BUS : Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Spring 2008

Transcription

1 BUS : Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Spring 2008 Instructor: Dr. Ben Arbaugh Office: CF 311 Phone: (920) W; (920) H Fax: (920) Class: Whenever and wherever you have access Office Hours: By , phone, or appointment Texts Michael Dobson, The Juggler s Guide to Managing Multiple Projects Lowell D. Dye & James S. Pennypacker (eds.), Project Portfolio Management: Selecting and Prioritizing Projects for Competitive Advantage Irene Tobis & Michael Tobis, Managing Multiple Projects. New York: McGraw- Hill. Readings Packet for BUS 766 Some readings available from commentaries in the Content area of the course website. Course Objectives This is a course that examines the simultaneous management of multiple projects by an individual and the strategic orientation of senior management toward an organization s portfolio of ongoing and potential projects. The course is organized around two themes: PRIORITIZATION and ALLOCATION. As you ll see, the readings, discussions, and assignments reflect these key ideas for portfolio management. After completing this course, students should be able to do at least two of the following: 1. Discuss concepts and techniques of PPM and multiple project management (MPM). 2. Identify primary issues to be addressed when discussing the merits of project management with senior management in their organizations. 3. Create a new or revise an existing project selection system to reflect principles of PPM. 4. Develop a system for simultaneous MPM. Deliverables Consistent with the key themes of the course, there are more deliverables listed below than you can reasonably accomplish. Therefore, you are responsible for selecting and managing your portfolio of deliverables for this course. Required and potential deliverables are listed as follows:

2 Required Deliverables: 1. Project Selection Process Exercise: (20%) For this exercise, you are to develop a framework from which you identify a balanced portfolio of projects to complete for this course (see Wysocki, pp for discussion). The paper you write on this framework must at minimum address the following topics: A presentation of your framework and the positioning of the potential projects you considered. Why did you select these strategies/approaches for balancing your portfolio? What was the rationale for the prioritization criteria you chose? How did you determine your Cutoff line for which projects you would pursue? How did you determine which deliverables you would submit for the early deadlines (end of Weeks 3 and 5)? How did you select your discussion topics? 2. What s On Your Plate Exercise (10%) For this deliverable you are to complete the exercise described in Chapters 5 and 6 of the Tobis and Tobis book. You are to submit two versions: one after completing the 8 step process described in Chapter 5 (pp ) and the second reflecting the adjustments you ve made based upon the Chapter 6 material. Making this paper available for class review is optional. 3. Participation (20%) For each week s discussions you will find an abundant number of discussion topics with many good questions. YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN NO MORE THAN TWO DISCUSSION TOPICS A WEEK!! You will need to develop criteria from which you make decisions on which topics to participate in for each week (which should be included in your write up for the project prioritization process exercise). Included in each week s discussions will be a debate topic. If you choose to participate in the weekly, you will be assigned a PRO or CON position that you must adhere to through Wednesday of each week. After that, you can adopt whatever position you wish on the topic. Given the nature of the discussion questions, you probably will have to talk to some members of senior management in your organization to be able to participate appropriately in some of our discussions. Please plan and schedule appropriately for those conversations. Your participation grade will be based on two criteria: (1) your participation in the class discussions you choose to enter (my expectation is that you will have at least one

3 substantive comment per week per discussion topic. By "substantive" I mean a comment that has been developed by using the course materials and clearly supports a position, begins a new topic, or somehow adds to the discussion by critically reflecting upon what has been discussed and/or moves the discussion in a new direction (Palloff & Pratt, 2001)); and (2) your level of engagement in class discussions (reading and responding to others posts, asking questions of the class, substantive comments on other students comments, etc.). Potential Deliverables: 1. Discussion Summaries: (5% for each, maximum of 5) For this deliverable, you are to review the posts for a particular discussion topic (not the entire set of discussion questions in a weekly forum) and identify the three most important themes from this discussion. You can do a maximum of one summary per week, with a maximum of five summaries. These summaries will be made available for review by the rest of the class, and must be posted in the relevant topic area by Tuesday of the following week. 2. Senior Executive Interview about PPM/Project Prioritization: (20%) For this deliverable, you are to conduct an interview with a senior executive in your organization (or another organization if you can arrange it) regarding the organization s project portfolio management processes. You can use the material in our texts and readings to frame your interview. The primary focus of the interview should be the structure and development of the organization s processes, areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Due to confidentiality reasons, these papers do not need to be made available for review by the class. This paper should be no more than five single-spaced pages. 3. Organizational Portfolio Process Redesign (20%) For this deliverable, you are to evaluate your organization s existing portfolio management process and redesign it in a manner that will increase its effectiveness. Your paper should include a discussion of the present process (include the five phases as described by Wysocki, p. 354), its strengths and weaknesses, your recommended revised model, and a discussion of how your redesign addresses the concerns with the present model. Due to confidentiality reasons, these papers do not need to be made available for review by the class. 4. Essay: Two-sides of the same coin? Unique characteristics of planning and managing multiple projects (10%) For this deliverable, you are to address Week 1 s debate question from the perspective of our subsequent course readings. Some potential questions to address include:

4 a. Are PPM and MMP distinct activities or is one a subset of the other? b. Why is question a. a relevant and/or important question? c. Is it possible that the answer to question a. is yes for some organizations but not for others? If so, how does one go about making that determination? d. If they are not distinct activities, should they become distinct? If so, how might one go about creating this distinctiveness? If not, why not? Be sure to use material from our readings and discussions with people in your organization when developing your arguments. This paper is to be no more than 5 single spaced pages. 5. Research Paper (10%) This paper is to be no more than 5 single spaced pages. 6. PPM Course Re-design (15%) For this deliverable, you are to evaluate the readings, discussions, and written assignments for this course and provide a description of the strengths and areas for further development within the course. You are to critique both the content and the process of the course. Your paper is to be no more than five single spaced pages and can be made available for review by the class. You can submit required or potential deliverables to the dropbox at any time during the course, but at least one of them MUST be submitted by the end of week 3, another must be submitted by the end of week 5, and all deliverables must be submitted by the end of Week 7. Discussion summaries do not count toward the early submission requirement. Grading Scale: A BC AB C B F

5 Course Schedule Week 1 Course Introduction People Issues in Multiple Project Management (MPM) Readings: Robert Wysocki & Rudd McGarry, Project portfolio management in Effective Project Management, pp (readings packet) James S. Pennypacker and Lowell D. Dye, Project portfolio management and managing multiple projects: Two sides of the same coin? from Managing Multiple Projects Pennypacker & Dye (eds.) (in readings packet) Tomas Blomquist and Ralf Muller, Practices, roles and responsibilities of middle managers in program and portfolio management. Project Management Journal, 37(1 March 2006): (Weekly course site commentary area). Tobis & Tobis, Managing Multiple Projects, Chapters 5-9 Week 2 Project Portfolio Management (PPM) at the Individual/Team Level: Task/Independent Project Portfolios Readings: Dobson Chaps 1-2, 6-7 Week 3 PPM at the Individual/Team Level: Interdependent Project Portfolios Readings: Dobson Chaps 8-10 Izack Cohen, Avishai Mandelbaum, & Avraham Shtub, Multi-Project scheduling and control: A process-based comparative study of the critical chain methodology and some alternatives. Project Management Journal, 35 (2 - June 2004): Perttu Dietrich, Mechanisms for inter-project integration: Empirical analysis in program context. Project Management Journal, 37(3 August 2006): (Weekly course site commentary area) Tony Rizzo, Operational Measurements for Product Development Organizations Part 2, PM Network December 1999, pp (readings packet) One deliverable of your choice is due! Week 4 PPM at the Corporate Level: Overview Readings: Project Portfolio Management, pp Robert Wysocki & Rudd McGarry, Project portfolio management in Effective Project Management, pp (readings packet) William Hoffman Keep it steady, PM Network, December 2004, pp (Weekly course site commentary area) Week 5 PPM at the Corporate Level: Project Selection and Resource Allocation Tools and Techniques Readings: Project Portfolio Management, pp ; ; 71-85; ; ; ;

6 Lynn Crawford, Brian Hobbs, and J. Rodney Turner, Aligning capability with strategy: Categorizing projects to do the right projects and do them right, Project Management Journal, 36(2 June 2006): Kentaro Nobeoka & Michael A. Cusumano, Multiproject strategy and sales growth: The benefits of rapid design transfer in new product development Strategic Management Journal, : (Both in Weekly course site commentary area) One deliverable of your choice is due! Week 6 PPM at the Corporate Level: Implementation Issues Project Sequencing Readings: Project Portfolio Management, pp Nino Levy & Shlomo Globerson, Improving multiproject management by using a queuing theory approach from Managing Multiple Projects Pennypacker & Dye (eds.) Michael A. Cusumano & Kentaro Nobeoka, The Toyota benchmark: Multiproject development centers from Managing Multiple Projects Pennypacker & Dye (eds.) Gerald Kendall, Profit-Driven portfolios, PM Network May 2003, pp (Readings Packet) Natalie Bauer, The sum of all parts, PM Network April 2004, pp Laura Frank, On demand, PM Network April 2004, pp Peter W. G. Morris & Ashley Jamieson, Moving from corporate strategy to project strategy Project Management Journal, 36(4 December 2005): (All in Weekly course site commentary area) Week 7 Project Management and Senior Executives Readings: Janice Thomas, Connie Delisle, Kam Jugdev, and Pamela Buckle, Selling project management to senior executives: The case for avoiding crisis sales, Project Management Journal, (2): Meghan Haynes, Make it your business PM Network December 2004, pp Karen J. Bannan, Just the Facts, PM Network January 2005, pp Marcia Jedd, In Command PM Network, February 2006, pp Jane Helm & Kaye Remington, Effective Project Sponsorship Project Management Journal, 36(3 - September 2005): (All in Weekly course site commentary area) All deliverables now due!