Organizations struggle to plan and execute the right initiatives because portfolio management or project program (PPM) is not deployed as a business process, equivalent to a more traditional process such as project management, finance, marketing, sales...
“If you can't describe what you're doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing” William Edwards Deming Statistician and management consultant, the father of what is now called “Total Quality Management”.
Obeya, Disciplined Agile Delivery (CAD), Spotify method, SAFe®, Less, devops, scrum of scrum, lean startup, PPM... “When it comes to the project approach, everyone is scratching their heads” told us an experienced CIO.
We see this on a daily basis through our exchanges with you, PMO/CIO and Transformation Directors, the multiplication of internal or external projects in parallel, associated with the lack of bandwidth as well as a flood of new tools and methods, make it very difficult to properly read the real value and the respective uses of a gait global project simple, effective and profitable. No time to think, no desire to change, difficult to see clearly. The vicious circle preventing innovation installs!
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Rather than opposing portfolio management vs project management approaches, the conviction we hold at AirSaaS is that one does not go without the other. However, too few organizations have focused on implementing super project management without thoroughly addressing the modernization of governance and portfolio management, as one of their strategic activities.
This article invites you to come back to the outlines of project management and project management activities. project portfolio. On cultural changes and structural oversights to be made in order to adopt an effective project portfolio management methodology.
It is important to note that project portfolio management and project management are two distinct but complementary disciplines. In terms of uses, project portfolio management ensures that company projects are aligned with the global strategy, while project management focuses on successful delivery of a specific project.
Despite their similar names, the function of project management software and portfolio management are actually quite different.
Above all, a second reminder: Governance is the action of Govern men. To lead, decide, guide, check, regulate and influence. Project management, on the other hand, is The action of managing projects to execute, supervise, communicate and control. A detour through the definition and meaning of words is always helpful.
Apart from some “product companies”, in the vast majority of SMEs and ETI everything is a project. And no need to ask the PMI (Project Management Institute), it is perhaps one of the most overused management concepts in most of our organizations.
As we recall in passing, the project portfolio management approach aims, among other things, to balance capacity with demand, to anticipate the risks of imbalance between resources and capacity to do.
In a context of crises and uncertainties and risks, many companies are launching transformation programs that are structuring for the organization in the long term but which have the effect of destroying them in the short term.
As objectives and projects are more and more numerous and transversal, the traditional logics of prioritizing and harmonizing working methods are more difficult to work. The management of transformation programs “skids” very often. The strategy too!
Too many differences between Reportings and project procedures seriously interferes with the reading of priorities and your strategy.
One of the main problems CIOs face is adapting to change.
” You can't think of everything — no one would have predicted that the pandemic would have the scale and duration that it did. But organizations can cope with change by building something flexible, breaking down silos, and creating cross-functional work..”
Sheri Rhodes, ZDNet France, excerpt from Tech is bogged down, how can CIOs break free?
An approach that is too focused on project management vs. project portfolios will limit the group's ability to:
The challenge is to get out of the vicious circle. “News silos -> Team Frustration -> Disengagement”.
The objective is to “crack” the silos of the project monitor “à la papa” and give project teams a common tool to move forward together with key success indicators (integrated into Teams, Slack, etc.).
Having a (good) global dashboard (or project monitor, dashboard, management hub - call it what you want) is essential to accelerate your transformation. In this field, several dashboard approaches exist, from the simplest to the most complex.
By focusing on the macro aspects of projects, AirSaaS allows the various actors in the company to cooperate effectively in the governance of projects. It facilitates a project management through value with real collaboration between teams together towards the same objective.
Above all, to succeed in your implementation, we suggest that you take an interest in the issue, storytelling of your approach. As a true politician... for a good cause, you will have to sell this hybrid approach yourself, then equip your ambassadors to “resell” it.
Call it what you want: marketing portfolio, storytelling, media training... in any case choose something that ends up in -ing.
The objective will be to frame the scope for your interlocutors And the difference in the definition project portfolio management vs project management. What it will deliver.
For convince you of the usefulness of this exercise, all you have to do is perform a” Crash Check-testing ” Of the understanding It's true that each of your project managers has these notions! Even after a general kick off, a super power point, organizational coaching, a pilot POC where everyone seemed to have understood... Memory rates are sometimes low. Don't despair - practice!
Yes it's new! Remember the beginnings of emails, Teams, Slack, management software, CRM, etc. everything is normal. The challenge is to create a new culture to change the structure of your organization.
Among the recommended solutions, we therefore recommend that you equip yourself with a micro com kit for yourself and for your ambassadors.
Once these elements of summary of the approach have been set up. Do not hesitate to reassure by sharing what portfolio management is not. It's not project management - it's governance.
It is not enough to have a strategic plan every 3/5 years, it must be brought to life! In an organization continuous alignment Stakeholder engagement is key. On this point, the leadership of the CIO is one of the levers. It is up to him, as the hub of the transformation, to offer not a dashboard for managing risks, budgets and security... but an attractive, simple, common platform allowing:
Ideas become successful when we all buy into them, implement them and respect them once they are operational. Implementing portfolio management as a business process is a”Cultural revolution“for your organization and requires strong consideration and change management among stakeholders.
To limit the risks, the strong sponsorship of the general management will be decisive in this alignment process. Management must be able to see how this will improve their business. An introduction to defining these concepts, a demonstration of the PPM application, and an overview of some use cases are prerequisites to get everyone up to speed. Once the alignment has been achieved, a change management committee should be created, responsible for bring the approach to life and have a leverage effect around the PPM solution.
A PPM - project portfolio is an enterprise application, which means that implementation and deployment must be managed and managed as such. If this objective and principle are not respected, there is a high probability that teams and end users will not adopt the solution.
With the Getting started with the PPM tool, the implementation should focus on business processes related to your governance, your rituals And your role models. These four components should all come into play at the same time. These modernization projects tend to fail when the focus is mainly on the application seen as one more management software.
Organizations rush to the functionalities of the software product, its quality or its defect, and forget the importance of management behind the tools. This is where the question of the key role of a new PMO software within teams will be central.
No need to wait for the right company size, the right turnover, the right maturity in project portfolio management... All the resources and budget you save by improving your governance will cover your investment.
When the project portfolio solution is put online, it is the beginning of a new beginning. The project team and the business should focus primarily on user adoption. In the same way as for software deployment, it is a good idea to treat this project as the development of tools for customers. To have an objective, a project manager, sponsor, business referent, etc.
In this area the life, learning and adjustment cycle is at least equal to 6 months. The organization must go through each stage, complete the lessons learned sessions and the optimization steps, before the project can be declared a success and integrated into the run of your CIO processes.
Last point of vigilance, which means transforming your governance and PPM, also means decommissioning obsolete systems, we think of Excel, management program software, but not only, also committees and rituals — how to deploy an internal transformation without having the final and total view of the construction sites? We have to come full circle.
The answer to this question is simple after all... they are two complementary uses. One cannot function effectively without the other. La project portfolio management must be addressed as a business process critical for organizations that intend to grow, accelerate, and improve in their marketplace.
Is the project portfolio one more tool? No! Done well, it is an improvement and a simplification of your project management software. This evolution will help managers manage the prioritization of projects, the distribution of human and financial resources, the distribution of human and financial resources, the return on investment, decision-making, implementation of the project, its planning, its planning, its risks, its risks, its quality and its deadlines. A whole program!
In the years to come, project management and project portfolio management tools will continue to evolve according to business needs, for the management of transformation programs. By combining both tools and approaches effectively, businesses can better align their projects with their strategic goals, improve the quality of resource management, and accelerate the management of transformation programs. We finally arrive at enhanced program and project management!
