How do you make better decisions? Get senior management out of the process!

When your project has reached a decision point, do you really want to wait until the management team can assemble? Are you sure they will have time to get to your part of the agenda? You've probably been in a project that gets bounced from at least one meeting and has to wait.

HP did some great research on the cost of delaying projects and their return map shows how time really is more important than money (more of that another time).

The key here is to remove senior management physically from the decision making process. I'm not talking about burying them under the patio (tempting though it might be). What I mean is that you need to create criteria that can be used in deciding whether a project can continue. These criteria essentially 'represent' the company's strategy and senior management approach without them having to be present.

A simple example might be that projects should only enter the development portfolio if they have an Internal Rate of Return over 20%. It might also be that a project must have sign off from an internal client, a complete business plan etc.

Putting these criteria in place will achieve two things.

Firstly you can progress projects without the delays associated with requiring senior management attendance and agreement at every stage.

Second - decision making is far more consistent as you avoid the vagaries and inconsistencies of decision making you get from some managers.

It's not perfect, but it works for many decision making points that projects need to pass.

Note - individual project milestones are not the same as these decision making points. Projects (and hence milestones) are unique whereas a process is something that is repeated over and over.


© Copyright Richard A D Jones 2005