Do You Need a Project Firing Squad?

 

One of the comments I received concerning the post, Agile With a Small "a", suggested, "In your next post, perhaps address a key point in today's post that wasn't expanded on: ... ensure that we are working on the 'right' projects in the first place." Because this often makes a big difference as to whether or not project teams are really successful, I thought I would take Sarah's advice.

I don't think it really matters what type of work you do, how your project teams are organized or even the project management methodology you use—we are all faced with too many projects and not enough time or resources to get them all done. What's more, in a perfect world, every worthy project opportunity that presented itself would be executed—unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world.

Although there are many organizations that don't spend much time seriously evaluating every project to determine if it even "should" be executed, there are those that do. Let me share with you an aggregate of some of the most common practices that are seeing success. Organizations that manage individual projects within portfolios tend to give this more thought than organizations that don't, but it doesn't really matter. Working on the "right" projects should be a priority for every organization.

1. Establish a criteria for evaluating potential projects: Before you start evaluating projects, it's important to ask some questions concerning what's important. Every company is different, but here are some common questions that might help establish some basic criteria. Your organization will probably want to customize these criteria, and even add additional questions to meet specific needs. Most organizations will want to ask questions about risk, cost and return. In addition, how do the proposed projects relate to identified business objectives or add value to the organization?
2. Organize the firing squad: Organizations that seem to be the most successful at this have established a project steering committee whose responsibility it is to evaluate potential projects. Although it's important that project leaders participate in the selection process, if the committee includes members of the executive team, it adds weight to committee decisions. A sponsor is less likely to present a project of dubious value for consideration if they know it will be reviewed by members of the company's senior leadership team. What's more, it ensures that corporate objectives become the goals of project leaders and the deliverables of their teams.
3. Ask the questions and evaluate the answers: Once you've determined what criteria is important and have created the evaluation team, it's important to actually ask the questions. In many organizations, the projects that are given priority are often the result of a sponsor's charisma or clout within the organization. Unfortunately, this doesn't always mean that teams are working on the initiatives that provide the best value. When every potential project (regardless of the sponsor) is evaluated by the same criteria, organizations are able to know that they are working on those things that ultimately will provide the most value.
4. Make sure it's a formalized process: As a general rule, I don't like to formalize anything that doesn't require it. However, this process seems to work best if there is an established practice that everyone involved in understands and uses. Plus, formalizing the process for project evaluation ensure that it always happens regardless of the nature of the project or the political prowess of the sponsor.

Of course, many organizations don't look at the project evaluation process this way. They tend to make sure the squeaking wheel gets the grease—very short-sighted, in my opinion.

How do you ensure that your teams are working on the "right" projects?