Mgmt6054 - Logistics - Project Portfolio Management

Submitted by
Vivek Sampath

On

October 19, 2015

Name and Description of the Slide

Additional Information about the Slide

Impact of Portfolio Management

The author says that the impact of portfolio management is high for many organizations who have implemented PPM. He says that the top 33% of the organization or the winners have implemented the PPM. Organization which has implemented formal and systematic PPM are in a ratio of 1:14 (success: failure). Organizations which have implemented PPM to Resources breakdown have a 1:8 ratio and with High value projects is 33:0 and with prioritizing projects is 4:1.

Based on some research, it is found that the organizations with a higher level of project failures have some key areas not implemented or taken care properly. Among which project portfolio management could be one. When an organization does not implement proper portfolio management, the impact is immediate and the outcome of that is a poor performance. The major consequence would be losing the ability to implement and be successful in business in a positive way.

Scoring Models Ranking Criteria

The various factors with which the rankings are made of successful PPM are tabulated and among which strategic fit which is found to be 90.4%, financial models are 86%, probability of success is 76%, timing is 66%, technological capacity is 62.9%, communications are 50%, protectability are 41%, synergy between projects are 35% and other factors accounts to 12.4%.

Scoring models are basically used in PPM to rank the projects which are in queue and select based on the numbers and prioritize them. The author talks about the scoring model with which PPM is evaluated in organizations and that the success rate of them with few variables. The variables with which are taken to consideration to determine the effectiveness of PPM are NPV, IRR, ROI, etc., for the financial analysis. Also the author explains probability of success to be risk and the associated risks could be related to market, financial and other risks that could be associated with the projects. The timing is explained to be the time that the organization sustains in the market and the time it takes to deliver the desired output. Technical capacity is referred to the skills and resources that we have in-house and the skills that we use to succeed.

Implementing PPM

The author tells how the PPM needs to be implemented in this slide. This can be done efficiently y evaluating the current portfolio based on the project performance in terms of time, cost, scope, quality and resource availability and usage. Things which are used to understand the need for a project are things like where the organization stands, deliverables, triple constraints. He also says that the governance council should take part and takes necessary actions as and when needed. A standardized set of activities should be carried out when submitting the proposed projects. Also when implementing initially, it should be tested out on a pilot program and not done in full-fledged.

The prequalification documents are essential to begin with; The first step to achieving success in projects is by carefully choosing the project proposals. The first step to this would be evaluating the proposals and see if they are worth doing. The next step is ask the governance council to evaluate and see if the project fits the organization’s strategy. At this stage, several projects with a low score tends to get rejected. This could be because of resource availability, improper relationships, does not have a proper growth either technologically or economically, or risk.

The author says that any organization should be brave and do PPM by taking records from the previous year’s and implement and che7ck things at tactical level. He also says that some organizations term the prequalifying document such as a business case to be an early project charter and the authors says that it is wrong and should be followed. Also the support from the top management in implementation should be really high as they should be helping the team and the other members come up successful.

Challenges and Issues

The challenges in improper implementation or not implementing this could be because of having too many projects and not having enough resources. Based should be taken to work based on the availability of resources with them and 43.5% of the firms are said be poor at this. The speaker also brings out the example of how Steve Jobs after starting his career in Apple Inc., cut down from 350 products to just 10 and now that they are all successful. Organizations suffer and tend to be unsuccessful when the projects start to pile up in the queue and suffer. He also tells about the study Xerox had made about organizations efficiency with resources. It says that on any day 75% of the projects had relied on a resource which was temporarily unavailable.

Skilled workers are more important in any projects and that they make the projects successful. Organizations should consider projects based on the resource availability and not based on the business needs and fail. Also it is best practice to allocate the right resource to the right project such that the potential of that resource is used beneficially and that the projects are going towards success. He also says that there is a myth in the business world and that if any CEO or president comes up with an idea or a vision and when that gets implemented it becomes a success within months. This is because the top management is well known with the organizations vision, mission and the strategy and that when they tend to do things in a way, they succeed.

Challenges and Issues

Another big challenge in implementation would be relying on the imaginary precision and bad quality data. It is because there is no time, money and enough resources available to do the study and by bad predictions and inefficient resources. The other reason could be because of having too many small projects and among which only very few become a huge success. This is because of the fact that small projects consume less time, money and resources which is beneficially for the organization. The speaker also says that this type of strategy is related to “Nike theory of Management” which is all about “Just do it”.

The author provides an example of the Vancouver Port Authority project and how the CEO/President of the PMO reacted when he had a conversation. The project was about $1 Billion in worth and the CEO wanted to proceed immediately. The speaker had told to consider about placing resources to determine the feasibility which would cost initially but the president was only focused on proceeding directly without any preliminary analysis. Also, the speaker says that an organizations takes too many small projects and they do not see the strategy of the organization and its future.

Seminar Takeaways

The speaker says what all can be done to Successfully implement PPM. He says that by educating the senior executives by means of presentations, seminars and by defining variables, balances and strategic alignment. He also says that a detailed analysis of the current PPM should be taken into consideration and then the methodology should be implemented across all or the main flagship projects based on the interests of the organization. He also emphasizes that the PPM/PM methodology should not be confused with PPM/PM software methodologies.

By successful implementations of PPM, it is possible to align all projects or the main projects strategically with the organization. By doing so, it is possible to be successful in implementing the necessary business needs and be successful in the market.