Organizations today are under increasing pressure to ensure that information technology projects and initiatives are well managed, measured and monitored.  As a result, many law firms are currently considering, evaluating, implementing or managing a project portfolio management (PPM) process.

PPM Defined
Project portfolio management can be defined as a process designed to ensure that projects, initiatives and resources are aligned with corporate strategy.  In addition, a PPM process allows an organization to track and measure the execution of projects and initiatives in terms of timelines, financial status, key issues and other important metrics.

The decision to implement a PPM process is driven by many factors including:  the demand for increased visibility of project expenditures; better alignment of IT investments and strategies with the overall firm objectives; and the desire to better manage and control resources and activities.

Common Challenges
Many firms struggle with the implementation of PPM processes and programs.  Difficulty with the implementation of a PPM approach in a legal environment tends to stem from the following:

• Inadequate attention to key project metrics
• Attempting to achieve process “perfection”
• Too much focus on detailed project management at the cost of achieving a comprehensive project portfolio
• Lack of executive sponsorship

Challenge 1:  Inadequate attention to key project metrics
The most important initial step in implementation of PPM processes and programs is to identify a limited number of common metrics to:

• evaluate candidate projects (e.g., objectives, strategic value, risk, cost)
• manage and report on projects during delivery (e.g., budget vs. actual expenditures, milestone dates, project completion date)
• evaluate the success of projects upon completion (e.g., Did the project meet the business objectives?  Was the project well managed?)

Challenge 2:  Attempting to achieve process “perfection”
Organizations often get caught up in trying to comprehensively improve project management processes while neglecting the underlying metrics that are critical to the success of the projects.  Successful PPM-focused organizations identify areas of process improvement and prioritize and plan the improvements over multiyear timeframes.  For example, an organization can group process improvement objectives in categories such as:

• Project intake
• Business requirements definition
• Project evaluation and approval
• Project launch
• Project progress tracking, managing and reporting
• Project communication
• Project closure and evaluation

By identifying process improvement objectives and priorities, organizations can set realistic goals for the long term, while measuring key project metrics immediately.

Challenge 3:  Too much focus on detailed project management at the cost of achieving a comprehensive project portfolio
The implementation of a PPM process requires a certain amount of trade-off between detailed project management processes and high-level PPM metrics.  Many organizations make the mistake of trying to satisfy all levels of project managers while implementing a PPM process.  Forcing an overly complicated project management process upon project managers with varying levels of project management training and experience is a recipe for disaster.  Instead, allow a level of flexibility regarding project management processes for different types of projects in different areas of the organization while ensuring consistency in tracking and reporting on key project metrics.

Challenge 4:  Lack of executive sponsorship
PPM is an intrinsically top-down methodology.  PPM allows an organization to view the portfolio of projects from an executive level while endeavoring to make better decisions, deliver more projects on time and on budget and making better use of resources.  Therefore, executive sponsorship of PPM is critical to ensure that all managers of projects in the organization realize that an increased level of visibility now exists, driving increased accountability in the organization.

Practical PPM for Law Firms
Managing a portfolio of projects in the legal environment is complicated.  Law firms by their nature are fast-paced, demanding and fluid.  As a result, the implementation of PPM in a legal environment requires a practical approach.  Consider the following suggestions when implementing PPM:

• Identify the basic challenges that currently impede your organization’s ability to manage the portfolio of projects and initiatives.  This process should include business representatives from across the areas of the organization who are going to be affected by the portfolio management initiative.
• Communicate the objectives of the PPM process and program.
• Assign an individual or committee to oversee the implementation of the PPM solution.  This person or team should clearly understand the objectives of the PPM solution and ensure that the implementation does not stray from these objectives and focuses on practicality and metrics.
• Do an assessment or inventory of the current portfolio and any current processes that are in place to support that portfolio.
• Identify processes, tools or means of communication that must remain so they can be included in the new framework.
• Identify the key sponsors who will support the organizational change required to implement a lasting foundation.

And finally, make sure to build a practical roadmap that recognizes the key objectives and provides the opportunity for short-term successes and momentum building.  Be practical and set reasonable expectations.  The project team may be responsible for implementing the processes and software, but you need all resources (managers, project managers and others) to cooperate during planning — make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Where Should We Start?
Managing a portfolio of projects with a PPM approach requires basic agreement regarding the breadth and depth of information to manage, track and communicate.  In the early stages of implementation, consider focusing upon basic project information.

Project Name, Description and Rationale:  Often referred to as the charter or business case, this information should be limited to relevant categories such as objectives, critical success factors, high-level resource requirements, constraints, risks and benefits.

Project Timelines and Milestones:  Estimating and tracking project start and end dates, as well as key milestone dates is critical to a PPM approach.  In the early stages of a PPM solution, ensure that this information is kept up-to-date.  Understand in advance that project length, scope and complexity will drive the number of milestones that should be tracked.  The objective should be to ensure that executives and business sponsors and clients should be able to derive meaning from a list of milestones, completion status and dates.

Project Financials:  Budget versus Actual Narrative

Project Commentary:  Often overlooked in terms of importance, narrative project commentary can include issues, accomplishments and other important communication.

As your successful PPM implementation progresses, additional information can be tracked in the areas of project risk, deliverables, resource time commitments, etc.

Summary
The success of a PPM implementation is directly related to practicality, planning and perseverance.  Clearly identified objectives backed up by executive sponsorship of the initiative will ensure that the implementation starts off on the right foot.  Focus first on project metrics, followed shortly thereafter by process improvements in critical areas.  Realize that capturing key project metrics on all projects will build a solid foundation for the long-term process improvement goals.  Lastly, stay the course!  Once you have started the implementation, persevere through the organizational challenges that will arise, realizing that the firm will benefit significantly in the long run.

About our authors . . .

Brad Robbins and Craig MacInnis are Senior Partners with Solution Q (www.solutionq.com), the creators of ECLIPSE Project Portfolio Management software.  ECLIPSE is currently installed at many law firms as well as in the financial, pharmaceutical, health care, government and manufacturing sectors.  They can be reached at brobbins@solutionq.com or cmacinnis@solutionq.com.