- As an IT leader, you are responsible for getting new things done while keeping the old things running. These “new things” can come in many forms, e.g. service requests, incidents, and officially sanctioned PMO projects, as well as a category of “unofficial” projects that have been initiated through other channels.
- These unofficial projects get called many things by different organizations (e.g. level 0 projects,BAU projects, non-PMO projects, day-to-day projects), but they all have the similar characteristics: they are smaller and less complex than larger projects or officially sanctioned projects; they are larger and more risky than operational tasks or incidents; and they are focused on the needs of a specific functional unit and tend to stay within those units to get done.
- Because these day-to-day projects are small, emergent, team-specific, operationally vital, yet generally perceived as being strategically unimportant, top-level leadership has a limited understanding of them when they are approving and prioritizing major projects. As a result, they approve projects with no insight into how your team’s capacity is already stretched thin by existing demands.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Senior leadership cannot contrast the priority of things that are undocumented. As an IT leader, you need to ensure day-to-day projects receive the appropriate amount of documentation without drowning your team in a process that the types of project don’t warrant.
- Don’t bleed your project capacity dry by leaving the back door open. When executive oversight took over the strategic portfolio, we assumed they’d resource those projects as a priority. Instead, they focused on “alignment,” “strategic vision,” and “go to market” while failing to secure and defend the resource capacity needed. To focus on the big stuff, you need to sweat the small stuff.
Impact and Result
- Develop a method to consistently identify and triage day-to-day projects across functional teams in a standard and repeatable way.
- Establish a way to balance and prioritize the operational necessity of day-to-day projects against the strategic value of major projects.
- Build a repeatable process to document and report where the time goes across all given pockets of demand your team faces.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.8/10
Overall Impact
$15,824
Average $ Saved
23
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Central Arizona Project
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs
Guided Implementation
10/10
$34,000
20
It is difficult to accurately account for the time and financial savings on this one, but I'm fairly confident that we could have easily spent an a... Read More
FirstRand Bank Ltd.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,999
20
Travis helped crystalise the problem and advised on additional considerations.
Dodge County
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,599
20
BlueScope Buildings
Guided Implementation
9/10
$13,700
47
Long is great! Love working with him. I wish I had more time to complete my assignments.
Garfield County IT
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Nothing negative. Long was patient and took the extra time to answer my questions. In addition, he provided valuable tools for us to use going forw... Read More
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