A bonus topic was about Critical Chain Management. The Critical Chain method reallocates the buffers from the individual tasks to the whole project, to be used as needed. The end date is then reported to include the project buffer and the status of the project can be tracked with a fever chart. A fever chart plots the percentage of buffer consumed vs. the percentage of project completion. Three zones are defined (green, yellow and red) which provide a high level project status indication. The fever chart can be generated using available software tools that are added to traditional project management software. The fever chart is being used at Edwards to track the status of all the projects.
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The key is to get a lot done in a short period of time in a calm, confident manner.
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During the presentation of how projects and programs are managed at Edwards, Amir introduced the RADIO tool (Risk, Assumptions, Decisions, Issues and Opportunities). This is a place where all the information is kept so it is immediately available to the team working on the project. The last exercise was to break into groups again to discuss the elements of a Portfolio. Amir impressed on the audience the need to have a portfolio dashboard that feeds from the specific dashboards for the different programs and projects. There was also a discussion on how to prioritize the projects and programs within a portfolio, especially avoiding the so-call “pet projects” and misconceptions about the importance of particular projects. Amir presented a set of metrics used at Edwards to prioritize projects. It was an interesting, though-provoking session that highlighted some key areas that organizations face when managing portfolios and provided advice on how to ensure they are aligned to the organizational strategy.
Contributed by Esteban Badenas PMP esteban.badenas@gmail.com
Learning, Serving, and Leading with PMI-OC
Milestones March 2017
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