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Advanced Project Portfolio Management and the PMO
optima. While each functional area believes that it is doing what is best for the organization as a whole, in reality there is a huge conflict between optimizing locally and optimizing globally. Through discussion and examples, this chapter illustrates the beginning of the common understanding necessary to make project management work holistically. The components we examine include: ■ Operations — controlling the flow of goods and services, including purchasing ■ Finance and Measurements — the scorekeepers ■ Project Management/Engineering — the way change, including new and improved products and services, is implemented across the organization ■ Distribution and Supply Chain — all the links between vendors, internal operations and the end user ■ Marketing — “Bring the ducks to want to sit and eat the corn in your field, preferably with glue on their feet”* ■ Sales — “Shoot the sitting ducks. Anyone who thinks it is easy to shoot a sitting duck has never been a salesperson”* ■ Managing People — Driving enough commitment, respect and mutual understanding throughout the organization to achieve the organization’s goals ■ Information Technology — Using the new bureaucracy to enforce better rules Hopefully, we are not insulting people who work in other parts of an organization, such as Accounts Payable or Payroll. These are necessary to any successful organization. However, we rarely see major problems in these departments and that is why we are not addressing them as part of generic strategic planning. Mostly, these organizations are part of operations or finance. The major components above cover the market side of the supply chain and the internal or supply side.
SUBSYSTEM 1: OPERATIONS — THE UNIVERSAL CORE PROBLEM Have you heard about companies where some managers spend a lot of time trying to control costs and prevent unnecessary overtime, while at the same *Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, from the Goldratt Satellite Program broadcast live in March– May, 1999.