Playing It Right With Project Management

Today’s world business success is defined by how robust, agile, responsive and cost efficient an organisation’s supply chain is. Companies are constantly implementing innovative supply chain solutions related to supply network, collaborative enterprise wide systems, low cost sourcing, application of the Lean Six Sigma for productivity and problem solving, as well as supply chain process standardisation. This presents greater opportunities for supply chain professionals in managing the lifecycle of these major strategic initiatives through various project management methodology and framework.

While supply chain professionals tend to be strong in their domain-specific knowledge, they often find the deployment of initiatives challenging, as it requires strong project management skills. Projects are unique and often constraint-bound (in terms of time, cost, scope etc.). They are characterised by the limited information at a given time which unfolds progressively. The changing nature of projects requires a very strong link between planning, execution, monitoring and control. Projects are periodically replanned based on progressive elaboration as new information is received and the project status is updated. The multifunctional stakeholders of the projects also pose a different challenge as each function brings specific domain expertise and hence a different viewpoint to the project.

COMMON CHALLENGEs FACED BY SUPPLY CHAIN PROFESSIONALS IN DEPLOYING INITIATIVES

Strategic alignment & prioritisation
Choosing the right project may not be a big issue but choosing the optimum number of projects and determining their priority based on funding or resource constraint may be a bigger challenge in an overall organisational context. The changing business environment and project status along with the dynamic project risk profile lead to further complexity in portfolio prioritisation, resulting in a change of prioritisation over time.

Project Scope Issues
Lack of clarity on the project scope at the beginning of the project (i.e. the elements within and beyond the project scope) creates constant scope changes within the project. These lead to scope creep that can have adverse impact on project objectives and execution.

Lack of governance at the various stages of the project
Lack of proper governance on how projects are planned, executed and monitored as well as lack of objective project metrics and disciplined project baseline create a challenge in painting the true picture of the project health. The governance process, through steering team reviews, helps in the implementation of mandated processes by reviewing issues such as realistic project metrics with true baselines, phase gate reviews, proactive risk management and implementing project change control (scope, funding limits, reallocation of funds and resources).

Struggle with functional heads to secure resources
Securing the right person and numbers or the availability of the person as well as keeping the acquired team members motivated could be another challenge. The struggle in optimising efforts between project and operational work of part-time or shared resources may have a negative impact on both operational and project work.

Impact of people in relation to change management
Managing the human aspect of change and generating engagement and sponsorship is critical to successful project deployment. Getting the right sponsors to execute the
relevant sponsorship requirements could be a challenge for the project manager. By understanding the real human-related risk based on intent, clarity, resistance, reward and recognition, engagement and sponsorship can make a difference on how project team members and the target population of the performing organisation accept the change.

Project planning exercise
Though the subject of project management is a vast field, there are particular aspects that could be important to deploying success if organisations decide to address them. Given the complexity, uniqueness and multifunctionality of the project, it is highly recommended that organisations use some kind of framework, process and governance to support project management in the organisational context.

THE POWER OF PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: THE CONSOLIDATED VIEW

A portfolio provides an organisation with the bigger picture. Portfolio management with its strategic alignment tool helps in choosing the right project which is not only financially prudent, but also strategically aligned. It looks at a project in relation with other projects within a portfolio, and given the finite capacity and funding limit, portfolio management helps to prioritise periodically based on the current situation, business priority, fund limitation, and project performance, issues and risks.

Scope it right
Project scoping should be taken in a multifunctional approach. Each function contributes in terms of detailed description of what is in scope and what is out of scope from their functional perspective. Scope in terms of WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and deliverables is a must for all projects. Acceptance criteria for deliverables further clarifies a deliverable in terms of its functionality or specification. Project scoping should be done and documented as early as possible, preferably at the beginning of the project. Changes to any project scope should be done through the documented change management process.

It is best to put off activity planning until the project team has created an in- scope and out-of-scope list, consisting of required deliverables (an exhaustive WBS) and the assigned deliverable owners 

responsible for getting various deliverables completed). Deliverables should be linked with milestones and dates which are not only aligned to project objective but also negotiated with project team members and sponsors. A project scoping exercise should be done with all members of the relevant functions to create a realistic and exhaustive WBS.

Realistic Activity Planning
Deliverables are exploded into realistic activities with the right duration and interdependencies to create the plan. People should refrain from blind template imposition. Templates can be guides but not realistic plans as each project is unique by itself. Clear activity ownership (person who will execute the activity) should be assigned to each activity. The plan should be backward scheduled from the milestone dates created earlier on, based on project objective and team member negotiation. This plan should be progressively elaborated as and when new information is gathered.

Optimum Resource Allocation
Issues in resource allocation can be tackled if a proper role specification and expected demand for the role is created. Role competency and skill profile of team members should be used for the project fit to avoid assigning the project to the wrong people. The project engagement, released timeline and availability of team members from operations should be updated periodically, preferably by the PMO to check if the right talents are available for the project. Resource reallocation should be done by senior management based on project portfolio prioritisation on an ongoing basis.

Real-Time Issue Management
Issues are road blocks that occur along the way, and when not resolved will hinder the project progress. Issues need to be resolved, and hence a strict tracking of age and status of open issues by the issue register should be done. Track repeatability should be done after these issues have been closed to find out if the root causes have been addressed.

Proactive Risk Management
Risk is something that has not happened, but is likely to happen with a certain probability. When a risk materialises, it will have an impact on the project and will act as a blocker. Risk is a forecast and depending on the probability and severity of its impact, it is crucial for a mitigation plan to be designed. Quality of risk management plan in a project depends on how well the project team identifies risk, its characteristics, mitigation plan and how often the plan is updated. Project risk reviews should be a standard item during the project steering team update.

Targeted Stakeholder Management
It is important to analyse the stakeholder before designing any communication strategy. Stakeholders, if powerful, can have both positive and negative implications on the project. A targeted communication plan should be designed based on the communication need and stakeholder analysis profile. Occasional stakeholder, especiallythose outside the performing organisation should be analysed thoroughly, as they may sometimes have a major impact if their requirements were missed, especially in the project scope. Nomination of sponsors and their roles, as well as identification of black holes in initiating and reinforcing the sponsorship chain can lead to great insights on where the communication needs to be focused. Any resistance, both overt and covert, needs be managed by understanding the root cause of resistance and addressing it.

BUILDING THE RIGHT COMPETENCY

Supply Chain professionals should be exposed to project management, programme management and portfolio management training, depending on what roles they are playing in initiative deployment. The training and coaching exposes them to the world of project lifecycle planning, project management framework, tools and templates. The project management skills will help them to leverage their strong supply chain domain knowledge in deploying supply chain initiatives. It is also important for the senior management to be exposed to both project and portfolio management, in order to understand and mandate good project management practices as well as sponsor project governance within the organisation.

Governance: Mandate and discipline in review and reporting
Though organisations have good governance processes for project justification, they still need to work on how the governance is extended beyond justification to the entire project lifecycle, from initiation to closing. Steering the team on a project should create appropriate organisational visibility and with multifunctional representation and decision-making power. Reviews should be based on baseline and expected plan. Focus should be directed towards exception management (what did not happen as per the plan, why, impact, how to resolve, new date). Project metrics presented should be objective and based on Time (deliverable, milestone and activity), Cost, Issues (age and criticality), Risk (Proactive, Impact based, mitigation plan) and Forward views. The analysis should focus on trends, root cause, forecast and real issues (sponsorship, people, competency, loading, priority etc.).

Subrata Pal spoke on the above topic at the Leveraging the Power of Project Management in Supply Chain Initiatives seminar on 26 May 2011. This seminar was organised by the SCS Supply Chain Management Special Interest Group.