Selfie at Gartner PPM & IT governance Summit, London. Monday was the Gartner PPM & IT governance Summit in London. Gartner’s Richard Hunter was the keynote speaker during the opening keynote. He stated that the Standish Group’s first Chaos Report in 1990 identified project management as the greatest risk to businesses. Organisational change is now the greatest risk to businesses, and project management practices are more mature.
He shared some Gartner research on the perception of IT value. He stated that five factors were statistically significant in determining whether people believe IT projects are worth their time. They are:
Identification is required
Transparent investments
Re-engineering business processes and management of organisational change
Application delivery
Measurement.
These 5 things will increase your chances of your projects being rated successful by your stakeholders.
Richard’s comments about delivery were very interesting. He stated that 70% of people execute – that is, they do what they promise and meet the deadlines, budget, and scope targets. You need to invest more time in needs identification and transparent investments if you want to be part the 90% who execute 90% of their tasks. This is especially important when it comes to identifying benefits and getting resources.
Change is the focus
The conference was focused on the challenges facing IT Portfolio Managers, Project Office leaders, and others. Gartner conferences offer the opportunity to meet with an analyst to discuss a business problem or other issue. I made arrangements for my time and went along to discuss project communication, and the perception and value of projects. It was obvious that I had not prepared adequately for my session from the moment I sat down. The analyst was unhelpful. They didn’t ask any questions, offer solutions, or share any research findings that might help me further.
After 15 minutes, it was clear that there was nothing to talk about. Perhaps I didn’t choose the right analyst for the topic or maybe I wasn’t doing the right thing with my time. It was the low point of my day, and I felt really stupid.
Five areas to improve PPM
There were many other sessions that made me feel better about my self and taught me something. In a second keynote, Mark Langley, President & CEO of PMI, took the stage. He stated that we are too prone to distinguish ourselves by using words. He used the example of project offices being described in many different ways: PMO (Project Management Office), Agile PMO and Agile PMO, Centre of Excellence, etc., which to the uninitiated would be meaning almost nothing. He advised that we focus on what’s below the labels in contracts and not what is the label.
He shared 5 tips to help organizations succeed.
Align
Simplify
Invest
Communicate
Focus
He said that most of the things organisations do are things you already do. According to McKinsey research, only 22% of work is about developing your portfolio. It’s not much, but it seems that if we can improve those 22% then we will make a huge difference in business results.
In the coming weeks, I will have more write-ups of the Summit. Keep an eye out!
Genius Project invited me to the Summit.