Where do you start with PPM?

Let's get practical. Leaving aside all the big discussions about objectives, alignment, executive sponsorship (don't get me wrong, these ARE important)...where do you start to get PPM done? Is there a pattern of implementation that is the most common across successful PPM implementations?

Good news, the answer is yes! Regardless of what your main objectives are, there are common building blocks that you just need to put in place in order to get value out of any PPM system. It all boils down to: people, priorities, and execution.

PEOPLE

This is always the biggest cost in IT projects. Good old resource management. Not much can be done until we have a good picture of what roles and resources we have, what they are working on, what their capacity and allocation are. This need not be down to the level of individual tasks. You can even start with just roles and percentage of time across projects (yes, a simple project inventory is also required.) Later you can add individuals for each role and track at a more granular level if you really want to.

PRIORITIES

Having an idea of what we are working on and what resources we have available, we are now ready to do a couple of things: decide which new demand we should work on, and validate that projects in flight are still worth pursuing. In order to do that we need to implement work requests for initiating projects and other work items (so we can track demand and compare apples to apples), and we also need a portfolio view to balance the overall mix of work in progress and new proposed work.

EXECUTION

In the end it's all about delivering results, completing projects and doing them on time and on budget. So it may be tempting to want to start with managing project scheduling and execution, but what's the point of having a fabulous project schedule without the resources to get it done; or worse, focusing on an initiative that the business does not deem as critical? Not a good idea to put the cart in front of the horse... Project managers and team members will be a lot happier when they get to work on what really matters and executives will appreciate the business impact of PPM.

What has been your experience in implementing PPM? Where have you focused first?

--Alex Lobba

Comments

[Malcolm Savage]

I understand the logic of the above sequence of implementing PPM, but I have read over and over that resource management is the most complicated to achieve. Starting at the role/% level is wise advise as depending on an organisations level of maturity anything further may well be a leap too far. Having said that the real gain is in People and Priorities. Putting in whizzy Execution/Status reporting first does not help create an appetite for rolling out the other 2 components.

[Alex Lobba]

Malcolm, thank you for your comment. I totally agree and it's really frustrating and overwhelming when PM systems force you down to the individual name and task level. As you pointed out, the key is starting with resource management at the simple level of roles and % of time. Many organizations stay at that level for quite a while and get great value from it.

[Alex Lobba]

Malcolm, thank you for your comment. I totally agree and it's really frustrating and overwhelming when PM systems force you down to the individual name and task level. As you pointed out, the key is starting with resource management at the simple level of roles and % of time. Many organizations stay at that level for quite a while and get great value from it.

[Geoff Roland]

Alex,
In many cases you will get greater and more immediate gains by changing the order to Priorities, People, Execution. Following on your statement "...or worse, focusing on an initiative that the business does not deem as critical? Not a good idea to put the cart in front of the horse..." Catalogue the projects, define go/no go criteria (alignment, profit, customer satisfaction or whatever the criteria are), do the analysis and cut the fat. Now you can look at the people and what they can do and then, as you state, the last part is the detailed execution tuning.

Thoughts?