tailor project management processes to fit your projects

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Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your ProjectsSpend less time managing processes and more time delivering results.


Over the past two decades, the project management industry has become increasingly rife with best practices and formal frameworks for achieving project success. However, this proliferation hasn’t changed the fact that most organizations continue to struggle at projects. Indeed, statistics around project failure—especially IT projects—have remained consistently high since at least the mid-1990s, a time that coincides with the rise of the ‘best practices’ industry itself. While it’s important that best practices be understood, it’s equally true that best practices aren’t always the best fit. These frameworks commonly set unrealistic expectations for resource-constrained IT departments, and in their clinical approach, fail to address the day-to-day challenges that project managers face on the front lines.In my experience, I’ve found that a right-sized approach to your project management processes works best. Take what you need from those formal frameworks, and then tailor a process that’s going to work for your organization and for the variety of projects that come your way. Matt Burton,

Research Director, Project Portfolio Management Info-Tech Research Group

If the process doesn’t fit your projects, change the process.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE


This Research is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Will Assist: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Will Also Assist: This Research Will Help Them:

Our understanding of the problem

PMO directors looking to standardize project management processes and get more consistent and reliable data from project teams to help increase visibility.

IT managers who need to encourage skills development in their project managers and team leads.

Develop a standardized project management process to help ensure that all project managers are feeding the portfolio with the appropriate KPIs and status updates.

Develop an ongoing project management training curriculum to help experienced project managers keep their skills fresh and new project leads build up their capabilities.

New or experienced project managers looking to follow industry best practices and who require a comprehensive set of project management tools and templates.

CIOs or other C-suite executives who need to improve the throughput and value of the organization’s project work.

Follow COBIT and PMBOK informed project management processes—and pull from a project management toolkit—that can scale to projects of all sizes.

Provide organizationally appropriate project management standards to help minimize waste and improve project outcomes.


Resolution

Situation

Complication

Info-Tech Insight

Executive summary

• As an organization, you need to improve project success. Your current project management processes are poorly defined, and projects are commonly plagued by cost and scheduling overruns.

• This lack of project management discipline contributes to stakeholder dissatisfaction and fuels the perception that IT does not deliver value.

• You have access to formal project management frameworks and advice, but you’re not sure what to do with them all. Their advice isn’t immediately tactical, and there aren’t enough hours in the day to implement everything they suggest.

• Your team is resource constrained, and for the most part, members lack any formal project management certification or experience.

• When it’s right, keep it light. A lightweight approach to project management process suffices for the vast majority of IT initiatives. Establish different tiers of PM rigor to ensure that you’re not weighing down potential quick wins in too much process, and to ensure that you’re applying the right amount of rigor to more complex, high-risk initiatives.

• Apply the right tools to the job. Your project management processes will succeed or fail depending on the quality of your artifacts and how they are applied. Build an actionable project management toolkit that can accommodate projects of all sizes and that will help facilitate optimized communications with project stakeholders.

• Put your processes in context. Project management doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If your project management practices don’t inform effective decision making, then your investments in process discipline will be all for nothing. Develop processes that provide a gateway to the “big picture” and help facilitate effective portfolio management practices.

1. Tailor a project management framework to fit your organization. Best practices aren’t always the best fit. Take what you can use from formal frameworks and define a right-sized approach to your project management processes.

2. Make it about project outcomes, not processes. Project management success doesn’t equal project success. Project management processes should be a means to an end (i.e. successful project outcomes), and not an end in themselves.


Successful projects are the #1 driver of satisfaction with IT

Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision Survey (N=21,367) has identified a direct correlation between IT project success and overall business satisfaction with IT.

Reported Importance: Initially, when asked to rank the importance of IT services, respondents ranked “projects” low on the list—10 out of a possible 12.

Actual Importance: Despite this low “reported importance,” of those organizations that were “satisfied” to “fully satisfied” with IT, the service that had the strongest correlation to this high satisfaction was “projects,” i.e. IT’s ability to help plan, support, and execute initiatives that help the business achieve its strategic goals.

Info-Tech Business Vision Survey, N = 21,367


Successful project outcomes depend on effective project management

Project management (PM) is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish.

Implementing PM processes helps establish repeatable steps and controls that enable project success.

Documentation of PM processes leads to consistent results and dependable delivery on expectations.

While an investment in PM discipline isn’t free, the time and money spent in developing repeatable processes will pay off in terms of improved project success rates and greater stakeholder satisfaction.

There’s no getting around it: if you want consistently successful project results, then you need to invest in project management discipline.

Data from the Project Management Institute (PMI) shows that organizations that have developed cultures around project management discipline are significantly better situated to succeed at projects.


Project management is the primary discipline separating top IT performers from the rest of the pack

Info-Tech’s research shows that the ability to effectively plan and execute projects is among the top activities that correlate with high IT performance.

DevicesNetwork & Comm. Infrastructure

IT PoliciesService/Help Desk

Client Facing TechnologyData Quality

Business ApplicationsWork Order Execution

Analytical CapabilityWork Order Capacity

Requirements GatheringProject Execution

IT Innovation LeadershipProject Capacity

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Performance Improvement of Top Performers vs. Average Performers

Our data shows that the ability to right-size project initiation and governance based on capacity forecasts, as well as the ability to drive throughput through project execution, are two of the top three activities that separate top IT performers from average performers.


Despite its importance, project management remains an Achilles’ heel for the vast majority of organizationsThe statistics around project failure—especially IT projects—have remained consistently high for the last two decades, despite a proliferation of project management best practices.

Only 29% of projects were delivered on time, on budget, and with a satisfactory results in 2015.

—Hass and Fulmer

29%17% of large IT projects fail so badly they threaten the organization’s survival.

—McKinsey & Co.17%

Only 56% of strategic projects meet their original business goals.

—PMI56%

75% of IT executive stakeholders and business leaders believe their projects are “doomed from the start.”

—Geneca

75%The US economy loses $50-$150 billion per year due to failed IT projects.

—Gallup

$50-$150billion

While it’s true that project management failures are common and well reported year-after-year, Info-Tech finds that the barriers to project management success are relatively straightforward to diagnose and—with the right measures—surmountable with just a few tweaks to processes.

On average, 2015 statistics show that 60% of projects are not aligned with organizational strategy.

—Wrike

60%

http://www.buildingbusinesscapability.com/presentations/2015/2176.pdf

http://www.buildingbusinesscapability.com/presentations/2015/2176.pdf

http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/delivering-large-scale-it-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-value

http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2014.pdf

http://www.geneca.com/75-business-executives-anticipate-software-projects-fail/

http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/152429/cost-bad-management.aspx#1

https://www.wrike.com/blog/state-of-project-management-in-2015-infographic/


[PMBOK] offers a vast body of knowledge to Project Managers, but without the specific guidance to distil the knowledge into practical and actionable methods tailored to different situations. This has resulted in failures and practitioners spending too much time translating the knowledge and not enough time executing and delivering it.

—Lisa Hodges

The biggest barrier to project success is often project management itself

Best practices aren’t always the best fit.Formal project management frameworks like PMBOK and COBIT provide comprehensive approaches to planning, executing, and monitoring projects.

While these frameworks can provide the right amount of rigor and controls for large, complex projects in environments that are optimally funded and resourced, they can prove to be less actionable when applied to medium-to-small initiatives—especially in resource-constrained project environments, like small enterprises or IT departments.

When these formal methodologies are applied without specific tactics, they can lead to quick wins being weighed down by too much process or to project ROI being depleted by excessive PM administrative burdens.


When applied as a universal standard, PM best practices can stand in the way of the effective standardization of process

PM started as a planning and scheduling tool and PM standards were limited to those areas. Planning and scheduling has since been built into step-wise models, providing an apparently perfect path to follow. That may be troublesome enough but the problem escalated further when new areas, such as people skills, human resources, and ways of dealing with complexity were added to the standards.

When the developers of standards were directed to become more comprehensive and more up to date in terms of their practices, they added issues that were less easy to standardise. This trend was exacerbated when the application of the standard was expanded from covering a few industries in a few countries to all industries in all countries, and from large and complex systems development projects to all types of projects.

—Hällgren et al. “Relevance Lost! A critical review of project management standardisation”

With this history in mind, IT project managers should approach formal frameworks asking, “what can I take from these that will benefit my projects and my team?” rather than attempting to apply them verbatim, at all costs, when and where they might not be applicable. !


The ability to right-size project planning and controls contributes significantly to IT project throughput

The trick to implementing sustainable project management is to tune process to the needs of the organization (right fit – which depends on culture and maturity) and to the needs of all projects (right scalability – which depends on differences in project scale and complexity).

—Howard Vaughn

Project management planning and controls are necessary for all projects—they just shouldn’t look the same for all types of projects.

Right-sized project management discipline will help you straddle the divide between two equally destructive poles of project chaos:

Find project management success by walking a middle path between too little and too much PM formality.

This pole, common in small IT departments, is essentially the wild west of project execution, lacking a standardization of project management KPIs, tools, and reporting, and without communication and portfolio visibility.

This pole applies a standard methodology to all projects, regardless of type or size, leading to challenges around adoption and adherence, especially when applied to small projects or to a group of leads who lack PM experience.

No PM Processes Excessive PM ProcessesRight-Sized PM Processes


Use Info-Tech’s project management framework to tailor processes to fit your projectsThis blueprint will help you build right-sized PM processes by defining different levels of projects and determining the right amount of rigor to apply at each level.

Info-Tech’s five-phase framework is geared toward applying the right amount of rigor, as project risk and complexity dictate. Project throughput benefits from letting quick wins be quick wins and getting ROI out of planning activities by applying rigor only where it’s needed.

2 Build a lightweight PM process for small initiatives

1Lay the groundwork for PM success

3Establish a standard process for initiating and planning medium-to-large projects

4Establish a standard process for executing and closing medium-to-large projects

5Implement your project management SOP

Our approach to right-sizing project management centers on five distinct phases:


Our approach provides project managers with tailor-to-fit solutions to help them drive quality project results

Lay the groundwork

Results• A current state

analysis• Definition of

project levels and categories

Build a lightweight

process

Initiate and plan larger

projects

Execute and close larger

projects

Implement your PM

SOP21 3 4 5

Results• Info-Tech’s PM

approach for small projects

• Lightweight templates

Results• Comprehensive

project initiation and planning processes

• Fully-featured tools & templates

Results• Comprehensive

project execution and closing processes

• Fully-featured tools & templates

Results• A PM training

plan to help standardize processes

• Implementation roadmap

Project management success doesn’t equal project success. While formal methodologies can be a key ingredient to success for some projects and for some organizations, the fact is that the vast majority of projects in IT departments do not require such rigid and detailed processes.

Our approach gives project managers the option to run with a lightweight method when it’s applicable, freeing them from a considerable administrative burden to focus on getting projects done. Then, as project level dictates, our framework provides options to apply more rigor to help mitigate risk and complexity.

Making the projects simpler is a worthwhile endeavor because complexity causes only confusion and increased cost.

—The Standish Group (quoted in Karch)


Info-Tech’s framework blends leading schools of thought with practical, tactical insider researchOur method allows you to customize an approach, taking as much or as little from PMBOK and COBIT as required to drive successful project throughput.

What we take from…

…PMBOK …COBIT …Insider research• An approach to projects that is

based on the PMI’s conceptual framework of the project lifecycle and five process groups.

• A project framework that is structured upon the governance and management processes identified in COBIT BAI01.

• A sensitivity to the capacity and appetites of project managers and teams to take on and effectively adopt more process.

• A toolkit informed by the 42 project management processes in PMBOK, including the required inputs and outputs for each process.

• A game plan to achieve project outcomes that are aligned with COBIT’s IT-related goals and metrics.

• An archive of harvested deliverables and practitioner advice, allowing us to craft a best-of-breed toolkit with proven results.

• The ability to standardize planning and control processes across the organization to help ensure that all projects come in on-time, on-budget, and in-scope, and meet an acceptable level of quality.

• An approach to planning that will help ensure project management practices are informed by the right inputs, structured by the right activities, and governed by the appropriate organizational accountabilities and responsibilities.

• An approach to mastering planning and control mechanisms, as well as standardization of processes, that is informed by practitioner advice and lessons learned on the front lines.


Our approach is complemented by our diagnostic tools that measure your success in project management

Key performance indicators of project management methodologies

Desired Outcome

Increase success of project outcome

Increase on-time and on-budget project delivery

Improve project managers’ adherence to standard processes

Increase business / project stakeholder satisfaction with IT

MetricProject resources used for analyzing, fixing & redeploying

Average schedule and cost overruns

Team satisfaction with IT’s ability to manage projects

Customer satisfaction with IT’s ability to execute projects

Method Current State Scorecard

Project Management Assessment Customer Satisfaction Report

Start measuring your PM success with Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Management Diagnostic Program.

https://www.infotech.com/diagnostic/programs/ppm-current-state-scorecard

https://www.infotech.com/diagnostic/programs/ppm-current-state-scorecard

https://www.infotech.com/diagnostic/programs/ppm-assessment

https://www.infotech.com/diagnostic/programs/ppm-customer-satisfaction

https://www.infotech.com/diagnostic/programs/ppm-customer-satisfaction

https://www.infotech.com/benchmarking/project-portfolio-management


Our approach is rounded-out by a comprehensive and easy-to-customize project management toolkit

Required Recommended Unnecessary

Sample Toolkit options*:

*Full toolkit requirements are developed in the standard operating procedure (SOP) template for this blueprint.

Success depends on using the right tools for the job.Your project management processes will succeed or fail depending on the quality of your artifacts and tools and how they are applied.

Each phase and project level in this blueprint is accompanied by a best-of-breed toolkit to help support your PM processes and ensure you develop the appropriate protocol for monitoring and controlling your projects.

In the spirit of right-sizing your efforts, the blueprint provides clear criteria for the artifacts that should be employed for different levels of projects, so your team of PMs will be clear at each stage what artifacts are required, what artifacts are strongly recommended, and what artifacts are unnecessary.


Put your project management processes in context

Project management doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Ultimately, the tools and processes you develop need to inform effective decision making at the executive layer.

Info-Tech takes a holistic approach to project management, putting PM processes in the context of strong project governance and effective portfolio management practices.

Whether your department reports into a formal portfolio management function (i.e. a PMO or portfolio manager) or there’s simply someone doing ad hoc tracking of a project list, this blueprint will help you capture a more accurate and reliable view of the big picture.

This big-picture view will in turn set your project managers up for more consistent project success.

Project managers… are accountable for executing the processes necessary for successful portfolio management, and for providing accurate and unbiased information. Portfolio management can enable the project manager to reduce project failures, overruns, and redundancies—all of which are fundamental project management goals.

—PMI, 2015


Info-Tech helps a government agency find the right balance of project governance and process efficiency for its IT projects

Situation An IT department within a state agency was going through a period of rapid transition. While the former administration had required little governance and controls on the state’s projects, a new administration was demanding increased governance into how large IT projects were planned and executed.

ComplicationThe PMO was having trouble reconciling the old “low governance” culture with the new “heavy governance” one. Project managers were used to wearing multiple hats within the organization, and didn’t necessarily have the time to devote to rigorous processes or to focus on one project at a time. New contracting laws are very stringent, requiring the project manager to be involved at the project’s onset, specifically for statement of work and timeline design.

Resolution Info-Tech came onsite and helped develop a right-sized governance structure. Analysts helped IT develop appropriate project levels, which helped increase PM consistency while minimizing the overhead of PM effort. An SOP was developed that gave IT best-practice processes and tools to aid in better upfront project planning and execution.

CASE STUDY Industry

Source

Government

Info-Tech Client

Info-Tech analysts received more than $40,000 in measured value for their work in developing a project management framework for the agency.

$40,000

Case Study Highlights

Info-Tech identified the need for improved project portfolio management practices to assist with project outcomes and create more even project workloads.

PPM

Info-Tech introduced a right-sized PM governance framework based on effective project leveling in order to increase project management consistency while minimizing the overhead of project management effort.

Right-sized


Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.


Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the

knowledge to take this project on. We need

assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a

process, but we need assistance to

determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would

help keep us on track.”

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical

project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the

way would be helpful.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and

get this project kicked off immediately. Our

team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and

strategy in place.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs


Best-Practice Toolkit

1.1 Assess the current state of your project management processes 1.2 Set a governance framework for project activity1.3 Define project levels and categories

2.1 Define a minimum-viable project management process to drive the throughput of small initiatives

Guided Implementations

Scoping call

Determine your current level of PM process maturity

Right-size your project governance structure

Differentiate between a project and a non-project for your organization

Set different levels of projects

Discover opportunities for streamlining PM for small, low-risk projects

Tailor Info-Tech’s PM approach for small projects to your organization

Onsite Workshop

Module 1:Lay the Groundwork for PM Success

Module 2:Right-Size PM for Small Projects

Phase 1 Outcome:• Project governance alignment with COBIT• Definition of project levels

Phase 2 Outcome:• Lightweight standard operating procedure (SOP) and artifact

templates for managing small projects

1. Lay the groundwork for project management success

2. Build a lightweight PM process for small initiatives

Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects(Phases 1 and 2)


Best-Practice Toolkit

3.1 Create initiation processes to keep sponsors and stakeholders engaged throughout the project lifecycle3.2 Develop planning procedures to ensure feasibility and quality

4.1 Build controls to mitigate project risks and manage scope throughout the execution phase4.2 Create closing protocol to maximize project benefits and stakeholder satisfaction

5.1 Finalize your project management SOP5.2 Prepare your project managers for project management success

Guided Implementations

Learn about Info-Tech’s recommended best practices for project initiation and planning

Tailor Info-Tech’s fully featured PM approach for medium-to-large projects to your organization

Learn about Info-Tech’s recommended best practices for project execution and closing

Tailor Info-Tech’s fully featured PM approach for medium-to-large projects to your organization

Create a single document for planning a medium-sized project

Estimate PM overhead cost

Develop a training plan for project managers

Build an implementation roadmap

Onsite Workshop

Module 3:Initiate & Plan Medium-to-Large Projects and Initiatives

Module 4:Execute & Close Medium-to-Large Projects and Initiatives

Module 5:Implement Project Management SOP

Phase 3 Results:• Fully-featured SOP and artifact

templates for initiating and planning large projects

Phase 4 Results:• Fully-featured SOP and artifact

templates for executing and closing large projects

Phase 5 Results:• Ready-to-deploy PM SOP• Training plan for project managers• Implementation roadmap

3. Establish initiation and planning protocols for

medium-to-large projects

4. Develop execution and closing procedures for

medium-to-large projects

5. Implement your project management

SOP

Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects (Phases 3 to 5)


Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email [email protected] for more information.

Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5

Activities

Lay the Groundwork for Project Management

Success

1.1 Assess current state of project governance and management

1.2 Set a governance framework

1.3 Differentiate a project from a non-project

1.4 Set project levels

Right-Size PM for Small Projects & Initiate Medium-to-Large

Projects and Initiatives

2.1 Set expectation for managing small projects

2.2 Adapt Info-Tech's PM approach for level 1 projects for managing small projects

2.3 Create initiation processes for large projects

Plan Medium-to-Large Projects and Initiatives

3.1 Establish scope baseline

3.2 Establish schedule & cost baselines

3.3 Create staffing plan3.4 Create stakeholder

and communication management plans

3.5 Create quality management plan

3.6 Create benefits management plan

3.7 Create risk management plan

Execute and Close Medium-to-Large

Projects and Initiatives

4.1 Manage project team4.2 Report project status4.3 Manage changes in

projects4.4 Control quality of

project outcome4.5 Control project risks4.6 Ensure deliverable

acceptance4.7 Conduct project post-

mortem4.8 Handover and obtain

final sign-off

Implement Project Management SOP

5.1 Finalize project management SOP

5.2 Create a rollout plan for new PM methodology

5.3 Create training material for staff

5.4 Develop an implementation timeline

Deliverables

1. PM Assessment Report & Maturity

2. Project Governance COBIT Alignment

3. Project Level Definition Matrix

1. Level 1 Project Management SOP

2. Level 1 Project Management Artifact Templates

3. Level 2 & 3 Project Initiation SOP

4. Level 2 & 3 Project Initiation Tools & Templates

1. Level 2 & 3 Project Planning SOP

2. Level 2 & 3 Project Planning Tools & Templates

1. Level 2 & 3 Project Execution SOP

2. Level 2 & 3 Project Execution Tools & Templates

3. Level 2 & 3 Project Closing SOP

4. Level 2 & 3 Project Closing Tools & Templates

1. Project Management SOP

2. Project Management Staff Training Material

3. PM Process Implementation Timeline

mailto:[email protected]