Project Management and Governance

This Meta Group article gives the result of a survey that reports 73% of IT organisations did not expect their projects would be within 10% the budget. 14% had no expectations at all! Does this matter? When projects are the mechanism by which organisations implement change, it certainly does. If you can't predict what it will take to implement change, how do you know how much change you are capable of implementing, when and how can you integrate various changes from multiple projects.
The conclusion is that organisations must have effective governance processes. The article goes on to describe some guidelines for what constitute good governance methods.
Project Management Essentials: IT's About Governance

Managing the Front-End of Projects; Is it Part of the Project?

There has been some good discussion as a result of my post on September 15th on the "impact of initiation and planning on the project budget." Managing these early phases well is truly a gap in the project management field and there doesn't seem to be industry consensus on whether these phases (known as Front-End-Loading or FEL) should be part of the project or not. Traditional thinking seems to place FEL outside the realm of project management, as a separate entity, with project management only getting involved once the resulting charter is established. Yet, this is odd, since Front-End-Loading plays such a significant role in project success.

The paper below, from the proceedings from the 2005 PMI Global Congress in Edinburgh (be sure to click on the link for the PDF version for best readibility), makes a good case for including FEL as part of the project. At the very least, we need a way to better integrate these strategy, conceptualization, governance, and early planning activities with the project itself.

Managing the Front-End: how project managers shape business strategy and manage project definition

Why Enterprise Software Rollouts Fail

You know the old quote - "A man who does not learn from his mistakes is doomed to repeat them". The message is obvious - Learn from your mistakes. Even better - and a lot less embarrassing - is to learn from other people's mistakes. If you can find a good report of a project that went awry, written by someone in the know, read it and learn. This short article gives a few good ideas for avoiding problems experienced during a software implementation project.
Why Enterprise Software Rollouts Fail
It's easy to publish news about successes. Publishing news about problems and how they could have been avoided is a public service. Anyone who does it deserves our thanks.

Process Governance Tool Upcoming ...

Process Governance Tool Upcoming: Via Business Engine: Business Engine Forms New Company, Appoints New CEO: New Company Purchases Assets of Old Company, Announces New Customer Wins and New Product ...

... "Business Engine - has also announced that it will be releasing a new product in October codenamed Cascade. Cascade simplifies process governance, compliance and management decision-making and will be formally unveiled at Business Engine's upcoming Global User Summit in Orlando, FL September 25-27, 2005 " ...

Established in 1985, Business Engine is a leading provider of enterprise software for 'running the business of IT'. The Business Engine Network allows global IT organizations to manage IT strategy, financial governance and operational execution within a single Web-based solution, creating enterprise transparency that dramatically improves IT investment decisions, business alignment and delivery results. Business Engine serves over 80,000 end-users at global organizations including 20 Fortune 100 customers such as Boeing, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Northrup Grumman, Pfizer, and Siemens.

PMO Benefit Target: $1B

Via BNET.com: Real Benefits Through Comprehensive Program Management, from Infosys Technologies ...

Wow! Significant challenge for this PMO... $1B in benefits in 3 years. ...

... "To remove these problems, Infosys was asked to implement a Program Management Office (PMO), which would deliver $1 billion in benefits in 3 years. Infosys delivered a comprehensive solution that enabled the bank to realize the program benefits as well as service its global customers better. " ...

PMO: Setting Balance

PMO: Setting Balance: Via 48 Ideas: Projects, Leadership, Communication: urgent balance

Balanced thoughts on the delicate PMO balancing act. Well put ...

... "I believe that the PMO should set the balance point between chaos and control. That's a hard balance to set since most PMO's were born of management's exasperation at a stream of failed projects, wasted resources and missed opportunities. " ...

IT Governance: Board of Directors ...

IT Governance: Board of Directors: Via Yogish Pai's Blog: SOA - Stakeholders

How far down into the approval chain should the IT board of directors go? Strategy, budget, programs? projects, conflicts, too? ...

... "IT Board of Directors: Just like every organizations has a Board of Directors, IT needs one too. Typically this function is performed by some key executives or by their representatives. The Board's objective is to set direction, approve initiatives/projects, resolve conflicts, etc. " ...

OpenSource FDD Project Management Tool ...

OpenSource FDD Project Management Tool: Via Feature Driven Development: FDDPMA 1.2 released ...

... "FDDPMA may automatically calculate completion percent for project stages based on the tasks. Define a list of tasks for each project stage. As you update completion percent for the tasks, FDDPMA will re-calculate completion percent for the stages and for the whole project. " ...

Project Management: RSS Learning Networks

Via ottergroup.com :: Kathleen Talks about RSS Learning Networks at Mass-ISPI Meeting

Kathleen Gilroy will speak about technology-enabled learning ...

... "Look at a prototype of an RSS learning network and two use case scenarios where RSS networks are used for innovation in a large financial services company and for resource and project management at a global engineering firm. " ...

Portfolio Management: Business Assets ...

Via Six Sigma Technologies International: Portfolio Management: Managing I.T. As A Collection Of Business Assets

Martin Moderi discusses thoughts on managing the IT portfolio as a collection of business assets ...

... "Portfolio components are periodically reviewed and ranked by business value added, taking into account both internal changes (e.g. changes in company strategy, product mix, distribution channels, etc.) and external events (e.g. changes in technology, competitor advances, etc.). " ...

Hurricane Katrina and Project Management Discussion ...

More Hurricane Katrina and Project Management - Via Project Perfect - Project Management

What can we learn from and improve upon in the Hurrican Katrina experience ...

... "Another interesting aspect of the hurricane from a project management perspective was the issue of defining roles and responsibilities." ...

Reference List for Risk and Opportunity Management

Via Herding Cats: Risk and Opportunity Management

Great list of references on risk and opportunity management via link above ...

... "topic of managing risk and managing opportunity using the same concepts. One approach is to look through guides to the topic before deciding how to approach the issue. Here is a starting point ... " ...

ITProject Manager Alternatives to PMP ...

ITProject Manager Alternatives to PMP: Via IT Project Management at tribe.net

Alternative(s) to PMP certification for IT project managers ...

... "There is also the Project+ Certification. It costs far less, doesn't have all the persnickety rules, doesn't sunset, seems more focused on IT, and I particularly appreciate the focus that Element-K and other Project+ curriculum give to the Project Manager's role in creating the project charter. " ...

SOA Implications Worth Understanding ...

Via EDS' Next Big Thing Blog : SOA Implications 3rd in a series

Charlie Bess, EDS Fellow, explores SOA and the things the vendors don't tell you ...

... "Governance - Organizations that adopt service oriented architecture techniques will need to have a more disciplined approach to the promotion to production process. " ...

Project Planning Made Easy

This writeup from Gerard M. Blair is a humorous and all-too-true look at project planning. Loaded with valuable insights as well. Check it out...

Project Planning

Process Atrophy: Digitize It ...

Process Atrophy: Digitize It: Via Ram's IT Governance Blog: Digitized processes keep the binders away ...

Ram says digitize the business process workflow to prevent process atrophy - Project Management Process Binders ;-) ...

... "Process atrophy is the greatest threat to any process initiatives such as ITIL, CMMi etc. " ...

The Impact of Initiation and Planning on the Project Budget

For those familiar with Earned Value, we know that the calculations require a baseline (which get created at the end of the planning phase), as well as actual costs.

But what about all that time spent during the all-important initiation phase (which should include some sort of conceptual planning and alternatives analysis) and the planning phase (which includes WBS and schedule development)? These happen prior to Earned Value tracking.

Typically, there will be quite a bit of time spent in these phases, and by the time the baseline is approved at the end of these phases, a big chunk of the budget has already been spent. Since we can't use Earned Value during those phases (no baseline exists yet), how can we avoid blowing our budget too early?

I've seen several approaches to this:

1) One approach is to create the initiate phase in the project schedule immediately upon starting a project. Begin tracking time immediately. Consider starting with a baseline (i.e. budget) for that phase, and tracking against "budget" just like you would the rest of the project. The problem is that it's hard to budget for this type of activity.

2) Another approach is to do the initiation work (conceptual planning, initial requirements gathering, preliminary scope and business case development, etc.) outside of the project, and begin the project with the charter resulting from that "early initiation" activity (typically just after project approval). As Max Wideman said on his site, there's not really consensus in the industry if these "front-loading" activities should be part of the project or not. Still, you'd need track the WBS and schedule development, but at least those activities are easier to get a handle on.

3) I've even seen companies not bother tracking time until the schedule has been created and baselined. All initiation and planning phases are outside of the project. Sometimes they don't even submit their project for acceptance until after the WBS and schedule have been created. Most companies want the first approval earlier, though, based on an order-of-magnitude estimate.

I'd be curious to see what other approaches may exist for controlling (or not) the time spent on the initiation and planning phases.

Best Practice IT Service Catalog Emerging ...

Via The Boris Files - Secrets of Successful CIOs: Best Practices for Service Catalog Design

Boris Pevzner shares his latest learning's on the best practices for the design of IT service catalogs ...

... "I realized that we now have enough data to start shifting from the consultative service catalog design informed by industry best practices to the normative service catalog design based on the industry best practices. " ...

Discussion on Distributed IT: Governance ...

Via erp4it: How to govern distributed IT?

Can distributed IT be governed? Distributed governance or centralized governance? Distributed governance would be easier and done by line of business ... Centralized governance would require data, aggregation, visibility, etc. to be effectively enabled. Possible, just harder. ...

... "centralized IT staff will increasingly be decentralized out to line of business embedded positions. This jibes with Nick Carr's thesis " ...

ITIL Market Assessment: Podcast

Via Business Value of IT / IT Governance: Podcast Series on Evergreen's North American ITIL Assessment

Don Casson provides 5part podcast on Evergreen's ITIL assessment in North American market ...

... "recently completed comprehensive analysis of the results of Evergreen's North American ITIL Assessment. We conduct this informal survey two times per year with attendees at key industry events. This most recent survey took place at the 9th annual International Service Management Conference hosted by Pink Elephant. " ...

Leadership and IT Governance

Leadership and IT Governance: Via The McKinsey Quarterly: What IT leaders do ...

Eric Monnoyer and Paul Willmott, McKinsey, discuss strong IT leadership and the appropriate role of IT governance ...

... "In companies with strong IT leaders, the IT governance structures are more efficient and streamlined and less bureaucratic than in companies without such leaders. Over time, leaders figure out what tasks can be achieved through relationships and what must be accomplished through more formalized assessment and decision-making processes. " ...

IT Governance Common Themes ...

IT Governance Common Themes: Via CIOUpdate: IT Governance: The Solution to IT Anarchy?, Part II

Rick Freedman, Intel Project Management Practice Leader, explores common themes of IT governance ...

... "The question that IT governance asks is how these decisions are made: Are they made in an ad hoc manner, with no formal governance structures and little consistency from one decision to the next, or are they consistent and disciplined, requiring that a measurable business case be made for all IT investments, and that a feedback mechanism be in place for all initiatives so their ultimate business value can be evaluated? " ...

Storage Technology Project Management ...

Storage Technology Project Management: Via SearchCIO: Should you have a dedicated storage team?

Linda Tucci writes about organizing to reap the benefits of storage technology, where a real-time model is best served through a dedicated team with project management methods ...

... "The team will design and implement the future storage utility, so it will need architectural skills. A real-time storage model also requires strong project management skills. " ...

SOA IT Governance

Via Flashline Community Weblog: SOA needs ITG

... "But is increasing the willingness of developers to fall into line really the most effective strategy for enforcing policies, EA, SOA, or otherwise? Is that governance? " ...

Governance is making the decision on the architecture standards. Execution is about operationalizing the policies through software development. Developers should have an ability to influence the architecture roadmap so that right standards make it to governance. ... a continuous improvement cycle.

SOA and IT Governance ...

Via James Governor's MonkChips: Oracle Siebel: time for users to pull the trigger on SOA governance

Oracle Siebel event, a trigger for SOA governance ...

... "SOA isnt a product. Its about IT Governance, simplifying the business of IT in order to simplify IT for the business. Many successful SOA projects have involved a vendor rationalisation. Its all about setting standards at the center. " ...

Microsoft IT Governance Woes ...

Via The Samaritan-Web Project : IT Governance Woes, Part 2

I agree re Microsoft woes with IT governance and Project Server. They would be better off making a strategic acquisition of an EPM tool ...

... "Their enterprise solution definitely needs some work, but I think they're missing the boat on the whole concept of IT governance " ...

Hosted Project Team Collaboration ...

Hosted Project Team Collaboration: Via Shared Spaces Research & Consulting: Shared Spaces Briefing

... "TeamPoint Systems launched DayPoint Access, a hosted version of its team collaboration application DayPoint Enterprise. Includes discussion forums, personal and shared calendars, document management, project management, web-based email, and contact management, among others. " ...

Project Management: The Truth Is Out There ...

Via The Social Programmer: The truth is best…admit it…

Project managers seek the truth ... Are we on-time, on-budget? ... The truth is out there ...

... "If you haven't done something that the project requires of you, or if you have made a mistake, the best thing you can do is admit it. The truth is best. " ...

Scrum Project Management ...

Via Control Chaos: What is Scrum?

... "What is Scrum? Scrum is an agile, lightweight process that can be used to manage and control software and product development using iterative, incremental practices. Wrapping existing engineering practices, including Extreme Programming and RUP, Scrum generates the benefits of agile development with the advantages of a simple implementation. " ...

TimeSheet Software Upgraded ...

TimeSheet Software Upgraded: Via Journyx: Journyx Timesheet 7.0 Ushers In New Era Of Time Tracking, Billing & Project Management Software ...

... "Journyx, the leader in Web-based time and expense tracking solutions that automate time-tracking, billing, invoicing, payroll and project management, announced the launch of Journyx Timesheet 7.0. Journyx Timesheet is a multi-platform solution and runs natively on Windows (Windows 2000/2003, XP, NT) and Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, AIX, Sun Solaris). Timesheet is 100 percent web-based, and is accessible with any internet-connected modern browser from anywhere on earth. The software is available as an ASP hosted option and as a traditional local installation, and easily interfaces with existing applications via XML/SOAP. Standard integrations are available for MS Project, Intuit's QuickBooks, Peachtree Accounting and many others. " ...

No Earned Value Acronyms for Management

There's a good post on the Defense Acquisition University's EVM (Earned Value Management) Forum suggesting a good format for management reporting.

The submitter, Mr. Roger Mandel, makes a good case for protecting management from the details and acronyms inherent in Earned Value and offering the basics in a report.

Check out his recommended format. Looks pretty good to me...

1. Summary Status: (Stated here are the major facts in bullet format. Statements shall be clear and concise.)

2. Major Achievements & Future Scheduled tasks: (List those major milestones that have been accomplished during this past performance period and those that are schedule for the current or near term performance periods.)

3. Trends: (Stated here are the major trends, as the data indicates. Emphasize the present major problem. Phrase the statements in the form of a question. In a few cases, there may be more than one problem. A good problem statement will be concise, usually only one sentence.) Graphic figures should also be used.

4. Projections: (List the possible projections to the major trends. Develop alternative ways to solve the problem, generally more than one possible solution. Briefly note the advantages and disadvantages of each possible solution. State the projected completion period and total final cost.)

5. Choice and Rationale: (State choice from among possible solutions and the detailed reasons for that choice. State why certain alternatives were not chosen.)

6. Areas of Concern: (List cost accounts of task items that are prominent schedule or cost drivers that could cause significant variances.) Some form of a Stop Light chart could be used for a quick overview.

7. Validity of Data: (Comment of noted discrepancies within the submitted report and any concerns for the validity of data presented.)

See below for the full posting...

ACC: Acquisition Community Connection

Project Estimating; Major Causes of Underestimating

Another gem from Conrad Weisert of Information Disciplines. An oldie but goodie (the article, not Mr. Weisert).

This article is a call to project managers to stand up for realistic estimates. Of course, there are always those times when a project must come in on a certain date or else the project just isn't worth doing or won't have the impact it needs.

But even then, you need to ask yourself how risky it is trying to meet that date, and what are the consequences if you do not succeed. If both the impact and probability of failure are high, then it's imperitive to ground the estimate in reality.

Sometimes additional resources can help. Sometimes it adds more risk. It all depends on the situation. In the end, the triple constraint still holds true. The scope, time, and cost must balance.

Read on for more info...

Burden of Proof in Project Estimating

AEC Project Management Software: Prolog Upgrade ...

AEC Project Management Software: Prolog Upgrade: Via Meridian Systems: Meridian Systems Launches Enhanced Prolog at Annual User Conference

... "Meridian Systems, provider of award-winning and innovative software for managing projects, programs and facilities, today announced the availability of Prolog Manager version 7.5 to more than 300 customers, resellers and business partners at the Meridian Systems User Conference. This 9th annual gathering of leading construction, engineering and real estate companies, is taking place this week in Scottsdale at the Camelback Inn. Prolog delivers in-depth project management features across projects and programs in the areas of collaboration, purchasing management, cost control, document management and field administration. " ...

Meridian Systems provides enterprise solutions that optimize the plan, build and operate phases of real estate, construction and other physical infrastructure initiatives. Meridian solutions are used by more than 8,500 of today's large building owners, government agencies, and engineering and construction firms to improve top-line revenue growth while reducing their capital construction costs. Meridian uniquely provides both traditional software and hosted ASP solutions, and ranks as a market share leader in project management software among general contractors with over $100 million in revenue*. Meridian has an impressive track record of revenue growth over its 12-year history, and has been repeatedly recognized as a Constructech Hottest Technology company. Meridian is headquartered in Folsom, Calif.

Maven: Java Software Project Management Model ...

Via Apache: Recent Maven release ...

... "Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information. Maven 1.1 Beta 2 has been released for testing. This release upgrades the internal technologies of Maven, in particular to include Ant 1.6.5 and Jelly 1.0. " ...

WebBased Project Management Application ...

WebBased Project Management Application: Via Shift Technologies: Shift Technologies Launches New Version of its ThinMind® Web based Project Management Application 5.3 ...

... "Shift Technologies announced, the latest version of the Project Management application in its ThinMind suite of web based workforce management solutions. ThinMind Project Management is an integrated web based administrative tracking solution that provides the ability to collect, track, and organize project management information at any level of the organization. " ...

Virtual Project Management ...

Virtual Project Management: Via BusinessWeek: Management Virtues in a Virtual Office

Karen E. Klein interviews MediaThink COO John Piccirillo and discusses his approach to management of a virtual company ...

... "We have a software system that does project management for us -- it's called Groove Networks. You have to have a system to manage different versions of documents for various projects and keep all the e-mails relating to that project together. If you don't, working online can be a hellish experience. We also use instant messaging. " ...

ITProject Management Door to Product Management ?

ITProject Management Door to Product Management ?: Via BusinessWeek: The Door Is Unlocked for CIOs

Mark McDonald, Gartner, explores growing role of CIOs ...

... "We've also seen CIOs that are good at project management being given responsibility to manage product launches. " ...

Project Management Professional Development Days ...

Project Management Professional Development Days: Via Kansas City Star: BUSINESS CALENDAR ...

... "PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAYS: The Art & Science of Project Management. KC Mid-America Chapter of PMI hosts. Registration 7:30 a.m., conference 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sept. 19-20, Overland Park Convention Center, 6000 College. " ...

WebBased Project Management Software Helps Drive Services Revenue ...

WebBased Project Management Software Helps Drive Services Revenue: Via Vertabase: Unifund increases revenue using Vertabase project management software ...

... "Unifund, LLC, a Nashua, New Hampshire, provider of Microsoft Windows-based fund accounting and collection software to local governments and schools, increased revenue more than $60,000 by using Vertabase Pro project management software. Additionally, the company anticipates that it will be able to offer $50,000 worth of new services next year because of the tracking capabilities Vertabase Pro offers. " ...

Software Project Management System ...

Software Project Management System: Via SIMIAN systems: Simian Systems Reinvigorates Software Project Management with the Release of SiteForge ...

SiteForge, a software project management system, is launched ...

... "Canadian content management vendor Simian Systems Inc. release SiteForge - the most user-friendly open source collaborative development platform available today. SiteForge helps open source developers and distributed development teams centralize project development, source code access, issue tracking, documentation, and product releases. What sets SiteForge apart from other, comparable software project management tools such as SourceForge, or GForge is its ease-of-use and straightforward installation process. " ...

Project Web Sites: A Good Example

Project Web Sites are an excellent way to keep in touch with stakeholders (although not a replacement for regular direct communication), and absolutely critical on virtual projects.

The website for the Hoover Dam Bypass project is a good model to follow. It offers the following links along the top, which represents a good guideline for topics to include on any project website:

• What's New (good for relevant news updates)
• Purpose and Overview (important for all team members)
• Project History (especially useful for new team members)
• Links and Key Players
• Informational Material
• Bidders (this won't apply to all projects, but perhaps a section on related vendors might be appropriate)
• FAQs (this is a great place to answer those nagging questions that people asked and even those you suspect they will ask)
• Design Activities
• Schedule (notice it's from a high level - easily understood)
• Project Funding
  
  Check out the link below to see the site.
  
  Hoover Dam Bypass

Project Success Rates Tumble with Higher IT Complexity

As this article from Computerworld points out, organizations that have a mix of IT software products are paying a price for dealing with multiple hardware and software vendors, lack of standardization, keeping master data in synch across the products, and all the other complexities that go with a best-of-breed suite of software.

Complexity certainly has its cost. And, according to Computerworld, a study conducted by the Hackett Group of 250 companies shows that this cost is considerable -- 15% higher spend, 36% more employees, and being late or over budget on projects 25% more often.

Read the full report...

Think Tank - Computerworld

Value Proposition: Project Metrics ...

Value Proposition: Project Metrics: Via Marketing Profs: How to Create Stronger Value Propositions

Jill Konrath writes about influencing customers with powerful metrics and a compelling value proposition ...

... "Customers don't believe rounded numbers anymore. Don't say you doubled sales. Say they increased 104% in 5.33 months. The more specific your number, the higher its credibility. " ...

Frustrated With Unrealistic or Arbitrary Deadlines? Read on...

The article below by Conrad Weisert from Information Disciplines, is the best writeup I've seen yet on avoiding disaster when faced with unrealistic deadlines and target dates. I'm not exaggerating when I say it should be mandatory reading for all project managers.