Portfolio and Project Management for Organizations That Are Just Getting Started

Explore a set of achievable steps that any-sized organizations can take to begin a process of getting a handle on its projects and key activities. Once these basic tactics yield some results, you gain credibility, and then you can get fancier. The steps discussed here are not doctrine (sometimes they defy doctrine) but they have been used, they work, and they stick, in organizations that had been floundering. That's not a bad place to start. This blog is not about how things work in organizations that have had decades of successful practice. A hesitant organization is very different from those that are imagined in the consensus best practices. There are many managers and teams who really have been burned by inept PM practices before, and many others who fear that they will have to give up their autonomy and freewheeling style for no clear reward. Experienced practitioners will find plenty of places to disagree with the approaches suggested here, and they are more than welcome to do so. lease help make it better by adding comments or contact the blog author, to share your ideas for topics that should be added - maybe via guest post by you ... Speaking of guest posts, here's one that Laura Barnard was kind enough to invite me to do: it's called Be Careful What You Ask For: Best Practices are a Destination, not a Start-Point", and it provides the general "big picture" for you. The table of contents gives you an idea of what's coming. It's going to be a work in progress. With your help.

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The Basic Language: Words, words, words Program management Operations and projects Portfolio management PPFM Governance - what is it? Governance - how much sunshine? Governance - where's the beef? Phase I - Getting a Grip Right solution, wrong problem? Confirm your support So What If It's In Everybody's Interest? What does leadership support really Mean? Get a Charter Making the Charter Mean Something Real Alternatives from Forrest Gump The Spaghetti Axiom Keep it simple Sample Charter Signing up to Do the Impossible Zero-sum Make lists Who is working What contracts are in place What are they working on Steady-state vs projects Who is responsible for what activities What is connected to what Enterprise milestones - definitions of done When will they be reached Write it down Let people know What trumps how Phase II - The Acid Test: Accountability Test early, fail early A little commitment goes a long way You can't win without air cover: executive support Is "executive" in the title good enough? Real deciders don't hide their decisions, but they might want to hide their opinions Start with Pass-Fail Beyond pass-fail: EVM without the Burden EVM can be lightweight EVM can work for fixed-price EVM can work for level of effort Find and remove obvious obstacles Don't penalize those who are cooperating Phase III - Smooth Running A new view: the enterprise Resource capacity Reality therapy: balance the money, people and time The picture on the box: the plan Strategy: what that means Goals for everyone Just enough to understand what to do Bring meaning to the strategy: scoping, timing, capabilities EA - as-is. to-be, transition Show me the money: programming, budgeting, timing Sometimes you really have no idea but you still have to get the money You are doing what? Align existing work to strategy Make sure priorities do flow down Keeping the lights on: benchmark steady-state work People are asking for more meetings? Integration processes Reports: more than just paperwork Requirements and allocation dependency management testing and integration risk management - buffers, reserves documentation standards Phase IV - Getting ahead of the curve Governance processes Is consensus just a rubber stamp?  Keep it simple Write it down - sort of Are backroom deals square deals? [pending] top-down pie-slicing outcomes management what about portfolios SDLCs and WBS Which way to build the WBS change management Agile - irrelevant at program level Agile - using it across a program SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework Last but not least, politics and resistance Power corrupts The organization has to care Don't lock me in: irrevocable decisions The Anti-Maturity Model Non-Phase: AGILE NOTES I've moved my Agile work over to my Pulse blog on Linked-In where it was starting to build a critical mass. Here are links to Agile-related postings on this blog: Agile in Context Can you afford to be Agile? Be an Agile professional, not just an enthusiast Existing Agile-at-Scale Models DAD: Disciplined Agile Delivery SAFe: the Scaled Agile Framework LeSS and SAFe compared Programmatic Issues How much will it cost? The Matrix: staff are seldom dedicated to 1 project Decisions that Agile expects not to have to make How long is Sprint Zero of you have to define the infrastructure? How long is Sprint Zero if you have to define the architecture? Matching Agile with other efforts EVM Contracting for Agile Current Thinking Jim Sutherland, 21 May 2015