Introduction:
A Master Schedule is a plan that maps multiple programs and projects across a Portfolio. This broad-view schedule helps ensure that resources and finances are used effectively, and potential conflicts, missed dependencies, or resource shortages can be identified before they occur. With a transparent overview of all delivery activities, stakeholders and teams can see how their work fits into the larger picture and decision makers can make informed portfolio decisions.
Problem:
A Local Government organisation had introduced some new delivery frameworks with a requirement for its business areas to comply with practices. This presented a challenge for the relatively new digital portfolio that was comprised of existing initiatives that had a planned pipeline of new programs and projects. Several inflight projects already had schedules that had been developed in isolation, with many new programs and projects not yet planned.
The primary concern was lack of an integrated picture of the digital portfolio’s composition and overall delivery plan. It had also become increasingly difficult to provide executive leadership and senior business managers with a readily consumable roadmap of all initiatives, their touchpoints, and their respective progress status. Furthermore, some in-flight projects had experienced slippage that was attributed to a lack clarity on interdependencies across related projects.
Without these issues being addressed, the business was unable to predict with any level of confidence whether the portfolio was deliverable. They sought a Scheduling Service from the market.
Objective:
myP3’s objective was to increase visibility and predictability of the portfolio through creation of comprehensive Portfolio Master Schedule comprising all programs and projects. The schedule was to provide a clear forward plan of the work ahead, highlight the interdependencies between projects, and the impacted business areas involved.
Overview:
Following an initial assessment of the portfolio’s context, myP3 recommended that the major programs and tranches would serve as the primary driver for shaping the Master Schedule’s design structure. The analysis indicated the portfolio’s major programs included scope covering asset management, finance and supply chain, HR and payroll, and geospatial information systems.
With the adoption of myP3’s recommendations, all existing schedules were reviewed, reorganised, and configured to a consistent level of granularity for incorporation into the Portfolio Master Schedule. For all inflight and planned projects, a Product-Based Planning approach was used to identify each project’s delivery outputs, product sequencing, and inter-dependencies with other projects. This provided a clear and focused schedule which was easier to interpret.
During the production of the Master Schedule it became clear that the breadth of the portfolio scope would require a keen focus on highlighting the intricate connections across delivery activities. Key dependencies on project outputs were prominently identified, making them easily discernible and understandable, and enabling a complete view of multiple critical paths.
myP3 introduced standardised tagging within schedules to enable filtered reports on business activities and milestones. This supported business divisional areas, such as Roads, Water or Parks etc, to have insight as to when their areas would be impacted by projects and could plan accordingly.
During and after the initial development of the Master Schedule, myP3 maintained actual to plan data across inflight projects and the creation of schedules for newly initiated projects. Paramount to the Master Schedule’s success was regular schedule status meetings conducted with each program and project manager, and weekly look-ahead reports displaying various perspectives.
Once knowledge transfer had occurred and management practices for the Master Schedule had been stabilised, myP3 was able to handover ongoing management to the client’s internal PMO.
Outcomes:
The capability of the PMO in sustaining a master schedule for a portfolio was improved through coaching and knowledge transfer.
Full visibility across the complex digital portfolio coupled with weekly maintenance of status informed stakeholders and decision-making by governance bodies.
Confidence in the delivery path for the portfolio including an understanding of scope boundaries, ownership, timing, and dependencies.