Expert Interview with Dr. Michael O’Connor
Dr. Michael O'Connor, Ph.D., MSPM, MSTM, MBA, has over 27 years of professional experience in the Medical Device Industry. He is the Director of Strategy and Project Management with Medtronic, Plc, and his corporate experience also includes 3M and Pfizer. Michael is an Adjunct Faculty Member teaching at the Graduate level Project Management, Project Capstone, Procurement, Culture/Organizational course(s). In 2012, he was selected as an American Society for Quality (ASQ), Quality Fellow, and in 2014 selected as a Medtronic, Technical Fellow. Michael also writes for PM World 360 about leadership and quality.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgoconnor/
Expert Interview with Sanaz Sadeghian
Sanaz Sadeghian MSc., PMP, PMI-SP, is a young professional in project management. She is the president of the Project Management Club at Boston University (BUS-PMC) and has published articles in scheduling and planning. She has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and more than four years of experience in Oil&Gas and construction industries. Sanaz has also focused on consulting and researching and she is a teaching assistant at the graduate level at the MET Department of Boston University. She has been recognized for her excellent cross-functional knowledge, leadership, and communication.
Linkedin Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanazsadeghian/
PwC’s 2017 Portfolio Management Trends and Insights
I've updated the post on Portfolio Management Maturity, I received the link below highlighting PwC's 2017 global project management report which includes key survey results on Portfolio Management insights collected from over 1500 IT leaders in 38 countries.
In the spirit of sharing, I have provided a list of lessons learned or takeaways I gleaned from reading the report along with a link to the document.
Here's what I learned:
- To stay competitive organizations must adopt project and portfolio management as a core part of the business processes.
- Poor project estimating is the number one culprit for project failure.
- Project Portfolio Management adoption has not increased but organizations that have implemented PPM are seeing an increase in performance improvements in the areas of project quality, scope, schedule, cost and benefits realization.
- Organizations that have adopted PPM are seeing significant performance improvements due to the enabling of better IT alignment with the organization's business objectives, increase oversight from an enterprise program management office and a monthly cadence of PPM review meetings.
- PPM software has increasingly matured in the past few years and organizations that have implemented an enterprise PPM solution are reaping the results with greater stakeholder satisfaction from increase project performance.
- Project management maturity has increased and higher PM maturity means higher business performance.
To learn more click on the link below to access the full report.
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/advisory-services/assets/ppm-service-catalogue-june-2017.pdf
Enhance Workplace Productivity using project portfolio management
In August 2013, I spoke at the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the International Legal Technical Association (ILTA) conference in Las Vegas. The audience and a panel I was on debated about the value of the PMO. We were discussing how the PMO helps organizations enhance workplace productivity. And, as the conversation went on, we began to realize that people were confused about which PMO we were discussing. Was it the project PMO, was the program PMO, or the portfolio PMO? Because those three are very different environments in which to operate, and they all have different governance processes.
Regardless of which PMO we were discussing, we all agreed on one thing, all of these environments enhance workforce productivity. The value of project portfolio management is in its ability to move the needle with accomplishing goals and objectives in a consistent, reliable, and predictable manner. It's how value gets delivered to an organization.
No matter which role you play, we all leverage these processes to deliver value to our companies and improve workplace productivity. So, the ideal audience for mastering the concepts of project, program, and portfolio management should include:
- Decision-makers and other executives who participate in the selection of products and services that will enhance the capabilities of their organization.
- Consultants and strategic planners who are responsible for the development of the organization's strategic roadmap, long-range planning, business planning, or short-term goal development will have a repeatable and consistent process that will align to strategic objectives.
- Business owners who need to understand how to allocate limited resources to achieve their organization's strategic objectives and goals will have the visibility to address project synchronization and reduce resource bottlenecks.
- Project and program managers who need a foundational understanding of the principles, processes, and procedures of project portfolio management.
So, if portfolio management is the apex of the project management ladder, then project management, is like starting at the base camp. And, as you ascend the mountain to the summit, it requires multiple activities which encompasses program management. Below are three comprehensive definitions for each of these areas, starting with portfolio management, program management, and then project management.
Portfolio Management
- Business processes, usually conducted at the highest level within an organization that decides; which projects, programs, and other initiatives will be undertaken in a given period. The criteria for selecting their actions; and the active management of these initiatives through then life cycle to ensure that benefits will be realized, including their termination as required.
Program Management
- Coordinated management of a related series of projects over time, to accomplish broad business goals to which the individual projects contribute, including benefits realization, stakeholder management, and program governance.
Project Management
- Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project.
Dictionary of Project Management Terms, 3rd edition.
In summary, the value of project programs and portfolios is that they provide the structure which enhances the workplace productivity and align with your overall goals and objectives.
To learn more, click here.
Sincerely,
What factors increase productivity?
Project Management Productivity Hacks
Napoleon said, “All plans are useless, but the act of planning is essential.” So, as we go through this material, you're going to get the opportunity to plan. You're going to get the chance to go through the act of planning by planning out how you can radically improve your productivity by understanding these top 10 productivity hacks.
How to increase productivity?
As you learn them, you'll be able to plan out how you can use them in your day to day activity and see an impact in your business and your professional life. These 10 productivity hacks make up a recipe for project execution. When an organization, a family, or any agency decides to achieve a strategic goal or an objective, the only way to get it done is by getting everyone on the same page. Well, these 10 hacks create the recipe that if you roll them out, you will create a culture within your group that knows how to execute.
Why is productivity important to you?
Why am I creating this free training program? It's because I sincerely want to help. I've been working in the project, program, and portfolio management industry for 20 plus years. I've gotten a number of certifications. I've done quite a bit of studying, but I've also had a lot of boots on the ground training. I've watched younger project managers struggle because they don't understand the hacks that can increase productivity.
What is the concept of productivity?
Just like when you go to Thanksgiving dinner with your grandmother or your mom, and she makes that amazing casserole, and there's a recipe, there's a recipe card box, and you open that box, and inside that box is that favorite dish that you love. Well, on that paper is the recipe. It's the five steps, it's the 10 steps, and it's what you put in and the steps you have to take.
These 10 productivity hacks are like the Thanksgiving dinner process. It is a recipe to help you and your organization go to new heights, make further changes, and have an incredible impact. So, I want you to buckle up and get your pen and paper out. So, as we get ready to go through these productivity hacks, they're going to help you make some significant changes in your business and your personal life.
What factors increase productivity?
If you are interested in taking it to the next level and learning these 10 productivity hacks, sign up for this free program by clicking the link below. That'll get you so that you can go through the program. You’ll also get a white paper; a few worksheets and the status report form I’m providing as a bonus. You’ll have a chance to learn somethings that are going to transform the way you do business.
I heard a quote one time that says, “We change and grow because of two things. It's the people we meet, and the books we read are the programs that we take.” And so I'm offering you one, you get a chance to meet me and get to learn about me as a musician, as a consultant, as a coach, as a certified project, program, portfolio consultant, and as an accredited neuroscience conversational intelligence coach. You get to learn from someone who has a lot of varied experience, but you also will get a chance to be exposed to some information that I truly believe will change your life. I could not have accomplished all the things that I've done without learning these productivity hacks, and I want to pass them on to you. So, go ahead, sign up for the program, and I'll see you on the other side.
To learn more, click here.
Sincerely,
The APEX of the Project Management Ladder
Dear Reader,
Welcome to “Ascending to the APEX of the project management ladder, demystifying project portfolio management, and building a winning game plan for becoming a project portfolio management expert.”
Project management and project portfolio management offer a set of business practices that enables an organization to identify its most critical activities, and investments that will create the most value for the organization, while managing the allocation of its most constrained resources. The goal of this course is to provide you with a foundation of principles, processes, and procedures that will enable you to demystify project portfolio management and become a project portfolio management expert and use the tools and techniques to manage and support your organization’s project portfolio solutions.
Peter Drucker stated, “Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for, a product is not quality because it is hard to make, or costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and give them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.”
True Business Values
Project portfolio management is about giving our customers, executive stakeholders, and colleagues, true business values, quality products, and services that can be reflected on the bottom-line profits and allow customer satisfaction and retention.
This foundational course will equip you to provide the building blocks for using these principles of project portfolio management and allow you to ascend to the apex of the project management ladder while demystifying project portfolio management.
Course Objectives
So, this course is designed for Project, Program, and Portfolio Managers who are responsible for implementing an organization’s portfolio management capability, and who need to:
- Align a company’s or organization’s project investments with its strategic goals and objectives.
- Implement a portfolio management governance program that provides guidance and stewardship over the project ideation, selection, calibration, and execution processes, while establishing policies and procedures to manage the company’s portfolio assets effectively.
- Monitor the organization’s portfolio performance.
- Track the performance of the portfolio management against risk and monitoring them while optimizing the portfolio to mitigate the risks that have been identified.
- Help you engage stakeholders at all levels of the organization and execute a comprehensive communication strategy.
So, this course is designed for those who have been tasked with the responsibility to create value for their organization. It’s also open to anyone who wants to learn and have an impact on the project management office within their organization.
To learn more, click here.
Sincerely,
Voted #44 on the 130 Top Project Management Influencers Of 2019 List
If you want to stay top of the latest in project management and related topics like change management, business strategy, and leadership, make sure you’re following these movers and shakers: the top project management influencers of 2019.
How Are Projects, Programs, and Portfolios Different?
As a certified project manager and portfolio manager, I am often asked, what is the difference between project, program and portfolio management? The way I explained it is to use the metaphor of a musical concert series, and it goes like this.
If you are a fan of opera, orchestra music or love a Jazz series program, then this analogy should make sense. When I think of projects, programs and portfolios I think of them in terms of musical concerts. The entire season of musical concerts would be the portfolio, each event or concert in the season would be the program and each song within a concert or program would be a project. So, you would equate a portfolio to a concert series, you would think of the concert event with multiple songs as a program and each song as a project.
To read the complete article click here.
