Project Oversight Minimum

While every project should be managed well, there will be problems that require the project manager, a steering team, and a project portfolio oversight role to understand the truth about status and provide transparency to leadership. In this case, systemic cultural barriers makes governance even more challenging. ...

... "A culture of over-optimism held sway, the committee found, and financial management was deficient to the extent that costs and progress were not monitored or reported for the first three years ... " ...

Via politics.co.uk: Minimum competence required

Systemic Problems Require Project Capability Change

Systemic problems with project management at VA suggest improvement opportunities in the front-end and with inflight project oversight. ...

... "Replacement Scheduling Application: no single leader guided overall implementation, there was no overarching risk manager, no integrated project plan, and frequent management churn, while training money was used for other purposes than the RSA project. " ...

Via InformationWeek: VA CIO

Portfolio View to Macro Trends

Government IT project review scheduled for next week, which will require some portfolio decisions for project holds, cancellations, and recycles. ...

... "We will analyze portfolios across agencies to understand macro trends, says Kundra ... " ...

Via Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Aug 7 governmentwide IT project review

Halt Who Goes There ?

The VA executes a reset on the under-performing segment of its project portfolio. ...

... "Each of the 45 projects will be temporarily halted. No further development will occur and expenditures will be minimized. A new project plan that meets the requirements of Program Management Accountability System (PMAS) must be created by the project manager ... " ...

Via Department of Veterans Affairs: Increased Accountability

Project Portfolio Decisions

British Airways make portfolio move as it places an ERP project on hold, ahead of vendor selection, to conserve cash. ...

... "Walsh said BA would consider such a system, along with other big cash hungry projects in around two years time, when hopefully the economic turmoil had died down. " ...

Via UK IT PRO: BA ERP Decision

Increase, Decrease, or Shift Investments in Projects

Companies with healthy balance sheets are positioned to make strategic investments during a downturn to threaten competitors and emerge from the business cycle in a much stronger market position. Can you raise the capital to invest or shift in-flight investments using a severe portfolio review? Now may be the time to invest. ...

... "Although now is the time to take a close look at your IT projects, an economic downturn can be exactly when IT investment should take place. " ...

Via Accounting Web: IT Strategy and Recessionary Actions

Strategic Position of Projects

IT project portfolios are currently under-review for reducing investment. Portfolio reviews are a healthy process. Visibility into the business case financials and support for the current business strategy are key inputs to enable the discussion. Exercising this (even if painful) will increase your process maturity, eventually leading to an increased return on the portfolio. ...

... "if the project really is strategic -- if it involves the executive team and will enable transformation across the business -- then it is by definition more than an IT project ... " ...

Via Computerworld: Project Portfolio Management

Forecasting Innovation

While innovation isn't quite deterministic, you can reverse engineer the size of an innovation portfolio across the various stage-gates necessary to sustain future revenue from new products. This should provide you with insight on the number of new ideas that need to be generated or the number of product trials needed. Visibility into the innovation portfolio and your historical performance is valuable information for managing business success. ...

... "Break these annual revenue targets down over a mix of products, new and existing, in each year. Some firms call this a revenue cascade or revenue waterfall. " ...

Via Innovation in Practice: Mapping Innovation

Manage Project Portfolio During Recession Environment

This recession could cause your enterprise to scale back its investment commitment for projects. Now is a good time to refine your project ranking and scan the pipeline for high-value ungoverned project proposals. Investment scenarios can be helpful to facilitate a portfolio review with your governance team. Consider preparing them in advance. Also, remember that economic downturns can also be a time for considering strategic investments that can change the company's competitive position as the storm blows over. ...

... "More typically, failure lives in shades of gray, and choosing the worst projects among a mediocre group can be tough. " ...

Via ZDNet: Managing Projects during recession