Shifting Perspective in Project Management
Jan Willem Tromp
Co-founder and researcher on Epicflow Multi-Project Resource Management Enterprise Solution
During a recent discussion with business unit managers in the UK, I raised a critical point about project management perspectives.
Often, we focus solely on project progress using traditional metrics like green, yellow, and red indicators. But is this enough for managing a complex multi-project environment?
Instead of asking "How is project A doing?" based on these status colors, we should consider broader angles. Imagine the perspective of the person overseeing multiple projects. When they inquire about project status and get responses like "yellow," "red," or "green," what do they really understand about project dynamics? In my view, almost nothing.
I suggested to these managers that a more insightful question would be, "How are my resources coping with project demands?" Understanding resource dynamics is crucial for effective project delivery. It's about ensuring resources can handle the demand coming from various projects.
Moreover, ownership of the business case should ideally rest with portfolio managers or higher-level leadership. Once a project is initiated, dealing with uncertainties becomes paramount.
Portfolio managers play a pivotal role in deciding whether to continue, pause, or stop projects based on these uncertainties.
Sometimes, I humorously suggest we might need to "stop a project to deliver earlier," emphasizing the importance of strategic decision-making in project management.
Let's rethink our approach to project oversight. It's not just about status updates but understanding the dynamics of resources and business cases to ensure successful project outcomes.
Programme Planner
5 个月one potential approach perhaps? had wee dialog with model o1 this morning and following long formal dialog around how to answer your question I asked how it would express the approach to someone in the pub ?? Sure, let me put it in simple terms you'd use chatting with someone over a drink. So, imagine you're juggling a bunch of projects at work, and it's getting messy because you're trying to do more than your team can handle. Traditionally, you'd start projects based on what needs to get done and then scramble to find enough people to do the work. But that often leads to overworked staff and missed deadlines. What we're proposing is flipping that approach. Instead of letting the projects dictate your workload, you look at your team's actual capacity first. You organize your people into groups based on their skills—like pools of talent—and they tackle tasks from a shared to-do list as they're able. If you realize you don't have enough people for certain tasks, you bring in freelancers or contractors with those specific skills to help out.
Director Learning & Development | AIProjectmanagement.nl | Lecturer | Author | Trendwatcher | Chairman SPIN
5 个月What is your opinion Jan Willem Tromp, should we push work into the department or should the department (resource) pull the work from a (virtual) ‘workplace’?
Construction Consultant at RM Global Consultancy - Consultant to Buildings & Factories L&T - Regional Manager Mumbai L&T
5 个月As always, this is yet another deep dive into the processes of multiple project management. However, I request a small distinction be made with references to the capacities of the resources in Construction situations. A resource capacity is normally measured by what it produces. Whereas there is a definite discount from it’s inherent capacity due to the disablers under which it operates. Higher the disablers lower would be the measurable capacities (outputs).
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5 个月I agree Jan Willem Tromp. The status on a single project at portfolio level is not so important. Unless it reports the probality of an overrun, compromising resources by holding on to them while they were aligned to work on other projects. It all boils down to work being done in a portfolio and doing this at an optimal level. Which implies managing it superseeds the project level.