Project Management

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You have just been appointed to deliver a five-year roadmap in an organization that is not projectized. What do you do?

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Mike Frenette Manager, IT PMO| Halifax Water (retired) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
An organization you have just joined as the first project manager expects you to deliver a portfolio of 100 projects over a five year period. It has no PMO, and no other project managers. The portfolio is worth over $150,000,000. 

What are your first three steps?
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Mike, this is a significant portfolio and seems like it has limited resources so I would start by doing the following:

1) Establishing a PMO.
2) Develop a Portfolio Strategy and Prioritize Projects.
3) Establish Resources Requirements, Recruit and Train as needed.

This portfolio will require tremendous amount of initiation works before it can kick-off!
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Mike -

1. Create an overall portfolio charter or similar document to get alignment on expectations, confirm the authority vested in you, and identify the key outcomes and get sign off on that from all relevant senior executives.

2. if any of the expectations in #1 are unrealistic, try to get those expectations reset right away. If you can't decide whether you want to go down with the Titanic or not.

3. Establish the core team within your portfolio office.

Kiron
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William M Hayden Jr Adjunct Assistant Professor| University at Buffalo, School of Management, Operations Management & Strategy Buffalo, Ny, United States
Thanks Mike!
Re: "What are your first three steps?"
1. Meet F2F with all of the C-suite, one-on-one.
2. Prepare and release an anonymous companywide employee survey to obtain feedback on their experiences.
3. Based on above meet again with the C-suite, this time all in the same physical room.
The rest is academic.
Cheers,
Bill
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Mike Frenette Manager, IT PMO| Halifax Water (retired) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Thanks for the suggestions Rami, Kiron. All good suggestions, and exactly where I would go with it.

I would add this:

- immediately engage with the executive team to fully understand:

. the strategic goals they are trying to meet,



. priorities,

. flexibility of roadmap programs and projects; and

. expectations around the size and operational budget of the organization required to establish processes, staff up and deliver


What do others think? Have you ever been faced with such a situation, or one that is somewhat similar? If so, what did you do?
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Bob Patrino Consultant/Senior Technical Project Manager| Tamazari Newport, KY, United States
I would also add, find a good therapist!

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