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As Laura mentioned in her last post, we just wrapped up SME review and are gearing up for public review very soon! THANK YOU to all the wonderful SMEs that took the time to read and provide feedback that was clear, complete and easy to understand. It was deeply appreciated while plugging away at over 1100 comments. We value the effort that it took our SMEs to review and comment, so we ensured all feedback was carefully evaluated.
There were a few interesting themes we noticed within the feedback, one of them being the relationship between business analysis with project, program and portfolio management. I wanted to pick on this point, as there is a lot of confusion and even misconception within the public on the scope of business analysis being covered in PMI’s business analysis standard.
Business analysis is a competency needed across the project, program and portfolio. Portfolios include work at a strategy level and operations, per the definition of Portfolios: “Projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.” In other words, the scope of business analysis within PMI’s business analysis standard includes work to support strategy and operations.
Based on valuable feedback from SMEs, our team incorporated changes to ensure:
1) The scope of business analysis was clarified, and
2) The relationship between business analysis with project, program and portfolio management was made much clearer.
In addition to adding verbiage to address (1), we added the following comparative overview of business analysis with project, program, and portfolio management to address (2).
|
|
Business Analysis |
Project Management |
Program Management |
Portfolio Management |
|
Definition |
The set of activities performed to identify business needs, recommend relevant solutions and elicit, analyze, specify, communicate, and manage requirements. |
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. |
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a program to meet the program requirements and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing projects individually. |
The centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve strategic objectives. |
|
Focus |
Solution: Something that is produced to deliver measurable business value to meet the expectations of stakeholders (i.e. new products and enhancements to products) |
Project: A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. |
Program: A group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually. |
Portfolio: Projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. |
|
Scope |
Product scope is defined as the features and functions that characterize a solution. |
Project scope is defined as the work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions. |
Programs have a scope that encompasses the scopes of its program components. |
Portfolios have an organizational scope that changes with the strategic objectives of the organization. |
|
Roles |
Those who identify business needs, recommend and describe solutions through the definition of product requirements. |
Those who manage the project team to meet the project objectives. |
Those who ensure that program benefits are delivered as expected, by coordinating the activities of a program’s components. |
Those who coordinate portfolio management staff, or program and project staff that may have reporting responsibilities into the aggregate portfolio. |
|
Success |
Measured by a product or solution’s ability to deliver its intended benefits to an organization, and degree of customer satisfaction. |
Measured by product and project quality, timelines, budget compliance, and degree of customer satisfaction. |
Measured by program’s ability to deliver its intended benefits to an organization, and by the program’s efficiency and effectiveness in delivering those benefits. |
Measured in terms of the aggregate investment performance and benefit realization of the portfolio. |
Hope you enjoyed that sneak peek. Stay tuned for more information on the public review process. We look forward to seeing your comments!
Posted
by Cheryl Lee
on: January 26, 2017 10:44 AM |
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