Hi! This is Marti. In just a few months, I'll be going to
the 2nd Annual Resource Planning Summit in La
Jolla, California, September 19-21. So what is the Resource
Planning Summit? It's a thought leadership
event dedicated to gathering and distributing the
freshest thinking about the most important part of portfolio
management---the management of its essential resources. It is also
a leadership training forum because when the leaders fail, the
products are doomed. I plan to submit posts that are
intriguing, curious, contradictory and informative, and I hope to
learn from you and other followers.
While reading the summary of last year's conference,
I came across Joe Barkai's four habits of successful
companies. Barkai is practice director for IDC Manufacturing
Insights' Product Life-Cycle Strategies research service, and very
good at what he does. Successful companies:
- Provide accurate and reliable resource forecasting across all
projects. Resources get committed early to a project.
- Predict and manage risks. Identify overcommitments before they
create project delays.
- Increase agility. Respond to shortages and changes in a timely
fashion.
- Improve accuracy. Align actuals against forecast, improve
forecast quality; and increase cultural trust in forecasts and
decisions.
As you gain ground in one area, others improve as well. What
about your organization? I was intrigued when he said
that the early identification of overcommitments reduces
project delays. Is there a code of silence that keeps
project managers from speaking up when they know things are
going south?
