Day #34: KPI and metrics

We keep being inspired by the course assignment! In order to evaluate business strategy and BRM policies, we quite often make use of KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. But the digital era and the progressive digitization and digitalization in our society make difficult to measure the return of investment (ROI). Old ROI metrics focused on efficiencies, but today they should talk about revenue and customer experience.

That is very well described in the article How to measure IT ROI in the digital era, from a website called The Enterprisers Project, a community helping IT leaders to solve problems.

Specific metrics are considered and split in three categories: strategic, operational and cost impact. Examples of the strategic impact metrics are the customer retention or the time to market for new services. Operational impact metrics might include increase in scale and operational efficiencies. Finally, cost impact metrics are related to business costs or total cost of ownership assets.

Besides, how many IT ROI metrics do you need? Answer below the picture!

a) One is enough
b) Two or three
c) Five to nine
d) Around 15
e) As much as possible

Image from getthematic.com

And the answer, according to Paul Proctor, analyst at Gartner, is.... c! 

Day #28: Report on Global Project Portfolio Management Market 2019-2028

A new report has been published about the Global Project Portfolio Management Market 2019 Trends, which focuses on the top key players and their framework. There is a quantitative and qualitative analysis, with focus on SWOT, PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces analysis of the global market. Besides, there is a forecast up to 2028.

A sample copy of the report study can be downloaded, where some interesting aspects are developed:

• Competitors analysis of Project Portfolio Management Market
• Market Leading Players
• Market Segmentation
• Product Volumen Analysis
• ... 

Image from business.bell.ca

Day #19: Strategic management techniques applied to Project & Portfolio Management

Following previous posts about research in this field, I share an article today named Advancing project and portfolio management research: Applying strategic management theories. It's a long paper, yet it is good to keep as a future reference, because it contains a thorough summary of portfolio management literature. 

I'll include here the first paragraphs so that you get an idea of what it is about:

"Project Management (PM) research and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) research advance through the use of theories from the strategic management domain and, in turn, the research contributes to the development and strengthening of these theories by providing empirical examples for testing and validation. This paper focuses on a set of theoretical strategic perspectives — the Resource-Based View (RBV), the Dynamic Capability (DC) concept, and the Absorptive Capacity (AC) concept — and their application to PM and PPM research. Through an overview of these strategic management perspectives and their application to PM and PPM research, this paper aims to contribute to the development of this research field by highlighting the challenges and lessons learned, and by providing examples and guidance for future research."

In fact, there is a very nice table before the conclusions where all this approaches are compared in a very compact way. But, if you don't want to go through it now, at least let me focus on the definition of the three concepts mentioned as theoretical strategic perspectives*:

- Resource-Based View (RBV): it's an approach that assumes that resources and capabilities are not uniform accross competing organizations and therefore this heterogeneity is used to explain differences in success rates.

- Dynamic Capabilities (DC): it's an approach that focuses on the organization's ability to build, configure and integrate internal and external capabilities to deal with sudden environmental changes.

- Absorptive Capacity (AC): it's an approach that is based on learning and acquiring knowledge from the external environment, sometimes reinforced by the use of internal strategies.

As you may see, there are endless concepts in the world of  PM!

*All the definitions come from the aforementioned paper.

Day #14: BRM, ORBIT and Thai cows

I'm bringing to stage today another example of implementation or framework realization of BRM, in this case applied to the dairy mil industry in Thailand. The reason behind using BRM techniques to challenging projects is always the same: it is not enough to measure projects in terms of, for example, successful deployment, yet in terms of gained benefit of having such project working. 

In this paper, ICT benefit realization for dairy farm management: Challenges and future direction, the field is the dairy milk industry in Thailand, which has a very limited database system to satisfy the needs of the authorities. However, a more advanced ICT project would help to transform basic information records into a disease prevention control program, for example, or have an impact in decisions related to feeding or mating. 

The authors propose an "ICT Benefit Realization Framework designed for non-IT users" under the name of ORBIT: Operation of Realizing Benefit in Information Technology. It includes milestones, activities and stakeholders involved in four phases: planning, realization, exploration and evaluation. The first phase, planning, is applied and the results explained, leaving farmers and other people involved ready to start the realization phase. 

The paper is easy to follow, well structured and full of nice and instructive images. Besides, it takes us closer to a new world... no, not BRM, but Thai dairy industry!

Cow from en.wikipedia.org

Day #12: BMR approaches

Sometimes it feels difficult to find proper realizations of BRM frameworks, or at least fully real cases. This is why I found this research paper very interesting: A Benefits Realization Management Building Information Modeling Framework for Asset Owners. It is published by Elsevier and the full article may be accessed for free by institutional sign in through some universities. 

The idea is that business value can be obtained from investing in BIM (Building Information Framework). Since BRM is a process that helps to make sure that expected benefits are achieved, it is applied to this particular case, by implementing the framework. More information can of course be found in the paper itself, 10 pages of great detail, yet one of the most educative figures is Table 1, which I include here:

Approach  [Reference]	Key features
Active Benefits Management (ABM) [22]	• Establishes ABM in the context of business change • Business change needed to address strategy • Relationship between change and benefits
Cranfield Process Model [10]	• Potential benefits are identified, plan devised for their realization,  plan is executed and results reviewed and evaluated • Diagnose why some projects are successful in delivering benefits • Monitoring and feedback
Benefits Realization Approach (BRA) [23]	• Shift from a sole focus on project management to  business program management, disciplined portfolio  management, and governance • Success of BRA depends on measurement, accountability  and proactive change management
Process of Active Benefits Realization [24]	• Process of managing information systems development  through a continuous process of evaluation (i.e. iterative  • Active participation of stakeholders • Direct and continuous focus on benefits
Benefits Management Life Cycle [25]	• Planning alignment between IT and business strategy • Systems analysis • Identifying and managing change • On-going review of benefits
Benefits Realization: Best Practice [26]	• Continuous process that focuses on capabilities and  learning • Process of benefits planning, delivery and review
Benefits Breakdown Hierarchy [20], [27]	• Management and monitoring of benefits during the  initiation and execution • Value path relationship between benefit and project  forms a hierarchical benefits structure • Creation of capabilities to deliver projects
Benefits Realization Management [15]	• Identifying and engaging stakeholder • Establishment of vision and objectives • Management of expectations • Using measures to track performance
Benefits Realization Capability Model	• Capability is enacted through and defined by the  realization of competencies • Competencies are enacted through and define by  practices which are underpinned by knowledge, skills,  experience and behaviors

There you can see several benefits management realization approaches, with their key features and the bibliographical reference, included in the paper of course.

I think this may be quite illustrative about how BRM frameworks can be implemented.

Day #9: Project managers in BRM

Sometimes it may be difficult to link different concepts developed in the courses, or to see the bigger picture. For example, in the last days we have been talking about benefits, value and Benefits Realization Management (BRM). But how can it be directly connected to real life examples? That's is why I'm sharing this research article, The role of project manager in benefits realization management as a project constraint/driver.

On one hand, it is a good example of research in the field of project management. On the other hand, it helps to connect different aspects: PM and BRM.

Image from codeburst.io

The topic covered is very interesting: expected benefits are main drivers beyond projects (and programs and portfolios, of course), yet many project managers focus more on outputs (deliverables) than in outcomes (benefits). That may be explained mostly because they think that is not their role.

The paper then presents a survey to evaluate the implementation level of BMR actions comparing project level and higher levels. Then, it proposes a role of the project manager in benefits management, and suggests examples as a practical tool for implementation.

Besides, I really like that the BRM process introduced is compatible with the processes described in the PMI body of knowledge. In this way, the concepts learned during the first week of the course are reinforced. 

In summary, advisable reading in case you want to give a bit more context to the reading guide of this week.