Implementing project management across the organization helps create a strategic value chain that gives companies an edge on their competitors, particularly in high-risk sectors and markets. Being able to deliver projects on time and within budget often determines whether a company will get the next job or whether its new product hits the market.
Ninety percent of global senior executives ranked project management methods as either critical or somewhat important to their ability to deliver successful projects and remain competitive, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit survey.
“A strong project management discipline brings exceptional value to the business, because when there is a demand for a product, we are the ones who deliver it,” says David Buisson, PMP, program manager at Headland Project Management Ltd., which is currently managing the Terminal 3 redevelopment project for BAA Airports at Heathrow Airport in London, England. “We are a key part of the business, and we adhere to the same rules, rigor and commercial goals as the rest of the organization.”
Keeping the project on track requires a strict management of metrics and project goals that extends across the project team and out to suppliers, contractors, the client and the stakeholders. And Mr. Buisson and his team are keenly aware of the business impact that results from their progress in the terminal project.
“If we don’t do a good job, passengers may choose to fly through a different airport, or retail outlets see declining sales,” he says. “But when we are successful and passengers are happy, the company is successful.”
To keep that competitive edge, companies need to align their project management strategies directly with their strategic business goals, says Patricio Romero, head of the IT PMO at DirecTV’s Buenos Aires, Argentina division.
And PMOs can serve as a powerful bridge in creating and managing the link between strategy and results.
DirecTV, for example, has established regional PMOs that act as project management centers of excellence to guide local PMOs in the adoption of standardized project management tools, practices and key performance measures.
“The regional PMOs see the value of project management,” says Mr. Romero. “They help implement standard processes across the company.”
Project Management In Action
- The Company: DirecTV, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- The Industry: Satellite TV
- The ROI: Improved ability to track fulfillment of strategic objectives, lower project costs, improved customer service.
When DirecTV’s IT team launched a PMO two years ago, senior management wasn’t all that enthusiastic—but it didn’t take long for them to come around.
“When we started the PMO, we were like a three-eyed fish in a lab. No one knew what we were. But after six months, the results started to show,” Mr. Romero says. “Now we are considered a center of excellence in the company, and other departments have started to copy our model.”
The PMO established a formal project management methodology based on a platform of standardized practices forged in the regional PMOs. It then implemented established key performance indicators, as defined by the regional PMOs, to measure progress and outcomes as they relate to business goals. Along with measuring whether projects meet schedule and budget goals, teams track whether they’ve met the business objectives outlined in the project plan.
Tying project results across the portfolio to key business objectives drives the value of project management for the executive team, says Mr. Romero.
“When senior management wants to launch a new product before the competition, they come to the PMO,” he says. “They know that we know how to deliver it, how to speed the process up and how to measure results.”
For example, the IT team recently took on project aimed at one of the 3 company’s key strategic goals: improving customer satisfaction by building an application to automate key functions performed by customer service representatives (CSRs). First, the team spent two weeks analyzing the behavior of the call takers and how they used the system, then built a series of applications that automated billing questions and offered CSRs a click-through dashboard to streamline screen switching. When the application was ready, they rolled it out in small groups to build support and tweak the process.
The project took less than three months to complete and came in on time and on budget. But more importantly, a follow-up review of the project’s impact shows that the new system shaved 17 seconds off the average customer call.
“With 600 CSRs serving 1 million customers, that’s a huge amount of time saved,” says Mr. Romero. That means lower costs, of course, but the project also ties directly to DirecTV’s strategic goal of improving customer satisfaction.
All project data are shared through a PMO website that gives executives a high-level view of project status. This transparency helps the senior management team with strategic planning and helps connect project success and organizational success.
The CSR project is just one example of how the executive team set a strategic goal that was delivered through the use of project management discipline from the portfolio level on down, says Mr. Romero.
“The PMO is aligned to the strategic planning of the business,” he says. “We are not just about controlling costs. We are about adding value to the company.”
Source: www.pmi.org (white Paper – The Value of Project Management)