Measuring Project Management Performance and Benefits Realization…Can’t Do One without the Other
Deborah Bigelow Crawford has more than 20 years of experience in business management and handles the operational and administrative functions of PM Solutions. Ms. Bigelow Crawford also serves as Co-CEO of the PM College®, PM Solutions' training division, where she is responsible for the fiscal management and quality assurance of all training and professional development programs. Prior to joining PM Solutions, she served as the Executive Director of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and was instrumental in providing the foundation and infrastructure for the exponential growth that the Institute has maintained over the last 10 years. In addition, she served as the Executive Director of the PMI Educational Foundation. Over the last decade, she has authored numerous articles in PM Network, Chief Project Officer, and Optimize magazines. Ms. Bigelow Crawford is also co-author of the book Project Management Essentials. She has presented a variety of papers as a speaker at international symposia and conferences, and is a member of the National Association of Female Executives and the Project Management Institute.
I just returned from teaching a 2-day Measuring Project Management Performance class for PMI. I enjoy this teaching time, which allows me to get a view of the issues that organizations are trying to solve or behaviors they are trying to change by training their employees. Every class I’ve taught, participants come with an eagerness to see if they can do their jobs better … and to find out what’s next in project management. This class was no different.
Since this was a Measuring Project Management Performance class, it led us quickly into the “what’s next for project management?” discussion. Why? Because measuring performance and value are critical to the topic that is buzzing through hallways of industry analysts, projectized organizations, and senior leadership meetings … that topic is Benefits Realization.
To better understand how organizations were faring with realizing the benefits projected in business cases, PM Solutions conducted a series of interviews with client organizations. In the discussions, a consistent theme emerged regarding these organizations’ failure to establish benefits realization programs. These organizations attributed this failure to their basic lack of performance measurement. These companies realize they need to be able to quantify the results from their investments in projects or in training, yet because baseline performance measures have not been delineated, improvement remains subjective. You can’t manage what you don’t measure …and you also cannot tell if it has improved or not.
Currently, when we present project managers with a complex benefits realization process model that includes a measurement component, we are asking them to implement two new processes on top of each other, since few companies actually engage in performance and value measurement. Over the last decade, performance measurement has been a goal of PMOs in each State of the PMO study; yet only half of PMOs actually do so. This was also validated with this class. But the good news is, they were there to learn HOW to set up a measurement program, and left this class with the tools to implement one in their company. If they want to be ready for the “what’s next? , they need to start with measurement.
While Benefits Realization actually begins in Strategy Development, it will be important for the project managers to plan and execute their projects with consideration of the intended performance metrics and ultimate benefits they are expected to realize. The participants of this class are hopefully one step closer to understanding how their newly acquired performance measurement skills are necessary requirements if they are going to optimize their benefits realization program!
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