Summary
In reading Maximizing Project Value readers should take care not to
trip up over three very common confusions that exist in today's project management
literature:
1. Project Management and Product Management
- Project Management is about managing the project's resources to produce
a product.
- Product Management is essentially managing the technology to produce
the required product during the project life span, and
- Once the project is completed and the product delivered, product
management is about managing the deployment of the product to produce a benefit.
2. Change Management and Management of Change
- Change Management is the formal process of incorporating or rejecting
changes to the project's scope or quality and consequent impacts on cost and schedule.
- Management of Change is the means by which the "people issues" surrounding
business process reengineering is managed. It often involves a cultural shift
in attitudes, expectations, opportunities, training and future prospects, along
with the reorganization of people. It is designed to ensure that people react
favorably and embrace the new product when it comes to deployment.
3. Project Management Responsibility and Operational Management
Responsibility
- Project Management's Responsibility is, by definition, to produce a
product to pre-established requirements.
- Operations Management Responsibility is to provide continuing services
or production. Hence, it is to use the products resulting from projects to produce
benefits that will keep the organization's operations competitive and/or efficient,
i.e. "in business to keep the lights on".
With these caveats in mind, this book shows you how to put the emphasis on
value when managing a project. Namely, from the project's initial inception, all
the way through its completion, and even farther down the road to determine whether
the product continues to be of worth to the company. It offers a step-by-step
plan you can use to establish the value of a project in terms of the benefits
to be expected from its product. You can also identify value drivers and key performance
metrics and then track and report them, organize a team for accountability, and
more. It gives you the tools and information to:
- Generate accurate value estimates in the proposal stage.
- Create a clear plan that identifies measurable and ongoing value.
- Establish buy-in from key players in your organization.
- Develop and use a process for managing the people responsible for implementing
the plan.
- Adapt your project to meet changing business objectives.[13]
As Jeff suggests in his Conclusion:
"Going beyond 'on time and on budget' is the only way to achieve real
project success. This is your chance to shine above the rest. Executing your project
with a business-value mindset is the way that you can begin delivering results.
Maximizing project value is about defining your project success road map, managing
the execution process with project value in mind, and measuring your project success
for maximum return."[14]
R. Max Wideman
Fellow, PMI
13. Ibid,
back cover
14. Ibid, p162
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Downside