transparent decisions: managing the project portfolio
DESCRIPTION
What do your customers care about? Running tested features in released products. What do we too often do in organizations? Placating enough people across the organization to making some progress on everything, but finishing nothing. Does that make sense to you? Instead, we can use agile and lean project portfolio management. We don’t have to rely on dog-and-pony shows, prediction, math, ROI, or estimation. We have much better tools: project value, backlog value and demos . We ask questions that help you differentiate each project's value from each other. How will this project move the organization forward? We start with the zeroth question: Should we do this project at all? We continue with qualitative questions and then ask quantitative questions. We start with qualitative questions, such as using business value points, which are based not on any predictive number, but might be based on your product's position in the market, or who is waiting for your projects to be complete, or the risk of waiting of waiting for your projects to be done. What's critical is your discussion around the business value, not the points themselves. I'll supply you with some meaty starting questions for the business value discussion. If you ask quantitative questions first, they devolve into ROI and you never ask the good qualitative questions. If you do need to have some idea of the budget, I’ll address that question, too. But budget is the wrong question. Value is the right question, and we’ll discuss why.TRANSCRIPT
Transparent Decisions:Managing the Project Portfolio
Johanna RothmanNew: Hiring Geeks That Fit
@johannarothmanwww.jrothman.com
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Do Your Customers Care About?
2
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Products That Work
3
Products are comprised of
running, tested features that
are put together into a
whole
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Do We Do in Organizations?
A little of this
A little of that
4
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Are You Supposed to Do First?
5
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What’s the Problem?
Too many simultaneous
projects
Too much interrupting
work
Technical work and
multitasking is invisible
6
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Some Project Portfolios Look Like
7
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What These Portfolios Are Missing
8
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Combination View: Low and Mid Level
9
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What is the Project Portfolio?
Organization of all the projects (and all the work) the
organization is attempting to manage
When they start
When they end
Which one is #1
Decide when projects are done--or done enough
Decide when to stop, kill, or cancel projects
10
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
So What?
The portfolio of work-in-
progress tells you what is
happening and when you can
change it
Similar to a product
backlog
Requires cross-
organizational commitment11
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Use the Portfolio to Make Decisions, Tradeoffs, and Assignments
Move between the strategic
view to the tactical view
Create a rolling wave plan
Provide transparency into
the organization’s work
12
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Consider Lean
Iterate on value, redefining
it over and over...
You have more choices if
you can see demos as the
projects proceed
If you can see the work in
progress, you can manage it
13
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Project Portfolio Flow
14
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Can You Use Cost?
Maybe. How long and big is
your project?
You know about the Cone of
Uncertainty in phased projects.
That says the longer and bigger,
the harder it is to predict.
I’m from Boston, the home of
the Big Dig...
15
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Can You Use ROI?
Now you need cost and
return
Don’t get me started...
16
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
When Matters Most
Estimation is tempting: Cost and
Date are two sides of the same
coin
Both are tempered by the
business value of when you
deliver the feature
Features lose/gain value
depending on when you deliver
them
17
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Rank by Business Value
Business value is key
It is influenced by cost and
return and size
Biggest influence is the
zeroth question
18
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Zeroth Question:
Should We Do This Project At All?
19
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Let’s Take a Step Back
What projects are you comparing?
Are they comparable or are
they across the organization?
First, bucket so they are
comparable
Frogs with frogs
Apples with apples
IT with IT
Engineering with Engineering
20
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Can This Project do for Your Organization?
Transform the business
Grow the business
Keep the lights on
21
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
How to Make Decisions
Qualitative questions
Quantitative questions
Only do work that’s currently valuable
22
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Qualitative Questions
Should we do this project at all?
How does this project fit in with all the others?
What is the strategic reason for this project?
Is there a tactical gain from completing this project?
To make this project successful, are we ready to adequately fund it?
To make this project successful, are we ready to adequately staff it?
Do we know what success looks like for this project?
Is there waste associated with the lack of this project?
23
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Quantitative Questions
When will we see any monetary return from this project?
What's the expected revenue curve for this project?
What's the expected customer acquisition curve for this project?
When will we see retention of current customers from this project?
What's the expected customer growth curve?
When will we see reduction in operating costs from this project?
What's the expected operating cost curve?
How will this project move the organization forward?
24
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Your Project Portfolio is Where Your Strategy Meets Your
Execution
25
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Techniques You May Find Useful
Rank with business value points
Waste
Single and double elimination
All of these approaches
facilitate the conversation,
which is the most important
part
26
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Rank with Points
Start with many many
points. Each person assigns
each project a unique
number of points. Now
discuss.
The conversation is key
27
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
When You Cannot Agree
You have two #1 projects and only
one project team
Flip a coin, start them in 1- or 2-
week iterations
Alternate iterations
They must achieve done
OR
Forget iterations and use kanban
Now you only have to fight about
which feature is next
28
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
What Will the Lack of This Project Do?
If you don’t do this project, what
will happen?
Will it prevent you from being able
to undertake certain types of
projects?
For those of you transitioning to
agile, don’t underestimate paying
down technical debt projects.
Agile makes many things
transparent
29
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Waste
Who has waste based on not having
this project?
Qualitative questions you might ask:
What kinds of workarounds are
you using now?
After this project is complete,
what changes?
Do we know what success looks
like for this project?
30
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Take a Systems-Thinking Approach
Project portfolio
management is about the
organization’s well-being, not
a project’s winning or a
manager’s winning
This is why I have these
guidelines for the project
portfolio decisions31
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Guidelines for PPM Decisions
PPM decisions reflect the
organization’s strategy, so make
sure the people making the
decisions know the strategy
Make sure a small (3-5 people)
cross-functional team decides
When in doubt, optimize up at
the organizational level
32
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Why Does Agile/Lean Work?
Agile helps:
Finishing running, tested features
Have release-able product
periodically (every timebox)
Lean helps
Creating a culture of not having
a lot of work in process
Instead, finish things and move
on to the next one
33
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
Why Manage the Project Portfolio?
People can only work on one
project at a time
Know what people work on
Makes it possible for the
organization to optimize at the
organization level
Staff the most important work
Flow work through teams
34
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
100% Utilization is for Machines
35
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
It does not matter how many projects you start.
It matters how many projects you finish.
36
© 2013 Johanna Rothman
References and Resources
Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and
Finish More Projects, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2009.
Tons more on jrothman.com
Let’s stay in touch: The Pragmatic Manager, jrothman.com/
pragmaticmanager/
LinkedIn group: Agile Project and Program Management
37