Slide 3.

Chapter 3
Projects and organisations
• Introduction
• Organisational strategy and projects
• Portfolios and programmes
• Project roles and governance
• Summary

Project Management in Practice: The Airbus A380

development
Project Management in Practice: Selecting a
personal project
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.2

Introduction

The Organisational Ideal

• Clear organisation direction
• Understood by everyone
• Everything purposeful
• Demonstrable link between activities
• Everyone connected
• Conversion of strategic objectives through
operational ventures
• Requires active participation by project managers

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.3

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

“The organisation that attempts a narrow mission, will

outperform one that attempts a wider mission”
• Focus
• Strategy process
• Vision – where the organisation is going
• Mission statement – expression of vision
– Current capabilities
– Analysis of threats and opportunities
• Strategy
– Traditional approach – top down
– World class – two way – strategic approach
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.4

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

(Continued)

Figure 3.1 Organisational strategy process

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.5

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

(Continued)

Figure 3.2 Traditional versus strategic approaches

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.6

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

(Continued)

Figure 3.3 Projects and organisational strategy

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.7

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

(Continued)
• Strategy and direct revenue-earning projects
– Strategic input is the organisational objectives
– “We are in business to be the fastest/the best/the cheapest…
– Reflect in the project objectives (time, cost, quality)
• Project strategy
– “The definition of position, the means and the guidelines of what
and how to do it, to achieve the highest competitive advantage and
the best value from a project.”
• Deploying strategy in organisational change projects
– Strategies and projects with a high level of coherence
– Highly visible strategy, project objectives aligned
– Functional and project conflict resolved at high level
– Individuals contribute to organisational objectives
– Progress monitored visibly
– Objectives based on customer needs
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.8

3.1 Organisational strategy and projects

(Continued)

Table 3.1 Strategy deployment table

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.9

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

Managing projects is like juggling three balls.

Managing programmes (portfolios, multi-projects)
is like managing a troop of jugglers all juggling
three balls and swapping balls from time to time.
[G Reiss, 1996]

Portfolio management
• It is not possible to be good at everything
• The organisation chooses activities to gain maximum
benefit from the investment in those activities
• Resources are often scarce, they are finite, not
necessarily flexible, cannot easily be transferred, not
always 100% available
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.10

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)
Sanity check: aggregate resource plan
• Need to keep control of activities
– Projects and operations
• Compare all resource requirements to the (finite)
capacity available
– Track and control available resources (e.g. hours) and
workload
– Overcommitted resources reduces flexibility and
innovation
– Competence of people and/or capability of resources
may be critical
• Need to know relative importance of projects
• Need a clear system for prioritising
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.11

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)
EPM – Enterprise programme/project management
“The capability to lead and manage resources,
knowledge and skills in the effective deployment of
multiple projects designed collectively to deliver
enhanced value”
• Schedules, resource availability, priorities and project
requirements frequently change
• Large amounts of data need significant process
power
• Possibly associated with enterprise wide software
applications (e.g. Microsoft Project and SAP)
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.12

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)
Programme management
• It is the layer of co-ordination between projects to
ensure that high-level benefits are realised.
• It is an (organisational) framework for grouping
existing or defining new projects, and for focusing all
the activities required to achieve a set of major
benefits.
• The projects are managed in a co-ordinated way,
either to achieve a common goal, or to extract
benefits which would otherwise not be realised if they
were managed independently.

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.13

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)

Table 3.2 Definitions of ‘programme’

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

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3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)

Figure 3.4 Arrangements of projects in programmes

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.15

3.2 Portfolios and programmes

(Continued)
Strategy matrix
• Relationship of potential and existing projects to the organisation’s
objectives
• One project may have a negative effect on or be in conflict with another
• If objective 1 is ‘to improve customer service’ and project 2 is ‘to cut
costs by 20%’, it is likely (but not certain) that these will be in conflict

Table 3.3 Strategy matrix

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.16

3.3 Project roles and governance

Figure 3.5 Basic project governance structure

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.17

3.3 Project roles and governance

(Continued)
The project management office/project support office
• Supports all project management aspects
• Runs alongside other functions in the organisation
• Provides recognition of the importance of projects
• Central facility
• Contains skills and knowledge of project process
• Can
– provide key project staff
– control resources
– give personal support to individuals
– provide checks and control on process
– manage customer interfaces
– execute specialist tasks
– recruit, select, evaluate PMs
• Increased overhead is more than compensated in increased project
success
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 3.18

3.3 Project roles and governance

(Continued)

Figure 3.6 Relationship between the project and the project office

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.19

3.3 Project roles and governance

(Continued)

Table 3.4 PMO roles

Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 3.20

Summary
• The strategy process
– An organisations vision reflects through to project activities
– Vision inputs: competitor analysis, technology, market forces, what the
organisation’s wants to achieve
– Vision realised through organisation’s strategy which is the focus for
operations and projects
– Broadcasting the vision ensures everybody working in the same direction

• Portfolios and programme management promotes

– Evaluation of each project relative to vision and other projects
– Gaps and overlaps
– An aggregate resource plan

• Project office
– Centralised function that can support, monitor and/or control
Maylor, Project Management, 4th Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011