Dear Anonymous, I understand your situation. Labor costs are indeed a significant portion of overall project cost and a timesheet to generate the actual data would be preferred over a guestimate. And the project selection (investment) decisions are usually based on metrics (ROI, NPV, etc.) and take into consideration material costs, labor costs, needs of the business, risks, doability, benefits, etc. Project accounting of the costs and benefits provide crucially important feedback on the quality of these important decisions.
However, having said that, it sounds like the role of your program manager is to "oversee and monitor" the program, not to make decisions on project investments. So, in that context, I doubt anyone will want to sign up for time sheet recording as it does not provide a benefit and would only be extra work. And I doubt that the Program Manager could convince the Project Managers as well as the Senior Management (Program Sponsor) about the benefits of recording the time spent by the project resources on a particular project with respect to program management - that is oversight and monitoring. They are likely to take the attitude, "if it is not broke, don't fix it."
Where you might find a more receptive ear is in identifying a clear and present problem that better project accounting will help mitigate. I would suspect that the leadership team involved in capital budgeting and project selection might be open to techniques that could help ensure they make they best project investment decisions for the company. And, there very well may be an informal approach for this that the leadership team is using. Perhaps they equate the schedule such as mandays of the dedicated resources to labor costs and don't see a need for further analysis. If the leadership team feels they have adequate information without time recording to make informed investment decisions as well as to measure the results of those decisions, then they are unlikely to see the benefits making a change. Likewise, if they feel they have inadequate information, then they are likely to consider anything that would help such as making the change in project accounting to treat labor cost as a cost.
The trick is, for the current state, there has to be a clear and present problem. As you indicated, the project management maturity level of the organization is low. Hence, the Program Manager can play a very key role in introducing and facilitating change and providing floor leadership to the organization. Typically, this is best done in small increments and in response to a very specific and agreed upon problem.
As a side note, you mentioned that the project management maturity of the organiation could be regarded as low. If you haven't already, you might look up one of the OPM3 subject matter experts like John Schlichter of OPM Experts. Mr. Schlichter has deep skills in OPM3 as well as numerous experiences working with customer executives to implement effective OPM3 programs and initiatives to introduce change, "maturity", to their organziations.
Very interesting post and not an easy answer. I hope we hear and learn from others. Cheers..!
Mark Perry
VP of Customer Care
BOT International
