Value-Driven Projects

  Agile   Governance   Stakeholder Management   Strategy   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

Value-driven projects differ from plan-driven projects in significant ways, including how teams are formed, how funding is obtained, how scope is determined and how solutions are achieved. They seek valuable rather than predictable results. Here’s a roadmap to making the switch.

Value-driven projects differ from plan-driven projects in that they aim for valuable rather than predictable results. They focus on solving problems and delivering value rather than on delivering to a plan. In value-driven projects, product/solution/outcome owners play a more important role than project/delivery/development managers.

To highlight the differences, it is enough to take the case of a plan-driven project executed by a single capability team, one that isn’t part of a larger program of work. Let’s assume that the releases made by this team can directly go into production and reach end users. The table summarizes the differences.

Project Managers

We can’t talk about projects and leave out their managers, can we? Managers of plan-driven projects have unenviable jobs. They are responsible for ensuring that a fundamentally unpredictable process delivers to plan. Given this onerous mission, considerations of value take a backseat.

Many project managers operate in a content-free mode, concerned only with burnup charts; progress reports; risks, assumptions, issues,…

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