Success Is Always

Measured in
Business Value
Barbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.

AS PROJECT MANAGERS, it’s easy to get caught up in meeting our time, cost,
scope, and quality baselines. The project quickly becomes an end in itself, and
our personal worth becomes entwined with our ability to bring this project in
according to these measurable expectations.
We need to focus on the fact that the project is only as successful as the busi-
ness value it adds to the organization. If we’re producing a software product
for market, the evaluation factors for “success” are clear. We need to use our
project management skills to bring this product to market quicker so we can
get it sold to a large portion of the customer base before the competition is able
to produce a similar or even better product.
We need to sell to a majority of the marketplace before the demand for this
item dries up. We need to design this software so that it is easy for customers
to install and learn to use. It needs to be easy to maintain and update.
Many software project managers feel their job is merely to get the software
completed. Without connecting the project to the business need, great soft-
ware could be a failure from the organization’s return on investment (ROI)
point of view.
If this is an internal project, how does this software project allow the organiza-
tion to save or earn money? Will we need fewer hardware resources because
what we develop is faster, more compressed, or has a better architecture? Will
we be able to make more money since we can take orders faster, process them,

36 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Download at Boykma.Com
and ship them quicker? Will we save money by creating software that needs
fewer people to maintain it, or roll out an infrastructure change that lowers the
number of help desk calls?
If our software projects are for an industry-specific systems integrator, will
the way we sequence tasks or level resources increase the profit margin to the
company or buy us customer goodwill with a reputation for reliability? Will
our project prowess ensure that we complete more projects faster and, thus,
move us to a category with our suppliers in which we get a larger discount for
hardware?
Motivating teams and making difficult decisions on the spot become eas-
ier when we understand specifically how the completion of this project is
intended to benefit the company. When making the decision to fund this par-
ticular project over all of those that were in contention, why was this one more
important than those that were tabled for later?
Usually the project manager is not given the answer to these critical questions,
so you must learn to ask. The answer can alert you to whether time, money,
or quality is the key driver on the project. When you know the answer, you
can prepare workarounds, alternate solutions, and know where to spend your
contingency reserves to keep your project aligned with the business reason for
which it was created.

Collective Wisdom from the Experts 37

Download at Boykma.Com