PM ADVISORY:

PPM: Creating Dashboards that meet Strategic Corporate Performance Targets

By Christian Vaillancourt

Canada

Choosing which projects to invest in is crucial for large organizations. Capital expenses must be justified based on ROI, not only in terms of money, but also in terms of the impact on human resources, the environment, corporate citizenship, legal matters, and other intangibles.

However, determining priorities among hundreds of projects awaiting selection and approval is not an easy game. When capital budgets of millions and billions of dollars are at stake, targeting projects that will deliver the best value is critical. How can decision-makers select the most profitable projects to finance, without being forced into allocating budgets by guesswork?

Dashboards addressing needs for PPM

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) applications have been developed to create dashboards that ease analysis and decision-making in the allocation of project budgets among project portfolios. They enable executives to compare quantitative and qualitative data retrieved from each project, and to select and prioritize projects which are expected to generate the best returns in terms of meeting strategic business objectives. PPM applications also allow project office managers to monitor budgets in real-time for comparative cost control and reporting. Moreover, historical and present data are compared, which allows for better risk management within the portfolio and timely project realignment or termination before losses are incurred.

KPIs aligned on corporate strategy

Each industry has its own specific performance drivers, which help assess corporate risk and assist executives in making strategic shifts aimed at keeping their organization ahead of competition. However powerful in providing strategic information, implementing a PPM application will head nowhere if no prior plan is made to ensure executive-level dashboards are carefully selected and designed to fit corporate strategic plan. What is the organization to focus on for the upcoming 1, 3 or 5 years? Drivers may be many, including business development, international market penetration, customer satisfaction, brand awareness, employee retention, and environmental compliance, notwithstanding asset maintenance. This alignment work should be done collegially with the leaders of core business functions involved in strategic planning.

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About the Author Christian Vaillancourt Author Christian Vaillancourt is Consultant, Senior Partner and Co-Founder of DCV & Associates, a corporate performance management consulting firm and publisher of INVE$TFOLIO, a project portfolio management suite of software in SAAS (software as a service) mode. Over the past 20 years, Christian has acquired extensive knowledge in project management, optimization of operational processes, and strategic business development.  Mr. Vaillancourt can be contacted at Christian.Vaillancourt@dcva.ca or www.dcva.ca.