Chapter 4

Phase III: Implement the OPM System

Introduction

The Organizational Portfolio Management (OPM) System typically spans many functional areas involved in the project development and execution phases. The organization also must address technical barriers as well as cultural resistance to change that most organizations face when undertaking the type of sweeping changes OPM Systems are intended to affect.

Technical barriers to change will be addressed by the implementation of an OPM System. Many excellent applications, computer programs, and even simple spreadsheets and dashboards are available at varying price points depending on your budget (see Appendix B).

The implementation of the OPM infrastructure will require its own change agenda, including enrollment planning, communication, training, and reporting. The benefits, challenges, and consequences of implementing an OPM system will require constant vertical realignment and engagement by senior leadership.

The goal of the OPM System is to provide an integrated seamless infrastructure for project/program/portfolio management. This provides both internal and external stakeholders with real-time data on the status of all initiatives within the span of the system, so that corrective action and resource allocation can be taken on projects and programs before they fail (or fail to achieve their stated goals and objectives).

The implementation of the OPM infrastructure is followed by the estimation of costs, calculation of proposed net present value, and selection of projects. This is followed by the individual planning and scheduling of project and portfolio resources during their life cycle.

Once the OPM System becomes operational, it will contain hundreds if not thousands of projects, schedules, calendars, budgets, resources, tasks, assignments, reports, and other artifacts that serve as reliable data to provide real-time decision support capabilities and aid in future project resource and cost estimation.

Once the majority of high impact (and impacting) functional areas of the organization are represented, including their projects, programs, and portfolios archived in the system, sustaining a standardized OPM Systems approach becomes a valuable tool for realizing the organization’s value propositions.

The functional OPM System should enable a long view of OPM, serving as the integration engine for the organization to develop new programs and projects based on approved business cases, and manage up to a 5- to 10-year portfolio of active projects and programs. The OPM System provides continual review capability to help the organization adapt to changing resource requirements, fiscal constraints, and (meet) revenue projections.

In addition to providing information to aid and guide the organization’s senior leadership in the implementation and management of approved projects, programs, and portfolios, the OPM System provides project managers and team members with a data source to monitor, measure, and report on the progress of their projects; react to issues impacting completion of milestones; and report on the successful completion of project milestones once achieved.

OPM System Critical Success Factors

Unlike many functional work groups (that often have trouble seeing the forest for the trees), independent PMOs can quickly identify cultural, procedural, and technical challenges that require immediate resolution. These organizational challenges typically manifest through a lack of adherence to Project/Program/Portfolio Management standards and best practices, and are resolved via focus on the following activities.

Activities for Phase III

Phase III: Implement the OPM System is made up of the following ten activities:

Activity #1: Develop a clear vision of the organization’s strategic goals and objectives

Activity #2: Communicate the change agenda: goals, objectives, benefits, risks, rewards, and challenges

Activity #3: Identify impacted business processes

Activity #4: Provide for planning and implementation phase information technology (IT) support

Activity #5: Develop universal and tailored training

Activity #6: Develop measurement and reporting standards

Activity #7: Identify risks and technology constraints

Activity #8: Schedule and facilitate user acceptance testing and end user training

Activity #9: Develop project/portfolio security and data integrity procedures

Activity #10: Implement the OPM System and report progress

Activity #1: Develop a Clear Vision of the Organization’s Strategic Goals and Objectives

This is the most important activity in this phase as it sets the stage for everything that follows.

H. James Harrington

In very few programs today are all the resources available when needed, i.e., without creating conflicts with other activities going on within the organization. Most organizations are already operating lean, having progressively removed most of their excess capacity. This can create a major scheduling problem when projects are added to the normal workload. In order to avoid these potential pitfalls, organizations must develop a clear vision of their strategic goals and objectives by adhering to the following best practices:

• Obtain consensus on the specific need for (and benefits of) implementing an OPM System.
• Outline the policies and procedures for project and portfolio resource management.
• Create an environment of consistent and timely communication of strategic objectives, goals, needs, challenges, rewards, and benefits of the system across the organization.
• Create or modify policies for use of the OPM System.
• Foster a shared understanding of the OPM System implementation policies, goals, and objectives.
• Instill the discipline and structures to support project and portfolio cost management.
• Mandate adherence to the stated goals of the selected portfolio schedule management methodology, e.g., critical path method or critical resource chain method. We prefer the critical resource chain method because, in most cases, the availability of resources is a key consideration in managing most projects.

As an example of world-class vision deployment, the Yaskawa Electric Group has established its 2015 vision1 of using technology to solve emerging global problems, such as the aging society in advanced countries, as well as global environmental and energy issues. Established in Japan in 1915, Yaskawa Electric now has bases in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company has articulated and communicated its vision through a variety of media focused around its core principle domains (Figure 4.1).

Once the vision has been defined, it is now a matter of clearly communicating the vision to both internal and external stakeholders.

Activity #2: Communicate the Change Agenda: Goals, Objectives, Benefits, Risks, Rewards, and Challenges

The Executive Committee (or its equivalent) must, at the onset of the initiative, communicate the change agenda (the goals, objectives, benefits, risks, rewards, and challenges of the OPM System implementation) to impacted internal (and if required external) stakeholders.

The change agenda is both a figurative as well as literal agenda of events that gets distributed as part of the Enrollment Plan to all prospective change agents. It sets the stage for meetings or conference calls held to explain the purpose, scope, and milestones of the project; engage them in a dialog to enroll them in the effort; explain their roles; and show them how they will be active participants in crafting the plan for change.

At this stage, the Steering Team marshals required resources, such as Human Resources (HR), the Program Management Office (PMO), and corporate communications, to enlist assistance in completing the following activities that comprise the change agenda and its Enrollment/Alignment Plan:

• Development of OPM policies (by HR and the PMO)
• Development of presentation materials and communication memos to introduce the new OPM System and policies (by Communications and the PMO)
• Scheduling of communication/training sessions (classroom-based if possible, virtual if not) to outline the objectives, benefits, risks, rewards, and challenges of the new system
• Demonstrate horizontal leadership alignment and vertical adoption
• Communicate benefits of the system including balanced resource allocation and fulfillment of the organization’s strategic objectives in alignment with shared mission, vision, and values
• Describe challenges and consequences
• Discuss objections and resistance to change
• Explain Project Team Manager Program and project manager and Portfolio leader responsibilities
• Delegate remaining roles and responsibilities: outline the roles, responsibilities, and accountability structure (via org chart review)
• Develop change agent and Manager Training Plan and program for impacted stakeholders
• Joint development of the communication and enrollment plan with impacted stakeholders

Activity #3: Identify Impacted Business Processes

In tandem with communications development, the identification of all impacted functional groups and their business processes should be done concurrently. This work continues throughout the Organizational Portfolio life cycle, but starts here at the onset of the OPM System implementation.

• Attain consensus on standard process documentation templates.
• Document processes for common OPM System activities including CPM (critical path method) scheduling or PERT (program evaluation review technique) analysis.
• Ensuring portfolio, program, and project templates and resultant schedules adhere to the organization’s strategic goals.
• Consider project decentralization factors when developing schedules and work breakdown structures for geographically diverse populations impacted by the change.
• Schedule planning sessions and meetings with subject matter experts and process owners in the development of standard scheduling templates, providing flexibility for local variation.
• Identify areas of common critical path concern, such as utilities, environmental factors, and federal government regulations.
• Review and validate business processes, models, and milestones.
• Consider the use of Monte Carlo simulations, where simpler models do not fully capture the varying permutations and multiple scenarios in calculating resource and time estimates. Monte Carlo models are used to derive approximate solutions through statistical sampling. First conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the method was named after the Monte Carlo casino, where a card player (researcher Stanislaw Ulam’s uncle, to be exact) could utilize repeated random sampling to calculate results.
• Consider the use of expert judgment (consulting with an expert experienced with the type of project and system being implemented) in crafting the templates for use in each functional area on the critical path.
• Ensure the identified experts attend the communication/training sessions and have the required experience in the scheduling method selected (i.e., critical resource chain method or critical path method).
• Review the critical path for each approved project, ensuring the scheduling templates account for all items to prevent downstream churn and cost of reworking templates after the initiatives begin.

Activity #4: Provide for Planning and Implementation Phase Information Technology (IT) Support

No project should begin to be implemented unless it is part of the approved Organizational Portfolio. Therefore, the proposal for an OPM System requires its own business case. Once that is done and it has been approved, it should be assigned to a Portfolio leader to get it implemented. The IT support requirements are generally included in the proposal to establish an OPM System, and the business case includes any needed IT support (as best estimated at that time). This information now needs to be extracted from the business case and built into (and scheduled into) the OPM System Implementation project plan, to ensure IT resources (as well the other needed resources) are factored.

There are three phases to getting the OPM System implemented:

Phase 1: Getting the OPM System approved, funded, and manned

Phase 2: Implementing the system

Phase 3: Maintaining the system annually

Consider that it may take as long as a year to get started, i.e., getting the system approved, funded, planned, manned, and documented. The better part of the second year may be spent piloting and implementing the system, where for the first time the projects are put into portfolios. From year three onward (Phase 3), it becomes a matter of a regularly maintaining the system and the portfolios, programs, and projects. The OPM System helps prevent problems by centralizing the resources and providing the infrastructure for managing the diverse resource demands of the organization’s projects, but projects still fall into trouble, causing programs to fall behind schedule, while others are completed, and resources can be reallocated from completed/cancelled projects to the areas of greatest need.

The Executive Committee must ensure adequate IT resources are available during the planning and implementation of the OPM System:

• Guarantee the review of all other initiatives during the planned implementation phase to identify potential impacts and resource constraints.
• Involve the organization’s IT Change Control Board and PMO early on in the planning process to ensure other planned initiatives and impacted functional groups have advance notice of the changes and impacts resulting from implementation of the OPM System.
• Ensure that IT has the required staffing, technical expertise, and budget to support the implementation of the OPM System.
• Consider the use of consulting support from the OPM System vendor selected, to aid in the deployment planning process (as well as the creation of scheduling templates and training materials for IT, technical support staff, and end users).
• Plan for contingency staffing support as a temporary stop gap for additional IT infrastructure, Project Management and/or technology support resource needs, including limited retention into postimplementation support of the OPM System.
• Plan for integration of existing systems and processes, including the IT Change Control System and Technology Support System (e.g., remedy) into the OPM System.
• Involve the organization’s technology support, PMO, and systems training functions in a deep review of the OPM System fields, functions, and forms, as well as configuration, layout, views, reports, data input requirements, and export options.
• The information gathered during these sessions may yield additional detailed technical input on the proposed data input and quality control methods, as well as the selected scheduling methodology and templates before they get published.
• The information provided during these sessions becomes the basis for PMO/Portfolio and project reports, technical support scripts, job aids, and end-user training materials.
• Part of the agenda needs to be dedicated to finding out the answers to some key questions including:
  • What type of reports will be required?
  • How will progress be tracked?
  • Who will be running the reports and doing the tracking?
  • What type of information (potentially via dashboards and/or reports) goes to the project team, project manager, the Project Team manager, the senior management, and sponsor levels of the organization?
  • How can the OPM System facilitate a big picture view of the span of initiatives across the enterprise?

Typically, an executive dashboard is developed so the Executive Team members don’t have to receive a number of individual reports. They need to have a summary report that focuses them on the projects that need attention immediately. For example, an executive dashboard would show all the projects with a separate line item for costs, a separate line for schedule (and, in some organizations, a separate line for output performance across the top). The dashboard should facilitate either monthly or weekly status review, using easy to interpret RGY (red, green, yellow) visual controls. Red would indicate a problem, yellow indicates caution of slipping schedule or going over budget, green indicates everything is on schedule.

Areas in yellow/caution or red/warning status require the Portfolio leader to know the status and be prepared to brief the executive team on delays or problems and proposed solutions. At a minimum, the Executive Team should be briefed once a week to review the status of all the projects and the action plan to get any of the projects that were in red back into the green. Intraweek status reviews on red status projects encourage immediate corrective action (including activities performed over the weekend) to put them back on track for the next week’s review cycle beginning on Monday.

Activity #5: Develop Universal and Tailored Training

As stated above, an outcome of Activity 4’s deep technical review is the OPM System user guides, tutorials (if available), and vendor-provided system specifications that will form the basis and input for both technical support and end-user training.

• Determine the training strategy: classroom-based, distance learning/instructor-led online, computer-based training (CBT), self-paced via Learning Management System (LMS) or hybrid approach
• Develop requirements universal for all end users, focused on individual needs of the main functional groups represented
• Develop specially tailored training requirements for technical support staff, managers, PMO, as well as any regional variations previously identified in the planning process
• Gather templates and remaining business process documentation
• Assemble training curriculum outline and learning objectives
• Upload the training program outline and learning goals into the LMS (Learning Management System) (if available)
• Gain approval for the curriculum outline while assembling the initial drafts from universal requirements into the design of the training program (typically done in MS PowerPoint®)
• Develop the training content and incorporate additional media, videos, hands-on exercises/simulated learning using the OPM System templates
• Stage training data into a separate/replicated OPM System training environment; ensure a backup is taken to facilitate future restores of the staged data

Consider the development of separate training curricula for the previously identified functions:

• Leadership training: Developed for the senior leaders, Executive Committee, and Portfolio leaders to review project reporting and project outcome data options. Two to three hours of virtual or classroom-based training would be sufficient to complete the learning objectives, but additional time for Q&A, feedback, and follow-on planning should also be factored into the training program.
• Project Managers: The curriculum and learning objectives for this group would be the most comprehensive, including scheduling and management of portfolios, programs, and projects in the OPM System emphasis on Project Change Management and Reporting. This could potentially encompass 20 hours of classroom-based training.
• Manager Training: Curriculum developed for mid-level managers of people and support functions impacted by the ongoing Portfolio Management operations; emphasis on Change Management. Classroom-based, eight hours.
• Project Team Members: Participation would be limited to employees solely focused on completing individual tasks within a project’s Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); emphasis on individual task management and recording time against the project. One to two hours virtual, online, or classroom-based, but could be more if an emphasis on Change Management is required to reduce resistance to change.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a one-time training program. It has to be an ongoing training program where new projects/programs are added to the list of active projects/programs and are available as new people move in and out of their various project roles and assignments. At the executive level, this often requires individual tutoring sessions for the new executives and follow-up sessions as individual second- and third-level managers begin to refocus their priorities away from the project at hand. Without the proper structure and culture of learning, training, and regular reinforcement, it becomes very easy for managers to become distracted by their ongoing work and lose focus on the projects and programs that are designed and chartered to secure the future of the organization.

Activity #6: Develop Measurement and Reporting Standards

The Executive Committee, with support from the PMO and local management, is responsible for development of metrics, and reporting standards and protocols to retrieve information on project/program schedules and progress to internal and external stakeholders. This would continue postimplementation of the OPM System into ongoing PMO reporting operations.

• Reporting the progress of work at project level.
• Project/program milestones and due dates; provide minimum standard framework of core milestones for all projects (e.g., completion of charter, project plan, status reporting).
• Processes and procedures to monitor and report status on tasks and milestones completed and those overdue; allow for flexibility for project optional milestones.
• Ensure adherence to scheduling templates to provide standard reports throughout the OPM System.
• Listed in the matrix in Figure 4.2 is a sample of the portfolio reporting metrics many organizations choose to track, and the suggested audience for each metric.

Activity #7: Identify Risks and Technology Constraints

Each project has its own life cycle, progressing through a series of phases from initiation, through the actual work performed, and project closure. The project life cycle is categorized within five Process Groups, each a logical grouping of Project Management, various input and output data, tools, and methods:

• Process Group 1: Initiating

  Processes performed to define and authorize a new project or phase to start. Outcomes include scope and charter, overall outcome, stakeholders, project manager, and team.

  • Business case assessment, approval, and funding are external to project boundaries, although the team may be involved in the business case development.
  • The key purpose of Initiation is to align stakeholder expectations with project purpose and enroll them in the scope and objectives to illustrate how they can impact the success of the project.
  • The primary risks at this stage are lack of stakeholder alignment or misaligned objectives.
  • Additional risks include underestimating the resources required to complete the project including time, money, skills, equipment, and human resources.
• Process Group 2: Planning

  Includes processes required to scope, refine objectives, and define actions to meet project objectives.

  • The primary risks at this stage are inadequate scoping, lack of boundaries, and lack of planning for how to adapt to the inevitable project impacts which will arise.
• Process Group 3: Executing

  Includes processes performed to complete the tasks in the project plan to meet project objectives.

  • Risks at this stage are unforeseen events, or inability to adapt to changing requirements. Slippage and lack of execution/timeliness and quality of results are always potential risk areas to monitor.
  • Possibly the greatest risk is lacking of proper human resource skills when the plan calls for using them.
  • The second greatest risk is scope creep causing the project to exceed budget and schedule.
• Process Group 4: Monitoring and Controlling

  Includes ongoing “background” processes required to track, review, and regulate the project progress and success in all five process stages.

  • The primary risks at this stage are inability to manage change, evaluate, scope, and initiate changes.
  • One of the biggest problems is the accuracy of the data as estimated by the people performing the tasks. In many cases, without the proper guidance and structure, people have a tendency to overcommit and underperform.
• Process Group 5: Closing

  Includes processes performed to finalize all activities and formally close out the project (or phase).

  • The primary risks at this stage are inadequately documenting the lessons learned or lack of handoffs required to ensure the ongoing success of the initiative.

The process groups and risk areas described above illustrate where key checkpoints should be included and provide guidance on where to evaluate during process checkpoints to minimize risk.

The PMO with guidance from the Executive Committee is responsible for the identification and mitigation of risks and constraints during the implementation of the OPM System and throughout the Portfolio Management life cycle. When performing this risk assessment, project managers should look to the following commonly risk-prone areas:

• Explore vulnerable areas to identify potential risks and technology constraints.
• Integrations with external systems are particularly risk prone.
• However, in many cases, the information needed to populate the OPM System is readily available in another system, and integration offers tangible benefits in time savings and elimination of data duplication and duplication of effort.
• Information may include prior project identifiers or project codes, costing and budgets, locations, resources, and other common project data elements.
• Develop mitigation action steps and solutions.
• Identify requirements for data migration/integration, including field mappings.
• Review procedures for management of baselines in the OPM System.
• Ensure security protocols to ensure baselines used to report targeted completion dates are not wantonly updated or modified.
• Projects and activities—and associated data—represent another area of potential technical constraints, which are common OPM Systems’ limited (initial) capability of summarizing detailed task/WBS data into a summary format or rolled up into project reports.
• Additional support may be required to create interim extracts or manipulate extracted data into reports to provide the needed granularity during the initial phases of the OPM System implementation.

Activity #8: Schedule and Facilitate User Acceptance Testing and End User Training

The reason why scheduling and actual facilitation of the end-user training sessions is not done until Activity #8 is because

1. 1. the work of developing the training program is generally done concurrently with the development of the OPM System reporting methodology;
2. 2. it also allows for the mitigation of any risks; and
3. 3. waiting until this stage allows time to address the typical challenges of scheduling a complex training program to reach multiple locations and user populations across the OPM System’s span of control.

Following are some guidelines for developing and structuring the user acceptance testing (UAT) and end-user training materials:

• Develop User Acceptance Testing (UAT) scripts based on existing/vendor provided job aids, as well as the developed OPM System end-user training materials.
• Create basic separate agendas for both UAT and training participants providing an overview of the purpose and basic outline of participant expectations and rules of conduct.
• Identify participants ideally suited to participate in UAT (potential power user, strong attention to detail, adequate computer and documentation skills, understanding of possible system errors, continuous improvement mindset).
• Publish and communicate the schedule for the OPM System UAT sessions.
• Facilitate the UAT sessions ensuring that any findings and issues are documented, and evaluate participant responses for immediate corrective action/defect/bug reporting.
• Allow time for the majority of fixes to be made and retested prior to holding the various end-user training sessions (you don’t want your general user training population catching bugs!).
• Publish and communicate the schedule for available training classes.
• If possible, have an Executive Committee and/or PMO member present during each session to address any issues that may arise.
• Facilitate the training sessions and evaluate participant responses for continuous improvement.
• Document common questions and answers provided during the sessions to enhance training and support materials and develop FAQs for common scenarios.

Upon conclusion of training and UAT, be sure to review and prioritize OPM System implementation impacts and issues requiring immediate attention, versus those scheduled for updates in a later release.

Activity #9: Develop Project/Portfolio Security and Data Integrity Procedures

At this stage of the OPM System implementation, Information Security is engaged to ensure the integrity of project and portfolio data, including the development of user access controls (UAC) to regulate access for the general user population and restrict access to administrative system functions.

• Establish the basic database structure that will organize portfolios, programs, and projects
• Define and assign the access rights/permissions for the general user population
• Review processes, policies, and procedures to ensure security and data integrity protocols align with the intention of these previously documented OPM System artifacts, including system requirements and specifications, also possibly specified within the original Technology/Information Security & Disaster Recovery Plans for the project
• Establish ongoing regular reviews to ensure the ongoing security and data integrity of the OPM System

Particular attention should be paid to the protection of the information from data and security breaches. Much of the information included in the projects relate to programs, processes, and products that are designed to give your organization a competitive advantage. Hackers obtaining this information and selling it to competitors around the world presents a major problem in today’s networked global marketplace. Organizations proceed at their own peril until they take the steps to ensure their information is secure from outside illegitimate access to it. The 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment’s network of systems, servers, and databases is an excellent example of how unmitigated risks can have a major negative impact on an organization’s ability to perform.

In December 2014, a class action suit against Sony in California was filed in the federal court system. If the data breach itself wasn’t warning enough, this lawsuit should serve as a call-to-action for companies to finally put the appropriate security measures in place to prevent data breach, loss of competitive advantage, and the resulting fallout of public perception and lost customers. The complaint outlines several measures that organizations must consider to safeguard themselves against security breaches and resulting legal fallout and public backlash. Paragraph two of the complaint outlines the path forward for organizations seeking to failsafe their networks and reputations against similar damage (Figure 4.3).

An organization’s OPM System should fall under a larger umbrella security policy, intended to address these types of core structural inefficiencies:

1. 1. Secure the systems, servers, and databases against known and unknown security threats.
2. 2. Protect the confidential information of the organizations plans, stakeholders, management information, and that of current and former employees.

The suit makes clear that organizations, including Sony, owe a legal duty to maintain reasonable and adequate security measures to secure their networks, and the data that resides on them (Figure 4.4).

We can all craft a plan for how to proceed from the allegedly deficient actions in this case:

• Consider creating and documenting an Information Security Plan (ISP), with provisions for both prevention (identifying and resolving present security vulnerabilities) and what to do, and how to recover and respond (and who to contact) in the event of a security breach.
• Design and implement adequate firewalls and computer networks.
• Ensure measures for data encryption are in place (including randomization if required).

Activity #10: Implement the OPM System and Report Progress

• Review results from UAT and pilot deployments.
• Incorporate findings into the OPM System Implementation Plan.
• Activate change management protocols for communication of the pending implementation (see Chapter 5).
• Implement the OPM System (Figure 4.5). Typically there are not defined lines for when one phase ends and another begins. This demonstrates the concurrent and overlapping nature of the implementation phases.
• Monitor the results in real-time using intraday communication and vertical reporting.
• Report progress to the Executive Committee, organizational leadership, and stakeholders.
• Schedule follow-up meetings to review deployment findings and process lessons learned.
• Ensure migration of program/project data and schedule sunset of legacy systems (if applicable).
• Audit ongoing utilization of schedules, templates, and Portfolio Management System procedures.

Summary

In this chapter, we covered the 10 suggested activities for successful implementation of the OPM System. As with Portfolio Management itself, the essential first activity requires involving the senior leadership of the organization in a review and planning for communicating a clear vision of the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. Once the leaders themselves are aligned behind the vision, the Portfolio Steering Committee will typically marshal additional (temporary) resources from HR, communications, and the PMO to articulate and communicate the change agenda. This includes the initiative’s goals, objectives, benefits, risks, rewards, and challenges, while clarifying the roles and responsibilities and involving impacted associates and potential change agents in the planning process. With guidance from the Portfolio Steering Committee and Project Team manager, the assembled resources also are involved in identifying impacted business processes and ensuring that required resources, such as IT support resources, are provided adequate notice regarding their planned involvement during the planning and implementation phases of the project.

In order to enact the change agenda and ensure the required end-user adoption, careful consideration is given to develop custom-tailored training and communications, as well as robust measurement and reporting standards, including information dashboards for executive-level review of portfolio status and performance.

In order to fail-safe the implementation of the OPM system, a risk analysis is performed to forecast any potential risks, technology constraints, or potential environmental factors that may arise during the course of the implementation.

Prior to implementation, the change management process begins in earnest as the organization schedules and facilitates user acceptance testing (UAT) and end-user training sessions geared toward providing the crucial user experience feedback on usability and performance while providing for a valuable last opportunity to bug check the system before wide-scale deployment.

In addition to the supplemental/nonfunctional usability and performance testing, development of project/portfolio security and data integrity procedures provides additional assurances that the organization has done everything in its power (balancing risk and prevention costs) to safeguard the organization’s vital private data against emerging cyber security threats.

Finally, the Program Management Office (PMO), IT, and Project Teams have learned everything they can from the pilots and are ready to implement the OPM System and report on both the progress of the implementation, as well as establish the time recording, feedback, and reporting structure for the individual portfolios, programs, and projects under the OPM System’s span of control.

Reference

1. Yaskawa Electric Corporation. 2015. Vision 2015/Direction for FY2015. Online at: http://www.yaskawa.co.jp/en/vision/index.html