Execution versus Strategic Execution

Listing and highlighting the distinction between execution and strategic execution provides a new framework for next‐generation project management and PMO. As strategy and execution come together, and strategic execution gets encoded into the genetic code of the organization, eventually the distinction should dissolve. To start with, it is important to understand the difference and identify opportunities to evolve (Table 5.1).

Out of the many PMOs, we have worked with, there are a few who understood this. While many PMOs focus on standardization and consistent delivery, the Thermo King PMO has simplified its mandate as “executing to deliver business results.” Over the past year and a half, the PMO and project management team has strived to inject an entrepreneurial spirit as they have understood and embraced the company's growth strategy and found ways to execute on it. They are prioritizing quality and voice of customer initiatives, along with new product development to deliver on the growth strategy. It is rare to hear quality, delivery, cost on one hand, and operating income, margins, and sales volume on the other, in a room full of project managers. It wasn't easy, but project managers have a different perspective now, with ownership and accountability for business results. Instead of jumping ahead into the technical design solution, they are bound to question and engage in the commercial hypothesis first. They discuss operating income for the project and how are we trending toward business results. They are also geared for adaptive execution, as business conditions change, the PMO is better tuned‐in to anticipate, adapt, and adjust spending and resource allocation.

Overall project management is gaining a reputation for strategic execution, and the PMO is perceived as the key to link execution issues across silos and resolve them with a holistic perspective.

So how does next‐generation project management and PMO develop strategic‐execution capabilities? You need to build an adaptive platform to enable and optimize strategic execution.

Developing Next Generation Talent and Skills

Designing Career and Learning and Development Programs

Effective PMOs partner with human resources (HR) to develop project management roles, career path, certification, and training requirements. As you evaluate these requirements, the goal should be to create the right mindset, along with the appropriate skillset and toolset. To cater to a changing workforce, learning and development needs to utilize a variety of blended options catering to not only different learning styles but also mixed generations of digital natives. To cater to shorter attention spans, affinity for task switching and preferences for learning what is minimally necessary, a blend of formal and informal learning with micro‐learning opportunities, gamification, and hands‐on live learning work better. Also, it is critical to provide live learning opportunities with built‐in reflection time and deep, insightful learning opportunities. In today's world, this is rare and hard to gain from other mediums and can be a refreshing and mindful experience to generate breakthrough thinking and actionable insights.

Besides the talent triangle training on technical, strategic & business management and leadership skills, it is also important to provide learning programs in managing the DANCE and complexity, along with change intelligence, connecting, and learning agility.

Learning and development can be supplemented by mentoring and coaching programs. In my observation, PMOs do not effectively develop or utilize coaching programs for project management, like other executive coaching programs.

Also, part of people development is to have a defined career path. Figure 5.4 is an example of a project management career path from Nationwide Insurance Company PMO.

Tips for Effective Process

It is important to emphasize that it is easy to get carried away with process, and PMOs typically get caught‐up in too much process. Following are tips to consider for effective methods and process implementation:

• Select and identify only critical elements. Apply Pareto's 80/20 principle to identify the vital few processes that can have the maximum impact on execution, instead of getting overwhelmed by too many processes.
• Focus on core principles for standards, methods, and processes, and provide room for situational application. Each organization and situation is unique, the more specific and detailed the method it may become the stumbling block, particularly for linear, logical project managers. Instead, provide principles that show them how to cook and execute, rather than detailed recipes that may be hard to follow.
• Strive to find the sweet‐spot of rigor without rigidity (discussed in Chapter 2).
• Experiment, learn, fine‐tune, and simplify processes continually.

Process versus Behavior

In our practice, it is common to come across clients that are eager to show their list of processes that they have developed, and yet we find they struggle and wonder why they are not getting the results. You can have the best documented process in the world, but if people don't understand it, or change their behavior to adopt and apply the process, it is of no use. Think from both perspectives—from the organizational inside‐out perspective and the process user, or customer outside‐in standpoint. Plan for three levels of process maturity and adoption. Just because you have done a great job in creating and documenting the process, it is not enough. You can't check‐it off yet; it is only the first step. Table 5.2 lists the three levels of depth from both perspectives.

Classifying Processes Provides New Insights for Effective Execution

Classifying processes helps to provide insights for the best usage and advantages and limitations of each category of process. Sigurd Rinde, founder of Thingamy AG and blogger, has an interesting way to classify process as bespoke, barely repeatable process, easily repeatable process, and automated process.

Bespoke processes are custom processes that are unique to your business and need to be custom‐tailored each time. These handcrafted processes aim to provide a unique and memorable experience for customers.

A nonlinear unpredictable barely repeatable process (BRP) uses common ways of doing things, but still requires a high level of skill and judgment to execute. Services, support, health, government, education, and all those other “people” processes that require human judgment and situational application are examples of BRP. These are supported by to‐do lists, meetings, collaboration tools, and management involvement.

A linear predictable easily repeatable process (ERP) is one that doesn't require much skill or advanced training to complete; you can be trained in how to run that process with instructions. Production, procurement, distribution, and operational processes are examples of ERP that are supported with systems.

Automated process is when a human doesn't need to interact with a system to produce the outcomes. If you have a standard procurement process to order supplies each month that is an ERP that can be automated easily by setting a recurring ordering transaction.

According to Sigard's analysis, only 30 percent of the world gross domestic product (GDP) is created with ERP, whereas 64 percent is generated by BRP. While it is relatively easy to gain efficiencies from ERPs, BRPs, are different and therein lies the opportunity for exponential gains by focusing on them and finding ways to optimize these processes. This classification can help in a number of ways: to gain further efficiencies in ERP and find ways to further automate them. BRPs can be identified as processes that need greater support, training, and attention to identify optimization opportunities and augmentation with analytics and AI.

Over time, the experience from bespoke processes can be used to standardize and create signature processes that can be scaled, like Apple's product development process or Amazon's synchronized supply‐chain process. These signature processes can be a competitive advantage, as they are hard to emulate. This can be an opportunity for incumbent companies to tap into signature processes that others like start‐up companies may not yet have, and integrate them in powerful ways to scale.

Also, the process categorization can help to evaluate appropriate systems, tools, and governance approaches for different processes.

PMO Support and Services Related to Execution

Effective PMOs provide execution support and services like Southern California Edison (SCE) Utility companies' Smart Connect program. The SCE PMO provided services like risk management workshops and organizational readiness reviews. The risk management workshop process included multiple workshops focused on potential system and product failures. A cross‐section of department and directors and managers were represented. These workshops resulted in response and recovery plans for the highest probable risks. The PMO organizational readiness team works closely with operational and business area subject matter experts to assess the impact of change associated with new technology and processes, and identify key readiness activities to ensure a smooth transition. This team provides support to impacted business area leads through process walk‐through events to ensure the enterprise‐wide business units understand their roles and responsibilities and are prepared to assume ownership of new business process implementation.

PMOs can provide the following support services to facilitate and enable effective execution:

• Project start‐up workshops
• Planning workshops
• Risk management workshops
• Organizational readiness review
• Project review and guidance
• Lessons learned and retrospective facilitation
• Troubled project recovery

Types of Project Management and PMO‐Related Tools

Project management software covers a range of solutions that allow individuals and teams to track the progress of projects from their conception to their completion. There are hundreds of these programs on the market, ranging from basic free online programs all the way to highly complex products that allow the user to manage every aspect from idea generation all the way to invoicing, payment, and benefit tracking.

According to the softwareadvice.com website, PPM refers to a collective effort by an organization to centralize and coordinate project efforts across a portfolio of work. PPM software helps automate processes, streamlining the planning, managing, and delivery of each project. While traditional project tools are designed to support teams at a project or department level, PPM software is designed to support project processes at an organizational level. For example, traditional planning allows managers to map out a project's critical path and identify task dependencies and constraints. PPM software does this and more, allowing decision makers to map out the dependencies and constraints between projects and identify potential scheduling issues, budget conflicts, and overlapping objectives. Ultimately, this allows us to better weigh one initiative against another so the business can eliminate waste and execute on the projects that deliver the greatest value. Implementing a full‐fledged PPM suite requires a significant investment of time and resources to implement and manage.

The right timing to implement a PPM tool is when you have standardized and achieved a degree of consistency and repeatability of project‐related processes. People understand the foundational concepts and baseline data is being collected. The culture and PM community should be ready and hungry for the tool. As management guru Jim Collins has remarked, technology should be used as an accelerator of momentum and not creator of momentum.

Tools Evaluation Resources

Several organizations specialize in providing reports and reviews for enterprise software tools. Refer to the following resources to research and evaluate tools options:

• Gartner (gartner.com). Gartner is an IT research firm that publishes research reports on a variety of software categories including project management. Research reports and consulting are available for purchase.
• Forrester (forrester.com). Similar to Gartner, Forrester is an IT research and advisory firm that publishes research reports and guides on enterprise software. Reports and specialized advice are available for a fee.
• Softwareadvice.com. Free website that offers a wealth of evaluation information and buyers' guides on all kind of software tools including project management and PPM. They also publish a Frontrunners Quadrant, a graphic of top‐performing tools in each category.
• Capterra.com. A crowd‐sourced software review website covering many different software categories.

You may not be ready for full‐fledged PPM tools. At the same time, you don't have to rely on old‐school static spreadsheets or PowerPoint. There are a lot of cool visual, mobile, and intuitive and useful apps for task management, workflow, and collaboration that are cloud‐based and relatively inexpensive to tryout. Research the above websites like softwareadvice.com for the latest technology landscape.

Next‐Generation Tools with Project Intelligence (PI)

The next generation of evolving technology and tools platform have sensors and bots that collect and provide live data. With the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors and bots capture data in the areas of quality, effort, and performance, We can imagine how timesheets and data entry is becoming antiquated with bots and assistants that help with estimates, budget, and sprint management among other things. As you work with different systems, it can track what systems you are working on for how much time. With machine learning, it can track your number of interactions as well as the content of interactions. It automates the assignment of resources and tasks. Your personal bot mines tasks from meeting notes and mark completion in real time, while the estimation bot provides realistic estimates based on mining real‐time data of like projects in similar industries.

This also addresses a big challenge, as we don't have to rely on humans anymore to enter accurate and timely data. Sensors are collecting data automatically. Systems are getting smart by learning from task description and filling in the blanks by making good enough assumptions, for example, tying together sprint history, and showing how your key resource is being pulled away each week for other projects. A system can reassign tasks, based on its knowledge of how good people are based on their performance in real time. Overtime PI will move from descriptive and diagnostic domain of project management to providing predictive, prescriptive, and intuitive insights. PI will not only diagnose and predict project issues, but also resolve them intuitively before they happen, and impact project performance in real‐time.

Principles of Design Thinking

Following is a summary of some of the design thinking principles that can be applied to project management and PMOs culled from the literature based on the work of Tim Brown and David Kelly of IDEO; Roger Martin, dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto; Jeanne Liedka, Darden School of Management at the University of Virginia; and Tim Ogilivie of Peer Insight:

• Feasibility, viability, and desirability. Match people's needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value. Intersection of feasibility (what is functionally possible within a given time frame); viability (is it viable from a business standpoint) and desirability (this is what customers, end users, and other stakeholders want).
• Aim to connect deeply with those you serve. This involves observation, gaining insights and deep careful understanding of what customers want, walking in their shoes, validating assumptions, asking penetrating questions, deep listening, connecting emotionally, and having empathy for your customers and end users. This is different than conducting a business requirements process or interviewing stakeholders or conducting focus groups. It is insightful observation, living in their world and experiencing their perspective to design and deliver what they want. Ironically, projects rely on classic scope definition and requirement‐gathering processes that are often static and cursory, relying heavily on documentation. Design thinking espouses that it is hard for people to tell you what they want; you must observe, engage, and empathize with them to gain insights.
• Constraints as opportunities, not limitations. Design thinking by nature is divergent, open to possibilities, and seeks opportunities. It advocates not letting your imagined constraints limit your possibilities. An oft‐used example is the constraint of buildings getting proportionally heavier, weaker, and more expensive as they grow larger in size. Buckminster Fuller was inspired by this constraint to invent the geodesic dome, which becomes proportionally lighter, stronger, and less expensive as it grows larger in scale.

  The traditional project management mindset is the management and limitation posed by constraints of time, cost, and scope. Instead of limiting what we cannot do, design thinking help us reframe the problem and discover new opportunities in the process. According to Richard Buchanan, former dean of Carnegie Mellon School of Design, great design occurs at the intersection of constraint, contingency, and possibility.

• Visualization, prototyping, and iteration. Design thinking visualizes opportunities and believes that you can't achieve perfection in a rapidly changing world and emphasizes quick prototyping and frequent iteration. It utilizes visual tools and relies on testing, seeking feedback and refining.

The above principles are well suited to address the execution challenges in a DANCE environment and essential to design an adaptive execution platform.

Project and program managers can also use this type of thinking to design projects for maximum benefit and intended outcomes within the given constraints and boundaries. It provides a greater opportunity to understand and focus on what customers and key stakeholders need and design a plan to deliver it. For example, in a large IT systems implementation project, the rollout was typically planned on a regional basis. After a design approach was introduced, the project team realized that a better plan was to implement systems based on a line of business or departmental basis. In the previous approach, if there were implementation problems, the whole site would be down. In the new customer‐focus designed plan, the site would be operational and business could be conducted even if there were issues in one of the areas.

Designing for Execution Agility

Detailed execution plans considered solid today may not survive the DANCE of future uncertainty. The customer thinks that the project manager has everything under control and the project will go according to plan. The project manager is confident of the plan, but the rigid plan may blind her or him to recognize a shift in the customer's needs and the need to adjust the plan.

To deal with this, the ideas of “rolling‐wave planning”—detailed planning for the immediate wave and high‐level milestone planning for future waves—became popular. Also, practices like iterative planning, progressive elaboration, adaptive planning, and agile techniques are used more and more. Although these techniques can help, a fundamental shift from a “solid” to a “liquid” frame can set the stage for a more effective collaboration between a customer and a project manager.

This is important because it sets the stakeholder's expectation for variation and helps project managers by preparing them to withstand unforeseen changes and adjusting plans accordingly instead of proceeding with a false sense of comfort.

Following are ideas on how to prepare for agility and cultivate an agile mindset:

• Think liquid, not solid

  Plans are based on the understanding of current assumptions and objectives, which are bound to change. Rarely do projects go exactly according to plan. Working without a plan is not wise, but following a plan that has no relationship to reality is foolish. Recognize how solid plans can become blinders that limit your options. Learn to develop liquid plans with multiple perspectives and options that are enabling and not constricting. A pilot flying a plane with a clear objective starts with a flight plan, but must constantly replan in real‐time based on weather conditions and wind patterns to reach his destination. Similarly, successful project managers start with a plan but manage and adjust the project in real‐time based on unfolding reality on the ground.

• Sense‐respond‐adapt‐adjust

  Real‐time planning can be enhanced by cultivating skills to sense, respond, adjust, and adapt. Sensing skills help you develop acute awareness and vigilance to anticipate unexpected changes and respond accordingly. Adaptation helps you to quickly adjust to new realities and alter the plan to accommodate the changes.

• Use the appropriate communication approach to set the right expectations

  Stop using the word plan; substitute it with planning. If they ask for the plan, tell them here is the latest “planning” as of now. This subtle shift infuses a sense of fluidity, elasticity, flexibility and agility. Do not talk about planning without listing “assumptions” or “what must be true” for this planning to work.

Designing a Scalable Adaptive Execution Platform

An adaptive execution platform must be scalable. You should think about scalability and self‐replication as you design your execution platform. Question how scalable are your people, process, technology, and flow. Salim Ismail, Michael Malone, and Yuri Geest, in their book, Exponential Organizations, use the acronym SCALE to outline a framework for rapid scalability:

• Staff on demand. Use contractors, staff‐on‐demand platforms wherever possible; keep full‐time equivalents to a minimum.
• Community. Leverage PM and PMO communities to scale. Get access to additional skills and resources. Get feedback and learn to scale.
• Algorithms. Identify processes and data streams that can be automated. Investigate what insights and algorithms can be learned from existing data and systems to scale.
• Leveraged assets. Do not acquire assets unless you have to. Use cloud computing and cloud‐based PPM tools and apps that can be scaled easily.
• Engagement. Design PM processes and tools with engagement in mind. Gather all user interactions. Gamify where possible. Create a digital reputational system of users and suppliers to build trust and community. Use incentive prizes to engage crowd and create buzz.
• These tips are more oriented for start‐ups, but similar ideas, including concepts based on the lean start‐up movement are being adopted within large incumbent organizations like GE and Coca‐Cola. As you design for scalability, think about how incumbent companies can have an advantage from integrating an established set of capabilities in powerful ways that start‐ups may not be easily able to emulate.

Assessing and Maturing Execution Agility

An adaptive execution platform with standardized processes, tools, and flows can provide stability in a DANCE‐world. When everyone speaks the same language, understands how things are done around here, knows who does what, with ownership and accountability and the right level of governance, it creates a vibrant environment for agility. If you have to reinvent the wheel each time, agility suffers. Chapter 3, introduced a Strategy Execution Continuum for assessing maturity and developing intelligence:

• Standardize for developing capabilities and achieving consistency and repeatability.
• Measure to get visibility and transparency to drive performance and results.
• Learn to improve predictability, while developing experience and agility to evolve.
• Innovate for better customer experience and customer creation and sustained value generation and impact.