2. What we’re talking about
Why Drupal needs portfolio project management
Management framework and definitions
What is program management?
What is portfolio project management (PPM)?
How is PPM implemented?
How does PPM change things?
What tools and strategies are available?
3. Why Drupal needs program
and portfolio project
management
Drupal is all grown up
Entering the enterprise business and
government space
Increase in the number of projects
running concurrently in a given
organization
4. Why Drupal needs program
and portfolio project
management
Drupal complexity
More legacy migrations and multi-
platform integrations
Projects require more highly skilled,
niched talent
Necessary talent is harder to find,
more expensive, and more
difficult to manage and retain
5. Goals of this session
Provide a management framework for
PPM
Discuss the concepts and effects of
program management
Introduce project portfolio management
Explore options in tools
7. Management Framework
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management
8. Management Act of creating plans
and managing
Framework resources to
accomplish a project.
A project is a
scheduled
Project undertaking for the
Management purpose of creating a
product or service.
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management
9. Management Responsible for the
overall success of a
Framework product. Products
may consist of multiple
projects.
Product managers
Product remain to manage the
Management product through the its
entire lifecycle.
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management
10. Management Act of creating and
managing multiple
Framework projects.
Typically, projects are
distinct but related
through
Program dependencies.
Management
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management
11. Management Management process
designed to help an
Framework organization sort and
prioritize projects to
align with business
objectives.
PPM includes:
Project Portfolio Establishment of
Management project analysis criteria
and scoring model
Project Portfolio Management
Project information
acquisition and analysis
Sorting and
Program Management
prioritization of projects
on established criteria
Project and Product Management
15. What is a Program?
“A defined set of projects containing
common dependencies, and/or
resources and/or objectives overseen by
a Program Manager.”
(OpenSDLC.org
http://opensdlc.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=SDLC_SOP_1000_-
_Program_and_Project_Management)
16. Like it or Not…
If you have multiple
concurrent projects, you
have a program.
17. The Effective Program
A collection of projects that work
together toward a common cause,
a common goal, and a common
purpose, and realize gained benefits
for the organization.
18. Relationship between
Programs and Projects
Mission/Vision
Program Program Program
1 2 3
Project 1 Project 1 Project 1
Project 2 Project 2 Project 2
Project 3
Project 3
Project 4
21. The Goal
End “us vs. everyone else”
mentality
Coordinate project managers
Use project intelligence to make
better business decisions
All parties work together toward common vision and
purpose
22. How Managed Programs
Help the Organization
Directly support org mission
Target org benefits
Counteract tunnel vision
23. Risks of Tunnel Vision
Project Managers Business Managers
Resource stockpiling High revenue/low profit
Schedule sandbagging Random diversification
Bloated estimates Overpromising
Territorial fiefdoms Getting lost in details
Ignoring project interactions encourages bad habits
and missed opportunities
24. Why it Works
Define and document links between projects
Shared resources (people, tools and
facilities)
Risk mitigation activities
Project integration management and
change control
25. Avoids…
Over or misallocation of resources
Competition for resources
Protectionist behavior
Clashing systems and processes
28. Project Management Office
(PMO)
Primary goal: achieve benefits from standardizing
and following project management policies,
processes and methods
Group or department within an organization
Defines and maintains standards for project
management
Usually based upon one of three models:
Project repository
Project coaching
Enterprise
29. What’s Wrong with
Centralized PMO’s?
Creates pool of generic project
management experts
Tends to result in “hot swapping”
PMs and teams
Does not allow for specialized
expertise
We want program experts, NOT just general project
management experts
30. The De-Centralized PMO
Less emphasis on classical PM
experts
PMs are embedded in well-defined
Programs
PM skills align with program
projects and business drivers
Consistently working within programs allows better skills
alignment and tighter teams
31. Project Dependencies
Finish to start (FS) – Project B can’t start before A is
finished (i.e. Foundation is dug, then concrete is
poured)
Finish to finish (FF) – Project B can’t finish before A is
finished (i.e. Last chapter written before entire book
is finished)
Start to start (SS) – Project B can’t start before A
starts (i.e. Project work started before project
management activities started)
Start to finish (SF) – Project B can’t finish before A
starts (i.e. New shift starts after previous shift finishes)
Identifying dependencies is critical to effective resource allocation
32. Operational Benefits: Project
Templates
Business Development
Contract/Statement of work
Kickoff Discovery
Sprint 1 (including multiple milestones)
Sprint 2 (including multiple milestones)
Training
QA
Launch
Post Mortem
Support
Standardize project plans & lifecycles to avoid starting from scratch
34. “the concept of focusing on the
selection and management of
a set of projects to meet
specific business objectives”
“Project Portfolio Management: A view from the management trenches”
(http://www.gartner.com/it/content/911400/911412/project_portfolio_
mgmt_excerpt.pdf)
35. Relationship between
Projects, Programs and
Portfolios
Mission/Vision
Portfolio 1 Portfolio 2 Operations
Program 1 Program 2 Program 1 Program 2 Program 3
Project 1 Project 1 Project 1 Project 1 Project 1
Project 2 Project 2 Project 2 Project 2 Project 2
Project 3 Project 3 Project 3
Project 4
36. Organizational Impact
Move away from traditional organizational
hierarchy to work more effectively and align with
business objectives
Move toward a project-driven culture infused
with business goals through programs and
portfolios
Centralized resource utilization planning and
reporting
Recruiting and training targeted to each
program and/or portfolio’s skill requirements
37. Project Chartering Model
Provides quantitative model for strategically
selecting projects to seek out, pitch, and accept
Rank opportunities by score
Objectively align with business goals by creating business
cases for each component project and program
Identify high-margin opportunities for reselling existing
components
Strategically seek out good matches to portfolio by
maximizing average project scores
Significant impact on organization; especially sales and
on-going operations
38. Key Elements of PPM
Identify business objectives
Prioritize objectives
Apply project chartering model
Rank projects by chartering scores
39. Project Chartering Example
Top Criteria:
We want our team to gain D7 experience
We need more profits
We want to start doing more business in the
educational sector
We want more repeat business
40. Sample Scoring
Diversification Diversification Repeat
Potential Project Profit Potential (technology) (sector) Business Total Rating
Project A with D7
4 3 2 0 9
Project B at
University
2 2 4 2 10
Project C with
existing client
4 0 0 4 8
Project D with D7
and University
2 2 4 3 11
Tally project strength in each criteria area
42. Selecting a Solution
Identify your requirements first
Consider options based on requirements
Custom build vs. off-the-shelf
43. Custom build
Pros Cons
Exactly what you need (in Expensive
theory)
Time-consuming
Full platform control
Reinventing the wheel
Iteratively create features as
needed Untested
44. Off-the-shelf
Pros Cons
Faster May not meet all your
needs
Proven solution (in theory)
Feature bloat
Can be less expensive
May be tied to expensive
May have ample service contracts
documentation
“Someone to blame”
46. Present Solution Realities
No present project management application
does everything perfectly
A buggy centralized solution
Decentralized solutions which lack ability to tie
together critical information needed for PPM
Either way, you need people who:
Understand the goals
Understand the requirements
Are trained on the decided approaches
57. Rollout of the solution
Daunting challenges
How long will it take?
How will you know when you are done?
Where do you start?
58. Rollout of the solution
Take a phased approach
Judiciously select features
Acclimate users gradually
Keep processes and tools aligned
59. Sample Rollout Phasing
1. Enter projects and tasks
2. Time tracking and timesheets
3. Resource management
4. Basic portfolios
5. Business factors information
6. Reporting
Can take 6 months or more to implement a
working system!
Break it into steps and take your time
60. Final thoughts
Project and portfolio management do not have
to be subjective.
Project and portfolio management have a huge
impact on business goals, whether you think
about them or not.
Don’t be intimidated. It’s not easy, but you can
start slow and build in small steps.
Take your time and start simple.
You have everything to gain by thinking
strategically about your project portfolio.
----- Meeting Notes (8/24/11 11:43) -----Limited introduction of myself. Save for later slide when I talk about my professional experience
Upshot: we’re not talking about a groups of devs building one site at a time anymore
Upshot: talent must be carefully allocated across projects to ensure skill coverage and cost-effectiveness while avoiding burnout of key resources
Upshot: Project portfolio management provides the strategy that sets priorities for program management; program management requirements guide project and product management. Order contrasts with future slide showing org evolution…evolves up, but once in place flows down.
Upshot: organization evolves in reverse from PPM framework flow…project/product management happen in isolation, then program begins to manage relationships between projects and make project management smarter, then PPM is introduced to do so strategically and align projects with business objectives…over time, org gets smarter and manages more effectively
Not performing program management does not mean you don’t have a program. It means you are leaving your program unmanaged.
Sales needs to understand the types of projects that fit portfolio strategyResell done projects to improve profits marginsStrategically seek out good matches to portfolio
Re: untested---usability, bugs, effectiveness of features and workflow, etc.
Re: untested---usability, bugs, effectiveness of features and workflow, etc.