Adapting to the ever-increasing pace of change is one of the biggest challenges most organizations face. Established organizations are not only in a race to compete with each other, but also with tech-savvy start-ups that are smaller, nimbler, and laser-focused on disrupting established relationships between companies and their customers.<\/p>\n
Add to this a backdrop of volatile political and economic conditions combined with changing regulatory and compliance requirements, and it\u2019s no wonder today\u2019s organizations continuously struggle to find ways to gain competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
In response to this increased pace of change and volatility, many enterprises have augmented the traditional \u201cwaterfall<\/a>\u201d methodology with an iterative approach for conducting project management-based work (i.e., SAFe, Agile, Scrum and more).<\/p>\n According to Gartner<\/a>, in 2018, the waterfall development methodology accounted for 55 percent of project spend, while iterative development accounted for 45 percent of project spend.<\/p>\n Despite this transition to a more iterative development approach, approximately 73 percent of projects were still rated as \u201cSomewhat Successful,\u201d \u201cSomewhat Disappointing,\u201d or \u201cExpectations not Met.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n So why do organizations struggle to execute successful projects consistently? Here are three primary reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n In the rest of this piece, we\u2019ll discuss what each reason is and how enterprises can overcome each hurdle to ensure future project management success<\/a>.<\/p>\n The best motivation for your team is a clearly defined goal that everyone can relate to and understand– knowing the \u201cwhy\u201d allows your team to connect with the reason for pursuing the goal and how success will impact them, their extended team, and the overall mission of your organization.<\/p>\n A shared understanding of the importance of a particular goal is the driving force that allows cross-functional teams to work together to pursue the desired outcome. Individuals who understand how their contributions fit into the \u201cbig picture\u201d have the confidence to make contributions above and beyond their assigned tasks to achieve the desired goal.<\/p>\n Without this shared understanding of the goal\u2019s why, individuals prioritize based on their own unique criteria with little shared momentum to work toward the common goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n While 90 percent of organizations have a pre-launch project approval process, only 54 percent of organizations have an established process for capturing the business benefits delivered by these projects, according to Gartner research.<\/p>\n When leaders define the expected benefits as well as a method for measuring the delivered benefits (both quantitative and qualitative), they provide a feedback loop and critical insights into the degree to which the team is achieving its goal.<\/p>\n There is a tremendous opportunity to improve enterprise project management success by intentionally documenting the expected benefits of the project and why those benefits advance the goals and objectives of the organization.<\/p>\n Many organizations leverage the concept of program and portfolio management<\/a> (PPM) to group projects that share interdependencies and common goals into a single management structure.<\/p>\n Traditionally, this structure consists of little more than oversight and coordination, ensuring projects progress as expected, help resolve issues, and eliminate roadblocks as they arise. This \u201creactionary\u201d perspective, while important, overlooks the significant benefits of proactively identifying potential synergies between projects and reprioritizing work accordingly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
No Visibility Into the \u201cWhy\u201d (Strategy)<\/h3>\n
Struggle With the \u201cHow\u201d (Execution)<\/h3>\n