Project, programme and portfolio management, a review of the most recent event held by the SKEMA Alumni Project Management Club

The SKEMA Alumni Project Management Club in Paris ended its quarter on the topic of KPIs and dashboards on Thursday 22 February at Espace Saint-Martin. In a convivial but attentive atmosphere, some 40 participants got together for an evening of experience sharing and practical application entitled “Dashboards and KPIs, how to define and manage indicators that are relevant to your programmes and portfolios”. Relive the event through the photos HERE!

Participants were able to test two types of round-tables: a question-and-answer game, once the reference case had been exposed by Magali Cauet (SK 2014) – Project and Change Management Consultant and Trainer at MI GSO –, and another case presented by Fadi El Gemayel - Consultant and Trainer, CEO of the Daylight Group – with a role-playing game in which participants had to create a dashboard that met the sponsor’s requirements.

Some time was then devoted to answering the participants’ final questions and presenting the results of the group workshops run at the last event on 30 November 2017, before asking members what types of events they expect from the Club. Three different themes were shortlisted and, following a vote, the theme for the 3rd quarter was selected: “The Project Manager and Change Management”.

Save the date: our next event will be held on 17 May! 

Lamia Moussaoui (SK 2009) - Senior Projects Portfolio Manager and Digital Coach at Société Générale - and Magali Cauet (SK 2014) - Project and Change Management Consultant and Trainer at MI GSO – both ambassadors of the SKEMA Alumni Project Management Club, talked to us about their profession and about project, programme and portfolio management:

SKEMA Alumni: How do you define and manage indicators that are relevant to your activities?

Magali: A dashboard made up of relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) is a crucial element for decision making and for effectively managing a project, activity, department or company. Through my various work assignments, I have observed that KPIs are often defined based on available information. This leads to the risk of the most essential elements going unreported. Actually, KPIs should be reverse-engineered; you have to ask yourself the right questions first: who are these KPIs for? Why? What is their goal? What should they report/reflect? For how long? Relevant indicators can only be defined once the answer to all these questions is known. The KPIs must be applicable in the long term; they must be as objective as possible, with a clear measurement, and shared by all.

Lamia: First and foremost, you must avoid diving head first into defining a multitude of indicators. Having a solid understanding of the client’s need is essential. Always ask the same questions: Who is it for? What is it for? If my sponsor is more geared towards figures but still wants some qualitative answers, a diversified set of indicators will have to be created. To be relevant, KPIs must be easy to calculate and they must be applicable in the long term so that the same elements can be compared over different time periods; an audit record can be kept to ensure that the indicator creation can be reproduced properly. Whether you’re working on managing activities relating to projects/programmes or to production, there are always several reports to provide to the various stakeholders. The best thing to do is to identify the common KPIs and industrialise their production, which will help with the cohesion of the overall communication, while adapting to the organisation’s maturity level and strategic vision. Lastly, it is important to explain to contributors how the data collected will be used, by placing the organisation’s committee procedure and governance back into perspective. This helps to ensure that people are less reticent about adhering to the process and less annoyed about providing the requested information.

SKEMA Alumni: What is the best way to manage these indicators?

Magali: Managing, measuring and reporting KPIs is just as important as the process of defining them. The measurement of each indicator should be as objective as possible; it should be clearly stated and shared to avoid what we call “watermelon” indicators: green on the outside, red on the inside. These measurements may need to evolve over time, but each time it is important to ensure that they are shared and known by all. For steering purposes, it is also important to focus on the continuity/sustainability of these indicators and of their measurement, to give as accurate a snapshot as possible at any given moment and to allow comparisons to be done over time. One often-underestimated element that actually seems rather essential to me when collecting and managing indicators is the instilment of an open, blame-free culture. Indeed, a blame environment in which managers are too afraid to report results that aren’t as good as expected is the best way to collect “watermelon” indicators that will give a biased view of the situation.

Lamia: It really depends on the context within the company. There are a large number of management tools available to track and manage the defined indicators, ranging from software suites incorporated into the organisation’s range of applications, to simple macros and pivot tables in Excel or tools developed in-house. The presence of PMOs (Project Management Officers) and PPMs (Projects Portfolio Managers) is also an added advantage for better management. If the defined KPIs are sustainable and an optimised process was used to establish them, everything should go well when it comes time to produce them. But you also have to adapt collection and reporting frequency based on the allocated load to ensure reporting deadlines are adhered to and you don’t end up swamped.

SKEMA Alumni: Can you give us a concrete example of something you worked on in 2017?

Magali: In 2017, I got the chance to set up a dashboard and associated indicators for a car company to report to its executive committee on the status and progress of special events cars. There were many challenges associated with setting up these indicators: high visibility and internal pressures associated with the subject, multiplicity, veracity and incongruity of the information to collect, etc.
In the end we set up a dashboard with a focus on quality and lead times. Setting up this dashboard and defining the indicators we wanted to collect enabled us to really simplify and clarify the processes and responsibilities in order to be able to continuously obtain quality information.

Lamia: My department’s management tool was not able to adapt to new management requirements following an organisational transformation. My team of PPMs and I got to work to find a new tool that used the agile approach and UX design. In 2017 we identified a tool and fine-tuned our needs. This step helped us to think about our different needs in terms of reporting, about how to facilitate the project manager’s user experience, and the interfacing with the other tools already in place. We created a POC (proof of concept) based on a limited group of subjects and users and we are currently preparing its full deployment. As a project manager, I can say that this experience has really helped me to “ask myself the right questions”. 

Until next time, follow us on Linkedin ICI to discover new articles, chat, ask questions, and to join us for the next after-work event to discuss lessons learned and enjoy a mini training session on change management (we're working on it right now!).