3 Steps to PPM Success

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Governance   Portfolio Management   Strategy  

Managing a basket of diverse projects in a dynamic and ever changing environment is not for the faint of heart.  Many CEOs expect the CIO to take a hands-on approach in delivering high value projects.  The complications are rarely grounded in technology challenges or in managing individual project plans.  Instead the challenges are found in stabilizing priorities, navigating political waters and balancing the demand from competing resources.  In essence the challenge is one of leadership, diplomacy and governance.

At Showboat, Inc., where I spent my tenure as a CIO, we had a number of divisions that were in constant competition for IT resources.  With a development staff of about 25 and a rolling portfolio of about 30 projects totaling over 20,000 hours, life was anything but dull.  Lobbying for project positioning was a constant, as Marketing, Casino Operations, Hotel, Food and Beverage, Finance and HR vied for resources.

In a perfect world each project would have been staffed with dedicated personnel, but when is the world perfect?  When your handshake is your bond and the demand for instant gratification is 15 on a scale of 10, you either learn how to juggle, dance and deliver or perish.  I was the fifth CIO in five years, so it was clear that the fuse was short.

When I took the CIO helm, virtually every project was behind …

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