Artigo - Softwre Doesnt Manage Projects. People Do

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cases, they achieve their success

independent of the software they

choose. While they may use it

extensively, the software did not

come first. These organizations

would continue to succeed atproject management if they were

to remove their software packag-

es tomorrow. What sets these

organizations apart is an overall

framework for strategic project

management.

This framework encompasses

four concepts that support and

encourage world-class perfor-

mance. They are Master Project

Planning, Project Portfolio Man-

agement, Project Management

Competence, and Human Perfor-

mance Environment.

Master ProjectPlanning

The Master Project Plan flows

directly from an organization’s

strategy. It includes all the initia-

tives that an organization mustundertake to achieve its vision.

When senior executives begin to

communicate strategy to the rest

of the organization, inevitably

the first question asked is, “How

are we going to make this hap-

pen?” Strategy by its nature is

visionary. The challenge with

strategy is not in its formulation

but, rather, in its implementa-

tion. As noted in the article,“Why CEOs Fail,” which

appeared in Fortune magazine,

“Any way you look at it, master-

ing execution turns out to be the

odds-on best way for a CEO to

keep his job.”2

Wher e companies

have fai led is in

str uctur ing their pr oj ect manage-

ment ar chitectur e,

pr ocesses, and

suppor t ar ound

softwar e pr od- ucts, not the other

way around.



What’s needed is a cohesive,

actionable plan that identifies

and ultimately coordinates all the

projects necessary to implement

the vision within the strategic

time frame.

Master Project P lanning also

works at the programmatic level.

A client of ours in the chemical

industry wanted to drastically

reduce the cycle time in which it

brings products to market. They

identified a number of initiatives

including automation of applica-

tions; development of “recipe”

tools designed to calculate poly-

mer properties more efficiently;

and creation of a central data-

base to coordinate and house the

knowledge gained from the other

projects. What the client needed

was a means by which to pull all

these projects together and

sequence them so that this enor-mous amount of work could be

accomplished. The Master

Project Plan provided that

means.

Our preferred Master Project

Planning tools? Easels, markers,

Post-I ts, and tape. While, ulti-

mately, project management

software is necessary to capture

all the essential information

regarding projects, it does notfacilitate the coordination of

projects. Once projects are iden-

tified, it will assist an individual

with managing his/her project,

While, ult imately,

pr oj ect manage-

ment softwar e is necessar y to cap-

tur e all the essen-

tial information

regarding

pr ojects, it does

not facil itate the

coordinat ion of

projects.



but the coordination rests with

the people, not the software

itself.

Project PortfolioManagement

A new product development

manager had 50 projects in his

portfolio with only 15 people to

help him deliver them. When we

asked which ones he was going to

set aside, he replied, “None. I

have to get them all done.” After

helping him do the math, he

finally realized that it would takeseven years to complete them all!

Project proliferation is way of

life, regardless of size, scope, or

industry. Whether it’s a major

pharmaceutical firm, a dot.com,

or a school board, every organi-

zation we talk to has too many

projects in the works. The only

way to manage this issue effec-

tively is by determining which

projects should be done, whichprojects can be done, and which

projects should be delayed or

stopped. This is Project Portfolio

Management. These decisions

must be made at the portfolio

level, not the individual project

level.

The portfolio question comes

down to value versus capacity.

An organization’s strategy focus-

es on the value it will deliver to

its customers in exchange for

dollars. I f that organization had

unlimited capacity, then theoreti-

cally it could deliver unlimited

value. The challenge most organi-

zations face is to create as much

value as possible given capacity

constraints.

Effective Project Portfolio Man-

agement means knowing the

relative value and risk associated

The challenge

most organiza-

tions face is to create as much

value as possible

given capacity

constr aints.



with every project that has been

proposed or is under way. It

means continually knowing how

resources are deployed across

projects and how many project

resources are available for new

projects. Most of all, it means

making tough decisions about

which projects will be done

when—if at all—based on a

shared understanding of each

project’s potential for adding

value to an organization.

The result is a portfolio of

projects that are aligned with anorganization’s strategy. An orga-

nization can see the status of al l

significant projects and identify

potential problems that may

become roadblocks along the

route to the final destination.

Project Portfolio Management is

separate from the management of

a single project and more than a

summary Gantt chart of many

projects. A portfolio database isdeveloped by gathering common

project information from each

individual project. Then, the

individual projects are evaluated

against portfolio objectives.

Project Portfolio Management

must be set up and supported as

an ongoing process. Organiza-

tions that manage project

portfolios effectively recognize

the need and have installed the

architecture to ensure the pro-

gram’s perseverance. Examples

include a project office with a

full-time project portfolio manag-

er and an executive steering

committee that reviews the port-

folio at least quarterly.

Software required? A common

desktop database (e.g., MicrosoftAccess) is preferred for its flexi-

bility in viewing projects in

priority order with resource

loading across the organization.

For smaller organizations or

departments, a spreadsheet will

suffice.

Project ManagementCompetencies

Project management competen-cies fall into three primary

categories. First, there’s the

required content expertise. It’s

hard to imagine a successful

project manager in aircraft man



ufacturing who has never heardthe word aileron.3 Second, a

project manager must have

project management technical

skills. These include the ability to

effectively define, plan, and

implement projects. Finally, a

good project manager must be

competent in dealing with people.

In our experience, it’s the human

side of project management that

will most likely cause a project to

be unsuccessful. A thoroughunderstanding of the human

performance system is mandato-

ry. World-class project

management organizations

ensure that their project

managers have a balance of all

three types of competencies.

There are several fundamental

questions that a project managerneeds to answer for any project

before the work actually begins:

What value and benefits will the

project deliver and what require-

ments are necessary to deliver

that value? How do we organize

the work and how do we avoid

future problems?

As the project is being imple-

mented, the team needs to know

these answers: What is expected?How are we doing against those

expectations? Management needs

to know: How is the project pro-

gressing against objectives,

schedule, and budget?

During the whole process, the

project manager must constantly

ask: How’s it going? What prob-

lems need to be solved? What

decisions need to be made? What

potential problems could occur?

What potential opportunities do

we face?

Project management competency

involves knowing where you are

I n our exper ience,

it ’s the human

side of pr oject management that

wil l most l ikely

cause a pr oj ect to

be unsuccessful.



at any step along the way. It also

involves knowing what questions

to ask and having the ability to

gather, organize, analyze, and

report information in a meaning-

ful way that supports project and

organizational proficiency.

In reality, many organizations

use software to capture work

breakdown structures, sched-

ules, resource assignments, etc.,

and train their project manage-

ment teams in the use of those

tools. In fact, it’s hard to imagine

managing large projects withoutthe aid of scheduling software.

However, those tools are second-

ary to the fundamental

competencies required to com-

plete projects successfully.

Human PerformanceEnvironment

The performance environment,

not just people and projects,

plays a pivotal role in gettingresults. This includes making

sure that people have the right

expectations and resources. It

includes an alignment between

organizational benefits and indi-

vidual rewards. And it also

includes making sure people

know how, specifically, their

work is advancing or retarding

the project. Finally, it includes

Understanding

how the human

performance system oper ates

wil l allow an

organization to

design a

performance system to meet

its pr oj ect

and, ult imately,

its str ategic

objectives.



making an accurate assessment of

the cross-impact of actions, so

that what supports one person or

project does not derail another.

The technical performance of

machines, processes, and systems

is carefully engineered along with

the operating conditions, param-

eters, and expected outputs. But

often, human performance

expectations and the system in

which employees are expected to

perform are not clear. Under-

standing how the human

performance system operates willallow an organization to design a

performance system to meet its

project and, ultimately, its strate-

gic objectives.

Software required to deliver the

human performance environ-

ment—none.

Final Thoughts

The four-dimensional approach

outlined here provides a road

map for organizations that want

to achieve world-class perfor-

mance in project management.

New IT solutions will continue to

benefit project managers who

have clearly identified their

specific needs, but only after

they have installed a sound archi-

tecture or project management

foundation. For the rest who are

visiting the trade shows with their

checkbooks, rough waters lie

ahead.

1. Terry L. Fox, Ph.D. “Do theFeatures Support the Functions?” PM

Network, Vol. 14, No.3, March 2000. pp

69-73.

2. Ram Charan and Geoffrey Colvin.

Fortune, Vol. 139, No. 12, J une 21,

1999. pp 68-78.

3. An aileron is the movable part

along the back edge of an airplane’s

wing, used to help turn the plane or keep

it level.

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