Canadian Government Executive - Volume 21 - Issue 9

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November 2015 // Canadian Government Executive / 25
modern tools and modern skills. Most
importantly, they need talented man-
agers and management structures that
will equip and empower them to do their
jobs effectively. Policies require effective
implementation to reach their intended
goals.”
The Advisory Committee’s report spe-
cifically addresses “operational pace,”
which it defines as “the speed at which
departments and agencies are able to
anticipate and respond to the needs and
expectations of Canadians and the Gov-
ernment.” In the world of project man-
agement, PMI would describe this as the
need to practice agility. Though the term
agility has been used in project manage-
ment for the past two decades to refer to
a series of practices and approaches, it is
taking on new meaning as organizations
recognize its value as a strategic compe-
tence. Organizations that use more than
one approach to project management
are able to reconfigure their processes
and combine different tools and tech-
niques to address their own distinctive
challenges.
In today’s fast-moving, perpetually
changing landscape, this is an essential
strategic competency, and one that is
of particular importance to long-term
initiatives such as Blueprint 2020. As
the advisory committee stated in its re-
port: “We strongly believe that the right
kind of process improvements (what we
would call in the private sector ‘reduc-
ing cycle time’ and introducing modern
project management techniques) are in
everyone’s interest, and certainly that of
the Canadian public.”
Similarly, a formal decision-making
process is necessary to help ensure proj-
ect and program success. PMI’s Pulse
of the Profession: Capturing the Value
of Project Management Through Deci-
sion Making, released earlier this year,
reveals that when decision making is
approached with discipline, 79 percent
more projects meet their original goals
and business intent. Informed decisions
guide projects and programs through
planning, implementation and comple-
tion. To achieve key objectives, organi-
zations must proactively empower proj-
ect teams by consistently providing the
right information to decision makers at
critical points in the project lifecycle.
Among the most significant road-
blocks to good decision making – and
therefore to project and program suc-
cess -- is a shortage of actionable infor-
mation available to key project players at
the point of decision. According to PMI’s
research, decision makers in 81 percent
of organizations don’t always have ac-
cess to what they need. In fact, they of-
ten lack even the most fundamental in-
formation, such as risk assessments (46
percent), insight into available resources
(40 percent) and full knowledge of proj-
ect requirements (35 percent).
Another prominent challenge project
decision makers face is a disconnect
between project-level actions and high-
level organizational strategy. Only one in
five organizations report decision mak-
ers at the project level are always familiar
with strategy and how projects support
it. Consequently, most organizations are
failing to benefit from the efficiencies
good decisions deliver. When decision
makers are familiar with organizational
strategy all the time, an average of 78
percent of their organizations’ projects
meet original goals, versus 43 percent,
when they are not familiar with strategy.
The Importance of Highly-
Engaged and Effective Executive
Sponsors
Given the ambitious goals of the fed-
eral Public Service’s Blueprint 2020, its
various initiatives will require the active
engagement of executive sponsors – se-
nior administration personnel who make
the “business case” for a project and
then champion its value and obtain the
necessary organizational resources to
make the project viable. Where a project
manager leads, the executive sponsor
operates at the highest level of an orga-
nization’s management structure to lay
out the requirements and hold others to
account. The sponsor initiates and signs
off on the project, promoting the change
and benefits it is designed to deliver.
Here again, there is cause for optimism
in reviewing the Prime Minister’s Advi-
sory Committee report. In the report’s
2015
Capturing the Value of
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
conclusions, the Committee writes the
following about Blueprint 2020’s objec-
tives: “Prime Minister, all this will require
the commitment of the highest levels of
government – from you and the Cabi-
net to the Clerk and deputy ministers,
a commitment that you and the Clerk
have already confirmed to us. Your sup-
port for the Public Service will foster
confidence in employees and public
confidence in government as a whole.”
The Advisory Committee’s focus on
project management, which includes
the use of modern project management
techniques, recruitment and leadership
development to manage government
projects effectively, is an important step
forward. Assuming the federal govern-
ment follows through on the approach-
es outlined in the Advisory Committee’s
report, PMI’s research indicates a high
probability of Blueprint 2020 achieving
its goals and delivering significant long-
term value to the citizens of Canada.
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