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Technical Priority
Program, Portfolio and PMO Managers understand the ‘benefits to value’ of a project and can use ROI (Return on Investment), IRR (Internal Rate of Return), or other financial metrics, as well as non-financial criteria (‘intrinsic value’ criteria) to evaluate projects at the start of and during their full lifecycle into ‘operations mode’. Selecting which projects to charter within your organization have long-term implications both for you individually and your organization. Conducting in-depth pro-forma ROI, IRR of other financial analysis can be costly and time consuming. What about an alternative method that is relatively quick and easy to undertake and can provide you with an objective ‘weighting’ criteria for your stakeholders and Program/Project Team to consider? If you manage a PMO, Portfolio or Program of work (in any discipline – Finance, Manufacturing, IT, etc), the Customer Demand Priority (CDP) tool we put forward below may be helpful to you at the front-end decision-making process of project prioritization. It is a simple method that is similar to a risk matrix table to evaluate and score projects on a scale from 2 to 11 where 2 are the lowest challenge and 11 is the most intensive.
The Unspoken Additional Constraint of Project Management
Whether you are a novice just embarking upon your career in project management or a seasoned veteran, you are most likely familiar with the project management concept of the “triple constraint”. The triple constraint of quality, time and cost is perhaps as well recognized within project management as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is recognized by practitioners of psychology. Nowadays, three extra constraining factors of managing risk, resources, and quality are often added to the “original triple”, making a total of six factors (or constraints) of project management. The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) PMBOK® 4th Edition is an example of a recognized Standard that incorporates this thinking.Conducting a Useful Post Mortem Analysis
Once a project is complete, take some time to review what was successful and what needs improvement. By evaluating each project in retrospect, you’ll be able to apply the lessons learned to future endeavors.
A Phased Approach to Project Management Implementation
Implementing a formalized project management process in an organization that does not have a history of using a structured approach to project planning and control can present significant challenges. A phased approach to implementation is a crucial element of a successful implementation strategy because it helps overcome resistance to change, allows lessons learned in early phases to be incorporated in the systems installed in later phases, and ensures that a solid foundation of project-level data is available prior to rolling-up enterprise-level information.
Minimizing Bias of Subject Matter Experts through effective Project Management
“Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules, - Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools” Alexander Pope (English Poet, 1688-1744)
“Bias and prejudice are attitudes to be kept in hand, not attitudes to be avoided.” Charles Curtis
The use of SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) is commonplace throughout the lifecycle of a project. The “experts”, as we will generally refer to them, are typically functional experts in their respective roles that the Project Manager relies on for making delivery estimations and identifying potential risks to a project. Depending on the dynamics of your particular organization, such experts may come from the same functional team that will be responsible for the execution of the tasks for which the experts are providing input, or they may be in a specialist division that deals with project set-up. In either case, there are a several risks which the Project Manager needs to look out for to avoid being given an impossible or very difficult delivery task.
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