Ability to affect prioritization

Another major issue with project deliverables can result when the senior manager’s ability to affect prioritization of projects, spending, and/or personnel deployment is diminished. This is a common issue that surfaces when centralized project offices are implemented that involve moving the project management personnel from throughout the organization into a consolidated “department” of PM’s. Suddenly, the direct assignment responsibility that a senior manager had at one point is diminished, if not eliminated entirely. In addition, the prioritization of project initiatives as delivered within the functional units might change. Although the project office has the greater good of the corporation in mind, prioritization decisions that aren’t made at the functional level might be viewed as sub-optimizing business priorities. This will create pushback and contention that was unexpected by senior leaders/sponsors of the project.

Process changes and automation of management decisions

The purpose of a project is to design and initiate organizational change. However, the focus of projects is often on the tools or the processes that are to be changed. In the course of project implementation the procedures that employees and their management team utilize often change – while the need for focus on these changes is usually under-estimated. As a result, unintended changes to the business environment are made – from the viewpoint of the project’s customer management team’s perspective.

A prime example of this is when operational business decisions are automated. In the “as-is” environment, people use a common and repeatable set of logic to decide how to proceed with operational execution items. When these items are automated, control – or the perception of control – might seem to be lost, as the “computer” makes the decisions that were made by employees. Well designed systems will allow for “overrides” to change those decisions; yet the perceived “lack of control” that employees feel is conveyed to management. Thus, project deployment issues, in the form of resistance to these changes, is the result.

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