The troubled global economy has forced companies big and small to reevaluate their project portfolios, zeroing in on those projects that bring real value and cutting everything else. “Companies aren’t just slashing the top 25 percent [of their portfolios], they want to cut right 25 percent—trimming the fat and focusing their emphasis on projects that support...

We normally define project failure in terms of time, money and specification. A typical end-of-project report will state that the project was late, cost too much or failed to meet the users’ requirements. The National Audit Office reports on public sector projects that fail to meet these criteria. In organisational change projects, however, this misses the...

Just after I made my last post, several things came across my desk that said: Nope, you aren’t crazy after all. First, my colleague Matt Crawford sent me this link to coverage of the role of PMOs in the downturn. According to the CIO of the Baylor Health Care System, “Anytime you add what might appear to be a process, you always get a little bit of pushback,”...

Every organization wants to effectively execute strategies, but many struggle to implement a process for doing so. This struggle is one reason that the Balanced Scorecard has had such a wide following and impact on business. Simply put, the BSC emphasizes the linkage of measurement to strategy. For the first time, the details of the project portfolio (what the...