In Part 1 we introduced the notion of two additional value delivery lenses – the business value and investment strategy lenses…
Expanding the vision
The business value and investment strategy lenses enable you to improve your project performance and consistently maximize the available business value and returns.
Each business party – the business staff, the governance team, and the investment committee – needs to adopt and employ their own lens when approaching projects. We have proven this multi-lens approach delivers quantum increases in business project results and performance. That means you can achieve this too.
Business and governance teams
Business and governance teams need to use the Business Value Lens to view every dimension of the project in terms of its impact on the business value to be realized and sustained.
Unfortunately too many see delivering ‘something’ on time and on budget (the project/cost control measure of success) as acceptable rather than seeing ‘business value delivery’ as their primary role.
The Governance team’s measure of success is the delivery of the desired business outcomes, benefits and net business value through the project’s successful delivery. This requires identification of all the potential business benefits and value, optimization of this value vis-a-vis the cost of delivery, and subsequent governance of the project to ensure no potential value is lost through scope changes, wastage, or cost overruns.
Adoption of the ‘business value’ lens usually requires the upgrading or refocusing of existing processes and sometimes the introduction of new project delivery processes.
Board, Executive Team, and Investment Committee
The Board, Executive Team, and Projects Investment Committee will need to adopt and view projects through their Investment Strategy Lens. This means evaluating and approving projects within the context of a long term, planned, cumulative project portfolio and strategy rather than just on each individual project’s cost/benefit merits. By focusing on projects in terms of their individual and cumulative contribution to the realization of strategy, the Investment Committee can take action to directly increase the net value delivered by the project portfolio.
As with the business value lens, adoption of this new ‘strategy lens’ may require the introduction of new or refocused processes.
In sum, each party has their own lens, their own processes, and their own measures of success.
Each party can destroy value if they do not manage through their appropriate lens.
Alternatively, each party can cumulatively contribute to the success of the project by leveraging their own lens. Achieving this cumulative result also requires the common cost control-based approach to projects to change.
To date most of the methodologies and support tools have been designed with the project management/cost control lens in mind. The tools, techniques, and templates for business and strategy delivery have been largely missing. It is to fill this gap that TOP exists. TOP supports and enables the investment strategy and business value perspectives and processes, integrating them with the project management cost control processes into a single top-to-bottom, end-to-end delivery model, whereby all project delivery processes are focused to deliver cumulative, optimised business value.
Explore more about the Four Lenses
