The document provides an overview of a presentation given by Youssef Mourra on the "Zombies of Programme & Portfolio Management". Mourra introduces common issues or bad habits that persist in programme and portfolio management, which he refers to as "zombies". These include Boris the benefits management zombie, Horace the schedule management zombie, Morris the agile zombie, and Doris the change management zombie. Mourra then introduces new "zombies" that can plague programme and portfolio management: Norris the programme manager zombie, Florence the portfolio management zombie, and Lawrence the project office zombie. The presentation aims to highlight these persisting issues and provide strategies for addressing them.

1. The Zombies of Programme &
Portfolio Management
‘How lazy habits and bad attitudes in Programme and
Portfolio Management continue to manifest themselves’
PMINZ National Conference 2013
Auckland
11th September 2013
Level 3, 38 Waring Taylor St, Wellington +64 4 913 6789
72 Paul Matthews Rd, Albany, Auckland +64 9 414 6543
www.lps.co.nz
Presented by
Youssef Mourra
Managing Partner, Consulting
Lexel Project Services

2. 2 © Lexel Project Services 2013
Me – Youssef Mourra
• Managing Partner – Consulting, Lexel Project Services
• Over 20 years' experience in the world of project, programme and portfolio
management (P3M).
• Past experience with PIPC, Cognizant, Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini in
Australia, France and the UK. Worked in Europe, Asia and America
• For the past 10 years have been based in NZ (Wellington) and has gained
experience with a number of clients both in the private and public sector.
• Led hundreds of consulting engagements ranging from complex project and
programme rescues, mobilisation of project offices, to implementation of
project management information systems.
• Recognised as a trusted advisor by a number of 'C' level executives and
project offices throughout the APAC region.

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The Zombies of Project
Management
Boris
Doris
Morris
Horace

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Meet Boris
Benefits Management Zombie
• Benefits can’t be measured
• It’s too hard
• Cynical about the reasons
benefits are identified and
cynical about how they are
quantified
• Just get on with the project
because it’s a great idea

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Meet Horace
Schedule Management Zombie
• Horace believes that you can control a
project without a schedule.
• Too much emphasis is placed on
schedules and ties Project Managers
down
• He believes you should instinctively
understand how your project is going
and just focus on a few key dates
• What’s the point of a schedule if it
keeps changing. Just an unnecessary
distraction

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Meet Morris
Agile Zombie
• Morris believes that Agile is a project
management process in itself
• He objects to any attempt to use the
term ‘waterfall’ near it.
• He believes {in a particularly maniacal
way} that any attempt to use a
schedule or any planning controls of
any sort is a threat to his Agile
projects
• He believes PMBOK and PRINCE2 are
outdated.

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Meet Doris
Change Management Zombie
• Business or Organisational Change
Management is a luxury that most
projects can’t afford
• Delivering the project is paramount
and the rest is just fluff.
• ‘If an organisation wants to make a
change, then people should accept
it and adopt it immediately. Why
should an organisation invest in all
of this touchy feely stuff?’

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…that was then. This is now…

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The events & characteristics
depicted in this presentation are
fictitious. Any similarity to any
person living or brain dead is
merely coincidental.
Yeah Right

10. 10 © Lexel Project Services 2013
Introducing….the Zombies of
Programme & Portfolio
Management
Norris
Florence
Lawrence

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Meet Norris
Programme Manager Zombie

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What Norris believes…
• That a good Programme Manager is someone who manages multiple
projects
• Programme Management is the natural progression in the evolution
of a Senior Project Manager
• Programme Management is about aggregating the key information
and dates from each of the individual projects and reporting that up
the line
• The focus of Programme Management is producing on producing a
result, an output, and handing it over to the business. This makes the
Programme Manager accountable and therefore top dog

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Why Norris must die!
• Norris has got this all wrong
• The focus is on Benefits, Change, Dependency & Integration Management
• Best Programme Managers come from the business, they have deep SME
experience. They are not glorified or even experienced Project Managers.
There is no natural or automatic continuum from PA to PC to PM to Senior PM
and then Programme Manager
• The focus of Time, Cost, Scope & Quality can be addressed by Project
Managers & Programme Administrators, it’s not the focus of the Programme
Manager
• The whole focus of a Programme Manager is on delivering a business benefit
by pulling together the various projects and helping transform or deliver a
major outcome which is supported by effective Business Change
Management. They are responsible but the Programme Sponsor or Senior
Responsible Owner maintains the accountability.

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Focus Areas
14
Program
Management
Dependency
Management
Resource
Management
Define the
resources
Allocate, Monitor
and Refine Release
Change
Management Unfreeze Transition
State
Lock changes in
so they don’t
revert back
Managing
the Change
Preparing
for Change
Reinforcing
the Change
Benefits
Management
Benefits
Identification
Benefits
Quantification
Benefits
Tracking
Benefits
Realisation
Identify the
Program
Define the
Program
Close the
Program
Deliver the
Program
Deliver the
Capability
Realising the
Benefits
Managing
the
Tranches
Review and Prepare
Establish
Products delivered and
Transitioned to BAU
Identify Macro
Dependencies
Manage and Monitor
Macro/Micro Dependencies
Move Refreeze
Resource demand Resource utilisation

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Unfreeze Move Refreeze
Programme
Manager
Outputs/Products/Deliverables
Benefits Realisation
(Business Intelligence)
Benefits
Identified and Quantified
(Business Case & Strategy)
Change Management Project Management
Outcomes / Benefits
Benefits Management
Benefits Tracking
(Benefits Reporting)
Project Manager A
Programme Management
Project Manager B

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Meet Lawrence
Project Office Zombie

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What Lawrence believes…
• There is no difference between a Project Management Office, a
Programme Management Office and an Enterprise Portfolio Office
• Project Offices are about enforcing policies, standards and methodologies
• The primary purpose of a Project Office is to conduct audits (preferably
random) to catch practitioners out
• Project Offices are there to identify those who are not ticking the boxes
and following every step of the methodology and to call this out
• All projects are the same and every step of the methodology needs to be
followed, there is no room for flexibility
• The first step to achieving greater PPM maturity is to install a Project
Portfolio Management toolset

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Why Lawrence must die!
• Each of these offices has a specific role
• Project Management Office is a temporary office set up to provide support to
a temporary organisation – a project.
• Programme Management Office is a temporary office configured to provide
support to a defined programme of work and can exist for a number of
years, the duration of the programme
• Enterprise Portfolio Office is a permanent office sponsored and supported by
the Executive to provide key decision support material to help the Executive
ensure the organisation’s portfolio remains aligned to the agreed
organisation’s strategy.

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Project Offices
19
Enterprise Portfolio
Office
Programme
Management Office
Project Office
Doing the ‘right’
projects
Doing the
projects right
Strategy
Portfolio
Management
Programme
Management
Project Management

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PMOs rated by Support vs. Reach
ExecutiveSupport
&Buy-in
Low High
Low
High
X
E
D
Y
A
C
?
B
Enterprise Visibility & Reach
You?
‘Policing’
‘Monitoring’
‘Supporting’
Z
‘Leading’
V
W

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Eddie Obeng’s Project Types
21
Project objectives
clear
Project objectives
not clear
Project management, processes, corporate knowledge and tools
well developed
Project management, processes, corporate knowledge and tools
not well developed
Fog
Movie
Paint by
Numbers
Quest

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Project Flexibility
22
Distilled Distilled is for large, complex engagements, typically
strategic projects
Mini Mini is for small, simple engagements, typically
tactical projects
Lite Lite is for medium, detailed engagements, can be
tactical or strategic projects
Fast Fast is for engagements that need to be ‘fast tracked’
through to delivery
Must Must is guidelines to use in conjunction with one of
the above methodologies for engagements that need
to be implemented to meet compliance
Assignment Assignment is for ‘Business as Usual’ repeatable
engagements, with one key deliverable

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PPM Toolsets
23
Enterprise Portfolio
Office
Programme
Management Office
Project Office
Choosing the ‘right’
projects
Doing the ‘right’
projects right
Strategy
Organisational Requirement & Support
2. People / Capability 3. Process / Frameworks 4. Toolsets/Systems

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Meet Florence
Portfolio Management Zombie

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What Florence believes…
• Their organisation will never be mature enough to understand
portfolio management
• It’s not their job to promote Portfolio Management to the
Executive, it’s up to the Executive to ask for it
• Consolidating as much information as possible on the projects and
programmes in their company, without breaking into a sweat and
avoiding probing into the ‘sacred cow’ projects, constitutes portfolio
management
• The issues that a company faces related to project delivery has
nothing to do with selecting the right projects mix

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Why Florence must die!
• What is a Portfolio?
• PMI:
“A portfolio is a collection of projects and programs and other work
grouped to facilitate the effective management of that work to meet
strategic business objectives. The components of a portfolio are
quantifiable – they can be measured, ranked and prioritised”

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Strategic
Driver 1
Organisation Vision/Mission
Vision, Strategy & Strategic Drivers
27
Strategy
Strategic
Driver 2
Strategic
Driver 3
Strategic
Driver 4…
Prioritised Portfolio

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Do you hold the Royal Flush of
Portfolios?
28
• What are the odds of
a Royal Flush in
Poker?
• It shouldn’t be about
odds in business
The royal flush is a case of the straight flush. It can be formed 4 ways (one for each suit), giving it a
probability of 0.000154% and odds of 649,739 : 1.

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COMPLIANCE MAINTENANCE TACTICAL
The projects we MUST do
because of reasons related to
Government legislation or
existing regulations. We have
little choice and we need to get
on with understanding the
options for how we approach
these projects
The projects we SHOULD do
because of reasons related to
maintaining existing systems
and business processes. If we
under-invest for too long, we
run the risk of breaking our
existing operations and systems
The projects we COULD do
because of reasons related to
changes in the
competitive, technological or
global environments. We may
not always want to respond to
each change, but we need to
consider them in our planning
29

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The projects we COULD do
because of reasons related to
new ideas and innovations
driven from our customer, staff
and expert base. We need to
investigate, approve, reject or
invest in these innovations
The projects we WOULD do
because of reasons related to
the setting and achieving of the
strategic plan and vision. What
are the projects that best help
us achieve our stated vision and
contribute most to the strategic
drivers?
INNOVATIONSTRATEGIC
30

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INNOVATION
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
MAINTENANCE
COMPLIANCE
VISION
Gate 3Gate 2Gate 1
Filtered out
initiatives
Filtered out
initiatives
Filtered out
initiatives
• Project Proposals
• Execution
• Handover to BAU
• Detailed
Business Case
• Prioritisation
• Initial Business Case
• Option & Impact
Analysis
• Prioritisation
Project Categories
31

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32
Analysing the Portfolio
V
Project Cost
StrategicValue
Y
B
T
$0k $150k $300k $500k$450k
0%2.5%5%7.5%10%
C
G
J L
M
U
W
X K
I
N
S D
E
F
Q
P
Z
O
H
A
R

?
? Colour = Risk
Rating
Size = Benefits
Shading = Change
Management
LEGEND

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The Ten Steps to Portfolio Optimisation
33
Current
State
PORTFOLIO OPTIMISATION ACHIEVED
1
2
4
3
6
5
7
8
9
10
Define & Agree
Strategic Drivers
Define & Agree
Strategic Drivers
Get
Executive
Support
Get
Executive
Support
Prioritise &
Weight Strategic
Drivers
Prioritise &
Weight Strategic
Drivers
Adopt
Portfolio
Management
Framework
Adopt
Portfolio
Management
Framework
Implement
Portfolio
Governanace
Implement
Portfolio
Governanace
Prepare
Portfolio
Environment
Prepare
Portfolio
Environment
Define & Agree
Project Attributes
Define & Agree
Project Attributes
Perform Portfolio
Stocktake
Perform Portfolio
Stocktake
Assess, Prioritise,
Analyse, & Select
Portfolio
Assess, Prioritise,
Analyse, & Select
Portfolio
Track
Progress,
Track
Benefits
Track
Progress,
Track
Benefits

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Benefits of getting it RIGHT
•Potential savings of 20% of
portfolio value in Year 1
•30% improvement in time to
market for revenue-
generating initiatives
•5% reduction in overall costs
•59% reduction in project
failures
•78% reduction in redundant
projects
•37% decrease in cost per
project
•35% increase in number of
projects under management
Why do Portfolio
Management?
50%
Value
Achieved
50%
Value
Lost
100%
66%
0%
75% 100%
EffectiveSelection–‘DoingtheRightThings’
IdentifyingPotentialBusinessValue
Effective Execution – ‘Doing Things Right ’
Realising Business Value
Primary Source: :
IDC, September 2008
Portfolio
Management
Project
Mgt
• Avoid the deadly combination of poor selection and ineffective execution

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Look out for them… beware and be
aware of their influence
Norris
Florence
Lawrence

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What else can we do?
• We need to be vigilant
• We need to adopt and use these right practices
• We need to promote these practices and show
our workplaces how these will make a huge
contribution to overall project & programme
success
• The Zombies?
• Don’t hire them. Make sure you fire them.
• Tell everyone about them and where they are.
• Name them. Shame them.

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Like to Know More?
• We offer a short 1-hour workshop on each of the Zombies highlighted last
year and today. We will show you how straightforward, valuable and
powerful each of these project, programme and portfolio management
principles are
• We’ll show you how to apply these in your work environment
• Project Office Consulting & Services including Project Office on Demand (POD)
• Project Design & Mobilisation
• Project/Programme Office Services
• Portfolio Prioritisation & Optimisation
• Project & Programme Management Capability Development
• Project & Programme Health-checks & Audits
• Post-Implementation Benefit Reviews
• Project & Programme Rescues
• P3M Capability Development & Training
• Microsoft Project Training & Consulting
Visit us at the
Lexel Project
Services Exhibit
over the next
two days

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Thanks
• Thanks to you all for your attention and attendance today
• Thanks to Microsoft NZ for their sponsorship today
• Thanks to the PMI and all sponsors for organising and helping
make this event happen.
• Go New Zealand!
• Like what you heard?
• Follow me on Twitter on @youssefmourra
• Contact me on youssef.mourra@lexel.co.nz or 021 423 620 for more
information.