There always seems to be a lot more to do than there is ever time to do it.
Keeping people busy doesn’t seem to be a problem for most organizations, the issue for businesses trying to remain profitable in tough economic times is keeping people busy doing the right things. For those with a lot of project based work, the need to prioritize initiatives and spend resources working on the right projects is critical.
I don’t think it’s a matter of prioritizing the good projects from the bad projects. I think the issue is choosing the best projects, the ones that will provide the most business value—that is the challenge. In a perfect world there are a lot of very worthy initiatives that could, and maybe even should, be worked on. But we don’t live in a perfect world.
I think that’s why the "get’er done" or "drive-by" project is such a problem. Those projects may be worthy, but if they don’t measure up to the "does this provide the most value" test, they ultimately limit an organization’s capacity to work on the things that do. Which negatively impacts productivity and ultimately profitability.
I’ve noticed, that in theory, everyone agrees with this concept. Practice is another matter. In the heat of battle it’s difficult for decision-makers to step back and ask the question, "Will this ‘drive-by’ project provide enough value that Johnson should drop what he or she’s doing to work on it?" Sometimes the answer is definitely yes, but there are probably times that the answer should be "no."
Simply stated, the idea behind portfolio management revolves around identifying projects that meet certain criteria (goals and objectives), creating a detailed plan, and then executing on that plan. Project management software does a pretty good job of helping do that. However, ask yourself, "How does my work management methodology and project software address the ‘drive-by’ tasks and projects that come up every day?" You know, those tasks that never get plugged in to the Gantt chart.
It doesn’t have to be a catastrophic failure that causes an organization to falter. Sometimes it’s the accumulated weight of a thousand insignificant inefficiencies that cause the most damage. How does your project management software help your organization deal with the ‘drive-by" project? I’d love to learn about what you are doing to solve this issue in your organization.
