Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

Organizational Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

We have defined the processes to be put in place in order to maintain the alignment between the demand for project teams and the supply of human resources needed to construct these teams. There are four major challenges that the SMT faces even with these processes in place.

Balancing Supply versus Demand of Skilled Professionals

The first and most complex challenge is to attain and maintain the balance between the skills inventory and the demand placed on that inventory by the continual stream of project proposals coming into the portfolios. This is not a static challenge but rather it is a dynamic challenge. The demand for skills changes as the stream of project proposals changes and even the best of processes can only forecast that demand. The available skills inventory changes as existing professionals gain in knowledge and experience and with turnover taken into account, the available skills inventory can only be forecasted too.

Strategic Project Gap

The strategic project gap is the difference between what we should do and what we can do. The Graham-Englund Selection Model is the foundation of this and Part III, Improving Project Return On Iinvestment (ROI) Using Agile Project Portfolio Management. I presented this in Chapter 6, Integrating the Project Manager, Business Analyst, Business Process Professional, and Information Technology Professional into the Project Landscape. What we should do is constrained by the available ...