The Contract for Collaboration
The Contract for Collaboration is the strategy for Project Portfolio Excellence. It advises that effective collaboration between Senior Managers, Business Professionals, and Technology Professionals is necessary in order to achieve the best results when evaluatiing, selecting, prioritizing, and managing enterprise software and software-related projects. In most companies collaboration between Business and IT is woefully inadequate. There's a reason for this:
The reason we don’t collaborate effectively is because we don’t measure how effectively we collaborate! (PPE Truth #95)
Each of the three groups of The Project Triad has exclusive information that the other two groups don't have, and it's only when we combine these different perspectives that we attain the best holistic view of enterprise capabilities and constraints, leading to the highest probability for project and portfolio success. Because of the critical nature of this relationship it's important that we improve our collaborative effectiveness. How do we do this?
To improve the effectiveness of Business/IT collaboration, start MEASURING the effectiveness of Business/IT collaboration! (PPE Truth #96)
This is something that has not been done in the past. Up until now measurements have focused on conformance to process and CYA. Very little is done in the measurement of collaborative effectiveness because, for the most part, it's not understood how that would be done. Well, here's how to do it:
Collaborative effectiveness is best measured by the QUALITY and FITNESS FOR USE of the final product! (PPE Truth #97)
In Project Portfolio Excellence measurements are made to assess quality levels and fitness for use of results. This ties back to already presented idea about post-implementation validation. If you want to improve your processes you start by evaluating the output that you're currently receiving from those processes. This can't be ignored, it can't be skipped, and it can't be erratic. It has to be consistent and continuous.
Project Portfolio Excellence provides the tools, the strategy, and the methodology for improvement. It can’t provide the discipline. (PPE Truth #91)
If you've ever seen a couple of semi trucks hauling a double-wide mobile home down the interstate you've seen a good example of "two sides of the house." But, you also know that these pieces don't actually become a house until they're put together. The way we put the Business and IT sides of the house together is through collaboration.
To achieve Project Portfolio Excellence there can be no Business or IT “side of the house.” There’s only one house, and everybody's in it. (PPE Truth #121)