BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

4 Ways Millennials Are Influencing Change In Project Portfolio Management

This article is more than 6 years old.

Pexels.com

Project portfolio management (PPM) is undergoing a transformation, thanks to a new generation of workers reinventing how PPM is implemented. In case you aren’t familiar, PPM is distinct from project management; rather than taking on a single project and seeing it through to completion, PPM involves the collective management of an entire portfolio of projects. PPM managers are responsible for determining what projects to take on, when to take them on, the profitability and priority of those projects (including how they change over time), and how to allocate resources in the most efficient way to complete those projects.

Currently, PPM is being redefined and reworked as an institution; millennials, who now represent the majority of the American workforce, are implementing new approaches and deviations from the old style of PPM that allow for more profitability and a greater competitive advantage. Understanding these shifts is critical if you want your PPM program to remain competitive in the near future.

The Biggest Problems With PPM

What’s wrong with PPM anyway? Every organization has their own problems with PPM, but these are some of the biggest recurring holes in the conventional approaches to PPM:

  • Incomplete or biased information. To do their jobs effectively, PPMs need as much information as possible—and that information needs to be accurate. Unfortunately, it rarely is. Different project managers or account reps may present data differently, resulting in completely inconsistent formats and widely varying degrees of knowledge across different potential projects. Since project managers also understand that only the highest priority projects will win resources, they may also be incentivized to include biased or misleading information to optimize their own projects; this leaves PPMs with a principal-agent problem.
  • No single selection method. How do you decide which project is the top priority to take on? Should you consider profitability? The importance of the client? The speed at which the project can be completed? The reputation benefits your brand would gain in the process? There’s no single list of selection criteria, so PPMs struggle to make consistent decisions that lead to the best company results.
  • Bottleneck resources. Bottleneck resources can, if not planned for carefully, interrupt your entire process and compromise your deadline, project turnover, and availability. If you’re dealing with a portfolio of web projects, for example, but your limited pool of front-end developers are required for all of them, there may be no way to accelerate the completion of any single project until that bottleneck resource spends the requisite time on each one.
  • Adaptability. Things change quickly in modern businesses, but most PPM infrastructure and processes are obsolete and staunch. Consistency and profitability are keys to success, so many traditional PPMs believe the solution is to keep your processes rigid and unchanging. However, this makes it more difficult to respond to changes on the fly.

How Millennials Are Forcing Change

So how is the millennial generation making changes to PPM?

1. Better technological tools.

It’s not just a stereotype; millennials love technology. But it’s not because they’re obsessed with the latest gadgets. Instead, it’s because they grew up with technology and recognize how valuable it is in achieving better results. Today’s millennial PPMs want to use advanced PPM software that allows for “lean PPM.” As described by Meisterplan, lean PPM attempts to strip away the superfluous components of PPM and focus on the four main areas: Strategize, Collect, Decide, and Execute. Using a platform allows for greater consistency across the board, and higher efficiency (not to mention transparency and access).

2. Shorter decision making cycles.

Millennials are also pushing for shorter decision making cycles; what once took a month now takes a week, and what once took a day now takes an hour. Older decision making standards were based in an age where information wasn’t as readily available. Today’s world needs to move faster, and millennials are trying to bring that speed to PPM.

3. Broader diversity.

Millennials are also incorporating a broader range of tactics, from the types of projects they take on, to the tools they use to determine priority. They’re willing to listen and learn from the processes of people that came before them, but they’re also open to new ways of thinking and new tools that can be used for the job. This increased diversity and exposure leads them to higher levels of experimentation, and presumably, better final strategies.

4. Agile/adaptive selection criteria.

Finally, the millennial generation recognizes the problem of stagnation. New data can move quickly through an organization, and all it takes is one new development to completely compromise your original plan. That’s why more millennials are trying to focus on adaptive strategies in PPM, which allow for more agile responses to new developments.

Though there’s no easy way to empirically prove that these strategies are superior, companies with millennials striving for change in PPM are enjoying the benefits. Consider incorporating these changes into your own PPM department, and give your company the injection of modernity it needs to remain competitive in today’s world.