Project Management Tip of the Week

Check out this week's tip on the PRT web site, http://bit.ly/c4nANt, on team building on a virtual project team.

"Right size your project documentation to fit your project."

Project Management methodologies were created to promote consistency, quality, and completeness in the execution and documentation of the project. Project documentation should support the execution of the project. Many times, the methodology may call for a document or a format that may not be useful for your particular project. When that occurs, document why the document was skipped or changed and move on. Only create that which helps you manage the project.

Project Communications Plans

On large projects particularly you should create a formal communications plan. The plan should define how and what communications will be used throughout the project. Areas to cover include:

• Status reporting and team meetings
• Project steering committees
• Sponsor meetings
• Escalation
• Vendor communication
• User communication
• External communications
• Project document repository
• Risk and issue submissions

On smaller projects you can include the communications as an addendum to the charter

Top 10 Project Portfolio Managment Mistakes

Here are numbers 5 through 1 of the top 10 PPM mistakes organizations make.

PPM mistake #5 - Overlooking true business value. Most companies measure value as ROI or another financial metric thus missing other value. Project value is also the utility that is delivered to the company. Identify and track that with the portfolio. An example of utility is delivering ability to sell a new product online. There is ROI but also a new use to the company.

PPM mistake #4 - Not realigning the portfolio. As time progresses the portfolio can change. What was low priority in Dec may be high in May. I recommend to clients a quarterly portfolio review to check portfolio & make adjustments. This is also a good time to add new projects.

 

PPM mistake #3 - not balancing the portfolio. Companies and departments can absorb only so much change or new things. The portfolio should be balanced between # of lg, med. sm. projects., # projects per dept., # projects that impact a customer group etc.

 

PPM mistake #2 - using H, M,L to prioritize projects. Using this method causes deartments to make all of their work high priority. If project priority is only H, M, L senior management will not know what projects are really most important. Use a numerical scale  starting with 1 for highest priority, 2 for next highest and so. This gives senior mgmt the tools they need to make portfolio decisions

PPM mistake #1 - Not cancelling projects. Companies tend to let projects have a life of their own. Once approved a project must be done. During the portfolio review look at projects not started and reaffirm their need. If the need is no longer there, cancel the projectCompanies should also consider canceling projects when ROI will not be realized or if project has been waiting to start for more than 12 mo.

Top 10 mistakes made in Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

The following are numbers 10 - 6 of the top ten mistakes I have seen organizations make with their PPM process implementation. Next blog will have #5 - 1

PPM mistake #10 - only including new, major initiatves in the portfolio. This hides the impact on resources and budget from other projects.

PPM mistake #9 - No risk / reward view of projects. Complex projects should be included in the protfolio if ROI or business value is high

PPM mistake #8 - Not sequencing the start of projects. Allows too many projects in play at once which can drag on the portfolio. Projects should be started based on priority, complexity, and due date. Delaying a project start can help other projects get done.

PPM mistake #7 - No tangible IT investment strategy. IT Projects are done for the business but they are also an investment.When a company invests in an IT project it should be done as part of a longer term strategy. This way the money spent contributes to growth.

PPM mistake #6 - Not monitoring portfolio health. We measure project health to know if it is on track so we should do the same for portfolio. Measure portfolio health by number of projects approved, budgeted, started, on schedule, off schedule, completed, & actual spend vs. planned.

Project Right Track Introduces new Virtual PMO solution

Project Right Track has developed the Express Track Virtual PMO Solution to provide an affordable, scalable, and effective portfolio management solution for smaller companies. Express Track provides a skilled PMO team on a part time basis. Throughout the budget year the team works to provide the structure of a PMO including:

• Coordinating project identification and selection Prioritization and scheduling of projects
• Monthly Review meetings
• Quarterly on site portfolio reviews
• Portfolio Financial Analysis

Using the Express Track service results in the more efficient management and delivery of projects that are aligned with the organization's strategy. Better project tracking and value realization means fewer surprises.

Estimates and Requirements

This week the tip of the week at http://bit.ly/ciyf0W is about being prepared for the expected and unexpected issues that can impact the project. One of these expected issues is a missed requirement. This happens frequently on IT projects. Software applications can be fairly complex so it is likely one or more requirements may be missed in the original requirements gathering phase. What generally happens with these is that the requirement is added and the project schedule and budget are impacted. A better way to handle this is if you are prepared for it. After the initial requirements are done go back to the estimate and assign a value to each requirement. This serves two purposes. First it gives you a tool to validate and refine the estimates. Second it now gives you a tool for the case of adding a missed requirement. When the requirement is identified estimate what it costs. Now you can go back and see what the real impact to the budget and schedule is. Then the decision could be what requirements can be dropped to account for the new one or maybe the new one can fit into the contingency funds.