What are the characteristics of an organization that is ready for Project Portfolio Management (PPM)? What are the traits that indicate a successful PPM implementation?
Visibility: Organizations that understand the value of transparency are well positioned to take on a PPM initiative. If visibility causes anxiety and doubt, then the organization is less likely to embrace a PPM solution.
Standardization: An operating bias toward standarized process means that an organization no longer wants to re-invent the wheel with every project. Standard process creates predictability of execution, and if it's done well standardization can even inspire creativity. If you follow the hero approch to projects, you may not be a good candidate for PPM.
Process Improvement: When you can define the steps to accomplish a job in a repeatable way, you have a defined process. PPM greatly enhances the ability to improve the Project Life-cycle process, which in turn enhances project outcomes. Some organizations do not define their processes, making it hard to achieve repeatability and process improvement.
Measurement: Organizations that measure how they are performing will find a significant improvement in their ability to measure how they are doing. The saying goes, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. If you can't see it, however, you can't measure it. See Visibility & Process Improvement.
Accountability: In many ways, you've already partly achieved accountability with visibility. Once you can see who owns what, you immediately have better accountability. In the public sector, this term gets thrown around to the point of becoming meaningless. If your organization wants to achieve greater accountability, PPM will provide several ways to do just that. See Visibility and Measurement.
Focus: Organizations that want to focus their precious resources on high impact activities are well positioned for a PPM implementation. You must be ready and willing to define your priorities and make trade-offs. But if you want to get the most from your people and not burn them out, PPM will give you a framework for focus.
Change: The willingness and the ability to manage change is relevant to PPM for at least two reasons. 1. Establishing a PPM management framework will likely require some change management; 2. A PPM framework will significantly improve an organization's ability to manage change.
There are other characteristics that are indicators of PPM readiness. There are also different ways to define the points outlined above. It comes down to this: are you ready to manage your project investments like investments? Are you ready?
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Posted by: tfqmnuly fnjuebmkd | October 06, 2008 at 12:47 PM