Greatest Risk to Your Projects – Your Other Projects!

Use Portfolio Management to Help Manage Risks to Your Projects’ Resources

I will go out on a limb and state that – in most reasonably complex institutions, you probably cannot effectively deliver projects without also having effective project portfolio management in place. Most project managers and their traditional, proven project management methods and tools focus on managing projects to successful linear conclusions. Unfortunately, too often the “iceberg dead ahead” that ultimately sinks their well-scheduled “project-ship” is actually another project from within his/her organization, that the project manager cannot even see coming at him/her.

All projects move forward by consuming institutional resources to produce results. Projects’ human, financial, technological, logistical, and even sponsorship resources are the fuel that propels projects successfully over the finish line. However, it’s an organizational reality that each and every day any of the critical resources that are committed to making one project successful can suddenly be diverted to meet the unexpected urgent needs of another new and/or existing organization project. How many times have you heard, (or said) sorry Mr./Ms. Project Manager an unexpected crisis has come up in one of our organization’s very important projects and we need to take some of your critical project resources to address it?

But of course, we are still expecting your project to be on time and on-budget! Significant on-going risks to your project’s key resources usually present the greatest overall threat to your project’s ultimate success. Resource capacity planning can be a very effective tool to help you navigate these challenging waters.

What approach are you using today?  How is it working for your organization?