Standardization - the Second Pillar of the Enterprise-wide PBM House of Excellence
The key to successfully executing project business management best practices
across an organization depends on incorporating four related components of project
business management. The second of these is standardization, see Figure
1: Enterprise-wide PBM House of Excellence in Part 1 of this paper. Standardization
in project business management can be defined as establishing a business management
model composed of a set of defined project and business management processes and
associated written procedures.
Standardization includes the activities required to develop:
- Project business management governance policies;
- Portfolio business management policies, processes, and procedures;
- Program business management policies, processes, and procedures;
- Project business management processes that are integrated with the development
processes of the enterprise's products and services; and,
- Project management policies, plans, processes procedures, systems, tools,
and templates that support the project business management processes.
Standardization requires the formal issuance, acceptance, and implementation
of policies, processes, systems, plans, and procedures that are used consistently
across the enterprise to authorize and manage all portfolios, programs, and projects.
To have formally authorized and issued policies, plans, and procedures in project
business management is not any different from having them for the functional divisions
and practice areas of accounting, human resources, or safety. Standardization
is the best way to effectively spread the unique competencies and skills of project
business management throughout an enterprise to achieve maximum benefit.
Incorporating project management into the enterprise's overall business operations
process serves two purposes:
- The business purpose is to have standard process models, methods and techniques
that can be applied to all portfolios, programs, and projects.
- The purpose in the vision for enterprise-wide project management is to achieve
a world-class proficiency in the consistent application of well-defined project
business management practices, processes, procedures, tools and techniques.
The goal is to support inculcating project business management as a core capability
and discipline that is part of the fabric of the work that the enterprise performs.
From an enterprise business perspective, having standards:
- Improves efficiency and shortens the learning curve for new portfolio, program,
and project managers.
- Supports schedule improvement and cost reductions.
- Enhances planning and management skills.
- Enables consistent tracking of actual versus planned schedule and cost.
- Facilitates regular management review of status.
- Aids in maturing the organization's project business management methods.
- Improves the effectiveness and capability of the enterprise to manage portfolios,
programs and projects.
- Provides standardized management models and tools that support profitability
and business growth.
- Improves the ability to achieve strategic business objectives.
- Improves operational business processes.
- Provides standardized material supporting project management career path development.
Experiencing the benefits that can be derived from standardized project business
management methodologies requires that they become integrated into the operations
of the business. The actual benefits are directly related to the extent the project
business management processes are considered a natural and customary part of the
work culture and the day-to-day business processes.
|
Introduction
to Part 2
