planning - ITM Platform | Projects Programs Portfolio

The Pentagon is not only the symbol of the most powerful military power in the world, but the supreme governing body of the American military: the public organization that has contributed the most to the consolidation of project management as a discipline. The technological development experienced by the arms industry and the expansion of logistics operations supported the development of numerous methodologies and an abundant class of engineers.

For example, the Work Structure Decomposition (DEBS) method was designed by the Department of Defense and was first deployed to the United States Navy in 1957 within a ballistic program. In addition, one of the most common careers for military members and retired veterans is precisely to direct projects. Military matters assume the highest demands on timely delivery and quality of results.

On the other hand, the fact that the Pentagon has access to huge budgets for other states carries a very important risk of wastage.

You cannot live in glory: in complex environments with multiple projects and where it is practically impossible to always have an overview of all the work, it is very easy to produce problems of inefficiency. This explains why project monitoring is a fundamental mission in the management of any portfolio.

X-ray of the Pentagon

In January of 2015, an internal report of the Department of Defense revealed a chilling fact: in the next 5 years a total of 125 trillion dollars could be saved, which would be enough to appropriate adjustments in the administrative and bureaucratic departments.

Approximately a quarter of the Pentagon's budget is spent on administration, management and maintenance costs, and cannot be used for the mission of the agency.

So, what are all these resources destined for? In large part, the maintenance of a complex structure of management processes in which a total of one million people are employed, a number forty times greater than the employees of the pentagon itself and practically identical to the ones that are in operations Military. The six major administrative processes are Human Resources, Health Management, Financial Management, Logistics, Procurement and Suppliers, and Real Estate Management.

In the image below you can see an example of the intricate bureaucratic web in which all these back-office workers are involved in one way or another. The title of the image is: Integrated Department of Defense system for the acquisition, development of technology and Supply logistics.

That said, the image shows the complex process by which it is decided to contract (or not) a particular service, to develop (or not) an investigation, to manufacture (or not) a weapon or other device, to move it (or not) to the front and keep (or not) weapons, vehicles or any other type of technology.

The inefficiency of this process is proverbial, as in the case of the development of the Bradley vehicle in the 80s, whose total development cost 15 billion dollars.

The solution: efficient management

Other documentation for internal use indicates some of the measures that can be taken to improve the management of these projects, making it much more efficient in the administration of all financial resources. By way of illustration, in 5 years, according to their calculations, 4,325 more soldiers could be hired.

Among the most interesting solutions for other organizations are the following:

Establishment of transversal teams for each process that can create common rules and methodologies for all
Prioritization of contracts
Review of contracts to exclude and discount all items that do not correspond to real requirements
Training of cross-cutting teams to improve productivity
Development of internal initiatives in priority processes and activities

Interestingly, pentagon solutions go through the creation of a portfolio of internal optimization and operational innovation projects that would be overseen and supported by program managers.

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

By Nicholas Taylor

Our intern Nick shares his particular views on the season

Season’s greetings to one and all! Hope you’re all looking forward to the Day of Food… or otherwise known as; Christmas day.

All joking aside, there can be a lot of pressure to deliver at Christmas, particularly depending on the number of not so close relatives you only see once a year, and the rotation system your family has in place. After the amazing stuffing your brother-in-law prepared last year, expectations are built up!

Whether it be all the family coming round expecting the best meal of the year, or making sure you’ve got the correct Tamagotchi for Sophie (I am aware that my knowledge of children’s toys may be a little outdated…) and the latest Nike trainers for Matthew, at ITM Platform we are aware a bit of method might help your situation.

I’m going to provide you with some insider tricks on how to get through the big day using project management skills, so that by the end of it you find internal peace to sit back, relax, and enjoy a well-earned tipple.

Christmas initiation

The first step to project managing your Christmas, before doing anything else, is establish what your perfect Christmas day entails. Do you have all the family coming over and want to impress them with an amazing dinner? Or maybe a simple, quiet Christmas day with close family is what you’re aiming for? Whatever it is you decide to do on Christmas day, make sure it is clear in your mind what the project is, so you can put into place the steps to managing a stress and problem free day (Well, as much as possible).

Christmas planning

The next step to project managing your perfect Christmas day is to plan it! Planning is a MUST in project management.

Let’s go to the basics: think of your oven in terms of scope and try to answer the following questions:

How many people are coming? Do I have room for such a big turkey in my oven?
When do you have to start cooking in order to be done by dinner time?
How many hours of work will you need to have an unforgettable dinner?

If you don’t know the answer to any of this, projectize! Break down your preparation, task by task, and think of what each task requires so you can have a clear, critical path in mind.

Don’t improvise the groceries! Make lists of all the ingredients for recipes, and don’t underestimate drinks! Double the amount of champagne that you consider sensible.

Gift control

When it comes to buying presents, controlling costs is probably the most important advice for the season. Give yourself an overall budget and don’t go overboard!

Other important facets of gift control include:

Not buying large presents for adults
Buy services, not stuff that will be abandoned in a corner. A subscription to a good news service, for example, or to a non-profit can mean a lot more than yet another necklace.
Identify your relative’s personas: Are they likely to get upset if the present doesn’t meet their expectations? Do they have expectations at all?

Communication

Communication, communication, communication. If you’ve got a couple of Santa’s little helpers on your side, you must have good lines of communication with them, report your progress and vice versa. Don’t buy presents without telling them, don’t change the recipes or invite new people over without informing the party! This will help keep the project on track as everyone will be on the same page.

Avoid project overload?

Don’t give yourself a crazy amount to do all in one day, this could completely ruin the quality of the project or only finish with a half completed job.

Remember: to be a great host, you need to look happy, too.

Final checks, expert delivery

This is your time to shine.

Quality checks are a must – is the turkey moist enough? Are the grandparents merry enough yet? Whatever your goal, final checks should definitely be undertaken to make sure the project is up to the highest standard so your guests will enjoy the evening without realizing you have been using spreadsheets with thousands of rows to track your Christmas orders.

Enjoy

Now comes the fun bit. Enjoy Christmas Day! Reap the success of your work, whether it be devouring those delightful little pigs in blankets or enjoying a large glass of champagne. You’ve worked hard and successfully project managed a great end product. You can now take these project management skills of yours and put them to use for the New Year’s party you’re regretfully obliged to host…

Nicholas Taylor

Marketing Assistant

ITM Platform

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

conveyor robot manipulators work businessman in front of control panel analysis production development Risk management has a specific place in protocols and risk management models. In this article we will discuss the six steps to controlling risk for risk managers, as broken down in the PMBOK: planning, identification, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, response planning and monitoring.

In short, a risk manager should take the reins of the risk control process with a detailed plan; find out what the risks are that may affect team members and various units of the organization, assess risks from the perspective of the whole organization; create action plans to respond to each of the risks if they occur; and continuously monitor in order to improve the plan.

Risk management planning

Like any other aspect of project management, risk prevention and response in the case of risk occurrence should be subject to strict planning. Risk management is iterative, implying that the planning phase will be reviewed after each cycle.

More specifically, planning involves a series of essential decisions that will affect the following five steps. Choosing methodologies, assigning responsibilities, defining types and categories and risks, as well as allocating resources are some of the main areas of focus at this moment.

Risk identification

This step is to identify the risks that may affect the development of the project and understand their characteristics. It is essential to identify all risks that may potentially influence the project so that the necessary precautions can be taken and disaster can be avoided. Therefore, planning for all risks is essential. Do not ignore them but instead control them.

For the identification of risks, multiple systems can be used.

One of them is to use similar backgrounds, both in our company and in other companies that resemble by their activity or reach.

Another possibility is to use specific analyzing tools (Ishikawa diagram, flowchart or other types of specialized diagram systems) or other standardized analysis systems, such as SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

Finally, if the first two possibilities are not feasible, you can resort to expert judgment.

After identification, it is important to proceed to classify risks that have been detected (Technical, external, organizational, management, etc.). Their influence on the project (mild, moderate or severe impact on the project), or the probability of the risk arising (low, intermediate or high probability).

Qualitative analysis

This analysis is used initially to filter risks and prioritize them in order of importance and severity. Although this analysis may not be the best in terms of accuracy and speed.

This type of analysis is also used for risks which need immediate attention. The urgency leads to an analysis that, despite not being the best in absolute terms, is most appropriate for the time available.

The results of this analysis should reflect in a risk assessment matrix.

Quantitative analysis

This is a more comprehensive systems analysis, but also the most complex and time consuming.

To perform a quantitative analysis, specific quantitative risk analysis systems should be used, such as mathematical simulations e.g. Monte Carlo.

A simpler option is to use a decision tree with which you can numerically illustrate the parameters derived for each choice.

If it is not possible to quantify the risks, you can turn to experts in the field to conduct an assessment.

Ideally, experts should be external to the project in order to prevent conflicts of interest. In addition, to avoid bias, the evaluation should be conducted blindly without knowing the outcome of assessments made by the other experts.

There are differences between this point and the assessment of experts in qualitative analysis. While in the former case, experts estimate the relative importance between different types of risks in order to focus on the most important, in the quantitative case experts, despite not having actual data, provide estimates as accurate as possible based on their experience and the results of other projects that they have led previously.

Risk response planning

When a threat is verified, the response must be preplanned and follow the correct procedure. Action plans must be drawn up when risk in the project is present in order to prevent its occurrence. This may include transferring it to an external agent or mitigating their effects, in the event that the risk occurs. Where risks cannot be avoided, in the event of circumstances beyond our control or scope, contingency plans should be developed that allow for coordinated and appropriate action.

Risk monitoring

To predict whether or not risks may occur it is necessary to know warning signs so that it can be anticipated. If this is not possible, monitoring mechanisms should be in place so that a risk in a project can be detected the moment it presents itself.

The purpose of these systems is to instil the attitudes of anticipating risks and having contingency plans in place, before the risk has significantly influenced the project.

In addition, self-monitoring the reaction to the risks and the occurrence of them can improve prevention measures, and thus reduce time and increase the efficiency of the reaction.

Here are some recommended articles:

Our new Risk Assessment Matrix is online

Keys to becoming a good risk manager

Risk management… The what, the why and the what to do

Juan Delgado

Blogger ITM Platform

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

The success of projects is key to any company, but even more so to those where the outturn account depends on projects. Programming, design, construction and consultancy companies and, generally-speaking, any company that undertakes projects for its clients must pay significant attention to the profitability of each project.

This article offers an analysis of the main factors influencing project profitability. This is a complicated topic and no sweeping generalizations should be made. Hence, these factors must be adapted to the specific circumstances surrounding each organization, sector and client.

Zoom into your projects while maintaining a global vision of your entire project portfolio with ITM Platform, try now for free!

1.- Define the scope

The first and major issue affecting project profitability is linked to discrepancies between what should be included or excluded from the scope of a project. Clients tend to consider a broader scope than project leaders and this difference in perception often leads to problems and conflicts that eventually affect project profitability.

Spending the necessary time to define and share the scope of a project is a key factor in project profitability.

2.- Estimate the effort

There can occasionally be little time to provide a client with a commercial offer for the project. This can lead to hasty estimations based on similarities between the project in question and others carried out in the past. As a result, the risk of mistakes is very high and should be reduced by breaking down the tasks involved and producing a bottom-up estimation to confirm that the overall estimation is in line with the work that needs to be done.

This estimate should include as much detail as possible on the profiles needed for each activity.

A good estimate will avoid project cost deviations.

3.- Plan slowly

The break-down of tasks and their estimation should be undertaken as part of careful planning of the work to be done. The organization of activities and their inter-relationships may result in the need for additional tasks or certain tasks being completed after others, which can lead to additional project costs.

Optimistic planning will mean the client has hard-to-meet expectations about the delivery date and this will eventually affect the cost.

4.- Choose the right team

The project team is a key piece of the puzzle in transforming project estimates and planning into reality, thereby meeting client expectations and maintaining the appropriate level of quality. Scrimping on resources may be more expensive in the long run. Using under-qualified personnel with no experience or little motivation may be cheaper to begin with but this can very easily become a negative factor for profitability when having to do the same work more than once, wasting time on ensuring people are clear on what needs to be done or learning how they need to do it.

High-productivity teams are capable of significantly increasing project profitability.

5.- Identify risks

All projects have some sort of risk that must be analyzed and assessed. Some risks may be unlikely while others may have a minimal impact on the project, meaning that highly significant corrective actions to counteract such risks would be unnecessary.
Those risks with the greatest exposure, i.e. those whose impact and likelihood are average or high, should be managed and may require specific actions to guarantee project profitability.

It might even be necessary to establish a safety margin in the cost to be paid by the client depending on the degree of uncertainty and the risk posed by the project.

6. Analyze profitability at the start

While considering all the aforementioned factors, project profitability should be analyzed before the project begins. It is possible that, for commercial reasons, projects with little initial profitability will sometimes need to be undertaken in the hope that the client will contract other services in the future. At any event, this fact and the level of profitability to be expected from the project should be ascertained.

Only by ascertaining the expected profitability will we be able to manage it.

7.- Foster communication by the team and with the client

Communication within the team and communication with the client are key to project profitability.

If the team communicates quickly and smoothly, it will be possible to identify any problems in time and any confusion or misunderstanding that could ruin a project will be avoided.

Communication with the client will enable expectations to be properly managed and the client to understand and collaborate on any stumbling block that may arise.

8.- Record data and manage them

Data are key to project management. Feelings and anecdotes in management may provide a comfortable or negative sensation of progress and advancement, but only objective and recorded data will be able to provide the information needed for efficient management. Recording data may lead to conflict with the project team, the members of which tend to focus on activities they consider to be productive.

It is essential for the team to understand the importance of tracking information and undertaking data entry on a regular basis and without unnecessary effort.

9.- Track profitability at all times

Tracking project profitability is not an issue that should be left until the end, once the project has finished: it should be undertaken constantly, regularly checking project status to date and taking any necessary steps when unforeseen deviations or circumstances are identified.

If they are identified quickly and a timely response is given, we will be able to correct any problems and return to maximum profitability.

10.- Project deviations

Small deviations at the start of a project tend not to be considered seriously in the hope that the project will get back on track as time goes by. However, recovery from such initial deviations is usually a very complex task that is hard to achieve.

Furthermore, these deviations are often the symptom of a larger problem, meaning it is important to project them into the future and gain a clear picture of the situation.

The Earned Value technique is a very useful tool for making project status projections.

11.- Learn from mistakes and successes

If we properly record the most relevant data from our projects, we will be able to analyze what really happened and what the specific factors were that meant certain projects achieved greater profitability than others.

We should learn from both our mistakes and our successes, being able to identify those we should correct and improve upon as well as those we can repeat and encourage.

12.- Use the right tools

For all these reasons, it is important to use the right tools (without generating a high cost for the project) that will enable swift and efficient project management, help estimate and plan, record and analyze data, and allow the team to work comfortably from anywhere.

Receive the latest blogs directly into your inbox

One of the main functions of the CIO is to estimate and plan projects that will take place in the near future. And this, for some management positions requires pure reflection and strategic vision, from the CIO. Which represents an extra capacity of creating consensus and balance among the C level.

Let’s suppose that the organization where you work is proactive and start budgeting for the following year a few months before it begins. Say that the CIO has the task of drawing up a list of projects that will be implemented next year. In addition, of course, to value that list economically, plan the resources available, align it with the overall company strategy, etc.

"For the CIO it becomes a test of ability to search for consensus and balances"

The demand will have to be considered, which shall consist of the ideas and needs of all other organizational units.

Many of you will agree with me that the demand for business units do not usually come in an orderly manner.

This scenario, repeated year after year, can be relieved or hindered depending on organizational culture factors: the more mature ones will have orderly processes tabulated that will make this process, in theory, a path of roses. But this is not always the case, right?

The proposal we are making in this article to survive the planning and budgeting processes, which is to link the rest of the management team with the criteria for project evaluation and selection in order to find consensus in the early stages of the process.

Basically, it is articulated through a weighting system in stages, trying to isolate each one of them until it reaches a stage of selection. Let's look at it in more detail.

Phase 1. Assess business objectives in the planning and budgeting

Nothing to do with the projects. Simply extract the objectives and criteria of the strategic plan and assign values.

There are several methods to do this. In this case we have chosen the "pairwise comparison". Although we might have used the "ask the boss" or any other more orthodox methods.

With this method (either executed in an application or in a spreadsheet) we will obtain an assessment of the objectives, putting one over another, which is what we want at the end.

This is an example resulting from the previous comparison between pairs.

The key to this process is not so much the correction from the point of view of content, but rather the composition of the people who made this assessment: for a CIO concerned about the alignment of IT with the business and the subsequent support of the organization projects, it would be essential that this step is performed by the steering committee. This will be allow him to be personally detached of the foundation of future decisions.

In large organizations, this process can be repeated by business units which will not necessarily prioritize objectives in the same way.

Phase 2. Assess projects against these targets

The next step is to make comparisons of the value contribution of each project to each of the business goals.

In this case, we decided to use a qualitative method with Harvey Balls, where projects are rows and columns objectives. Here we say if the project adds value to the goal or not so much.

As in the previous case, these evaluations provide a "base 100" scoring for projects. But the key here is that the projects are not valued in relation to themselves, but are weighted by the prior evaluation of the objectives.

The result would be something like this:

Phase 3. Selected projects

Now it will be easier to select projects that may or may not be undertaken, with budget constraints according to value creation criteria.

In conclusion:

The work life of the CIO could be greatly simplified:

Because it has implied other directors in valuations, especially the one related with objectives and criteria.
Because it provides a scientific and professional decision-making support system.
Because it encourages the rest of the organization to have a cross-company and objective view of the initiatives

This short article aims to offer a proposal to focus strategic planning of projects in a solid form and strengthen the role of the CIO in organizations. We encourage you to leave any thoughts in the comment box below.