Leading the Project Revolution: Senior Manager's Role in Project
Management Solutions by Kathy Meikle and William Seidman, PMI'96, p. 621

"The focus of the new and exciting role of senior management as
proactive leaders of project environments is 'integration.'  Senior
managers are responsible for integrating various elements of the project
environment into a unified whole that is efficiently focused on
achieving business objectives.  Senior managers are responsible for
ensuring that business strategies are implemented.  They also enjoy a
perspective that views the whole of the system (holistic) rather than
the parts.  As a result, they are uniquely positioned to act as
integrators responsible for:
    - Linking strategic business objectives to the work of the
organization
    - Aliging diverse functional units of the organization into a
single, coherent project entity"

The Overload Problem

"Most development organizations take on more work than they can do. 
Where development involves high-technology, the work may exceed
resources by two to three times.  This overload is due, in part, to the
high knowledge content of high technology work (i.e., most work occurs
in people's heads), which tends to reduce visibility of the real
resource load.  In turn, overloaded organizations tend to lose focus and
get less done.  In organizations that suffer from project overload, the
number of dormant and aborted projects increases.  Dormant and aborted
projects are counterproductive because they consume resources that
should be focused on critical, active projects."

Managing the Project Portfolio

1.  Define the Portfolio structure
    Determine the level of the organization at which the portfolio will
be managed and who will participate in the portfolio decision making.

2.  Determine resource availability by creating a comprehensive list of
current and proposed projects.

    "Many high-tech organizations estimate that the actual availability
of an individual resource for project work is approximately sixty
percent."

    "...to determine actual resource availability, a comprehensive list
of all project work must be compiled.  This list should include often
forgotten projects and non-project work such as:
    - maintenance
    - minor revisions and enhancements
    - investigation
    - process improvements
    - project proposals
    - initiatives
    - pet projects
    - bug fixes
    - customer support
    - mentoring
    - training
    - email, vmail, inbasket
    - vacation
    - meetings
    - administrative work

3.  Project Proposals.  The basis of the further analysis of the
possible projects is the project proposal.  The project proposal should
capture the minimum data required to screen the project list.  A
standard proposal documentation template might include:
    - Executive Overview
    - Scope Statement
    - Business Objectives
    - Marketing Analysis
    - Success Criteria
    - Alternative Solutions Considered
    - Cost/Benefit and schedule data for each alternative
    - Impact analysis
    - Risk analysis
    - Recommendation

4.  Establishing a decision making system.  Each organization must
create a decision making system that standardizes the decision criteria
and process.

    Simple ranking is appropriate for small numbers of similar projects.
    Decision criteria may include:
        - Cost/benefit
        - Risk
        - Market Value
        - Strategic Positioning
        - Urgency

    One method: Assign weights to each criterion.  Then make a table

              C/B     Feasibility     Value   Strategic Import   Total
    Project  x1.0       x1.5          x1.5      x2.0             
     alpo       5          2            4         7               28
     jedi       8         10           10         8               54

Resource availability should be addressed, and may be both a row in the
decision matrix and a limiting factor on the decision (i.e., by
including the resources in the table and cutting off those which exceed
the available capacity).

5.  Communicating and enforcing Priorities.  It is important to clearly
communicate the status of all projects and enforce the re-allocation of
resources from terminated projects.  The priority of approved projects
and the notification of canceled project must be established in an
unambigious manner. ... The communication should be formal and
frequently reinforced through meetings, memos, a prominently displayed
project priority board, email, etc.

Aligning Functional Units

"Alignment can be a challenge because functional units, by definition,
focus on specific areas of self-interest and create a self-identity. ...
Alignment is best achieved through common participation in the portfolio
management process, wide communication and enforcement of priorities and
effective sponsorship of specific projects as a means of keeping them
focused on the key organizational objectives."

Senior Managers as Sponsors

"As suggested above, sponsors play a key role in integrating the work of
the organization with its business objectives.  Sponsors achieve this
integration by systematically validating project plans and reviewing
project progress.  Their primary focus is to ensure that the
organization plans and executes the 'correct' project."

"Early, appropriate involvement will increase the sponsor's ability to
influence the outcome of the project.  More specifically, at
pre-determined points in a project lifecycle, sponsors formally review
and approve certain work.  As the project is being defined by the
project team, the sponsor will validate:
    - Project Objectives
    - Major Deliverables
    - Trade-Off Criteria
    - Target Dates
    - Major Risks
    - Key Project processes, such as change management, issues
management, and escalation

"When the plan is developed, the sponsor will validate:
    - Detailed, optimized schedule
    - Detailed risk management plan
    - Project baseline

"Once the project is underway, the sponsor will review
    - Project schedule status
    - Escalated issues
    - Scope changes
    - Major risks

[I note that there should be a "closure" section, with the sponsor
validating completion.  This is not in the paper.]

Senior Managers as Implementors of Project Management

"...effective implementation leadership ... must also establish an
environment that proactively promotes the use of project management
methodologies.  More specifically, following a commonly accepted model
of implementation, senior managers must:
    - establish clear expectations and job standards.
    - Ensure that personnel have the skills and knowledge needed for
success
    - Develop and implement a feedback systme about performance against
the job standard
    - Create consequences (both positive and negative) relative to the
job standard
    - Provide necessary tools to execute the job standard