On behalf of Jay Warner, our host, Charlie Wankel, posts an inquiry about
project selection methods...
There are lots of project portfolio management approaches out there,
including some very expensive supporting software, most of which include a
component dealing with project selection. I'm less than enamored of what
I've seen because, like so many important issues, the vendors have responded
to a hotly political issue with a highly rationalized approach. Lest I be
misunderstood, I'm saying that project selection is rife with politics --
and decisions regarding which projects to pursue, shelve, support,
pigeonhole, fund, queue or otherwise decide the candidate projects' fate,
even if only temporarily, are not made on a purely rational basis (no matter
how hard we all strive to give that impression).
Rational criteria include factors such as cost-benefit ratios (based on
bogus numbers more often than anyone cares to admit), ROI (equally bogus and
compounded by flights of fantasy in relation to the "R" in that equation),
probability of success (an exercise in wishful thinking), the availability
of relevant resources, competing priorities, and on and on and on.
In my world, project selection criteria more often tie to other, equally
subjective but perhaps more political factors (e.g., Who is going to
champion the project? How powerful is that person? How deep and true that
person's commitment to the project? Whose ox or oxen will get gored by the
project? How seriously? What kind of opposition might they mount? How
might they be mollified, compensated, bribed or otherwise bought off? Who
is going to manage the project? Who is going to lead it? (And, Yes,
Virginia, there really is a project manager and a project leader and the two
are rarely the same person.) How do the people who will have to staff and
carry out the project view it? Are they anxious to get on board or are they
trying to avoid a death march? On and on the "political" questions go.
My own view is that a project selection methodology needs to "fit" the
company, the players and the times at hand. In short, it's a custom
undertaking that if not undertaken will result in the wrong projects being
buried for the wrong reasons and in the right projects being pursued for
equally wrong reasons.
In your shoes, Jay, I'd start with an outline of an approach then work with
my client to flesh it out in ways that make sense to them at this time in
light of current conditions -- and plaster "Subject to Change without
Notice" all over it.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
Senior Consulting
Distance Consulting
"Assistance at A Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@att.net
P.S. I will be leaving Educational Testing Service (ETS) later this year
and returning to consulting on a full-time basis. I'll be posting a more
detailed announcement on my Distance Consulting web site in the near future.