Introduction
Project management Introduction
Project portfolio gating
Project portfolio gating – Overview and Importance
Project porfolio gating provides a process for tracking the performance, value and current relevance of a project or group of projects vis-à-vis the current strategic reality, which is influenced by the organizational and environmental factors. It is critical to the realization of the business strategic goals. Dynamic organizations will assess the viability of projects, in terms of cost and benefits, on a regular basis. Figure 7 shows a typical gating process for the project portfolio management.Each organization may have its own customized version of the gating process. The important thing to know is that gating provides a practical approach to consistently evaluate and validate the credibility, relevance and viability of projects during the product development stages.
Figure 7 – Project Portfolio Gating Overview
Figure 8 shows the gating process specific to the product delivery management, particularly for new products.
Figure 8 – Project portfolio gating: Product Delivery Management Gating Overview
- Product Delivery Management Gating
The product delivery management gating can be described as follows:
Gate 1 – the initial screening determines the ideas strategic fit.
Gate 2 – the preliminary assessments of the ideas to determine technical and market feasibility.
Gate 3 – the more detailed version of gate 2. The main activity following gate 3 is the design and development of the product and a marketing plan.
Gate 4 – deals with the assessment of the product performance, the likely market acceptance of the product, and whether the degree of the market acceptance is sufficient to justify further development.
Gate 5 – the product is subjected to a test market (laboratory or field test, cash permitting) or pilot. The outcome of the testing or pilot determines the ‘go/no-go’ commercialization decision.Most initiatives or ideas are stopped at the initial stage, a less costly undertaking than stopping the initiatives at a later stage. Gating provides a practical way to prevent committing much resource to projects that may never make it to the commercialization or production stage. Gating can be used to optimize scarce resources, maximize profit or minimize losses.
Other key deliverables for the gating process will be discussed in the project management and product delivery management sections. Business case or marketing plan provides key information for developing other deliverables, mainly project charter and integrated project plan.
Value-added projects are established through effective project portfolio gating.
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Project governance
Project governance
Project governance is the harmonization of processes, roles and responsibilities, and resources to facilitate the successful delivery of projects and other organization activities, including service delivery and customer support. Organizations establish governance at different levels of responsibilities to facilitate service excellence and free information exchange.
Figure 6 shows a project governance overview at the corporate, strategic business unit, portfolio, project and operational levels, and the relationship between them. A well thought-out governance facilitates successful delivery of projects. Effective, performing and value driven organizations ensure that governance at different levels have clearly defined interfaces with unambiguous roles and responsibilities. The goal is to maximize scarce resources and reduce product delivery turn-around time or time to the market.Leadership discipline across the organization facilitates value creation and organization effectiveness.
A project manager should understand the established organization governance in order to manage project effectively. Also, to enable the successful delivery of projects, ensure the establishment of steering groups with authority to make timely decisions.
.Figure 6 – project governance Overview
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Project Management Facts and Myths
Some project management facts and myths are described below:
- Project manager is accountable for the successful delivery of the project. This is true. However, the whole team and organization will reap the benefits of the project success and bear the burden of project failure. Therefore, the key stakeholders of the project will be better off by taking shared ownership and shared responsibilities for the project success. As a project manager, take charge and engage others as partners, and promote shared ownership and responsibilities in order to ensure successful delivery of the project.
- A project delivered on time and budget is a sign of successful project delivery and maturity. Sometimes the heroic effort of one or few of the project team members can ensure timely project completion. However, this is not a sustainable practice. Assembling the right, committed and disciplined resources for the project is the key to the success of the project.
- A good project manager tries to please the client by avoiding saying ‘NO’. This is an unrealistic and self defeating attitude. A mature and result oriented project manager learns how to say no with style, for instance you could make a statement like: if the A, B and C conditions are met, we may be able to do this and that, turning the situation into a negotiation, as there are different options to solving a problem or resolving an issue. You can turn an emphatic no into possibilities with conditions. Remember, negotiation is a key decision making tool in project management. You cannot and should not (always) be dictated to or instructed. For example, a change to the project scope needs to go through the change management process in order to understand the impact of the change and get it approved by authorized stakeholders.
- Be optimistic and you will be fine. I like being optimistic, albeit cautiously, and I do not encourage pessimism. However, it is advisable to be realistic about project management and respect differed opinions as part of the overall effort to ensure successful delivery of projects. It is important to be realistic about project scope, associated cost and time, applicable technology and value creation.
- Ensure quick delivery, compress time and be aggressive. Be careful, ensure that the key players understand what is required of them and commit to a realistic time to deliver. Of course, as an entry strategy, you may put forward a tight schedule to prevent slackness from others. Unrealistic schedule leads to constant shifting of target dates. The key here is openness and clarity of work description, delivery expectations and realistic estimation, based on experience and good judgment.
- Defend your position at all cost. This is not professional, particularly when you are in a hole stop digging. Debate does not imply blindly misrepresenting information. Whoever recognizes his/her limits, will seek and receive help. He who is not ready and willing to learn cannot be counseled.
- Lessons learnt sessions should be conducted at the end of the project. You may forget important lessons if you follow this rule. It is advisable to make lessons learnt part of your regular project management activities. You may conduct a short informal lessons learnt session after the completion of a work package or a major activity.
- Enforce methodology at all times. Realistically, in some organizations, a project manager is chosen before a project is formally initiated, funding approved and project charter completed. This may not be a bad practice as long as the project manager is not required or mandated to commit to deliver project outcome, prior to the formal initiation point. Choosing a project manager earlier could afford him/her some advantages - influence preliminary planning activities (funding, business case and project charter development), acquire early understanding and take control of the project.
- Clients require a competent and strong project manager. The truth is, sometimes, when a strong, disciplined and professional project manager joins the team, he/she meets strong resistance. Project managers who are not strong and competent may find themselves standing for nothing or delivering mediocre result, at best. All organizations, teams and individuals are not the same. Be yourself, be strong, be focused and aim for gold in your project management discipline. Your effort will surely be appreciated and rewarded by those who value your candor and substance.
- Your understanding of what you say or communicate might be different from the understanding of your audience. It is practically impossible for anyone to clarify every spoken word, but ensure you clarify your stakeholders’ understanding of what is expected of you and of them.
- Claiming to know everything is the beginning of (and lead to more) ignorance. There is no harm in saying I don’t know. This could make you look like a fool once, but claiming to know when you don’t could make you a fool forever. Those claiming to know it all cannot be counseled. Ask questions, and you shall receive answers from willing and able minds.
- The true cost of a project is established after the close of the project. This is true. However, wide discrepancies in cost, time and quality will not be entertained by the client and could make you lose respect, except in an evidently unusual or rare situation that is usually beyond project control.
- Lowest bidder is preferred. ‘Caveat emptor’ (buyer beware); you will get what you paid for.
above are few of the project management facts and myths.
Why Projects Succeed or Fail
Why projects succeed or fail? Whether a project succeeds or fails, the organization will reap the rewards of positive outcome or have to deal with the consequences of failure. A project may be cancelled in order to minimize losses, particularly if the project is no longer relevant or not able to deliver the expected value. A project cancelled for this reason may not be considered a failure. A value or profit driven organization understands that the success of a project requires the collaborative effort and commitments of the stakeholders.
The beginning of a project is usually about laying the foundation for the project success. Most projects that succeed or fail occur at the beginning, and failure can be prevented if warning signals are not ignored or swept under the carpet. However, there are instances where projects fail during the implementation phase due to various reasons such as poor handling and lack of stakeholders’, particularly the executives’, support. The following list is not exhaustive but provides some insight into why projects succeed or fail.
Why Projects Succeed?
Projects success could be attributed to various factors, including the following:
- Projects aligned with the strategic organization goals and with full executive commitment and support.
- Committed, skilled, adaptable and resourceful professional project teams and members who take responsibilities for assigned work packages, activities and tasks, and prepared to work as a team.
- Well initiated projects that have clearly defined and formally approved terms of reference.
- Well managed and executed projects based on realistic planning.
- Adopt respectful debates to resolve problems, issues and conflicts.
- Establishment of a service oriented project team and a supportive governance.
- Relevant, regular and timely communication with the stakeholders on progress status, performance, issues and outcomes.
- Good and complementary practices across the organization. These practices will be discussed further in the future sections.
Why Projects Fail?
Project failure could be attributed to the following – people, product design, decision making, partnership, supplier and project management discipline problems.
- Excessive politics: This may involve taking steps that are not aligned with the organization strategic goals. For example, implementing a project that makes the team performance looks better but put the organization at a disadvantage. Some executives promote personal interests rather than initiatives that promote the organizational growth and competitiveness. This could occur in organizations where they are not held accountable by stakeholders and shareholders. It could sometimes be due to principal-agent or conflict of interest problem. These situations may not occur in a service oriented organization, where team performance is tied to the organization success.
- Lack of executive commitment and/or sponsorship; lack of clear vision, enthusiasm, will and focus, as well as conflicting and unrealistic priorities. Do not commit scarce resources to a project if you are not sure of its relevance to the organization strategic goals.
- Ineffective governance and lack of shared responsibility and accountability. This could be caused by lousy project management, absence of leadership discipline or lack of executive commitment to providing needed support in resolving escalated issues in a timely fashion.
- Battle of egos and unhealthy competition: Particularly with problem solving, issues and conflict resolutions. Battle of ego is sometimes caused by the desire of team members to outshine one another. Some project team members or stakeholders do not realize how transient their role is either on a project or even in an operational environment. When project team members realize that they are just fulfilling a transient role which could change with future assignments, battle of ego problem may diminish.
- Undervalued work force: Unfair treatment of the organization’s workforce or project resource could be devastating for the whole organization. This is not a problem in a truly service oriented organization, where the main focus of everyone in the organization and their performance is solely based on results.
- Indecisive and unprofessional project managers: Sometimes, some project managers fail to show courage, decisiveness and tenacity to get things done even in the face of adversity. Successful project managers show good judgment and are decisive, tenacious and result driven.
- Unrealistic expectations and assigning insufficient and/or incapable resources to projects. Resource assignment impacts the amount of effort, cost and quality of outcome. Inadequate and incapable resources could result in project delivery failure or unnecessary delay.
- Blame culture and lack of shared ownership:In organizations where blame culture is a common practice, project team members, particularly the junior members, are afraid to be creative and take risks that could enhance the project team performance and deliver positive outcome.
Above factors key reasons why projects succeed or fail
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Project and Project Management
Project and Project Management are two complementary terms that require proper understanding.
Project
A project is defined as a specific piece of work or a unique endeavour with defined start and end dates, requiring resource commitment to accomplish the desired result or outcome. The goal of a project is to deliver product(s) or service(s) at a pre-defined quality within approved time and budget.
Depending on the organization or project owner, any event, activity or major undertaking, that meet the above project definition, could be regarded as a project. Some organizations classify most activities or undertakings as project items in order to ensure consistent coordination, tracking, monitoring and control of cost, time and quality. For example, an on-going activity may be setup as a yearly project with established time & budget. Other organizations consider only major undertakings of certain durations (for example, 30 days or more) as projects, and other activities as regular operational activities. The key consideration is to ensure consistent, clear and understandable criteria for defining and establishing an undertaking as a project item.
Project Management
Project management is a discipline that involves planning, organizing and controlling of resources (human, materials, equipment and money) to fulfil the project goals. It is the engagement of suitable resources and application of processes, techniques and tools to plan, manage and deliver project deliverables, which deliver the desired outcome.
A project is faced with key traditional constraints – scope (what), time (when) and cost (how much) to accomplish a corresponding product quality. These constraints need to be appraised at the initial stage and at every point where change is required to the agreed and approved project scope or when an unplanned situation occurs (for example, an unexpected risk). Delivering a project on time, on budget and to meet the desired quality are the key measures of project delivery success.
Project Categories
Projects can be placed in thee categories: transformational, maintenance and support. These categories are guides only for understanding a typical project, its strategic placement and importance within an organization.
Transformational projects: These are projects initiated to create new or modified products or services. The goal is to implement change and deliver value to the organization and clients. Examples include new road construction, a real estate project, a new gas plant, a new product and a new service centre.
Maintenance projects: These are projects initiated to sustain existing products or services that are still within their life cycle, and are considered relevant to the continued existence of the organization or its services to the clients. Examples include existing road maintenance, home renovations, system maintenance and refinery turn-around maintenance.
Support projects: A project is considered a support project, when its needs and funding solely depend on another project. A support project is approved based on the value it creates for and its strategic importance to the delivery of the main project. Examples include the telecommunication system for a new payment solution and a new road leading to a new production facility.
Above provides you a concise description of project and project management.
Categories: Introduction Tags: Project Project Management
Portfolio Opportunity Assessment
Portfolio opportunity assessment is a key process to explore and evaluate the viability/profitability of business ideas.
Business Case
In order to approve a project for implementation, a business case or opportunity assessment document is required to justify the need for the project. Some organizations will extend this to marketing plan, which include opportunity assessment and commercialization plan. Business case demonstrates the need and strategic importance or relevance of the project. That is, it demonstrates the alignment of the proposed project to the organization strategy. Usually every project is assessed within a portfolio and compared to other projects in terms of the value creation, strategic alignment and opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the cost of the best alternative forgone.
A business case includes the following:
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Assessment of the current situation, including issues, internal and external environmental factors (organization capability, political, economy, social, legal etc.).
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Vision, goals, desired outcome and deliverables.
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Analysis of options – includes considerations of resource requirements, deliverables, estimates of cost and benefits, return on investment, net present value and investment payback (i.e. time to recover implementation cost).
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Recommendations – are based on the outcome of the options analysis and other considerations like social, political and physical environment factors.
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Implementation strategy – includes the governance, timeline, transition and post-implementation review plans.
Once the business case is approved and funding provided, a term of reference or a project charter is created to define the project agenda in a clearer detail. Prior to the wide adoption of project management methodologies, some organizations create a term of reference (TOR) to indicate business case acceptance and approval to proceed with the initiative implementation. This type of TOR is usually smaller in size or content than a typical project charter.
For small projects, a TOR may suffice for the project charter. To initiate a project, a term of reference (TOR) or charter is required. The charter defines the mandate and scope statements, guides and drives the project implementation, and enables the project manager to develop a clear road map to fulfill the goals and needs of the project.
Essentially, a TOR includes the following:
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Vision, objectives, scope and deliverables (what)
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Key stakeholders, their interests, roles and responsibilities (who)
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Resources required – money, human and materials; and approach (how)
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Expected delivery date, timeline (when)
A project charter include the above and more (risk management, change management, governance etc.). Project charter will be discussed in the subsequent section.
Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a vital document that guides the successful and profitable delivery of a new or enhanced product. It is required to demonstrate the viability and commercialization potential of the product. The viability or opportunity assessment component of a marketing plan is equivalent to the business case. Business case may suffice to justify an initiative that requires funding within the organization. However, marketing plan is essential to secure an initiative funding from external sources (for example, financial institutions). Sometimes, marketing plan is referred to as a business plan, particularly for a single product or product line organization. A marketing plan is more elaborate than a business case, and could suffice for a business case. A strategic business unit within an organization develops marketing plan to demonstrate the alignment of its products and services with the corporate strategy and compete for scarce resources.
A marketing plan includes the opportunity assessment and commercialization plan. Opportunity assessment is the analysis of the organization capability, customers, competitive and environmental factors. Commercialization plan includes the combination of product, pricing, promotion and distribution strategies. A critical success factor for an effective marketing plan is creating a superior product for an attractive market, where there is little or no competition, with strong marketing capabilities.
A marketing plan includes the following:
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Corporate strategy statement – vision, objectives and strategic direction.
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Opportunity assessment – also called the 4Cs (Customer or target market, environment Considerations, organization Capabilities and Competition). It also addresses current situations and keys issues. The main output of the opportunity assessment is the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) report.
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Marketing strategies – also called the 4Ps (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place or distribution strategies). These are the realistic and thought-out strategies that take advantage of strengths and opportunities, and respond to weaknesses and threats.
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Action plan – includes resource allocation and implementation timeline.
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Financial statements – includes capital outlay, income (profit & loss), balance sheet and cash flow projections.
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Control & contingencies – includes organization governance and structure, risk management and contingency plan, legal issues, communication plan, performance tracking and auditing of the ongoing health check for the various components of the marketing plan.
A sample marketing plan outline used to build the marketing strategy for this guide is shown in Figure 9. It serves well as a template to brainstorm and build a comprehensive marketing plan. A marketing plan, if approved, provides the initiation and mandate for the project delivery, including the development of associated artefacts, mainly the project charter and integrated project plan.
Figure 9 – Marketing Plan Outline – An Example
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Project Portfolio Management
Project portofolio management: delivering projects to meet collective business objetives.
Different types of portfolio exist in the business world – financial, system, service and project portfolios are common examples. This guide focuses on project portfolio. Project portfolio management is about identifying, assessing, selecting and committing to implement the right projects. The right projects are projects which are in alignment with the organization’s strategic goals. Projects are created to facilitate the development of new or enhanced products and services. Project management is about executing the right projects right. Implementation of the right projects fulfilled the strategic goals. Portfolio management provides the linkage between the business strategy and project management.
Figure 5 shows the relationship between portfolio, program and projects. A program may contain other programs or sub-programs, projects and other activities (for example, procurement services for supporting the program). The arrows show the directions of the information flow and interactions. Program, in project context, composed of multiple projects to be delivered to achieve common program or strategic goals, which could not be achieved otherwise.Fulfilling strategic goals require a well planned and managed project portfolio or set of portfolios. Programs, projects and other operational activities are components of a portfolio. Portfolio management facilitates establishing priority across initiatives and determines how best to allocate resources to the initiatives in order to fulfill the organization’s strategic goals.
A major activity of portfolio management is the opportunity assessment. Opportunity assessment is the evaluation of every project, group of projects or programs in alignment with the strategic agenda of the organization. Opportunity assessment also considers how the project of interest may impact or relate to other projects, a larger project or program. This assessment uses some key parameters like NPV (Net Present Value), ROI (Return on Investment) and Payback. Also, it considers other factors like impact on jobs, overall economy and social-cultural implications. Definitions of these parameters are provided in the glossary section. Sometimes a project or group of projects may be evaluated in the context of a fundamental business change (i.e. business re-engineering).
Figure 5 – Project Portfolio, Program and Project Overview
Governance
Governance is the harmonization of processes, roles and responsibilities, and resources to facilitate the successful delivery of projects and other organization activities, including service delivery and customer support. Organizations establish governance at different levels of responsibilities to facilitate service excellence and free information exchange.
Figure 6 shows a governance overview at the corporate, strategic business unit, portfolio, project and operational levels, and the relationship between them. A well thought-out governance facilitates successful delivery of projects. Effective, performing and value driven organizations ensure that governance at different levels have clearly defined interfaces with unambiguous roles and responsibilities. The goal is to maximize scarce resources and reduce product delivery turn-around time or time to the market.Leadership discipline across the organization facilitates value creation and organization effectiveness.
A project manager should understand the established organization governance in order to manage project effectively. Also, to enable the successful delivery of projects, ensure the establishment of steering groups with authority to make timely decisions. A typical project governance is shown in Figure 35 (see page 127)
.Figure 6 – Governance Overview
Project Portfolio Governance
Gating – Overview and Importance
Gating provides a process for tracking the performance, value and current relevance of a project or group of projects vis-à-vis the current strategic reality, which is influenced by the organizational and environmental factors. It is critical to the realization of the business strategic goals. Dynamic organizations will assess the viability of projects, in terms of cost and benefits, on a regular basis. Figure 7 shows a typical gating process for the project portfolio management.Each organization may have its own customized version of the gating process. The important thing to know is that gating provides a practical approach to consistently evaluate and validate the credibility, relevance and viability of projects during the product development stages.
Figure 7 – Project Portfolio Management Gating Overview
Figure 8 shows the gating process specific to the product delivery management, particularly for new products.
Figure 8 – Product Delivery Management Gating Overview
Product Delivery Management Gating
The product delivery management gating can be described as follows:
Gate 1 – the initial screening determines the ideas strategic fit.
Gate 2 – the preliminary assessments of the ideas to determine technical and market feasibility.
Gate 3 – the more detailed version of gate 2. The main activity following gate 3 is the design and development of the product and a marketing plan.
Gate 4 – deals with the assessment of the product performance, the likely market acceptance of the product, and whether the degree of the market acceptance is sufficient to justify further development.
Gate 5 – the product is subjected to a test market (laboratory or field test, cash permitting) or pilot. The outcome of the testing or pilot determines the ‘go/no-go’ commercialization decision.Most initiatives or ideas are stopped at the initial stage, a less costly undertaking than stopping the initiatives at a later stage. Gating provides a practical way to prevent committing much resource to projects that may never make it to the commercialization or production stage. Gating can be used to optimize scarce resources, maximize profit or minimize losses.
Business case and marketing plan will be briefly discussed next. Other key deliverables for the gating process will be discussed in the project management and product delivery management sections. Business case or marketing plan provides key information for developing other deliverables, mainly project charter and integrated project plan.
A consice guide on project portfolio management.
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Strategy Overview
Strategy is crucial to steer an organization in the right direction.
“Large views always triumph over small ideas.” Winston Churchill
Business Strategy – Definition and Description
The purpose of this section is to describe the impact of strategy on determining, establishing and committing to the right projects and allocate scarce resources accordingly. Practically, the organization strategy drives the choice of projects. The right projects will deliver the strategic vision and goals of the organization.
Strategy is determined based on the outcome of the analysis of the distinctive and reproducible internal organization capabilities, expressed as strengths and weaknesses, and external environment factors, expressed as opportunities and threats. Strategy planning uses combination of techniques and tools to develop options and make informed decisions on how to take advantage of strengths and opportunities and respond to weaknesses and threats.
The goals of strategy include ensuring effectiveness of service delivery, profitability and, establishing and sustaining competitive advantage. These goals are achieved by developing agendas and action plans that will maintain product/service quality at a lower cost or improve product/service quality at the current or lower cost.
The value of strategy in an enterprise is to maximize profit and prevent or minimize losses, particularly in profit making organizations. Strategy is usually done at the corporate and strategic business units (SBUs) levels. SBU strategies are derived from the corporate strategy. A strategic business unit could be a product line, a service division, a geographical division etc. In the public sector, the corporate strategy is usually derived from the government agenda for its citizens, and the strategic business units could be the ministries, divisions, agencies or program areas. Other levels in the organization derive their plans, programs and projects, from the corporate and SBU strategies.
Strategy Model
Different models are used to develop strategies. A model enables clear thinking and well thought-out approach to managing the various factors, issues and implications of strategic activities and making sense of the complexities involved. A practical and versatile strategy model is a combination of different school of strategic thoughts, which include planning, learning, design, positioning, and social-cultural factors. The model in Figure 3 depicts this practical concept.
The strategists, usually business owners and executives, define the vision and agendas that drive the organization business activities. The vision drives the strategic choices of the organization. Strategy is not just about setting a vision, planning and forecasting, to maintain control. A sustainable strategy is determined by the organization’s ability to respond to predictable and unpredictable changes in the internal and external factors.
Analysis and diagnosis involve the examination of technological, organizational and environmental factors, which impact the organization performance and desired outcome. Internal factors include organization competences, policies and resources (i.e. human capital, financial, assets etc.). External factors include political, legal, economical, physical, competitive and related issues. Comprehensive analysis of the internal and external factors determines the organization SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). The SWOT report provides the required information for determining the preferred strategy or combination of strategies for the organization.
The chosen strategy drives the organization governance, structure and resource allocations, required to implement the strategy. The implementation needs to be evaluated and controlled to ensure that the organization is on track to meet its strategic goals.
Strategy Model
Figure 3 – A Strategy Model
A learning organization promotes lessons learnt through effective engagement of stakeholders and an established feedback process to ensure free flow of information. An effective feedback process enables the development of a flexible strategy that responds to the constantly changing internal and external factors. An effective strategy requires involvement of all stakeholders to a varying degree and at different stages. A clear and reliable feedback from the stakeholders will keep the strategy alive, make it effective and responsive to change. The effectiveness of obtaining timely feedback, from the portfolio, project and operations domains, will enable the organization to respond quickly to new challenges by adjusting the strategy appropriately.
Strategy is like an elephant. You may see or focus on a part of the big picture and easily loose sight of the other parts. The key challenge is to see better and clearer, through practice, rather than relying solely on narrowed vision, experience, techniques and tools. There is no one fit-all situation strategy. Strategy is a flexible but unique endeavour to suitably position the organization to respond to the current and emerging internal and external challenges.
You may reference other organizations’ strategies, but trying to copy them could be a recipe for disaster or confusion. A strategy that makes organization ‘A’ successful may not work for organization ‘B’. In practical sense, there is no ‘best strategy’; instead, the focus should be on the preferred and appropriate strategy for a specific organization, situation and time.
No matter how smart or solid an organization strategy is, its effectiveness is only evident when the rubber meets the road. A practical strategy is flexible with room for timely feedback from reality and ability to respond quickly with rational changes in the strategy. Strategy drives the portfolio, projects and operational activities that should be established and managed to meet the strategic goals of an organization.
Figure 4 shows the inter-relationship between strategy, portfolios, projects and operations. The linkage between projects, portfolios and strategy provides a good understanding and importance of projects initiation. As shown in Figure 4, the relationships between strategy, portfolios, projects and operations are multi-dimensional and multi-directional, which enables free flow of information.
Strategy-Projects-Operations
Figure 4 – Strategy-Portfolio-Project-Operations linkage
Categories: Introduction Tags: Strategy Strategic Planning
Practical Project Management – Introduction
“Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.” Winston Churchill
A reasonable understanding of strategy and portfolio management facilitates good understanding and appreciation of the importance of projects and project management. A project manager should understand the need for a project, its purpose, value creation and contribution to strategic agenda of the organization. This part provides a brief overview of strategy and portfolio management, and how they drive the delivery of projects, including the connections between them.
Specifically, it includes the following topics:
- Strategy Overview
- Portfolio Management
- Project
- Project Management
Categories: Introduction Tags: practical project management project management
