Portfolio Management Standard

Exposure Draft

RECOMMENDATION FORM

(Please Use a Separate Form for Each Recommendation)

Submitter Name: Robert Perrine
Address: Irvine, California, USA
E-mail Address:
Daytime Phone:
Fax:

[1] Page number and Section or Subsection Number (as it appears in the Exposure Draft): Page 4 in the PDF, Figure 1.2

[2] Original Text (please copy and paste, type or attach a copy of the original text here):

This is a diagram.

[3] Recommended Text (modify the original text to satisfy your concern here):

I recommend changing the unidirectional arrows to bi-directional in all cases.

[4] Provide a detailed justification/reason for requested change:

Starting from the top – the Mission needs feedback from those planning the strategy. If the mission is unachievable, too vague or even too easily achievable then the strategy team must deliver that message back to the person or persons creating the vision. I offer the following examples from my recent job experience to illustrate my opinion on this:

1. I consulted on a project where the vision feed to our team was “Implement the ITIL processes within the IT organization at (company name) within 18-months.” (ITIL is a British standard for IT governance). Once our team was assembled we evaluated strategies and realized that the vision was grand but unrealistic. Our recommendation was “Implement key ITIL processes within pilot organizations so that the users will gain confidence in the approach and create a self-sustaining initiative.” Our “strategy” was rejected as not meeting the goals for the Vision. However, after nearly six months of effort the project died with no visible results. I left that project and went to another company where in six weeks we have already achieved significant progress simply because we were allowed to provide feedback from strategy to vision and thus get an achievable vision.

2. I was asked to organize a project to prepare an IT organization for a SAS 70 Review (A USA accounting standard for IT governance). The vision authorized the use of around ten resources for two to three months on a dedicated project to update the corporate IT policies and procedures. My strategy was to keep those resources within their organizations as a matrix rather than forming a projectized team. The vision was based upon the type of effort it had taken on a similar project two years earlier. My strategy was based upon the maturity this department had already achieved because of those prior projects. Here the vision was too specific and too pessimistic. By allowing feedback from strategy to vision I was able to educate the sponsors on the improvement already achieved and thus better align their expectations with our capabilities.

In a similar vein, I recommend that all of the arrows on this illustration be shown as bi-directional.

Please submit this Recommendation Form via e-mail, postal mail or fax to:

PMI Standards Program

Project Management Institute

Four Campus Boulevard

Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA
Fax: +610-356-4647

kristin.wright@pmi.org

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