From concept to working reality - how long did it take? What operational challenges did you face? What benefit it brought once delivered and how long until you were able to quantify these benefits?
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hey, voron is not for free (although he has the habbit of giving himself away in return of nature favours)!!! He is on 700 per day plus my commission of 100. Leave your account details in my personal box.Originally posted by ChicoI've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light.Comment
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- Identify the stakeholders and key decision makersOriginally posted by Chico
- Start an awareness campaign of what Portfolio Management is and the benefits it can bring, e.g. give the stakeholders and decision makers a presentation (What, Why, How, What else?)
- Identify what needs to change in terms of how programmes and projects are currently governed
- Create a board structure – probably chaired by the CIO, and the key business unit leaders
- Get the organisation to understand and prioritise what it must do, should do and could do, and prioritise these.
- Define the criteria for IT investments
- Identify constraints e.g. does demand exceed supply capability, resources budgets.
- Baseline current projects, and ‘can’ those projects that are adding little value or ROI
- Think about the existing organisational structure e.g. is it federated? Do any functions need to be centralised?
- Be prepared for power struggles, people loosing autonomy, some knuckle breaking, realignment of budgets etc.
- Gain buy-in before trying to implement the approach
- Look at Portfolio project management tools
- Define your next steps (two weeks before your contract renewal
)
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How long did it take?
I've done it for a few clients. It has taken approximately nine months each time.
Operational Challenges?
Actually, operationally it's reasonably straight forward. The time has always been swallowed by politics. If you are starting with a fresh portfolio then so much the better, but if not, the routine usually runs like this...
Audit client and assess what is wrong. Client is completely screwed, prove this with evidence. Client is in denial. Eventually client accepts reality and listens to proposal. Client talks about proposal. Client talks some more about proposal. Yet more discussion, all the time agreeing it is what's needed...skip forward four months of talking...
Audit projects in the portfolio. What are they really up to? Do they have funding? Do they have a properly defined and argued business case? Do they have staff? Do they have a proper plan? How does the project relate to the other projects? This has traditionally been another political issue, as PMs do not want anyone looking into their personal kingdoms and telling them what to do (or discovering that they actually don't have very much work). This requires careful management, but if you play it right you can get the information you need.
After you have this information you can start to manage them. Some projects are candidates for early termination, others can be joined together as they duplicate work, etc.
Now, depending on the client, a PMO can be developed to oversee the portfolio. Capacity planning and matrix management can be introduced.
What benefits did it deliver?
For a start it eliminated a lot of flab and waste due to projects being padded. It reduced the number of dud projects being initiated. It increased the successful delivery rate of projects. It also made projects more efficient through matrix management, so there was a direct cost saving there.
How before I could quantify these benefits?
Quite a few benefits were realised immediately (e.g. removing excess staff from projects, making budgets more realistic, scrapping duds), but others had to wait until projects finished (e.g. successful delivery).Comment
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Don't worry, Franco, our consultancy is nicely establishing its networkOriginally posted by Francko
You just continue to charm the female managers with your Italian ways and everything will fall into place
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Ancient and voron - good stuff thanks. It is nice to know its not just code monkeys and support drones who frequent this board but IT professional who are business aware. Keep up the good work.Sola gratia
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Soli Deo gloriaComment
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Not if you keep selling yourself for free. From now on everyone who will approach you for anything will be charged at 700 quid a day.Originally posted by voronDon't worry, Franco, our consultancy is nicely establishing its network I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light.Comment
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Ah, that's where I've been going wrong all these years! Good idea.Originally posted by FranckoComment
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