Project Portfolio Management

Strategies for successful implementation

Acknowledgment: The following content and artwork is from an eminence piece I developed for Deloitte Consulting – Africa

Executive Support

Governance Structure and Process

Project Management Culture and Discipline

Benefits Measurement and Tracking

Enterprise-Wide Portfolio Visibility

Project Portfolio Management

Implementation Success

Organisations continuously face the challenge of meeting the demand of doing more with limited resources. Increasingly, organisations have to get their products even quicker to market, and must be able to adapt quickly to changing environmental and legislative needs and requirements. Management by projects has been marketed in industry as the key towards meeting these challenges, or at least help in bringing about some structure in the way work is managed in an organisation; however, projects themselves do not provide the complete solution. While projects focus on delivering work in a focused and disciplined manner, the ability for organisations to choose the right projects in the first place will help them go a long way in maximising their resources on investments that will bring the most benefit.

he aftershock of the financial crisis requires an increased focus on better decision-making regarding investments. Project Portfolio Management is a key for success.

T

5Key implementation challenges

• A lack of executive sponsorship, support, and understanding of project portfolio management.

• Absence of governance structures and process for strategy alignment and translation and subsequent portfolio component selection

• Lack of project management culture and discipline • The inability to estimate, measure, and report benefits • The silo-thinking of the organisation introduces multiple tools and methods

making enterprise-wide visibility of project related investments difficult

despite the promise of Project Portfolio Management, implementation challenges exist D

Ensure you have executive Support

There needs to be visible support from the C-suite. PfM is the link between strategy definition and strategy execution and there needs to be, therefore, consensus amongst the executive and the respective heads of departments around the priority of strategic objectives, the metrics and targets for these objectives, and the explicit identification of which portfolio components (projects and programmes) will contribute to the realisation of these strategic objectives.

Governance structures, process and alignment

Organisations tend to focus their effort on project management methodology. While this is important, it is also necessary to focus on the governance structures and process required for selecting the right projects and programmes in the first place. The PfM champion must ensure a clearly defined investment management strategy is in place, detailing the make-up of the investment committee, their roles and responsibilities, the process for translating strategy into identified components, and the criteria to be used for project selection.

Instill a project management culture and discipline

A project management culture ensures a healthy respect for the time and money spent on projects. Time and cost must be tracked, the change impact to the organisation must be managed, and there must be a shared commitment across the project stakeholders for a successful outcome. Every hour spent should count toward the delivery of the scope of the project. Tools and methodologies can help, but it is only through human intervention that project management problems can be resolved. Tools and methodologies can't manage people; people must manage people. Project management cultures can't be bought. They must be built from the ground up and driven from the top down within an organisation.

Benefits measurement and tracking

Estimating benefits on a project is an important aspect for organisations; however, organisations lack the skills and tenacity for doing this task effectively. Some suggestions for successful benefit measurement and tracking include embedding a role within the portfolio management team or office for measuring and tracking benefits, classifying benefits within the portfolio, mapping benefits to business strategy, tracking and reporting when benefits are realised. Start small and stay focused on critical endeavours, avoiding broad data gathering excursions that could stir up suspicion across the organisation.

“Breaking down” the silos

To address the issue of silo thinking, we found that demonstrating value in one or more areas and then building a portfolio management team with representatives from across the organisation to broaden the practice of PfM works. It would be preferable to position PfM at the enterprise level from the start, but this depends on the type, size and culture of the organisation, and demonstrating success in one business unit rather than applying a big-bang approach, would have a greater chance for success.

Strategies for implementation success

CLIVE N. ENOCHPh.D, PMP®, PfMPProject Portfolio

Management Specialist

+27 83 4095021

clive.enoch@gmail.com

Johannesburg, South Africa

www.linkedin.com/in/cliveenochContact