Successful project management requires managing both people and process. I was invited to participate in writing the 77 Sins of Project Management. I had fun looking over the juicy list of sins. It was hard but I choose Blaming, Rigidity and Satisficing. Why? I had some solutions for common people related project problems.

Satisficing is a decision-making strategy which attempts to meet criteria for adequacy, rather than to identify an optimal solution.

Project managers may make an intellectual or emotional choice to not fully examine all stakeholders, requirements or needs. The project then fall shorts on full business requirements or solution identification due to time or team pressures when operating in an uncertain environment. (more…)

Rosemary Hossenlopp, founder of Project Management Perspectives is the facilitator of an audio series by key project management professionals on what Business Leaders must understand about accelerating execution of strategy through project work.

She interviews Jim Sloane, a Silicon Valley based OPM3 Certified consultant and PMP, and owner of his consulting and training company, Project Management Explorations.

The project management industry is facing challenges. One of them is showing that we actually deliver benefits to the business

Click here to listen to the interview. Approx 6 minutes.

What’s the story behind your interest in Projects Must Deliver Benefits. (more…)

How does a project portfolio office go about answering the question of what value does the portfolio provide the organization? There are bunches of obstacles to creating and maintaining a set of projects that can deliver the most benefits to the enterprise.

Project Management Portfolio Office Challenges:

- Chaos in the external environment

- Clashes in the executive suite

- Competency in the portfolio office

Portfolio offices are staffed by senior project management professionals assisting business leaders in steering the funding of the organization to respond to the chaos in the external environment, politics and personalities in the C-suite, and they may not be prepared to understand the details of the content of the projects or the mechanics of portfolio data analysis. Whew.

We can help by understanding business needs, ensuring those needs are included in the business case for portfolio selection, and creating forums for portfolio alignment. Yup – I’ve done these things.

But what is really the answer to surviving a job in a project management portfolio office? I believe that in large part it is a focus on outcome management. This is a phrase coined by my peer in the industry, Russ McDowell. We need to help an organization identify the key measurements that drive the health of the organization. Next, we identify how projects support improvement of those metrics.

What are the key outcomes your organization needs to manage? Vote Now! Enter your vote below:

Copyright 2009 PM Perspectives LLC Rosemary Hossenlopp PMP

Operations and project work is bridged by organizational project management (OPM). Projects better serve the organizations when there is a better fit between project work and the strategic plan. The organization benefits if high-value projects are executed well so the ongoing operations can use the project outcome.

How do project managers go about answering the question of what value does their project provide the organization? The answer to that question from a project manager is pretty tactical; just align the project to either the program goals, or the business case.

So what’s a pragmatic and practical approach to get this done? Use some standard tools available in our project management toolkit. They are:

Project Alignment Tools and Techniques

• Charter that states high-level business, mission and project requirements

• Scope alignment with business case intent and content

• Product/service requirements alignment with high-level requirements

In practice we have some challenges. Some BIG challenges. What are they?

Project Alignment obstacles

• Lack of business case

• Multiple stakeholders with conflicting needs

• Missing charter

• Adverse Internal Organizational Environmental Factors

• Challenges in Risk Analysis

o Missing, or

o Forced silence

• Organizational Change Management impact analysis isn’t included

Did I get this obstacles list correct? What is missing? I welcome your comments.

Copyright 2009 PM Perspectives LLC

Do you want to write a chapter in the premiere book on Organizational Project Management?

Project Management Institute (PMI) is currently reviewing a business case to start a new Virtual Community (VC) on Organizational Project Management. It is anticipated that PMI(r) will launch this VC in the fall of ’09. This community will provide information to project management practitioners. This VC will also target organizational business management leaders on topics of specific interest to them. It provides a forum for topics on Organizational Project Management (OPM) and aims to create knowledge about the interfaces among projects, programs and portfolios, how projects benefit the ongoing operations in organizations and how strategic objectives are attained through projects.

There is a conference call to introduce the goals, time line and participation requirements. I’m holding two calls; Thursday 7/23 at 5pm PT and 7/24 Friday at 6am PT as we have global interest in this project. The call will also be recorded if you are not able to attend:

Again the conference call information is:

Thursday 7/23 at 5pm PT 8pm ET and Friday 7/24 at 6am PT //9amET

The conference call phone number is:

1-218-862-7200 Bridge #: 684904

Feel free to contact me before the call if you have any questions.