Jul 21, 2009
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Getting Buy-In for Project Management: How to Achieve Transparency
One of the first steps to getting buy-in for more project management is to make the need apparent.
The first step to achieving this transparency is to put together a list of every single project that’s being requested, match it with the departments or people involved in making that project happen, and matching it, as well, with the requestors.
This simple list will show you how many total projects there are on the table, how many projects are requested by each requestor and how many projects each department has to be involved with.
For an average size group the number of requested projects is generally in the 50 to 150 project range -with the lion’s share of the projects touching IT and/or a marketing or art department. Summarize these statistics and share them with key decision makers. It provides a simple but powerful view on everything going on within a group.
By seeing the amount of requested activity it should highlight the need to prioritize projects, really ask the requestors which are the most important projects to get done and to track the progress of projects by department so that the decision makers and key stakeholders can have visibility into how shared resources (namely IT, marketing, HR, procurement etc.) are being spent.
Project management as a practice and project management software as a tool can help facilitate this transparency and present it in a non-threatening way.
Hi,
Good Post and Great Suggestions! Another item to consider with this tactic is to include the amount of time available for the resources. For example if the resources are spending on average 79% of their time on operational support, the available effort project work has been drastically reduced. Especially since it is rare in organizations without a project management culture to have individuals fully dedicated to project management.
Thanks,
Elyse
http://www.anticlue.net
Very good strategy. Many times we get lost in trying to details of all the projects that are being requested. Time should be spend taking a step back and having a holistic view.