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Global Project Portfolio Management

In 2007, Purcell and Hutchinson proved there was a direct correlation between an individual’s personality and a successfully delivered project.

A report in the Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management found that to be successful, project managers need to demonstrate extrovert and perceiving personality traits (more about that below). While noted project management researcher Lynn Crawford stated in 2001 that once a project manager had achieved an entry level of project management knowledge (yep, entry level), then more knowledge doesn’t make them more competent. Prof Crawford concluded: ‘It’s their personality and leadership style that does.’

Barely a week goes by without reading quotes from luminaries such as Drucker, Godin and Peters about just how vital it is. Today’s modern IT PMO governance are superior delivery experts in project driven delivery, technology powered, business centric, and BI enabled. IT leaders must embrace constant pressures, changes, and innovation. The capital investment portfolio and primary decisions criteria for which programs and projects are funded remains a mystery for most IT departments lack of visibility to the decision-making processes of their corporate boards and CEO’s.

On average, over 50% of projects will fail as businesses are unable to sense and respond to the project risks and challenges for superior implementation causing a massive capital leakage across all industries. The tracking of performance and accountability provides a means for
IT governance process and policy control, with no financial functions capturing the activity-based costing expenditures that account for the millions of dollars wasted on failed projects annually.

The Standish Group – Project Success Factors

The 2018 Chaos Report identified three key success factors for projects as:

  • Executive Sponsorship
  • Emotional Maturity
  • User Involvement

All true and all within project sponsor and project manager control. In the past, organizations have argued that the leadership ability of project sponsors and managers is hard to measure and provide feedback on a continuous basis.

Project Management Institute – The Report

Pulse of the Profession report: “We saw declines in many of the success factors we track. Even more concerning, the percentage of projects meeting their goals—which had been flat for the past four years—took a significant dip.” The report, however, then went on to say that to resolve this dip, “organizations need to shift their thinking and embrace project management as a strategic competency for success.”

Overview

IT Governance and project management industry reports provide information on the status of the project itself, however if I wanted to know how a project was really going in financial terms, I had to get out and speak to the stakeholders, budget analysts, and related administrators within the organization.

Early warning signs that a project was failing and the project is in jeopardy of losing capital:

  • Unhappy project team
  • Lack of executive sponsorship
  • Dissatisfied or disengaged stakeholders
  • Lack of collaboration
  • Lack of communication
  • Disorganized meetings

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These are all elements of the emotional maturity of a project sponsor and manager and are usually the things uncovered when teams are asked to provide their ‘gut feel’ as to how things are going. These are also the things talked about in the kitchen or staff room long before a project fails and yet are rarely picked up or resolved.

CEO and CIO –A Global Disconnect

The world’s largest companies say they plan to do everything it takes this year to gain a competitive edge in their markets. In the meantime, their CIOs are still stuck trying to be the best darn technology providers they can be. A major disconnect between CEOs and CIOs? Haven’t we heard this one before? Well, yes. But Gartner Inc. analyst Mark McDonald points to fresh statistics from the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm that suggest the perennial disconnect has more urgency, especially at companies trying to grow faster than the market. The report surveyed 1,400 CIOs at organizations with an average IT budget of $90 million.

PPM Business Performance Outlook

  • 2010-2015 Resulted in 5 years of the worst PPM performance on record
  • TCO increases dramatically while PPM performance levels dramatically decreasing
  • CXO Cultural: CEO/COO/Business managers do not value IT as peer to peer
  • CIO have become “order taker” managers of business
  • PPM managers are humiliated
  • 30% of global PPM delivery success rate (70% failure rate)
  • 25% of global investment leakage for sunken costs of ca. $125M per $1B invested
  • 50% of CXO’S Don’t Value Project Management

Key Project Management Challenges

  • Lack of Risk Structures: No risk calculation for enterprise management plan and assessment for the outcome of the project deliverables.
  • Lack of Proactive Issues and Resolutions: No coordinated effort on the feedback to close loop of all critical issues and resolutions path.
  • Poor Requirements Building: Business workflow process and business operational models are not documented with WBS details.
  • Change Implementation Standards: SOP’s playbook for performance, education, training, development, investment for the enterprise
  • Develop Governance: Establish an optimal process for making decisions and assigning decision rights. Identify and engage stakeholders. Agree on authority and flow for decision making. Implement and set up feedback mechanisms. 
  • Drive Change Management: Set up a system to communicate ideas via multiple channels. Get buy-in from stakeholders at all levels. Assess progress, and drive stakeholder commitment to the change. Be sensitive to the amount of change PPM efforts will entail. 
  • Execute Business Goals: Optimally operate the initiative in accordance with business goals. Update and drive new elements of the initiative in response to changing business requirements. 
  • Continuous Improvement Processes Post Production: Measure how the initiative has affected business outcomes. Seek feedback from stakeholders. Drive improvements through process changes and upgrades.

Modern PPM Approach: New Methodologies

Project Driven, Technology Powered, Business Centricity, BI and Analytics

  • Insight Driven
    Proactive data-driven based on competitive advantages
  • Collaborative
    Creating cultural of social project success and teamwork for better outcomes
  • People-Centric
    Alignment of diverse skills sets, with project delivery requirements
  • Ultra-Efficiency
    Project efficiency of personal execution and solutions
  • Control
    Single source of accountability and track performance profitability for monitoring the control mechanics.

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