If you are a project manager who thinks the project manager's role is to "deliver" the project, then you are in the wrong profession.
In operational day-to-day management we discourage thinking. We have repeatable processes and extensive automation to predefine how things are done.
How can you increase the value of a project from $0 to $40 million in two weeks?
Meeting rooms are often at a premium. Therefore Steering Committee meetings are held wherever the project manager can find a room. Also, when the project manager meets with the Sponsor, it is often in the Sponsor’s office. This can isolate the Sponsor and Steering Committee from the project team and its environment.
Invisible driver of excessive costs. Projects progressively generate a set of requirements, a solution and an approach that is then ‘justified’ in the business case.
W. Edwards Deming defined ‘in control’ as: “when the goals of the system can be predictably met better than 95% of the time.” By this definition projects are definitely ‘out of control’.
An invisible tax in most organizations Any time, effort and money spent on projects you should not be doing at all is a complete waste. Projects that are irrelevant to your strategy are a complete waste.
TOP Thinking on Prioritization - "PRIORITIZATION IS SIMPLE" has gone out. Here's an excerpt...
Just a quick heads up... At the end of July 2014 - in just 10 days time - we are switching email providers and want you to come with us.
TOP equips the business to define its true needs and then govern the project to successfully deliver the business value
Critical Success Factors are prerequisites to the success of the project, not the most important measures of success.
Many projects are using the wrong measures of success. Yet, there is only one true measure of success which is simple to understand.
To improve the ROI from project investments you need to uplift your value delivery capability and measure the results of each improvement.
If you see value delivery as an extension of project delivery you will severely compromise the business value delivered, as we explain
Your organization's value delivery capability determines the results and ROI it will deliver.
So long as you see poor project performance as a "project problem" you will have problem projects. The business needs to take back control.
Benefits management and measurement is easy if you set up your projects to track and deliver the value.
Tracking your strategy execution is simple and puts you in control of your strategy's execution
In practice capital management and capital allocation is a game. A very expensive game. In fact, a "capital crime".
The definition of your desired business outcomes is the 'holy grail 'of projects that every manager needs to understand.
TOP's US Partner conducts a '3 nights and done' course on Strategy Execution at Princeton - for you for free.
If you don't build your organization's capability to deliver value from projects, you will never deliver the value from projects. It's that simple.
The success of most projects is measured by time and cost - the inputs. Success should instead be measured by what comes out of the project.
The orthodox distinctions between "what is a project" and "what is a program" are wrong. Here we explain why and what the real differences are.
"Value Delivery" is not just "Project Delivery" with benefits and value tacked on. It starts with a completely different mindset and approach.
Pure technical projects can miss millions of benefits unnecessarily. All projects should be organizational change projects led by the business..
Benefits don't just happen, they have to be planned, actioned and delivered. Benefits delivery is a change process - not a measurement process.
Your benefits' value is controlled by your scope and portfolio management processes
Benefits Management can be simple, easy and effective. While there are five alternatives, the TOP approach ensures you deliver the benefits.
Do you challenge enough? Are you thinking deeply or just accepting what you are told? We are taught NOT to think, we need to jettison this.
Is the speed of change being overstated? We review the fast-moving technology world to find out that the speed of change is...not as fast as thought.
When your strategy, business and projects are all aligned the increase in results can be exponential. But this requires a different approach.
Whether you generate productivity from your project investments depends on your organization's level of value delivery capability - as we explain.
Transformation programs demand that the organization has the necessary 'capability' to successfully deliver them. Most organization's are deficient.
Improving your project delivery processes can prevent you easily adopting value delivery processes - processes that actually deliver what you want.
The effectiveness of your project governance steering committees will largely determine the results and value you deliver from your projects.
How to simply but effectively score each project's strategic contribution and relevance and visibly manage your strategy's execution
If you thoroughly validate your business cases and projects before approval you can both save millions and generate extra millions.
The "Capital Crime" is the unnecessary waste of capital through poorly executed strategies and projects.
Defining clear, specific, measurable desired business outcomes changes your project, reduces your costs and increases the value. Really!
TOPics
- Benefits Management (29)
- Business Case (24)
- Business Simplification (5)
- Capability Development (38)
- Capital Investment (24)
- Change Management (17)
- Consultants (1)
- Costs and Waste (16)
- Engineered Thinking/Ideas/Innovation (8)
- Fifteen Critical Insights (15)
- Idea / Project Initiation (3)
- Mental Models, Beliefs and Myths (18)
- Outcomes Thinking (10)
- Path Dependency (10)
- Prioritization (13)
- Process Management (11)
- Productivity Improvement (7)
- Program / Project delivery (40)
- Project Controls (52)
- Project Governance (90)
- Project Management (4)
- Project Success (46)
- Project Validation (2)
- Risk Management (5)
- Scope Management (5)
- Standards/Frameworks/Methods (14)
- Strategic Project Portfolio Management (16)
- Strategy Execution (40)
- The TOP Four Lenses (1)
- TOP compared to orthodox approaches (7)
- Value Delivery (83)
- Value Equation (60)