Welcome back fellow project managers, program managers and portfolio managers! Today, I am excited to discuss the topic of project impacts within a project portfolio (or program), a topic that many project and program managers may over look, but is really important to consider when managing a project, program or portfolio of projects/programs.
As a project manager, it is important to make sure that your project is on track in terms of budget, schedule and resources. However, it is also equally important to make sure that your project is not being impacted by (or impacting) other projects. What do I mean by this? If you are managing a project where you are relying on an activity outside of your project to be completed before proceeding to the next task, then you have an external dependency on which the project is relying upon to be completed.
As this external dependency may be outside of the project, it may still be within the organization the project is part of. Let’s discuss this with an example. Company A has 20 projects going on within its organization, all led by various project managers. If Project 2 and Project 5 have a dependency among each other, this is referred to as an interdependency. If Project 2 needs to complete Task 50 in order for Project 5 to start Task 22, then Project 5’s task 22 has a dependency on Project 2 (which is an external dependency at the project level, but an internal dependency at the program level since the projects are within the same organization).
As a project manager, how will you know if your project is impacted by other projects within an organization? Well, you don’t really know. No one is going to write on the white board that Project 5’s task 22 cannot start until Project 2’s task 50 is completed. However, there are some guidelines that you can follow to make sure that you identify the dependencies from other projects and track them as they impact your project. Below are some helpful tips that have helped me and many other project managers in the past:
Establish a Program Management Office (PMO) within the organization.
What is a program management office (PMO) and why is it important? I can create an altogether separate post on this! To keep things simple, a program management office is a governing body within an organization that provides oversight of all projects, mentorship to the project managers, a governance structure on how projects should be managed, and executive reports to leadership on the progress of the overall program and/or portfolio. If executed with the proper intent and goals, a program management office can provide a gateway for project managers to stay aligned among all of their projects in terms of overall process, project progress and keeping stakeholders aligned. With the right structure and process in place, the program management office should be able to review project plans and progress and determine if/when there are interdependencies on projects and notify the project managers and appropriate stakeholders.
Conduct weekly (or bi-weekly) program level/portfolio level touchpoints with all project managers.
If an organization does not have a formalized program management office, then the next best thing an organization’s leadership team can do is to schedule and conduct weekly touchpoints among all project managers within a division/department. In that way, the project managers are kept attuned to what is going on within other projects and can learn about potential impacts to their own project if there are common resources, tools, or potential interdependencies that they need to be aware of.
Utilize an online collaboration tool to keep all project managers on the same page.
There are many tools to keep track of tasks and projects out there. Pick one that works for your team! By utilizing an online collaboration tool, there are infinite number of ways to break down potential interdependencies between and among projects. You can potentially break down projects into division and department impacts, software tool impacts, resource impacts, etc.
At the end of the day, as a project manager, it is up to you to decide how to keep your stakeholders aligned on project progress and also bring up potential interdependencies among projects to them with a plan for resolution. For program managers and portfolio managers, it is clear that your role involves a lot of coordination and managing potential impacts among projects. Consider setting up a program management office (PMO) and establishing a clear governance structure to keep project managers informed about potential impacts from other projects.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this segment on understanding project interdependencies. What type of interdependencies have you experienced on your project? Let us know in the comments below!