Executive View of Project Management

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Executive View of Project Management

• Jim Green, Vice-President
• Corporate Financing and Risk Management
  Development Services, WWREI, TS
• BMO Financial Group

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Biography Jim Green

• Vice-President, Corporate Financing Risk
  Management Development Services, WWREI1,
  Technology and Solutions.Since graduating from
  the University of Toronto in 1979 with a Bachelor
  of Science, Mr. Green has held a number of
  progressively more senior positions with various
  companies in the IT field including RBC Dominion
  Securities and CIBC World Markets. Mr. Green
  joined BMO Financial Group in May 1999 as
  Vice-President, Corporate Financing Risk
  Management. His Technology and Solutions
  responsibilities include Investment and Corporate
  Banking, International Financial Institutions,
  Merchant Banking and the Enterprise Risk
  Management Group. Mr. Greens role has
  recently expanded to encapsulate the Project
  Management Office for all of WWREI as well as
  having executive leadership for Project
  Management practice within WWREI. Mr. Green is
  the first executive within the Bank to have
  achieved his PMP designation. He achieved his
  PMP designation in June 2003.Mr. Green is an
  International Bridge Player. He represented
  Canada in the 1999 World Championships (Bermuda
  Bowl) and coached the Canadian Womens Team in
  the 2000 World Championship to a silver medal.

1 Wholesale, Wealth, Risk Management and
Enterprise Infrastructure.
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Session Objectives

• The Executive View of Project Management
• Expectation Management
• Successful Project Management

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Detailed Agenda

• What does an Executive care about?
• Project success
• Focus/prioritization on key projects within the
  portfolio
• Efficient, high quality delivery of the project
• Controlled and optimized execution
• What are an Executives expectations?
• Professionalism
• Respecting an Executives time, set a high-level
  context, focus on key issues
• Decision making at the appropriate levels of
  hierarchy
• Timely escalation of substantive issues, i.e. no
  surprises
• What are the measures of success?
• Executive engagement in the removal of
  roadblocks
• Predictable outcomes, repeatable, measurable
  processes
• Organizational support for project initiatives

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What does an Executive care about?

• Project success
• Prioritization/focus on key projects within the
  portfolio
• Efficient, high quality delivery of the project
• Controlled and Optimized execution

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What is Project Success?

• Projects that are usually considered as being
• On-time
• On-budget
• High quality product
• An Executive perceives success as
• Meeting or exceeding a clients expectation
• Fostering partnership across the lines of
  business
• Return on Investment within a prescribed period
  of time

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Focus on Key Initiatives

• General focus of the organization are on projects
  catered to
• Meeting and satisfying regulatory requirements
• Managing change to keep the clients competitive
  advantage
• Technical excellence in the design and deployment
  of state-of-the-art systems
• Executive focus is key to
• Establishing the vision and strategy for project
  delivery and success
• Helping customers identify opportunities that
  could address their business challenges
• Enterprise relationship management

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High Quality Deliverables

• Must have components for success
• Desire for excellence
• Deliverables defined early and communicated to
  all of the stakeholders
• Follow practices that subscribe to established
  guidelines such as ISO, ITIL, SEI-CMM
• Gathering data for quantitative measurements to
  enable effective, repeatable processes

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Controlled and Optimized Execution

• Key elements
• Utilizing existing standards or best practices
• Identify the critical ingredients that will make
  the enterprise successful
• Focus deployment on measurable business processes
• Pit falls of not following prescribed standards
• Over zealous estimates on the achievement of
  objectives
• Underestimated or poor planning and analysis
  techniques
• Increased cost and stakeholder dissatisfaction

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What are an Executives expectations?

• Professionalism
• Respecting an Executives time, set a high-level
  context, focus on key issues
• Decision making at the appropriate levels of
  hierarchy
• Timely escalation of substantive issues, i.e. no
  surprises

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Managements Expectation

• An Executive expects
• A professional who possesses the skill and
  knowledge to deliver a successful solution
• Proactive strategies that resolve issues and
  mitigate risks
• Open communication with a view to a
  forward-looking search for uncertainties
• Maintenance and management of a high performing
  project team
• Timely escalation of pertinent, actionable issues

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Decision Makers

• They should be or are
• Identified early using the stakeholder management
  framework
• Impacted directly by the processes or output of
  the project
• Empowered to make difficult decisions to enable
  the project to move forward
• Anyone who can influence, motivate or support the
  objectives of the project

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Escalation

• Symptoms of project failure
• Inaccurate estimation
• Incorrect status reporting
• Improper use of historical data
• Untimely and ineffective escalation of key issues
• Project issues requiring Executive input must be
• Relevant
• Quantifiable
• Actionable

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What are the measures of success?

• Executive engagement in the removal of
  roadblocks
• Predictable outcomes, repeatable, measurable
  processes
• Organizational support for project initiatives

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Roadblocks

• They are
• Part of the project life cycle
• Provide a framework for key underlying issues
• Require timely resolution or escalation
• How do they come about
• Lack of Senior Management champions
• Lack of Executive consensus
• Resistance to change
• Unrealistic expectations

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Predictable Outcomes

• Goal statements may be tailored as having
• Defined technical and financial measures of
  success
• Best practices, procedures and guidelines
• Optimized, Adaptive techniques to resolve client
  expectations
• Utilization of metrics programs and maturity
  assessments
• Such as Standish, ISO, SEI-CMM, ITIL
• Integrated, organized, defined project and
  quality management processes
• Client Success Indicators or Team Success Factors

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Organizational Benchmarks

• Key questions to asked
• Are the desired results being achieved?
• Have the project objectives been met?
• Has the project contributed to the success and
  business of the organization?
• Results may be measured as
• Higher corporate profits, return on investment
• Competent, Productive teams, recognized as a
  successful unit by the Sponsor
• Improved project management performance

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Thank you!

• Time for Questions!!!