presentation by subhajit bhattacharya1
TRANSCRIPT
Mantra for Innovative Project Management
Subhajit BhattacharyaIT Project Delivery ManagerAccenture
Project Management as a Service – On Agile Platform
Theme: National Conference
Sub-Theme: Mantra for Innovative Project Management
Keywords: Project Management as a Service, Managed Services, Cloud Services
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Abstract
Project Management as a Service (PMAAS) is an innovative and cost effective approach to leverage
organization’s project management needs optimized in a holistic way. The objective behind this concept is
to manage all the required PM phases and processes over the cloud of project management bodies on
the “Agile” platform.
Many organizations face budgetary or PM expertise constraints to build an in-house PM capability due to
company’s traditional approach focusing towards the line of business or minimal support on the process
improvement guidelines. Organizing training and acquiring accreditation may not always result in a
successful endeavor.
In the competitive edge of marketization& globalization, PM capabilities indeed have their own standpoint
and indispensable impact on the company’s growth.
PMAAS is a unique approach wherein individual or cumulated PM processes are being managedby the
cloud of PM consultants. They individually manage each PM phase dealing with every process group
independently. When each of the phases being wrapped on the agile framework constructed on story
boards, overall management becomes much easier and transparent either for the client or to the
consultants. Each of the loosely coupled phases works independently and feeds information among them
to stimulate the PM efficiency to attain the project goal. Being individually managed services on agile
platform and working on the cloud approach, overall ROI will certainly be improved.
PMAAS approach can be applied across all types of organizations addressing: Project/Portfolio
Management, organization’s project management capability improvement, improved business continuity
from PMO perspective, project & services delivery management.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................3
2. Origin of PMAAS....................................................................................................................4
3. Failure of Integrated EBS Application – A Case Study..........................................................6
4. Key Challenges......................................................................................................................8
5. Methodology/process followed...............................................................................................8
6. Critical success factor..........................................................................................................11
7. Quantified benefits to business............................................................................................11
8. Lessons learnt......................................................................................................................13
9. Conclusion............................................................................................................................14
10. References........................................................................................................................14
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1. Introduction
Project Management as a Service (PMAAS) is an innovative approach to manage all the required
project management phases and processes over the cloud of project management bodies on the “Agile”
platform.In today’s competitive edge of marketization and globalization, project management capabilities
certainly have their own importance and vital impact on the company’s growth and establishment in the
global market.
Now a days most of the MNCs are having their own in house PMO setup, however there are still many
organizations which either don’t have PMO or having very thin project management team as a support
vertical due to budget or other constraints.
Under PMAAS, each of the project management phases and process groups is managed by
anindependent or a group of cloud based PM bodies also called cloud(project) consultantsand they are
loosely coupled bodies working autonomously. However as the phases are inter-related therefore the
output of one phase gets fed into the next. As soon the previous phase is complete, so we can get that
documented to updaterelevant organizational process assets; and then close that cloud component or we
can assign next assignment into that phase from the project pipeline. This methodology will give an in-
depth visibility to the project manager to make an overall analysis on the current progress and planning
future risk areasto make important decisions on the on-going projects. This further gives a new dimension
to the virtualization of cloud consultants and also promotes the scalability to accommodate additional
project requirements on-going basis. Overall it gives a blended flavor of abstraction wherein the project
intricacies are kept hidden but enables the project manager to have an in-depth view on the progress.
As each of the phases are wrapped over an agile model, therefore each of theproject knowledge areas
become a story board which further is decomposed into various story points describing what are all the
tasks to be performed under each of the units so that the phases should be complete and information be
transferred into the next phase within the stipulated timeframe. Each of theindependent phases
formsagile sprint under PMAAS suite, and further to this each of the sprint phases can individually be
classified and managed by different set of consultants to achieve a cost effective and quality result at the
completion of the project.
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2. Origin of PMAAS
The concept of PMAAS has been originated from the challenges that many of the organizations face
today in terms of setting up a dedicated project management body within the organization. They struggle
to develop in-house project management capabilities to deliver quality projects/services on time within the
agreed budget. Initiatives such as training for project managers, accreditation or setting-up a project
management office (PMO) yield sporadic results and performance has not been found profitable. In fact,
large organizations have estimated that poor project leadership and wrong decisions waste around 20%
to 30% of the overall project cost.
Therefore to overcome this chaotic situation of mismanagement and poor governance, a cloud based
service model has been introduced which works on service broker concept giving a blend of abstraction
and virtualization. Here each of the phases and the process groups are managed by a distinctive project
management body over acloud and they are also known as cloud consultants, and each activity within
the phase are closely monitored by the organization’s project manager, called master robot, so that he
can sensibly assign the next phase to another cloud consultant by feeding required information which he
gets from the previous one.The project manager can also share important decision making information to
the key stakeholders, including the project sponsor.
Further to thisPMAAS suite is wrapped over an agile model, wherein the project managerconductsa daily
review call with the cloud consultants to address the problem areas and shares review feedbacks. It also
makes sure to get the backlog clear as each of the tasksis having stringentdeadline.
Here the project manager plays important role as s/he interfaces the PMAAS consultants and
communicates required information among the key stakeholders (clients, vendor/contractor,
organization’s senior management teams, technical teams, etc.).
PMAAS suite gives a full visibility on the progress, budgetary aspects, and other key areas while the
project manager just have to keep track of the overall progress and timely communication to the relevant
stakeholders. To further optimize the PMAAS suite, BI enabled IPMS tool can be implemented for better
project management and imperative decision making purposes.
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Fig 2.1: Managing independent phases over a cloud of PM bodiescentrally monitored and
administered by the organization’s project manager
Fig 2.2: Adaptation of Agile framework within the PMAAS suite
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3. Failure of Integrated EBS Application – A Case Study
In the year 2012, one of the India’s top companies has come up with an idea todevelop a product:
Integrated Employee BackgroundScreening(EBS)Application. As of date the company was doing a
fairmanual job byfollowing pre-defined protocols and feeding the information into flat files and later they
process them together to prepare a wholesome knowledgebase for the clients. As the clientele got
expanded and they want real time information therefore the company chairman had decided to automate
the EBS process so that there must be a 360 degree visibility on the status to the major stakeholders:
business head of the department and senior leadership teams, company’s backend executives, field
executives, client HRs, and the candidates. It had got a world class concept as the application got both
the web and smart phone interfaces connected over a centralized database system with different sets of
access and visibility rightsmaking the application RMS (Right Management System) compliant.
The company actually followsa traditional business approach primarily focusing on the core line of
businesses and minimal supporttowards the technology excellence and process improvement aspects. To
get better business, company has over committed the product features to the existing and prospective
clients and received fair number of deals. Shortly the company started facing a lot of follow-ups from the
clients and business department heads. Following to that company has decided to launch the application
within 60 days without judging the scope & complexity of work and therefore recruited an experienced
project manager to get the product on boarded withinagreed time span without doing much due diligence
in the project scope.
Budget was officially not signed off by the project sponsor as the scope was not determined and it kept
changing. From the initial budget of INR 15, 00,000, almost 2, 00,000 were spent within one and a half
months due to procurement, hiring technical teams, and continuous re-work.
Finally after 60 days, a beta version of the application was launched which was a total failure as it could
not serve what was proposed and therefore the company had to incur a huge loss.
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Fig 3.1: Logically EBS application was feasible to deliver,however because of unrealistic project
parameters; project manager has to think hard where and how to start with…!
Fig 3.2: As there were infeasible project requisites therefore it was difficult for a project manager to
commence the project work and communicate the progress to the respective stakeholders. Project
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starts with “Amber” status and managing it from initiation to closure becamea difficult job.
4. Key Challenges
As per the case study below weresome of the key challenges:
Scope was not defined and kept changing
Due to multiple stakeholders, getting consolidated information from them was tedious job
Requirements often conflicting as different stakeholders were having different opinion
Estimated budget was neither finalized nor agreed with the project sponsor
Actual stakeholders were not identified correctly
Due to follow-ups from clients and business unit heads, unrealistic timeline was agreed without
the consent of the project manager
No formal project charter was prepared and signed off
Risk and quality factors were neveridentified
Detailed test plan was not prepared
No project governance or PMO team was setup, due to which project’s financial aspects were
also impacted
Due to above limitations, no formal project plan could be prepared or signed off
5. Methodology/process followed
In the above case study, we have figured out some of the key challenges behind the failure of the EBS
application. Now let us put the above scenario under PMAAS model and segregating project manager’s
roles.
Here we have seen four major road blocks:
1) Unclear and infeasible scope definition
2) No realistic budget estimation
3) Unattainable deadline
4) No due diligence on the project quality checks and risks mitigation plan
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All these above factors affected the overall project plan, which led to the failure of the proposed product.
Since the company does not have its own PMO team and in-house project consultants to look upon each
of the factors independently, therefore as per the PMAAS concept, the above issue could be dealt as
below:
One or group of phases could be assigned to cloud consultants
Each of the phases considered as anindependent project which arefurther framed over agile
model
Each task identified under a phasefurther decomposed into sub-tasks and assigned attainable
scope and timeline
Therefore it gives certain level of assurance that each of the phases will be delivered as
peragreed timeline and budget
A project manager has to keep eye on this to track the overall progress
At the project initiation phase, cloud consultants would primarily look into the requirements in
terms of scope clarification
They would identify the key stakeholders with the help of company’s project manager who is
interfacing them
They will prepare the initial project charter and the project manager will then consult with the
project sponsor to understand the budget and other key factors including the feasibility of
delivery timeline
Once everything is done, so the final project charter would be prepared and signed off by the
sponsor and other key stakeholders
Once the project charter is signed off, so the planning begins and the same protocol being
followed. However it is thoroughly up to the company whether it wants different clouds to
incorporate or a single cloud to remotely manage the overall project phases.
As each of the project phases has got project tasks for the cloud consultants therefore
seamlessly it would also have all the required project key parameters and this is why the overall
output is much quicker adhering to quality norms and putting risk mitigation plan in place
Being agile in nature, a rigorous iteration happens before the item being released for delivery
Backlog count is relatively lesser
Each of the phases can be termed as agile sprint
Over a daily review, we can prepare a quantified burn down chart to track the progress of the
required deliverables and communicate the progress review among the relevant stakeholders
Each phase is logically inter-related to other and feeds required information
Phases are further integrated over business intelligence enabled Integrated Project
Management System (IPMS) tool to enable better project management and decision making
PMAAS also gives a blended flavor of virtualization and abstraction along with ensuring scalability
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Besides the above project manager also manages the procurement activities and for that he may
have to engage another set of contractors
While attaining the deliverables, project manager has to keep a close eye on the integration part.
Ideally it happens jointly with the cloud consultants and other third party consultants
The ideal solution to EBS application was to opt fora prototype model initially for solution
development and according to user feedback it could be made more matured
It may happen that project initiation and planning phases might be done by the cloud consultants
within a period of 15 days, and during this period the project manager would build required in-
house project management and development capabilities to further expedite the delivery
PMAAS enables project manager to be aware of the latest updates, which can be communicated
to the relevant stakeholders to avoid surprise escalations
There could be some of the modules which can be developed in parallel and can be done on a
fast track basis without affecting other modulesand may follow a flip-flop notion
Fig 5.1: In the PMAAS, project manager plays a crucial role as a Master Robot. Each phase is an
independent project which can be termed as Sprint as they follow the agile principle. Tasks under
each phase are termed as story boards and tasks are further decomposed into manageable sub-
taskcomponents called story points which are assigned feasible timeline. Each story unitis
monitored and reviewed closely by the project manager along with the cloud consultants.Any
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change in that can bemanaged appropriately.
Phases are loosely-coupled hence few phases can be driven by cloud consultants and few can be
managed by the project manager himself for better agility and cost effectiveness.
Phases are logically connected to each other to feed relevant information. To make the framework
more dynamic, we make use of BI enabled IPMS (Integrate Project Management System) tool.
Project manager is responsible to communicate information among all the stakeholders and also
responsible to address the project integration plan along with the cloud consultants. He takes
care of the procurement related decisions along with senior management/contractor for the
smooth progress of the project.
Project Manager interfaces cloud consultants and other key stakeholders.
6. Critical success factor
A signed off project requirements and scope document along with dependencies& assumptions, if
any
Realistic deadline
Signed off project charter and project plan for smooth project execution
Daily review call with the key stakeholders (including cloud consultants) to discuss the plan and
critical issues and timely communication to them to avoid any lag
Well stated risk mitigation plan to avoid any surprises
Definite & attainable timelineallocated for each sub-task defined under a task within a phase
Rigorous review before delivering the deliverables to the stakeholders
Extensivereview feedback to the cloud consultants to incorporate the changes
In case of large project with rigid deadline, plan for a prototype model instead of targetinga larger
picture
Project manager must have ownership and decision making capability to handle an odd or
unforeseen situation
7. Quantified benefits to business
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SMART project management during the overall project lifecycle contrary to the traditional
approach
Inclusion of IPMS tool can produce a better result in timely decision making
On-time delivery and client satisfaction maybringa higher RoI
Easily manageable project units with the help of cloud consultants
As each phase in itself works as a project on an agile model, managing overall project becomes
strategically simple and transparent
Organization can keep focusing on its major line of businesses while the project work will be done
over a cloud, as a service broker
Project manager gets a clear visibility of the estimated and the actual cost to avoid over-
expenditure and keep the profitability of the company at par
Table 7.1: In PMAAS approach your overhead cost is lower than traditional project management
approach. The overall cost of the project was INR 15, 00,000.
By strategizing phase-wise plan, project manager can make sure to expedite the overall project
delivery
Forecasting risk and preparing mitigation plan becomes easy as multiple units are logically
working together for the common goal. This also ensuresa quality delivery.
Projects can be well prioritized and planned in a flip-flop manner without affecting the overall
delivery. PMAAS keeps track of the backlog units and effectively selects the one which is
currently on priority and get that processed first without affecting the earlier one.
Project portfolio management becomes easier and much efficient, thus improves overall project
KPI.
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8. Lessons learnt
Scope, Time, and Cost are three major key parameters and before commencing a project these
three parameters must be signed off by the respective stakeholders performing all the pre-checks
on achievability
Due to budgetary constraint setting up a project governance body or an in-house PMO team to
administer the project and its financial aspects is not always feasible
To expedite the delivery with minimal cost to the company, cloud consultants can be leveraged to
manage independent phases. These consultants work as a service provider
In the competitive market, due to client’s volatile needs, PMAAS enables scalability and
virtualization ensuring quality within the budget
Each phase is dealt withas an independent project but logically interrelatedfeeding data to the
next phase
IPMS tool integrates information from each phase to enable imperative decision making
These projects when further wrapped over an agile framework, accelerate the delivery as the
tasks are further decomposed into manageable sub-taskscomponents giving better visibility on
the actionable items
Project manager, indeed, has a vital role as he is the person interfacing all the stakeholders in a
360 degree manner and has to play a role of scrum master during review calls for preparing or
approving the plan for the current phase along with the cloud consultants
As the work is being managed by the independent consultants, the project manager gets enough
bandwidth to further analyze the requirements, scope, estimated budget, timeline, figuring out the
risk areas, assuring quality checks, preparing test plans, taking procurement related decisions,
and pre-checks for resource availability (in-house/contractor). All these cumulatively assure
quality product and service at the end.
While a phase is being managed by the cloud consultants, project manager can efficiently build
an in-house capability
PMAAS also assures better and efficient project portfolio management
It can help improving organization’s project management capabilities and governance
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9. Conclusion
PMAAS is a novel approach to leverage organization’s project management requirementsoptimized in a
holistic way so as to increase the overall ROI and improved KPI. The concept revolves around managing
the required PM phases and processes over the cloud of project management bodies on the “Agile”
platform, wherein each of the phases is distinct project unit with stipulated timeline. Project manager plays
a role of “Master Robot” and coordinates with the stakeholders and communicate the required information
to the relevant teams. He continuously monitors the progress and shares feedback, portraying spoke and
hub model. As this framework has got agile behavior, the overall management of the phases becomes
simpler and strategic. IPMS tool can further enhance the productivity by integrating all the phases and
exchanging relevant information among them. It also helps a project manager to take important
decisions.PMAASframework gives an end-to-end view on the project progress and other areas of project
management including budgetary stuffs. All these contribute to a best-in-class project portfolio
management.
10. References
1. Berkun Scott, The Art of Project Management, O'Reilly, 2013
2. Mantel J. Samuel, Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Wiley, 2012
3. James Shore,”The Art of Agile Development”, O'Reilly, 2008
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