business goals for the collection of projects, project management is simply a set of tools looking for a problem to solve. (This is a primary objection to project management in an IT organization. We’re doing our work just fine, what possible value can PM add?)
Project management processes are applied, and even successful in controlling costs and delivering on time. But without a business context and a strategic goal, the project manager is simply a cog in the administrative wheels of the firm. An expensive one at that, with little measurable value other than controlling costs and reporting progress to plan. The value proposition of Project Management in this case is not visible to the business manager.
With a strategic set of objectives, the value proposition of Project Management is changed. Project Management becomes a strategic enabling process, a value generating process, and an executive management process. The business context must be embedded in the project management process. Some refer to this a “product–oriented” processes versus “project–oriented” process.
I believe this is an artificial distinction at best, and at worst confuses the stakeholders – the managers of the firm. These business managers expect project managers to have the proper skills and knowledge to “manage” projects. The exact formal processes used to manage these projects are of little concern to these managers. Delivery of value to the business is the goal, not compliance with a specific set of project management process. These processes, usually in the form of a project management standard, are “necessary” but far from “sufficient” for delivering business value.
This distinction is at the heart of delivering business value from agile project management, lean construction, and other “next practices.”
Just to review the Agile Project Management mantra:
- Assume simplicity – users define requirements. Elaborate specifications are not agile. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, a working piece of software is worth a 1000 pictures
- Embrace change – agile project managers see change as an advantage. Managing in the presence of change is the challenge. Attempting to control change is futile in any modern business environment.
- Enable the next effort – focus on the business value for today. “Big” plans rarely stay stable. Continually evaluate the future opportunity costs.
- Incremental change – plan globally, implement locally.
- Maximize value – put working products in the hands of users as soon as possible. Question every paper artifact – “what bookable value is this document or plan?”
- Manage with a purpose – measure stakeholder value. Avoid the imposition of “standards” and processes without asking about bookable value. “Where on the project’s balance sheet will this process pay for itself?”
- Multiple views – business processes define the value of project management. Find these processes and manage to them. Don’t assume the business will understand the “theory” of project management. Waving your PMP around has little or no value.
- Rapid feedback – continuous engagement with the customer is the primary source of feedback. Written documentation is the lowest bandwidth communication channel.
- Working product delivery – in the end it’s the delivery of product or services, not the participation in PM ceremonies that adds value.
- Travel light – use technology to reduce “white space” in the organization, not create “filler” through reports and graphs. Experience and high level “visions” guide the project. Low–level specs add very little value. The working product is the final specification.
Next Month
Now that our PPM is underway, an experience report using our agile approach to deploying the system will be examined. Phases, incremental deployment, short–term bookable value, continuous stakeholder feed, managing in the presence of change. Issues with WBS’s, cost accounting, progress reporting, project initiation, and value delivery are still there. Their solution becomes the “value” of project management.with data from computing Estimate at Completion in a reliable manner.
About the Author
Glen
Alleman is Vice President, Program Management for the Information and Network
Services organization of CH2M HILL’s Communication Group. Prior to
this position Glen was the Principal Consultant for Niwot Ridge Consulting,
where he specialized in the management enterprise application integration
projects. At CH2M HILL, Glen provides services to Rocky Flats Environmental
Technology Site. This work involves program management services for software
development, server and network operations, infrastructure installation
and removal, as well as telecommunications and wireless devices. Glen B.
Alleman <
galleman@niwotridge.com>
Follow Glen Alleman's practice of Agile Project Management through his recent PM World Today Viewponts. Here is a list of his 2002-2003 columns.
o Nine Best IT PM Practices
o Agile Project Management
o Principles of an Agile PM Method.
o Practices of an Agile PM Method.
o Agility and the Myths of Software Projects
o Agile Project Management And Earned Value
o Agile PM and EV - A Field Report
o Agile Project Management - A July 02 Field Report.
o Agile Project Management - A February - March
03 Field Report.