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rom down under we are advised to align management compensation to project success. On the surface this looks right. On-Time and On-Budget, by Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia, however the author fails to address the source of project success. It shouldn't take management compensation schemes to have a project team do well.
"If all you think is, 'Is it on time and on budget?' then you are in trouble."
Egidio Zarrella, KPMG, recommends IT organizations establish an enterprise project management office (EPMO) to bring oversight and aid to project teams. He goes on to say,
"Project management is there to say, 'If it is going off the rails, how do we pull it back? It is like steering a ship — you don't just say 'everybody jump off and let the ship smash into the land'."
Zarella goes on to say,
"The EPMO does not intervene on every project — that is not the point. They become part of the learning organisation."
So what does an EPMO have to do with executive compensation? Neither author Kotadia nor Zarella offer insight. Until we hear more, let's keep our attention on putting together project teams whose talents and interests are in alignment with the aims of the projects. Along with that, help the team make and keep promises to each other. These things work.
? Guy Kawasaki wrote, "Less is the new more." Easy to learn: symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability. Very valuable to do. Step 1: Read Matt's book!! just 140 keystrokes.
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In our book, The Project Manager’s MBA, Bob Graham and I have tried to tackle this problem by suggesting that everyone on the project team and the outcome lifecycle team have accountablility for the commercial success of the project outcome. This will encourage more focus on the hand-off of the completed asset to the operations team and avoid the kinds of problems highligted above.
I wrote an article “A Project Risk Metric” in CrossTalk Apr2005. One of the dimensions of risk was whether the product had a market. And yes, people do develop products for which there is no market (Coke II, Kerbango, et. al.).
I recommend “Managing Information Technology for Business Value” by Martin Curley, Intel Press. Curley makes it clear that we are responsible for the business value of our work and suggests a type of maturity model that lets you achieve this nirvana in smaller steps.