Most large global organizations will rely on “activist” enterprise program management office (EPMO) leaders by 2017, according to research analyst Gartner. The emerging role is a response to the need to significantly improve strategic execution, and increased pressure toward innovation and differentiation.
If you are trying to set up project portfolio management, you will run smack into a unique workforce problem. Use these tasks in your WBS to help manage three sensitive groups that participate in projects to establish PPM.
This practitioner often hears organizations claim they aren’t ready for portfolio management. They are...but they need to start with a different definition of what portfolio management is.
Portfolio management cannot be successful without supporting workforce management tactics, which are sometimes out of your control.
Most organizations have limited resources to invest in improvement initiatives. And a significant percentage of those resources don’t deliver results. That’s a huge problem. To begin to fix it, we have to understand where and why this waste is occurring.
PMOs might take a page from New York City’s war on crime, which produced a sustained drop in reported crime. By focusing on solutions instead of symptoms, then targeting the most serious strategic or execution-related pain points, a PMO is more likely to make a transformative impact.
The most important question that should be asked before a project is approved is rarely considered. That’s an issue we need to address—that we tend to think of projects as solutions to specific problems.
Project management is well understood, program management is now well established. But can you manage the portfolio?
Iterations are too long. Stories are humongous. Everyone is multitasking. The product owner is not available enough. This is a rich, problem-solving environment--the project has a ton of problems. You know you can help the team fix these issues, but you just have one problem: Where do you start?
While a premium used to be placed on proactive project forecasting, budgeting and resourcing, there’s now an even more highly prized measure of successful project management--being predictive. Read how making the shift from reactive to predictive can help your cause.
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"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining." - Jeff Raskin |
