Nicole Lind introduces the concepts surrounding program and project management as they relate to enterprise Drupal projects

1. Strategic
Management of
Multiple Projects
aka “Project Whispering”
By Nicole Lind
SVP, Treehouse Agency
nlind@treehouseagency.com

2. What we’re talking about
 Why Drupal needs portfolio project management
 Management framework and definitions
 What is program management?
 What is portfolio project management (PPM)?
 How is PPM implemented?
 How does PPM change things?
 What tools and strategies are available?

3. Why Drupal needs program
and portfolio project
management
Drupal is all grown up
Entering the enterprise business and
government space
Increase in the number of projects
running concurrently in a given
organization

4. Why Drupal needs program
and portfolio project
management
Drupal complexity
More legacy migrations and multi-
platform integrations
Projects require more highly
skilled, niched talent
Necessary talent is harder to
find, more expensive, and more
difficult to manage and retain

5. Goals of this session
Provide a management framework for
PPM
Discuss the concepts and effects of
program management
Introduce project portfolio management
Explore options in tools

6. Management
Framework

7. Management Framework
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management

8. Management Act of creating plans
and managing
Framework resources to
accomplish a project.
A project is a
scheduled
Project undertaking for the
Management purpose of creating a
product or service.
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management

9. Management Responsible for the
overall success of a
Framework product. Products
may consist of multiple
projects.
Product managers
Product remain to manage the
Management product through the its
entire lifecycle.
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management

10. Management Act of creating and
managing multiple
Framework projects.
Typically, projects are
distinct but related
through
Program dependencies.
Management
Project Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project and Product Management

11. Management Management process
designed to help an
Framework organization sort and
prioritize projects to
align with business
objectives.
PPM includes:
Project Portfolio  Establishment of
Management project analysis criteria
and scoring model
Project Portfolio Management
 Project information
acquisition and analysis
 Sorting and
Program Management
prioritization of projects
on established criteria
Project and Product Management

12. Program
Management

13. Understanding Program
Management
Defining Program Management
Project Management Office (PMO)
Dependencies
Project Templates

14. What it Is

15. What is a Program?
“A defined set of projects containing
common dependencies, and/or
resources and/or objectives overseen by
a Program Manager.”
(OpenSDLC.org
http://opensdlc.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=SDLC_SOP_1000_-
_Program_and_Project_Management)

16. Like it or Not…
If you have multiple
concurrent projects, you
have a program.

17. The Effective Program
A collection of projects that work
together toward a common
cause, a common goal, and a
common purpose, and realize
gained benefits for the organization.

18. Relationship between
Programs and Projects
Mission/Vision
Program Program Program
1 2 3
Project 1 Project 1 Project 1
Project 2 Project 2 Project 2
Project 3
Project 3
Project 4

19. Grouping projects into
programs
Chronological order
Logical program phases
Technology used
Other logical grouping
Resource availability
Scheduling
Etc.

20. What it Does

21. The Goal
End “us vs. everyone else”
mentality
Coordinate project managers
Use project intelligence to make
better business decisions
All parties work together toward common vision and
purpose

22. How Managed Programs
Help the Organization
Directly support org mission
Target org benefits
Counteract tunnel vision

23. Risks of Tunnel Vision
Project Managers Business Managers
 Resource stockpiling  High revenue/low profit
 Schedule sandbagging  Random diversification
 Bloated estimates  Overpromising
 Territorial fiefdoms  Getting lost in details
Ignoring project interactions encourages bad habits
and missed opportunities

24. Why it Works
Define and document links between projects
 Shared resources (people, tools and
facilities)
 Risk mitigation activities
 Project integration management and
change control

25. Avoids…
Over or misallocation of resources
Competition for resources
Protectionist behavior
Clashing systems and processes

26. Encourages…
“Clean” resource allocation
Accurate estimating
Realistic planning
Integrated systems and processes

27. The Project
Management
Office (PMO)

28. Project Management Office
(PMO)
Primary goal: achieve benefits from standardizing
and following project management
policies, processes and methods
 Group or department within an organization
 Defines and maintains standards for project
management
Usually based upon one of three models:
 Project repository
 Project coaching
 Enterprise

29. What’s Wrong with
Centralized PMO’s?
Creates pool of generic project
management experts
Tends to result in “hot swapping”
PMs and teams
Does not allow for specialized
expertise
We want program experts, NOT just general project
management experts

30. The De-Centralized PMO
Less emphasis on classical PM
experts
PMs are embedded in well-defined
Programs
PM skills align with program
projects and business drivers
Consistently working within programs allows better skills
alignment and tighter teams

31. Project Dependencies
 Finish to start (FS) – Project B can’t start before A is
finished (i.e. Foundation is dug, then concrete is
poured)
 Finish to finish (FF) – Project B can’t finish before A is
finished (i.e. Last chapter written before entire book
is finished)
 Start to start (SS) – Project B can’t start before A
starts (i.e. Project work started before project
management activities started)
 Start to finish (SF) – Project B can’t finish before A
starts (i.e. New shift starts after previous shift finishes)
Identifying dependencies is critical to effective resource allocation

32. Operational Benefits: Project
Templates
 Business Development
 Contract/Statement of work
 Kickoff Discovery
 Sprint 1 (including multiple milestones)
 Sprint 2 (including multiple milestones)
 Training
 QA
 Launch
 Post Mortem
 Support
Standardize project plans & lifecycles to avoid starting from scratch

33. Project Portfolio
Management (PPM)

34. “the concept of focusing on the
selection and management of
a set of projects to meet
specific business objectives”
“Project Portfolio Management: A view from the management trenches”
(http://www.gartner.com/it/content/911400/911412/project_portfolio_
mgmt_excerpt.pdf)

35. Relationship between
Projects, Programs and
Portfolios
Mission/Vision
Portfolio 1 Portfolio 2 Operations
Program 1 Program 2 Program 1 Program 2 Program 3
Project 1 Project 1 Project 1 Project 1 Project 1
Project 2 Project 2 Project 2 Project 2 Project 2
Project 3 Project 3 Project 3
Project 4

36. Organizational Impact
 Move away from traditional organizational
hierarchy to work more effectively and align with
business objectives
 Move toward a project-driven culture infused
with business goals through programs and
portfolios
 Centralized resource utilization planning and
reporting
 Recruiting and training targeted to each
program and/or portfolio’s skill requirements

37. Project Chartering Model
Provides quantitative model for strategically
selecting projects to seek out, pitch, and accept
 Rank opportunities by score
 Objectively align with business goals by creating business
cases for each component project and program
 Identify high-margin opportunities for reselling existing
components
 Strategically seek out good matches to portfolio by
maximizing average project scores
 Significant impact on organization; especially sales and
on-going operations

38. Key Elements of PPM
Identify business objectives
Prioritize objectives
Apply project chartering model
Rank projects by chartering scores

39. Project Chartering Example
Top Criteria:
 We want our team to gain D7 experience
 We need more profits
 We want to start doing more business in the
educational sector
 We want more repeat business

40. Sample Scoring
Diversification Diversification Repeat
Potential Project Profit Potential (technology) (sector) Business Total Rating
Project A with D7
4 3 2 0 9
Project B at
University
2 2 4 2 10
Project C with
existing client
4 0 0 4 8
Project D with D7
and University
2 2 4 3 11
Tally project strength in each criteria area

41. Tool Selection

42. Selecting a Solution
 Identify your requirements first
 Consider options based on requirements
 Custom build vs. off-the-shelf

43. Custom build
Pros Cons
 Exactly what you need (in  Expensive
theory)
 Time-consuming
 Full platform control
 Reinventing the wheel
 Iteratively create features as
needed  Untested

44. Off-the-shelf
Pros Cons
 Faster  May not meet all your
needs
 Proven solution (in theory)
 Feature bloat
 Can be less expensive
 May be tied to expensive
 May have ample service contracts
documentation
 “Someone to blame”

45. Off-the-shelf options
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_mana
gement_software

46. Present Solution Realities
 No present project management application
does everything perfectly
 A buggy centralized solution
 Decentralized solutions which lack ability to tie
together critical information needed for PPM
 Either way, you need people who:
 Understand the goals
 Understand the requirements
 Are trained on the decided approaches

47. Tool Example

57. Rollout of the solution
Daunting challenges
 How long will it take?
 How will you know when you are done?
 Where do you start?

58. Rollout of the solution
Take a phased approach
 Judiciously select features
 Acclimate users gradually
 Keep processes and tools aligned

59. Sample Rollout Phasing
1. Enter projects and tasks
2. Time tracking and timesheets
3. Resource management
4. Basic portfolios
5. Business factors information
6. Reporting
Can take 6 months or more to implement a
working system!
Break it into steps and take your time

60. Final thoughts
 Project and portfolio management do not have
to be subjective.
 Project and portfolio management have a huge
impact on business goals, whether you think
about them or not.
 Don’t be intimidated. It’s not easy, but you can
start slow and build in small steps.
 Take your time and start simple.
 You have everything to gain by thinking
strategically about your project portfolio.

61. Thank you
Questions?