1. www.niku.com
Do What Matters
Aligning your People with
your Organization’s
Priorities

2. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
How to tell if
People + Projects = Priorities?
 What are all your people working on?
 What are your active projects?
 Are your people and projects aligned with
your priorities?

3. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Measuring People, Projects and
Priorities
 Measurement is the key
– Priority Management
– Opportunity Management
– Resource Management
– Work Initiation
– Work Delivery
– Work Analysis

4. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
ProjectsProjectsProjectsProjectsProjectsProjectsProjects
Projects, Opportunities and
Priorities
Executive Strategy
Organizational
Opportunities
Priorities
Projects

5. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Priority Management
 Decide on your priorities!
 Articulate, understand, review and prioritize
them.
 Tie them to projects so that as projects are
worked and costs and benefits realized, these
can be aggregated and managed at the priority
level.
 Plan your capacity at the priority level, and
enforce your prioritization plan.

6. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Opportunity Management
 Balance new and existing opportunities.
 Match demand to available supply.
 Weigh opportunities against priorities and judge
them using quantitative metrics such as ROI or
payback analysis to determine expected benefit.
 Explore “what-if’ scenarios to decide the right
mix of opportunities.
 Set your budget and benefits here.

7. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Resource Management
 Manage both internal and external resources.
 Forecast skill requirements based on priorities.
 Plan your resources against these forecasts.
 Meet skill shortages with increased recruiting,
training or partner alliances.
 Meet skill excesses through retraining or priority
readjustment.

8. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Work Initiation
 Plan the effort.
 Decide on the process and initiate the project.
 Tie projects to priorities allowing the priority to
aggregate information for executive review.
 Allocate resources based on their availability.
 Schedule the work, balancing this new demand
with existing supply.
 Define schedules and plans and assess risks.
 Reanalyze budgets and benefits.

9. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Work Delivery
 Do what matters!
 Encourage your teams to work together for
greater efficiency.
 Enforce best practices and corporate standards
through the plan.
 Manage deliverables as assets, allowing for
greater reuse and increased efficiency.
 Assign cost and time to projects, keeping
schedules and cost pictures up to date and
allowing for real-time information flow.

10. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Work Management
 Verify your work is on track.
 Perform project accounting.
 Bill and Invoice your external customers, or manage
charge backs for internal customers.
 Aggregate real time priority, opportunity, and work
information at any level of the organization.
 Take corrective action if needed.
 As both priorities and schedules change, periodically
review all projects to verify alignment with priorities.
 Continually perform cost, budget, and benefits
analysis.

11. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Time Tracking
 You know:
– Real time status on projects
– Resource loading of your organization
– Real time cost of projects
– Where the project underages and overages
are: in time or in money
– % of rework!
 If you understand when your people are busy,
you are less likely to overschedule them!

12. www.niku.com
6/7/2001
Do What Matters
 Identify your organization’s priorities
 Align your people’s efforts to your
organization’s priorities