Interview with Beth Partleton conducted by Justyna Jakubów
During the 11th International PMI PC Congress you will present the latest edition of Pulse of the Profession®: The High Cost of Low Performance. What are its key discoveries?
The Pulse report subtitle is The Strategic Impact of Projects: Identify Benefits to Drive Business Results. We see fewer projects meeting original goals and business intent or being completed within budget. More projects are failing and creating substantial monetary loss for their organizations. Further discussion is needed to understand why organizations do not fully appreciate that strategic initiatives are projects and programs. We suspect this disconnect may result because so few organizations monitor and measure the benefits that projects and programs deliver across a business.
Now let’s look at the key findings of the report which resulted in three practical tips.
Firstly, strengthen the conversation around project management and benefits identification. Project management is how strategy is implemented successfully. Benefits identification is determining whether projects, programs, and portfolios can produce the intended business results. When project benefits are frequently identified before the start of a project – as part of the business case – organizations experience better results: 74 percent of projects meet goals and business intent versus 48 percent in organizations that do not. And when organizations frequently use formal project management to address the benefits identification process, they experience greater gains: 80 percent of their projects meet goals and business intent versus 54 percent in organizations that do not.
Secondly, position benefits identification as a shared responsibility between leadership and project teams. Executives typically focus on organizational strategy, whereas project managers focus more on project activities. But they both have a vested interest in ensuring projects deliver the benefits critical to achieving strategic objectives – the necessary change that will advance the business. As a result, benefits identification is a shared responsibility, which extends to the business owners and executive sponsors. Yet, our research indicates that, although 38 percent of project managers are accountable for identifying project benefits, just 27 percent have responsibility for the strategic alignment of those identified benefits. Meanwhile, only four in ten organizations indicate that a functional area vice president or director is accountable for ensuring that the identified project benefits are aligned with the strategic goals of the organization.
Finally, take a strategic view of benefits. Managing project benefits underpins all aspects of strategic success. When benefits are delivered, organizations achieve their desired outcomes: customers are satisfied, business owners realize the return on their investment, and project teams see that their job was done well. Yet, only half of organizations report that they frequently identify benefits that are measurable, concrete, or explicit to achieving strategic goals.
So what could one do to introduce those practices? You should link benefits identification to both project and program management. The next step could be establishing benefits identification as a shared responsibility between an organization’s leaders, business owners, and project professionals. And finally, you could take actions towards aligning identified benefits to the organization’s strategic goals.
The report shows that executive leaders and PMO directors have very disparate views about benefits from improving project management. How can we reduce this gap in order to convince top management to trust and use project and portfolio management tools?
PMI’s research shows that organizations spend millions of dollars on projects that fail to meet expectations to deliver intended benefits. They may come in on time, on budget and meet original goals and business intent. But too often the business intent focuses on outputs and outcomes, and not on the benefits that will advance their business over time.
We need to learn to communicate to executives and shareholders in their business vocabulary, not in project management vocabulary. By using a business vocabulary that they understand, it becomes easier for executives and shareholders to trust.
Developing the capabilities and competencies identified on the PMI Talent Triangle™ (Leadership, Business insight, Strategic thinking) can also be very beneficial.
While talking to the top managers, share information from the PMI Pulse reports – pick one to three key points that would be important to executive leaders, such as monies wasted, or loss of market share. The Pulse and Pulse in-depth reports for 2016 all focus on benefits realization management. In an executive’s vocabulary, this is essentially the return on investment (ROI).
Organizations that successfully deliver on strategy have the right tools and processes in place to monitor and measure benefits. They make an investment in benefits realization management and implement a formal approach that can be duplicated across projects. More specifically, our research confirms that organizations with certain practices in place are more profitable and efficient.
For instance, those that have a fully prescribed process for reporting benefits realization report an average of 38 percent more projects that meet or exceed forecasted ROI (61% versus 44%). Another good example is standardized documentation. Those that have fully standardized documentation for reporting benefits realization metrics report an average of 19 percent more projects that meet or exceed forecasted ROI (56% versus 47%). And last but not least, comes routine reporting. Those that fully receive information about project performance against identified metrics report an average of 28 percent more projects that meet or exceed forecasted ROI (61% versus 44%).
What are the biggest risks for today’s businesses and how project management can help?
It depends on the industry sector and the business/political/social climate in a particular region. However, overall, the biggest threat to business is global volatility and near constant change caused by disruption. Disruption, especially technical innovation and disruption, can make an organization’s new products obsolete before they finish production. In general what experienced, skilled, and trained project, program and portfolio managers bring is the ability to change quickly to meet the challenges of disruption. Because PPPMs have a foundation of standardized practices, they do not have to continuously reinvent practices and procedures. This allows them to change direction faster in response to change or disruption.
In addition, project managers should be the primary whistleblower (reporter) on projects that they believe will no longer achieve the project’s promised intention, regardless of the money, resources, and time that have been invested to date. The ability or courage to do this falls under the leadership and business/strategic thinking aspects of the PMI Talent Triangle™.
What benefits can mature project management practices bring to an enterprise? In what way does the maturity in project management contribute to organization’s higher performance?
Organizations mature in PPPM practices are generally more flexible, have more projects and programs come in on time, on schedule, and within budget. They also are far more likely to realize the business goals identified by the organization as the business benefits or ROI.
Moreover, mature organizations have career paths in place for their project managers. These include additional training as well as experiences outside of their expertise.
Furthermore, organizations mature in PPPM practices make the connection between their strategic goals and the projects and programs that implement those goals.
Finally, mature organizations don’t stop at implementation. In those organizations, projects continue to be monitored for their relevance and value even after they move to operations. Project managers at these organizations are on the monitoring team.
Fot. Archiwum własne Beth Partleton
Are Project Managers skilled enough to be good business leaders nowadays? How can we improve our skills to serve the organization better and help to achieve its business goals?
The PMI Talent Triangle™ was developed in response to what Mark Langley was hearing from organizations about the skills, knowledge, and expertise they needed to be successful. From those conversations, Mark and PMI identified core and essential competencies that project and program managers must have to be successful and advance their careers. Some are. More can be.
What else could the project management community do to improve company business results?
John Duschinsky was a keynote speaker at EMEA 2014 in Dubai. He told the audience that no six year old has ever said that when he or she grows up they want to be a project manager. And he said, “And that’s your fault.” That grabbed the audience’s attention. He challenged them to “tell a different story.” Set aside the data and project management vocabulary. Tell people how that bridge, stadium, hospital, road, IT platform you built benefits them. That also applies to how you talk to executives and stakeholders about your project. Always tell them a story about the project they can understand on their terms: how it benefits the company, the customer, or the community. How does it improve the business?
It is important, and beneficial, to keep your executives updated on how the project benefits the organization after it has transferred from execution to operations. Speaking up to your executive when you know that a project will not deliver the hoped for benefits; or is no longer relevant because of a disruption in your industry sector and will not meet business goals is also crucial. You should also remind them that success also requires the right resources: the right people with the right skills on the right project. Project managers should not be assigned to a project based on who is available, but instead on who is right for the project. Finally, a good practice is also initiating a process that captures, shares, and makes accessible lessons learned for each project or program*. This provides knowledge and helps organizations to avoid repeating mistakes and wasting resources.
* On PMI.org there is a NASA white paper that details how NASA developed its knowledge management platform to share lessons learned across the organization.
Beth Partleton, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been involved with PMI since 1991. For six years she served on the PMI Educational Foundation Board of Directors, serving as Chair in 2006. She served on the PMI Board of Directors from 2008 to 2013 and she was elected Vice Chair In 2010 and Chair in 2011. Currently she is a member of the Certification Governance Council and chairs their Strategic Planning Committee. Ms. Partleton is an experienced consultant who provides project and portfolio management to leading organizations. During her career with Miller, she also served as head of the project management office, senior project manager, and the functional manager of architectural and civil engineering. Ms. Partleton holds a Master of Project Management degree from Keller Graduate School of Management and a Master of Architecture from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) ® since 1991.