I have had a lot of experience in setting up the processes that allow for a Project Office to be set up,including introducing a Project Decision Board and Project Management Methodology. My problem at the moment is that i'm currently thinking about implementing a prioritisation process and am a little stuck as to the best way to do this. As an example i set up a monthly Project Steering Committee for project descions and status reporting but am not sure how to fit prioritisation discussions into this. Is prioritisation something to be done in the Project Office and not via a meeting with directors for instance.
If anyone has any advice on the governance and process around prioritisation of projects on a ongoing basis then that would be great.
Thanks in advance. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Steve, great post. A number of organizations have very well defined PM Methodologies for the project teams, yet approach Governance and other management and steering committee functions in a rather ad hoc manner. One approach is to establish a defined and repeatable methodology or process for Governance and Portfolio Management. You might find that new project requests can be submitted both at periodic planning intervals as well as at any time in the plan cycle. You can use scorecarding for prioritization in both the Governance process to select amongst competing project ideas and then in Portfolio Management to regularly review the projects and re-visit the initial project selection scorecard as over time the values and hence prioritized portfolio rankings may very well change. In addition to the Governance and Portfolio Management processes, it can be helpful to provide a continuous improvement step to the processes so that strategic alignment, organizational nuances, and improvement suggestions can continually be received and applied. The end result is that both the functional Project Office team and the Steering Committee are working under the same priorities and reviewing the same information albeit at different timeframes and levels. And one doesn't necessarily need a new or expensive tool to do any of this. If you can get the cake baked up a bit, the others can help you ice it. Good luck! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
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