Reality Check: Organizational Capacity

Posted by admin2

September 22, 2008

For organizations that have already developed and roll out an enterprise project management methodology, the next item to tackle may be the organizational portfolio. It is very common to have projects neatly organized and the visibility and focus on project success based upon on-time, on budget and schedule metrics.

Following an integrated process where the strategy and budget precede the lifecycle of project work, organizations and managers find solace in the operating model. What is slowly realized is, that while everything is flowing smoothly, there are recognizable gaps at a much higher level. Lower level impacts are usually hidden by managers who are simply surviving, using whatever archaic method to maintain independence and freedom from corporate intervention. What is this gap? Where are my people, who are my people and why can’t I deliver on my corporate strategies?

It is very common NOT to attempt to resolve every issue at one time. Biting off more than you can chew will ruin just about every attempt to obtain cultural adoption. Slowly gaining ground on perfection, allows the organization and company to actually REACH perfection.

So, to tackle the organizational gap we must first define a process at a very high level that will drive your direction. This is something that your organization at all levels will understand. In terminology that your company uses, define the various stages of planning.

Here is the process you can use to define your organizational capacity gap:

Concept
Identified
Demand
Fully Defined
Fully Refined

Then identify the planning process that has actually been perfected, rolled out and is currently in use and hopefully adopted. Usually this looks like; 3-5 year forecasting-Annual planning-Governance-SDLC.

With these defined, line up where the organizational needs are. Be sensitive to the audience for each stage. For example, named resources are not required while conceptualizing the future for your company. Something like roles or FTE’s may be more appropriate. Determine where named resources are actually required.

Output from each planning stage should also be defined. This will provide purpose, focus and goals for this roll out.

It is important to realize that each stage has a specific audience with very different needs. Given this, separate your high level [organizational view] and lower level [named resources] into at least 2 process areas:

Organizational Planning – aligning organizational availability to the business priorities based on the scheduled need.
Capacity Analysis – Determining if we have adequate resource availability with the right knowledge at the right time to complete the organizations future objectives.
Resource Management – identifying and managing the actual people who accomplish the company’s goals

These definitions assist in identifying the roles in each. At Organizational Planning for instance, you will typically see CIO’s here and their business counterparts. Capacity Analysis is typically portfolio owners. Resource Management is self explanatory.

Capturing the current pain points and drivers from each of these groups will keep your information organized and complete. Digging into the details, therein, will narrow the gap between what the true needs of the company are.

Many companies have realized six sigma and CMM functions. In this case, simple SIPOCs for the high level and low levels will help to identify all areas that are impacted and the processes improvements that have to take place and the role that need to be changed or defined. This is a good process for any company, even if you are not CMM Level 4!

The leg worked involved in just kicking off this program is a project in and of itself. Too many companies skip this part entirely due to the administration and cost involved. We have learned that this was the key to solidifying adoption and organizational change. We were completely lined up with our people and the real needs!

In the next article we will discuss and lay out what the rest of the plan looks like. We will walk through the Tracks and phases, the successes and lessons learned. I’m excited to share this with you because it can make you the hero at your company!

Organizational Utilization