From Experience: Linking Projects to Strategy

Depth of project screening process There isn’t really a strict upper bound on how far an evaluation team should go in to quantify project contributions to a firm’s mission. If we consider the screening process as a two-dimensional view – with the criteria complexity being the horizontal view and number of screens being the depth, the extent to which the team could go on both direction tend to rely on how much data is available.

Technically, so long as the data supplies, the evaluation team can keep trying until the remaining projects are narrowed down to an approachable number for analysis. It is a subjective are satisfied to meet the project’s mission and objectives. Role of financial selection criteria The financial selection criteria in HP’s project selection process is not considered as the single most important determinant for selecting a project even though it plays a critical role in assessing and comparing the projects.

The rationale behind this is that selecting projects based primarily on its financial value can sometime lead to unproductive team dynamics. It would distract the team by causing them to focus on financial data or computations rather than project missions and business strategy. Impact of project selection process on number of projects HP’s project selection process tends to shrink down the number of undergoing projects to a manageable and more productive level.

To quote an HP Executive Vice President’s emphasis from the case: “We have to be very selective. If you have a lot of them with our culture, it just won’t work. ” HP Project Management Initiative is a true believer in focusing on doing fewer while large and complex projects, this however would entail a well framed project selection process. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the plan of record (POR) are both examples of processes that HP adopts to facilitate its selection process. Project management maturity

I would expect HP to score its project management maturity level somewhere around 4-4. 5 over a scale of 5 – or, more specifically, described as “Managed and Measurable Project Management”. Because: •HP Project Management Initiative aimed to develop a system of projects and to link them to organizational strategy •Advanced tools and processes, such as AHP and POR are used to plan, prioritize, track and measure all projects. •Project management has been clearly implemented across the enterprise

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