Projects Without Boundaries

CHAPTER 2PLANNING THE VIRTUAL PROJECT

There was a lot of excitement at this month's portfolio review meeting at Sensor Dynamics. The company's researchers achieved a technological breakthrough that provides a pathway into the new autonomous automobile market. It was believed that the technology was ready to go into a product, and strong interest had been expressed by both new players in the auto industry, and a few large technology companies, and historic automobile manufacturers. Sensor Dynamics received a commitment from a Japanese automobile manufacturer to sign on as a strategic partner. The portfolio team at Sensor Dynamics approved the development of the new sensor product, code named “Sitka,” and added it to the company's new product development portfolio.

Jude Ames, Vice President of New Product Development, turned to Brent Norville and asked an important question: “Do you have a PM and team that you can put on this project now?” The obvious answer was no because every project manager and team were currently committed to projects, but Norville knew this answer would not be acceptable. “Everyone is committed to a project right now,” began Norville, “but Jeremy Bouchard's team will be launching their biometric product in three weeks, so we can probably move the entire team over to the Sitka project. In fact, Jeremy and a few of the project leads could begin early initiation and planning work next week.”

As all good senior executives know how to do, Ames asked another important ...