Portfolio Steering Committee

Project Portfolios require direction, and whether you have a formal process or an informal process, the shape and trajectory of the portfolio is driven by the steering committee.  The committee may have one person on it, or representatives from several departments.  It may have 3 members and it may have 30.  No matter how the committee is composed, it serves a purpose.  The questions are, What purpose should it serve? and How should it function?  This is where things get a little tricky.

The challenges appear immediately upon understanding one key fact: the steering committee is composed of human beings.  For those of us who like the predictability and consistency of machines or formulas, people present a peculiar challenge.  They are not predictable.  When you get several people together at the same time, the predictability worsens.  When you call them the members of a committee, things can get downright weird.  If you have diligently read your Kafka and your Orwell, you will at least have a literary sense of what I'm talking about.

In a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) context, one of the key aspects of managing the portfolio is the composition and role of the steering committee.  Who is on it?  What does it do?  What is its scope?  Does it make decisions or only recommendations?  If it doesn't make decisions, who does?  Who has the titular power?  Who has the real power?  Who knows what they're talking about?  Who just knows the acronyms?  Does the committee have access to the right information?  Are the members clear about their role?  Are they resumé stuffers or are they problem solvers?  The answers to these questions are not easy nor are they obvious.

But there is a role that precedes the steering committee.  That role is the role of the person (or the persons) who establish the committee.  Who are those folks and what are they trying to accomplish?  You see, that is where it starts - someone forms the committee.  I have written consistently over the years that the key to any technology solution is People, Process and Solution Design in that order.  You start with the key people, and usually their job requires picking the rest of the people. This is where the proverbial game is won or lost.

Which brings us back to the steering committee.  Let me give the term its proper formatting: the Steering Committee.  Someone, or some small team, will establish the Steering Committee and will create the rules, expectations, guidelines, etc.  At that point, everything changes.  Power and authority will have been given names and roles and a place-and-time to meet.  I certainly don't want to say that there is no going back, because there is, but I will say that the formation of the Steering Committee sets certain things in motion that are difficult to stop.

More on this to come...

Comments

[anon]

you're publishing an interesting blog, on a subject that's an emerging force in the business environment. The only thing I would add to your steering committee definition is the role of "working committee." This means that the committee isn't a stamping ground for decisions only. It actively works with the project managers to resolve high-level issues and risks, including overseeing the portfolio's status and trend.

[DemianE]

Anon,

Thanks for your suggestion. I wonder if the steering committee can do much "work," but rather serve more of a decision facilitation function. I think what you're talking about is the Project Management Organization (PMO). The folks in the PMO needs to roll up their sleeves and help PMs every day.

Thoughts?

[Ignacio Inchausti]

Yes Demian, insightful perspective on "steering committee architects" - they have the delicate "DNA" role of seeding the steering committee appropriately.

Which leads me to think of the notion of interests and the bearing they have on the outcome; ie. steering committee architects (if in fact it's a group) will bring individual interests to the discussion and these may need to be "resolved", which is where options come into the equation.

So options are used to address any conflicting ineterests that are raised by the architects, and here is where the fundamental characater or focus or "personality" of the steering committee is created.

The lesson: dwell upon the interests and potential conflicts brewing amongst the steering committee architects, lest you set in train a flawed process and outcome.

[DemianE]

Ignacio,

In my experience, there is often a small group (as small as 1) that plays a "prime mover" role. That group tends to carry what you call the DNA with them. And to your point, what are their interests? Are they self-aware? Can they set aside their individual interests for the larger goal?

I guess this line of thought begs the question: can we do a committee correctly if we don't already have the right DNA?

I say "yes" if we recognize that we don't have it.

- Demian