You could cut the tension in the boardroom with a knife. Everyone knew Frank was irate, but we didn’t know why. Then it came, “I’ve been waiting three years for IT to finish this project, and in three years they haven’t written a single line of code!”
Frank’s face was beet red, and there was a vein on his forehead that was visibly pulsating as he continued on his dissertation before sitting down. After the tension settled, Charlie had to give Frank the bad news, “Frank, IT hasn’t written a single line of code because this project was never approved as part of the portfolio.” The vein on Frank’s forehead began pulsating again.
Commissioning Work
Most technology organizations struggle with how to formally commission work to begin. In many cases, the person with the need will tap their favorite engineer on the shoulder and ask for help. Other times, a gatekeeper such as the Director of Engineering will vet requests and determine what gets worked on and what doesn’t. Still other times, project managers tag engineers to work on requirements for their particular project.
As a result, many projects begin work when someone, usually higher up in the food chain, thinks out loud and is perceived as making a request. Engineers are frustrated by having to decide who to help. Customers are frustrated by not knowing when their requests will be completed. Engineering managers are frustrated by not having a handle on what their people are working on. And, of course, executives are frustrated by the lack of predictability and efficiency.
Curating the Portfolio
The answer lies in a formal process known as portfolio management or portfolio curation.
- Centralize – Work is requested through a single, central channel using a form that collects enough essential information to move through the process. The work request is logged in a single, master list of work requests.
- Categorize – Attributes of that work are then assigned. For example, the work may be categorized as strategic or tactical, customer-facing or internal, new capability or technical debt remediation, a large project or a quick hit.
- Estimate – Once properly categorized, the work request is estimated for value, cost, effort, and time. Value may be measured in terms of cost savings, revenue generation, call center agent handling times, customer growth, customer satisfaction, speed to market, or more. Effort, cost, and time are the investment estimates – how much labor is required, how much cost is involved, and how long will it take. For starters, a simple back of the envelope set of estimates can be used, and to make effective decisions, more refined estimates will likely be needed.
- Prioritize – Next, the work request is prioritized. It may be that work request are prioritized against all in-flight and upcoming work. In other cases, this may be done category by category, in which new strategic work requests are only compared against in-flight and upcoming strategic work.
- Disposition – A decision is made to either reject the work, begin the work immediately, or start the work later.
- Communicate – Finally, the outcome of portfolio curation is communicated to all affected groups. Everyone impacted by these decisions should have visibility into what is being worked on, what is planned to be worked on next, and what work is out of scope.
By having a portfolio curation process, executed by a portfolio curation team, and documented in a roadmap, organizations can fully harness the full capacity of the technology organization to optimize value and speed while eliminating confusion and frustration.
But What About Frank?
Frank never did get his project approved, but because a portfolio curation process was established, he understood how projects were being prioritized and why his project didn’t make the cut. Thankfully, there were no more stories like Frank’s story, as a roadmap was assembled that was well-documented, frequently updated, and widely communicated to all affected groups.
Next Steps
At Exceptional Difference, we help engineers, leaders, and executives become the best versions of themselves. We enable people and teams to create value by casting far reaching visions, defining supporting strategies, and developing inspirational and energizing goals and plans.
Portfolio Curation is one of our key offerings in which we work with engineers and leaders to assemble the portfolio curation team, define custom portfolio curation processes for your organization, and build a roadmap to begin your springboard to success.
Contact us at info@exceptionaldifference.com or visit www.exceptionaldifference.com to learn more about these offerings and how we can help your team.
Follow us on LinkedIn and check out our website to stay connected and to learn about our upcoming offerings.