Don’t Just Approve, Authorize

Tom Mochal, PgMP, PMP, TSPM is the president of TenStep, Inc., a methodology development, consulting and training company. Tom won the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute for his work spreading knowledge of project management around the world. He is a speaker, lecturer, instructor and consultant to companies and organizations around the world.

  Decision Making   Estimating   Leadership   Portfolio Management   ProjectsAtWork  

It might seem obvious that once a project makes it through the approval process, it is good to go. This is not always the case, particularly when there is a gap between approval and the actual start date. There is one more step that should be taken before a project begins — authorization.

Most of the discussion around planning work for a portfolio focuses on surfacing, prioritizing and approving the work. However, there is another important step: the authorization process is the point where the budget is actually allocated to the project and the work is ready to begin.

On the surface, it might seem that authorization is an extra bureaucratic step that does not add value. In fact, it is a very important step to make sure that the best decisions are made based on the most current information.

Think about the annual business planning process in most organizations. The major work for next year is planned in the current year so that budgets and projects are ready when the New Year starts. In many companies, the business planning process starts in the middle of the fiscal year and may not end until the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. If a project is approved during the planning process the work may not start for a number of months. In fact, all of the work cannot start on the first day of the New Year. The work is staggered to start throughout the year. In some cases …

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