Optimizing IT Department Project Portfolio Management (Concurrency Corporation)

Optimizing IT Department Project Portfolio Management

(Concurrency Corporation)

ContentsExecutive SummaryCurrent State AnalysisFuture State AnalysisAdoption & Implementation PlanningNext Steps

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BackgroundThe IT Department within your organization currently faces a number of challenges related to its project portfolio management processes:

Lack of governance controls in project management leads to misallocation of resourcesLack of resource utilization knowledge across projects leads to resource surpluses or deficits for ongoing projectsLack of visibility into status of projects in the portfolio, which impacts future project pipeline planningLaborious process to update project status, resource utilization, and resource requirementsLong project status reporting process taking 10 days of cycle time per month, leading to out-of-date reports when finalizedInability to accurately measure risk and return of projects

The net result of these challenges is reduced project profitability 3

Engagement ParticipantsParticipant Name Department Role

(name) (department) (title)






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Executive Summary(Partner Name) proposes expanding upon (Contoso’s) current Office System deployment to incorporate an optimized Project Portfolio Management systemImplementing the proposed Project Portfolio Management Solution will provide (Contoso) with:

Better analysis of risk/reward of current and future portfolios, allowing IT directors to optimize the value of their projectsMore accurate and timely project performance reports resulting in better project planning and capacity planning decisionsNear real-time project status updates enable management to quickly reallocate resources across the entire project portfolio 90% decrease in labor required to prepare project status reportsReduce overall project reporting cycle time by 80% 5

Executive Summary

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Process Phase Description

• Stakeholder groups request new project

• Project Managers (PMs) collect work and workflow requirements

• PMs review project requests and SOWs with Directors and CIO monthly

• Directors and CIO decide which projects to pursue using non-structured assessments of risk vs. value to business

• PMs prepare detailed execution plan

• PMs and Directors manually assess resource demand vs. availability and ID gaps

• PMs and Directors finalize resource allocation

• Project Team manually updates project status throughout project

• PMs prepare reports• Directors and CIOs

periodically assess portfolio, reallocate resources, and cancel failing projects

Key Stakeholders

• Project Stakeholders• Project Managers

• Project Managers• Director• CIO

• Project Managers• Directors

• Project Team• Project Managers• Directors• CIO

High-Level Problems Identified

• Laborious, manual methods to estimate work required

• No estimation of project benefit or risk

• Lack of governance overseeing how project requests are translated into statements of work (SOWs)

• Tedious to consolidate and merge information from multiple sources into a project portfolio selection report

• Laborious, manual process manage project requests

• Inability to accurately measure risk/reward of projects

• Majority of time is spent manually gathering resource utilization data

• Difficult to quickly identify over/under-utilization across existing project portfolio

• Status reporting is accomplished via email exchange of static spreadsheets, leading to versioning errors

• Lack of current utilization data across portfolio

• Inability to accurately judge the profitability of ongoing projects

Impact• Costly and time consuming

project creation process

• Suboptimal project portfolio selection

• Lower ROI for IT investments

• Resources are not timely and optimally allocated

• Costly and time consuming to report project status

• Costly and time consuming resource leveling across portfolio

• Lower project profitability

Current State Process Analysis

Create New Projects

Select Optimal Project

Portfolio

Plan Project Execution

Manage Project

Portfolio

Project Portfolio Optimization Process Analysis Summary

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Current State Process Diagram


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Future State Process AnalysisProject Portfolio Optimization Phases – Analysis Summary

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New Process Phase Description

• Project Stakeholders request new projects via SharePoint Server

• PMs quickly manage requests, adding in work requirements and expected project value within Project Server

• PMs, Directors, and CIO use Project Server scenario planning to quickly select the project portfolio with the best ratio of reward to risk

• PMs automatically assess project requirements and resource availability

• PMs adjust current and future project schedules to ensure optimal resource allocation and project sequencing

• Resources update task status daily

• Directors and CIO review project status dashboard as needed

Key Stakeholders

• Project Stakeholders• Project Managers

• Project Managers• Director• CIO

• Project Managers• Directors

• Project Team• Project Managers• Directors• CIO

High-Level Improvements

• Collection of project requests is standardized

• Governance in computing project requirements and value ensures that projects can be accurately compared with each other

• Entirely removes lengthy manual project portfolio selection process

• Clear view of resource allocation across portfolio

• Eliminates manual utilization tracking an email/Excel based reports

• Removes executive management from the decision process, freeing them for more important issues

• Simplified status reporting reduces errors

• Governance improves accuracy of status reporting

• Provides granular, task-level view of project status

• Automates resource allocation across portfolio

• Management can ID and discontinue unprofitable projects or take mitigating actions

Impact / Benefit

• Reduced cost and effort manage project requests

• Projects are selected and started faster

• Optimal project portfolio is selected more often

• Improved IT responsiveness

• Projects are better planned and more profitable

• Resources are efficiently allocated across portfolio


• Optimal resource allocation increases utilization and improves portfolio profitability

• More time available for analysis reduces risk of missing key issues


Create New Projects

Select Optimal Project

Portfolio

Plan Project Execution

Manage Project

Portfolio

LevelOfComplexity

Low

High

High

Low

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3

3 5

1

Value to Business

Prioritized Process Solutions

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Create business rules for task-level project status tracking

(Project Server 2010, Exchange Server 2010)

Develop Executive Project Planning & Capacity Planning

Dashboards(Project Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 with Excel Services)

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Integrate all resource allocation, project status, and pipeline planning

data into Project Server 2010(Project Server 2010, Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 with Excel Services)

Create resource utilization views in Project Server 2010

(Project Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 )

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Future State Process Diagram

Anticipated Benefits - ProcessID Process Phase

Improvement Description Benefits Technology Leveraged

KPI Impact(s)

Affected Stakeholders

1Create New Projects

• Collection of project requests is standardized

• Governance in computing project requirements and value ensures that projects can be accurately compared with each other

• Reduced cost and effort manage project requests

• Project Server 2010

• SharePoint Server 2010 with Excel Services

• 57% decrease in labor required

• 90% decrease in process cycle time.

• Project Stakeholders

• Project Mangers

2

Select Optimal Project Portfolio

• Entirely removes lengthy manual project portfolio selection process

• Projects are selected and started faster

• Optimal project portfolio is selected more often


• Exchange Server 2010




• Project Managers

• Directors• CIO

3Plan Project Execution

• Clear view of resource allocation across portfolio

• Eliminates manual utilization tracking an email/Excel based reports

• Removes executive management from the decision process, freeing them for more important issues

• Projects are better planned and more profitable

• Resources are efficiently allocated across portfolio






• Project Managers

4Manage Project Portfolio

• Simplified status reporting reduces errors

• Governance improves accuracy of status reporting

• Provides granular, task-level view of project status

• Automates resource allocation across portfolio

• Optimal resource allocation increases utilization and improves portfolio profitability

• More time available for analysis reduces risk of missing key issues






• Project Team• Project

Managers• Directors• CIO

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Adoption & Implementation Planning Summary

ID Improvement Description Resources Required Implementatio

n OwnerAdditional Stakeholders Notes

1

Integrate all resource allocation, project status, and pipeline planning data into Project Server 2010

• IT department resources for solution development and/or project management

• Project Manger volunteers for pilot testing• VP of IT

• Project Managers• Directors• IT Department

2Develop Executive Project Planning & Capacity Planning Dashboards


• Project Manger volunteers for pilot testing• Executive volunteers for pilot testing

• VP of IT• Project Managers• Directors• IT Department

3Create resource utilization views in Project Server 2010




4Create business rules for task-level project status tracking




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Potential Adoption Roadblocks

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Stakeholder Group

Anticipated Resistance to Change Degree to which Resistance will Limit Initiative Success

Mitigation actions

Technical

IT Department N/A N/A N/A

Departmental Analysts

Some reluctance to use new tools Mid•Develop brief training document and FAQ

LOB Managers Some reluctance to use new tools Mid•Develop brief training document and FAQ

Departmental Manager

Some reluctance to use new tools Low•Develop brief training document and FAQ

Cultural

IT DepartmentStrong ownership of multiple process phases; feels that current process is “good enough”

Mid•Reward involvement in deployment and participation

Departmental Analysts

Staff may be reluctant to change current business practices

Low•Highlight time saving benefits of solution

LOB Managers

Departments have realized limited value from analytics and reporting solutions to date; concern that new solution will repeat problems of previous solutions

Mid•Highlight short-term and long-term process and information benefits

Departmental Manager

Interested in bottom line; show me the money Mid•Monitor and report on ongoing performance

Adoption Roadblock Mitigation Actions by StakeholderAdoption

Category IT Department Departmental Analysts LOB Managers Departmental Manager

Awareness

Awareness generating communications via email, newsletters, manager meetings, etc., targeted to stakeholder group and concerns




Value Demonstration

Emphasize performance process and productivity improvements to department as well as economic cost and implementation timeline.

Demonstrate improvement in productivity through quick hits and quick wins; also show overall process improvements and reduced impact on staff. Provide useful tactical training to support roll-out.

Demonstrate improvement in productivity through quick hits and quick wins; also show overall process improvements and reduced impact on staff. Provide useful tactical training to support roll-out.

Demonstrate both improvement in productivity through quick hits and quick wins; also show overall process improvements. Provide useful tactical training to support roll-out.

Integration & Alignment

Ensure proposed solutions/ initiatives are aligned with both with business and IT strategy and direction




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Next Steps

Review presentation and proposal with decision maker(s) and stakeholders for approvalExecute work order for projectSchedule kick off meeting for week of _____ and weekly status meetingsPropose schedule:

A) Deadlines for initial milestones, orB) Date to finalize initial milestones

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Documents

Optimizing IT Department Project Portfolio Management (Concurrency Corporation)