When I last posted a couple of days ago, I was following my client on his journey to implement Portfolio management within his organisation. Read on for what happened next…
Having started the implementation effort as recommended by the CEO of his company, my client was kind enough to divulge some of the ‘secret’ ingredients, that he felt had helped his organisation to draw all of the elements of portfolio management, together.
“We recognised across the whole organisation that there was a lack of urgency, but we knew we had to crack down on these slack practices.”
“We knew that there were pockets of excellence in the organisation and that we had to tap into them.”
“Project delivery was behind schedule, and we realised that we had to get everybody in the organisation to pull in the right direction.”
How did the client make these changes happen?
“Having gotten the support to implement a Portfolio Office, I reviewed all of the “Terms of Reference for Programme and Project Boards” and quickly found that the diagrams of these governance structures did not relate to the roles being performed. Furthermore they didn’t have the appropriate processes in place to make them work. To ensure we got the set-up right moving forward, we worked with key stakeholders and identified what information they would need to make decisions.”
The CEO wanted to set-up a Portfolio Board that reviewed our portfolio on a quarterly basis. Here they would review progress and commission or curtail change initiatives, whilst also reviewing regular business commitments. I provided a draft of the “Terms of Reference for Programme and Project Boards” and started looking at how it would function in relation to the Programme and Project Boards.
I knew that we had to design and implement a governance structure that connected the portfolio through to the Programme and Project Boards. We looked at the frequencies, timing and outcomes of these existing meetings, and looked at what decisions were being made or postponed.
We developed information flow diagrams that mapped to processes, the usual stuff Planning, Monitoring and Control. But when we got to escalating and cascading Risk, Issue and Change via the boards, we found there was disparate set of experiences within the organisation. So I instead promoted what had worked for the organisation.
Whilst working with the Programme and Project Managers I hit the thorny topics of delegated limits of authority, usage of tolerance and real world management by exception. I then spent time with the Programme Directors / Project Sponsors and walked through the organisation and control sections of the initiation documentation. I asked them to rehearse what they had to do when things were about to go wrong – it was an eye opener for all.”
Best Practice Checklist
- Are Portfolio decisions incorporated into your Management Board meetings where ‘Business as Usual’ and the change initiatives are discussed?
- Who in your organisation provides oversight of changes and status?
- Who escalates risks, issues and changes to the Management Board?
- How are recommendations for new initiatives, re-prioritisation, top risks and issues managed and communicated?
- How is information provided to boards – are there relevant decision makers at each level of the Portfolio / Programme / Portfolio?
- How are decisions communicated between Portfolio / Programme and Project?
- Are key meetings scheduled as close to each other a possible?
- What platforms or tools do you have in your organisation which Programme and Project Managers can use to communicate, share knowledge and real life lessons learned?
So to summarise, for my client this ‘organisational imperative’ (mentioned in part 1) represented a number of things;
- A collective effort from the organisation to deliver quality and value for money to their shareholders and customer. Initiatives must be strategically aligned and expected benefits translated to see operational improvements.
- The motivation of organisational leaders and programme and project delivery teams to succeed – recognising that the “hand on the rudder” was at the portfolio level, not at the programme or project
- The implementation of teamwork, adopting highly collaborative ways of working – leveraging best practice and seeking innovation whilst actively managing risk to minimise disruption to a complex operating environment.
Would you recognise your organisation as having “organisational imperative”?
Could you harness this way of working to establish or improve Portfolio Management in your organisation?
Share your experiences and best practice with us.