Prioritization questions and the search for operational effectiveness of transformation are topics that concern many leaders. “Everyone is scratching their heads” summarised with humor a member of Transfo's AirSaaS Pro community, an experienced CIO, during an interview.
And let's face it, the Directorates-general and trades Are sometimes difficult to get on a Lean-agile culture Project Portfolio Management, Often Seen as a Purely IT Subject.
In this article, we are going to focus on execution. Of your ongoing business strategy, andand to the execution of your business strategy from a Lean portfolio management perspective. To dialogue and cooperation between silos, to your value stream, to budget distribution. We will seek to learn more about approaches that promise to improve your agile process and enhance the added value of your projects. In a nutshell: We will seek to Boost the efficiency of your portfolio management.
We will talk about Kanban, value stream mapping, agile frameworks at scale, visual management and maybe even agile release trains!
Disclaimer! These topics are complex. Attention, if you were looking for a no brainer item... stay a while!
Here we aim to deal with these themes, sharing beliefs, and remaining as pragmatic as possible - all with a “anti-wood tongue” filter activated.
Moreover, we will sprinkle this article with a few pinches of history and semantics on Lean, especially when it comes to understanding the origin and meaning of key concepts. Because coming back to the meanings of words allows us to have an approach based on the principle and the approach versus a simplistic approach, toolbox type!
Planning a Year in Advance Is No Longer Realistic. In this famous VICA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), when the market, management, or scope are experiencing rapid changes and experiences, Traditional Product Portfolio Management Methods No Longer Make It Possible to Manage Effectively.
One example among many others. Agile teams deliver sprints of 2 to 3 weeks while, in many cases, portfolios are frozen over the year!
This Temporal contradiction Also applies to the Decisionmaking. This is often considered by operational staff to be too long, and involving too many people.
Likewise, on time scales At 18 months, the budget estimates are imaginary! And finally, regardless of the background: what is important is to convince finance to obtain the budgets.
It should be remembered again: the value delivered is not the quantity delivered!
The agile philosophy focuses on the delivery of value-added functionalities, in a short time frame, as one of the indicators of success for the team.
The diagram below illustrates this trend, and invites us to fight against the “always more” syndrome disconnected from the value delivered.
To better prioritize and align continuously, We need to see a “big picture”!
In general, we can say it: general managers, IT, trades, and project managers have too many topics to address. Without synthetic groupings, it is very difficult to really work together, to cooperate.
From a “big picture”, the various stakeholders will be able to better: Assess the Relative Individual Importance of Each of the Projects submissive.
And even more: thanks to this global vision, we will be able to group together certain requests and maybe be able to see synergies and group these different project ideas together to Create a program ! A transformation program and/or plan that will make Meaning for employees.
Lean thinking, startup, lean enterprise, manufacturing, lean budgeting, lean management, governance, lean office, lean PMO, Lean Portfolio Management...
Help: Lean has been used in every way! So, before focusing on Lean Portfolio Management, we need to go back to basics.
The literal translation of Lean is “lean.” Among the common meanings, we will remember that of “as accurately as possible.” ”.
The aim is to Tend towards performance (in terms of productivity, quality, deadlines and costs) thanks to theContinuous improvement and the elimination of waste, all in order to create value to satisfy the customer. The central idea of Lean is therefore the creation of value.
It was around the 1990s that the expression “Lean Production” appeared and its principles were formalized in the book The Machine That Changed the World Written by James Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. Then in Lean Thinking Published in 1996 by the same authors.
Les Models for Deploying Agility at Scale (” Scale Up ” in English) are not much loved as they are malicious! A gas factory for processing for some, a great organizational framework for others... what is certain is that we cannot generalize. Frameworks are numerous. SAFe, Nexus, Spotify, Scum at Scale, LeSS or even DAD... and as a bonus, they are evolving rapidly.
These different frameworks offer Approaches that are more or less ambitious and especially with variable geometry. With Lean Portfolio Management, SAFe, we enter The Almost Industrial Organization of Workflows. In interdependencies at the scale of a company.
In any case, the challenges are to succeed in obtaining the value targeted by agility while adapting it to several digital teams - sometimes dozens!
The implementation of these Lean Portfolio Management frameworks at scale Will Involve An understanding of strategic definition mechanisms, budget cycles, management control, and the involvement of top management! Complex to implement in organizations, this can be extremely powerful In the effects they may produce.
So be careful to take into account the size, sector and activity structure of your organization before you start. Numerous feedback confirms the relevance of this system in full-product oriented organizations such as in the banking and insurance sector, which only develop software.
If we don't take into account all the parameters and key criteria, in organizations that are not “full product” we risk coming up with a big club to plant a bug!
A CIO, Pro de la Transfo., questioned about SAFe confirms this to us:
Let's not be impressed by this pattern and let's stick to The general philosophy of SAFe Which is based on nine principles:
In summary, even if you don't work with an army of Lean-agile coaches in a large CAC40 bank, these principles are all good practices and opportunities for change.
Take inspiration from this culture to create and maintain your “ad'hoc” Lean portfolio approach - that is to say, truly adapted to your organization.
Project management Aims to meet specific requirements and to complete a given project within the agreed time and budget.
One of its strengths is to provide a concentration of attention and resources with “just” tension.. This mobilization allows, in theory, to temporarily improve the cooperation of transversal departments of the company, outside of silos.
One of its weak points is that, when they are poorly cut, wallets are no longer agile! They are becoming “obese”!
Portfolio Reviews Then No Longer Have a Stake, or Bandwidth for the Ré-scheduling of priorities... With the consequence of a potential strong demobilization in the teams.
The key contribution of Lean Portfolio Management will be To Change the Time Horizon. To operate, for example, in the “quarter” - even for an ERP/CRM project! We'll come back to this later in the article.
Finally, we draw your attention to a complex point in the process: the idea is not to switch to full product mode, but to make the product and project side coexist.
Because yes: even if operating in “product mode” is one of the interesting contributions of Lean Portfolio Management approaches, it is not at all adapted to a large majority of organizations such as ETI and SMEs.
This is a bit of the paradox of modern delivery models. We are increasingly required to Create a “hybrid” delivery culture. The right mix between culture, project, approach, product.
One of the levers to be activated to keep up with the pace of change is to apply a Lean-agile approach in portfolio management towards more “Business Agility” for your digital transformation.
The Lean-agile approach is based on the Lean principle of Decentralization of Decision-Making and the transfer of responsibilities to the people most in contact with the field.
Academically, even sometimes indigestible, the definition of Lean Portfolio Management is as follows:
“Lean portfolio management (LPM) is an approach that aims to align strategy and execution. By applying systems thinking approaches to strategy and investment funding, agile portfolio operations, and governance by prioritizing product and application development initiatives.”
Schematically, or even more consistently, the LPM process is as follows :
The Lean Portfolio Management Process is Broken Down Into two steps: Processing applications Upstream and the Operational management initiatives selected downstream.
If executed properly, LPM increases your agility. This happens when a company's planning, financing processes, and business strategy align with the business outcomes that the business wants. Behind these terms, there are many men and women in IT, general management and professions who are looking to align!
The Transition to Product Mode Changes the Time Horizon. As we saw above: one of the problems of current project management lies in the temporality that is too far removed from the company and customer rhythms.. Reformat your wallet for a Better Match with the Organization's Timing is a simple, effective and profitable tip for your roadmap!
The example below shows an annual Lean agile breakdown model.
A methodology with quick deliveries of what has been prioritized will contribute to a more natural pace of work than the tunnel effect.
Still to reinforce these new project governance rituals, we are happy to share here, tips from an experienced CIO:
Remember, it's The team spirit that must be developed !
Let's not forget to celebrate the key stages of these rituals in the right way.
Lean and agile approaches have in common: Make Visible the Work to Be Done, operations, the project portfolio. Whether in an obeya room, a kanban, of a mind mapping, the idea is to show in the clearest and most engaging way possible.
If you want to involve a company's employees on subjects as technical as those dealt with by the IT department, it is better to do it on an interface that they will like.
PPM tools that focus on UX Therefore generally have an interface that is intuitive enough to facilitate the continuous alignment of general management, IT and each business department.
La AirSaaS portfolio management solution Helps Businesses Adopt a Lean and Agile Mindset. This maximizes ongoing cooperation between customers, suppliers, business, IT and general departments by connecting their teams, products and portfolios to their goals and objectives through various frameworks. All to help businesses achieve agility across the business.
Give Your Governance Body Project A decision-making system. The AirSaaS project portfolio makes it possible to bring together in a synthetic view the combination of indicators necessary for value-oriented decision-making.
Consider Lean Portfolio Management now for a successful business transformation!
