The Project Trinity
It doesn’t matter how badly you want it, or how desperately you need it, if you don't have the skill, the will, and the capacity to achieve it. (PPE Truth #40)
The Project Trinity is made up of three critical components which must be present, and in the proper balance, in order to achieve success with enterprise software and software-related projects.
Skill: The capability to envision, define, design, build, test, implement, and support projects and their resulting deliverables.
Each of the three groups of The Project Triad require certain skills. When the skills of the three groups are combined effectively, through collaboration, the greatest probability for project success is attained.
If needed skills are lacking, the probability for project success is decreased.
Will: The readiness to do what needs to be done to make projects and systems successful, throughout their lifetimes.
Enterprise software and software-related projects involve processes, which have to be performed accurately and consistently and, when necessary, upgraded and improved.
It's important to understand what will be required, on an ongoing basis, by the implementation of new initiatives. If the will to properly support and maintain them is lacking, or dissipates over time, value and benefits will be lost.
Capacity: In Project Portfolio Excellence we refer to Capacity for Quality Work (CfQW), because it doesn't matter how much crummy work can be cranked out. Crummy work leads to ongoing maintenance and excess costs associated with poor quality.
Even if needed skills, and essential will are present, if capacity is not available when and where needed, projects cannot succeed.
Most companies are trying to execute more projects than they have the capacity to successfully accomplish. (PPE Truth #38)
This is not a trivial matter because:
If you exceed your Capacity for Quality Work, the result will always be work of inferior quality. (PPE Truth #130)
This means cut corners, poor quality, and unreliable systems and data, requiring ongoing maintenance and rework, and diminished benefits and value. You can't do more than you can do, no matter how passionately you believe you have to. The answer is to truly understand your capacity and strategically use it to pursue the projects and initiatives that will provide the greatest value to the company. The final word on capacity is this:
It’s impossible to optimally manage a project portfolio if you don’t understand your Capacity for Quality Work. (PPE Truth #133)