program & portfolio management -...

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Program & Portfolio Management

Conference summary report

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Your enthusiasm, insights and willingness to share with your peers is why Gartner

Symposium/ITxpo is the world’s largest and most important gathering of CIOs

and senior IT executives.

Transforming IT’s relevance in an organization Re-imagining IT — our theme for 2011 — calls for you and your peers to “lead from the front.” While there still remains a great deal of economic uncertainty, the explosion of IT and advanced technologies is undeniable. As a result, there is a much-needed focus on customers, employees, consumers, competitors and suppliers. They are all quickly becoming part of the IT ecosystem that will be supported by the IT organization. Given that backdrop, it’s critical for leaders like you to rethink or re-imagine IT’s relevance within the organization. We hope your experience at Symposium/ITxpo this year gave you a fresh pair of eyes on the issues that matter most — from supporting new business models to gaining positive impact from transformative technology initiatives like cloud, social networking, mobility and context-aware computing.

To assist you in your reporting efforts, we’ve created this special report to provide you with an at-a-glance review of select keynotes, session take-aways and other conference highlights.

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ContentsMessage from the chair 2

Key take-aways 2

Things to watch for — challenges and opportunities 3

Conference session highlights 4

2011 Symposium/ITxpo Sponsors 7

Post-event tools and tips 8

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14 – 17 November • Gold Coast, Australia • gartner.com/au/symposium



Message from John Roberts Vice President & Distinguished Analyst, Program & Portfolio Management Track ManagerEven though Program & Portfolio Management (PPM) is a growing area of need for many organizations, the results it delivers often do not live up to expectations. Chief among the reasons is that the common approach to implementing PPM disciplines is mechanical, process-focused and change-resistant. In today’s volatile economic environment ongoing change needs to be expected, processes need to constantly adapt and leadership (rather than management) is what’s required. What’s more, PPM leaders must constantly work on “fit” — fit for their business, their organizational culture and their readiness to accept change. So how can PPM make big new things happen for the organization when by its very nature it prefers static conditions? PPM must be re-imagined. A new vision needs to replace the old one in which on-time, on-budget and low-risk delivery were the guiding criteria.

Increasingly, organizations are undertaking significant projects and programs to create business change. But business change requires leadership — the right kind at the right time. Rather than just collecting demand and executing projects, PPM leaders must embrace the role of “change innovators.” Business conditions are evolving too rapidly to rely on plans that can extend for several years. Strategies and practices need to be re-evaluated so organizations can move faster, change more often and deal directly with growing complexity. The fact that business decisions are made amidst a large number or unknowns, growing uncertainty and at an accelerated pace has created a new reality that PPM leaders cannot afford to ignore. If they do, they will run the risk of being marginalized. The next era of PPM will be characterized by a diversity of roles, tools and approaches.

Key takeaways

Expect change

Better manage your work and build your processes to expect change. In both current and future business environments, PPM leaders will be dealing with high levels of ongoing uncertainty. The velocity of change is increasing and linear project and program management techniques cannot keep pace.

Adapt a new paradigm

“One size fits most” process-driven project management will be eclipsed by faster, more iterative and lighter approaches that are defined by results and fine-tuned to various internal needs. Given today’s business climate, it is essential for organizations that have invested heavily in structured project management to shift to this new paradigm.

John Roberts Vice President andDistinguished Analyst,Program and PortfolioManagement Track Manager


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Communicate value

PMO leaders should continually demonstrate progress and value for what they do. PMO value doesn’t occur one project at a time, but in the aggregate ability across projects. Don’t confuse the means (such as standards and process) with the ends (such as stakeholder satisfaction and shorter time-to-decision).

Manage diversity

Be prepared to have a strategy that can manage a diversity of PPM tools, deployment styles and maturity of use in the environment. Why? Because single-platform convergence will be too difficult to achieve, and there are myriad old and new solutions that are extremely attractive. Stakeholders, users and sponsors are looking for tools that are fit for use now and deliver business value quickly, and the market is complying.

Another area of diversity is in roles and skills of the people involved in PPM. The organization must set people up for success. That means understanding the different skill levels involved, providing coaching and mentoring and defining different competencies at the project, program and portfolio levels.

Things to watch for — challenges and opportunities

Prioritizing demand: Many attendees voiced their concerns about the business expecting them to do more than their capabilities and resources can handle. IT organizations, in particular, are drowning in demand and having a difficult time helping the business prioritize demand against critical business strategies, goals and objectives.

Communications and project reporting: Another common concern focused on the disconnect between what PPM leaders should communicate about the work they’re doing vs. the message that’s resonating with the sponsors of that work. The result: IT is facing a set of challenges around meeting and managing expectations.

Proving value at all levels: Benefits realization and business value at the project level is always a concern. More broadly, the investment in project management, PMOs and the rest needs to be made visible and improvements made measurable.

Execution challenges: The classic project management challenge — meeting expectations and managing multiple stakeholders — is now being raised to an organization-wide and enterprise-wide discussion of execution capability.

Change management: Projects and programs change things. Execution can be perfect, but if the organization can not convert project deliverables into business value, it is hard to claim success. This is where PPM needs to address organizational change and staff and manager readiness for change.


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Conference session highlights

PPM: What’s Hot, What’s Not and What’s Coming

Presenter: Donna Fitzgerald, Research VP

What actions should PPM leaders take today to prepare for the future? After many years, organizations have “projectized” the work they do to get reliable results and bring about significant changes in their environments. But IT project failure rates still remain high. What’s more, traditional structured project management, PPM software tools and PMO structures are not delivering expected results. Why? Because the PMO mission and objectives often do not match the organization’s real needs. Additionally, there is a gap between the roles and responsibilities of the PMO and the maturity of the organization. In this scenario session, attendees discovered how organizations are redefining common wisdom and questioning accepted best practice to make PPM better fit their specific business. The rate of change is increasing, and linear project and program management techniques cannot keep pace. The goal at hand: Overhaul a rigid, risk-averse system and replace it with one that allows for decisions to be made “in flight” by those closest to the source of the issue. Session recommendations included the following:

Short-term (now through the next three months)

• Determine your PPM maturity so that you can better assess what’s possible.

• Make the process fit the work. Start by categorizing the work, streamlining the steps, eliminating a sign-off, cancelling unnecessary meetings and retiring a report.

• Determine the next steps for PPM software in the organization, focusing on the shortest path to value and retaining flexibility.

Long-term (within the next 12 months)

• Reassess the organization’s assumptions about what constitutes a “project.” Triage work should include change operations, iterative approaches, critical programs and complex efforts.

Donna Fitzgerald, Research VP


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The Lean PMO — Toward ‘No Waste, All Quality’ IT Portfolios

Presenter: Andy Rowsell-Jones, VP

“Waste” has a way of creeping into processes, including IT’s. A lean PMO targets waste in all its forms, from excess projects to delays to rework and more, helping to maximize the benefits of the IT investment. This session discussed how to drive high-quality performance by leveraging master PMs, tracking key project (and other) metrics, and easing the project chartering process. Attendees were advised that to thrive in the new economy requires applying the five principles of lean to projects, processes — and the PMO itself: Value, value stream, perfection, flow and pull. Additional guidance was given on ways to target waste rather than contributing to it and the importance of rewarding project managers and team members for identifying process and quality issues. Attendees were encouraged to consider these short- and long-term recommendations:


• Check your charters. Are they adaptive, or cast in stone?

• Identify your lean practices. What quality foundation exists to build on?

• Engage. Advise and listen to other key organizational mechanisms, from QA to EA to ITG Board.


• Promote the PMO’s Lean role. The PMO is a process improvement group – focused first on improving project performance.

• Reduce waste in 3D. Project, IT and enterprise dimensions of Lean.

Andy Rowsell-Jones VP


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Shepherding Projects Through the Conflicts of Change

Presenters: Steve Bittinger, Research Director; John P. Roberts, VP Distinguished Analyst

Change management is an underappreciated dimension of successful projects. Ignoring organizational change principles is a surefire way to reduce the success of any initiative. Yet few projects include a detailed plan for dealing with the vagaries of human nature.

Project managers are conflicted. They need to deal with both the art and the science of project management. Unfortunately, it is often the science side of the equation that receives the most attention. Getting people to change familiar habits requires a clear statement of “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM). When the WIIFM is a grand vision that appeals to people’s better nature, it is easier to link to the intrinsic motivation that drives humans to excel. This is a more fruitful approach than demanding that people work differently or asking for a minor change that is uninspiring. But this may be counterintuitive to project managers who have been schooled in the development of detailed and precise change management plans that lack inspiration. With that in mind, project managers and team members should consider taking the following steps:


• Seek out masters of organizational change and leverage their expertise while you hone your skills.

• Determine which conflict-reducing techniques will be useful to team members and practice using them.


• Utilize engaging communication mechanisms that stir people’s emotions to explain the change imperative.

• Share your learning and experience with colleagues.

Steve Bittinger Research Director

John P. Roberts VP Distinguished Analyst


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Thank you to our 2011 Platinum Sponsors

Please click here to view ALL sponsors

http://www.gartner.com/technology/symposium/gold-coast/exhibitor-directory.jsp


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