RESHEDULED: From Managing Scope to Achieving Business Results

PPM (Project and Portfolio Management) professionals face the need to change focus, from controlling the delivery of scope to achieving business outcomes. The tools and approaches that have been used for PPM will simply not work in a future that has already arrived. The adoption of agile, increased investment in digitalization, and the need for speed and agility are creating the “perfect storm” predicted by Gartner, Ignoring these trends is not an option. PPM professionals have to change focus, from scope to business outcomes, from the reduction of uncertainty to embracing and leveraging uncertainty, encouraging innovation, and systematically executing strategy towards the realization of financial value. This presentation presents a framework that focuses on business outcomes, instead of scope, as the unit to plan and track, from project to portfolio levels. This way, funding is allocated to outcomes, and delivery is tracked based on its impact on planned impact to outcomes. The session presents a number of tools and techniques that can be used to build a portfolio management framework that focuses on business value and treats projects as investments. This includes how to plan and track benefits for agile projects. Finally, the session explores the cultural aspects involving in this change in perspective and how current traits found in organizational cultures explain the status-quo. The session presents the values that are fundamental to succeed in implementing an outcome-driven organization.