Sven DiessnerProgram Planner| Lufhansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbHNeu-Isenburg, Germany
Dear Community,
leading the PMO of a midsize financial services company (1000 employees) I am constantly challenged with the statement that a project is "mandatory". From a Portfolio Management perspective this gets difficult once you are facing too many "mandatories" and you have to set priorities.
I am looking for any valuable input that helps to develop a reasonable definition of what makes a project "mandatory".
Thanks and kind regards
Sven Saving Changes...
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Kathleen ColbeckProgram Manager| SAICAlbuquerque, Nm, United States
I have done a lot of work in support of government agencies and as a result, have worked on a number of mandatory projects. They are projects that must be completed, usually due to reasons of security or regulatory compliance. There's no evalutaion of the project as it fits into an overall protfolio--it simply must be done. Saving Changes...
Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
In a financial services company, this will most likely mean that it is required to meet legislative or other regulatory requirements - and without those the company simply cannot operate.
In other industries it has other meanings - such as Kathleen's example (I too work in government organisation) where it can be mandated by Ministers, parliament, etc.
If you are facing too many to set priorities that work within your available resoruces or other constraints, I would say this is a major organisational risk and you should flag this to senior management. It may seem difficult to be seen to be saying that the load is too heavy, but believe me this is far less painful than the firm facing a legal investigation over fundamental failings, and the blame ending at your door because there were problems delivering but you DIDN'T escalate this situation appropriately!
I worked for law firms and we had a "dawn raid response" team that helped financial and other organisations that had got themselves into this sort of situation and had an investigation unit turn up, and it was never pretty! Saving Changes...
arlene trimbleAssistant IT Director| Local GovernmentAlamo, Ca, United States
Mandatory projects are normally defined by the Business Owner or Project Sponsor, or you may have a clear guideline of what mandatory projects are. These projects are normally required due to different reasons: rule/legislative change, lawsuit compliance, cost reduction, business direction change, and others. It is best that your business owner or project sponsor or governance committee help in prioritizing the project portfolio. Saving Changes...
Generally speaking, there are only 4 reasons to do any project: 1) Increase profits, 2) Reduce costs, 3) Improve Quality, 4) Attain or Maintain Compliance. Nothing else can be justified via ROI or Cost-Benefit-Risk Analysis. And of course, a project could address more than one of those reasons.
Compliance projects are mandatory. An example would be government regulations. Some other reasons: mergers and acquisitions, or contract terms. . Compliance projects occur across all types of business and could deal with Safety, Privacy, Taxes, and other government audit and reporting requirements. Saving Changes...
