“Vision with No Actions is a Dream, but Actions with No Vision is a Nightmare”.
Organizations who are keen on achieving their vision must align their project investments or actions with their vision’s strategic goals. This will enable the organization to monitor and evaluate if the realized benefits from those projects have achieved their set targets. The Benefit is the value created for the project sponsor or beneficiary as a result of the successful completion of a project.Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb will provide the organization with an integrated platform to manage, monitor, and evaluate their strategy execution and realized benefits. Programs will be created to capture the details of the strategic initiatives that the organization will undertake to achieve its strategy. Details that relate to the program manager, estimated cost, estimated duration, program theme, among others.
Each program or strategic initiative will be detailed into specific projects that the organization will invest in. Those projects could be capital projects, information technology, business re-engineering, among others. For each project, details including project manager, duration, planned start and finish dates, type, category, among other details.
This will provide the organization with a comprehensive repository of all programs and projects that they need to undertake to achieve their set strategic goals. The report depicted below shows the programs and projects that a government entity must undertake to achieve its three-year strategic vision. The report provides a list of programs, program manager, projects within a program, and project type.
For each project, the assigned project manager needs to prepare a benefits’ focused business case that will set out the basis of having the project investment. The business case must show the organization’s value by identifying specific services that will be attained. PMWeb, a custom form builder, will be used to create the business case for which, in addition to the general details of a business case like the project manager, project sponsor business owner, and problem or opportunity statement. The form will include the list of benefits that the project needs to achieve. Each benefit measure will be aligned with the relevant strategic goal, unit of measure, and target benefit for each period, which could be quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
Similar to all other PMWeb records, the business could have attachments to support the business case proposal. All those documents will be uploaded and stored on the PMWeb document management repository. In addition, a workflow will be assigned to the business case to ensure the needed reviews and approvals been secured.
Each project will be initiated, planned, executed, monitored and controlled, and closed out by implementing project management best practices. A work breakdown structure (WBS) will be created to detail the project scope, which will make the project’s implementation schedule and budget. Also, the project quality, resources, and communication plans will be created to be used in managing the project. The risk management plan will be designed to identify how to respond to the project’s risks, which might require transferring some of those risks for which the procurement plan will address how to manage the outsourced work scope. In addition, stakeholders affected by the project or influence the project needs to be analyzed and managed. All those details will become the basis for the project’s integrated management plan.
At the end of the progress reporting period, which could be quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, each project’s actual benefits need to be assessed and quantified. Using PMWeb custom form builder, a benefits realization form will be created to capture the actual achievements. The form will have a workflow assigned to formalize the submit, review, and approval process.
The captured actual benefits realization data and the planned benefits realization asset in the business case will provide the organization with a single real-time version of the truth monitoring and evaluation report of benefits realization for each project being executed. Also, other reports can be designed to report benefits realization at a program level or across the complete portfolio of programs and tasks needed to achieve the organization’s vision.
