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mathgenuis2021
attachment_11.docx501 Team Assignment 3 - SMART model vs. BRA
Compare and Contrast (Team) Your final course assignment is a team-based assignment. Teams will engage in discussions in your team forums to assist in your preparation for this assignment.
Please read thoroughly the readings on the two business integration models – the SMART project management model and the Benefits Realization Approach. Also make sure you have read the unit notes on these two models.
Both of these models offer a solution or approach to solving the paradox of information projects costing huge sums of money yet failing to provide any real value to the sponsoring organization.
Based on your team members’ experiences (experiences need not be information technology related), how practical do you think the solutions are that are offered by each author? Comment by Anida Yuen:
Where do you think they fail in the reality department?
If you had to choose between one of these two models as a basis for managing projects which one would your team pick and why?
Please present your answers to these questions in the form of an 8 - 10 page essay.
(A)
SMART is the acronym Francis T. Hartman, Ph.D., coined for his style of project management:
■ SM=Strategically Managed
■ A=Aligned
■ R=Regenerative work environment
■ T=Transitional management.
Don't Park Your Brain Outside: A Practical Guide to Improving Shareholder Value with SMART Management (By: Francis T. Hartman)
Project Management Institute © 2000
This is our textbook. I will copy some connected content.：
SMART Management of Projects
Managing projects in a way that is relevant to the project and yet as simple as possible requires attention to a number of factors. These factors, put together, give a holistic view of the project. First, we need to ensure that we keep the project in tune with the organization for which we work. Any project undertaken by any organization needs to pass a simple test: Can we identify what the project does to add value? How does it help the organization achieve its strategic objective? If we cannot do this, no matter how big or small the project is, we should not be doing it.
The second item to consider is what we need to do to minimize the waste of effort associated with so many projects. Wasted effort manifests itself in a number of ways. We see it as redundant work; effort spent meeting unjustified deadlines; doing the wrong thing and having to go back and fix it later; waiting for information, materials, or tools; dealing with items that have just become critical and thus necessitate a sudden change in plans and priorities; and much more.
The third item we need to address is having an effective team working for or with us on the project. This is made tough by a number of factors. First, we do not get to pick our team most of the time. We usually have to make do with a group of people who have not necessarily worked together, may not want to work together, or already have a lot of things to do for their regular jobs. They may be asked to work on our project in addition to one or even several other projects, which usually seem to have higher priority! Therefore, we need to have an effective way to manage our project teams so that they will want to work on our projects.
The fourth element in a holistic approach is the ability to keep an eye on the world around us. It will not keep still while we try to make our project work. Not only that, but the chances are good that our project will affect this world in some way. Typically, the larger the project, the greater the impact, although this is not necessarily true. What does it mean? Two things in particular: 1) we are managing something that will change, and 2) what we are managing will happen in a changing world. We are working with transition.
The word SMART is an acronym. It represents the four points that we have just reviewed.
· SM = Strategically Managed
· A = Aligned
· R = Regenerative work environment
· T = Transitional management.
Note
To deliver successful projects, we need to take a holistic and balanced approach that reflects the need to address being strategically managed and aligned, working with an effective and regenerative team, and recognizing that what we manage is transitional.
The significance of these four elements is discussed in this chapter, together with how they provide a framework to address the apparent contradictions in the management of increasingly complex projects and the higher uncertainty that characterizes many of today's business needs.
The objective of SMART Project Management is to deliver projects significantly more efficiently than classical or modern project management techniques. Traditional project management is based on many principles and assumptions that date back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Today's projects may be described as both more uncertain and more complex than those from previous decades. (This is explored further later in the book.) Dealing with increased uncertainty and complexity does require quite different skills in the management of projects. These skills may be summarized as follows:
· We need to be more aware of the business environment and the drivers that set the ground rules for success of our projects.
· We need to understand the technical implications of the project.
· we need to understand the societal issues around the projects we undertake. They are potentially huge.
Managers need to stay in tune at all times with these three primary sets of issues: 1) business, 2) technology, and 3) societal (the larger environment). Staying in tune and fully understanding are not the same thing. There is far too much information around for us to absorb even a small portion of the whole. What is important is to maintain a balanced and (as far as practical) an objective view. This balance is a thread throughout SMART Management.
Tip
Successful projects are based on a balanced scorecard that considers business, technical, and societal needs.
17.4 SMART Project Management-Based Maturity Model
This early concept of a maturity model is also loosely based on the SEI model. It is the result of five years of empirical study in the application of derived best performance studies (described later). It challenges many of the standard practices in project management by pushing the envelope of accepted expertise and processes. As we have seen, the SMART model is based on the following elements:
· Projects are strategically managed and integrated with corporate objectives.
· Teams and objectives are properly aligned, and this alignment is tested and validated.
· The project is performed in a regenerative culture that encourages and supports high-performance teams.
· The project is defined, planned, and managed in the context of a continuously changing (transitional) environment with corresponding shifts in demands on the project and its assigned resources.
These models, when applied to projects in organizations, consistently yielded significantly better project performance in terms of customer satisfaction and cost and time required. However, it proved to be unsustainable when implemented in an environment that was at level one, two, or even three on most of the maturity models previously defined. In order to understand why this might be, further study was undertaken, based generally on the principles of identifying best practices.
Success of a project should be defined in terms of outcomes. These outcomes (in SMART Project Management, they always comprise a set of deliverable items) should be agreed upon by the stakeholders, who will vote on whether or not the project is a success. The other elements to be defined are the limitations of time, cost, and other resources to be consumed in achieving the project objectives.
Communication—The Only Cause of Failure
We should have seen from the last section that communicating a more complete picture of likely outcomes (based on schedule and cost information) improves our chances of being successful in managing a project. Communication at the right level and with the right people is at the heart of successful project management.
16.4 Selecting and Modifying Tools
If you look at the SMART approach to project and program management, you will see that it's really a framework rather than a methodology. This is deliberate. Each time I've helped an organization implement the SMART approach, it's turned out differently; this is as it should be. We need to adapt what we do to the task, the people, and the culture of the organization. The message is that we need to be creative in using the approach. What is important—and what makes this all SMART—is that we pay attention to the following principles:
· We understand the business that is the driver of the project. We know what we are trying to achieve and why. This is the difference between building a bridge and improving access across a river at a particular point.
· We maintain a balance among business, technical, and social issues at all times, and we never compromise safety, in the broadest sense of the word.
· We build high-performance teams that include fun, creativity, and tribalism in their make-up.
· We do everything based on deliverables, including defining success, planning, managing, organizing, producing, and recording.
· We actively manage risk, uncertainty, and stakeholder expectations.
·
This is some references
https://brandongaille.com/best-smart-goals-for-project-managers/
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/smart-style-better-project-management-4605
SMART example.
https://www.proofhub.com/articles/smart-goal-setting-examples-for-project-managers
https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-smart-in-project-management/
https://content.wisestep.com/smart-goals-definition-importance-advantages-disadvantages/
SMART introduction
https://simplicable.com/new/benefits-realization
https://acuityppm.com/ppm-101-benefits-realization-and-portfolio-value-management/
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/recommended-reads/what-is-benefits-realisation.php
https://shibumi.com/blog/the-importance-of-benefits-realization/
https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/benefits-realisation-management-its-easy-if-you-do-it-smart/
What is benefits realization management?
In short, benefits realization is about capturing the actual benefits (tangible and intangible) from a project (or program) following the completion of that work. Benefits realization often involves tracking the quantitative benefits of the project (e.g. financial benefits, operational benefits, etc.) so that senior leadership can answer the question “did we get the benefits from the project that we expected?” Projects have inherent value, and benefits realization is part of the accountability framework to increase the likelihood that organizations receive the intended benefits from completed projects.
Measuring project benefits also validates how well the portfolio governance team selected the right projects. Too often, the assumption is made that if we finish the project we will get the benefits that were identified at project initiation. This is a false assumption based on hope (remember, hope is not a plan). It would be like making an investment without ever being notified on the financial return on that investment. No one does this with their own investments, but companies do it all the time with project investments.
Why is a benefits realization plan important?
Developing a benefits realization plan with a benefits realization process is important for several reasons.
1. Increases the likelihood that organizations receive the intended benefits from completed projects
2. It helps improve business case development, which, in turn, increases the odds that the project portfolio will contain more winning projects going forward
3. Verifies the accuracy of the forecasts provided in the planning phase of the project
4. Enables a feedback loop to help improve project selection (lessons learned)
5. Strengthens value management across the portfolio management lifecycle
6. Lessons learned can help mature both project and portfolio management processes
Benefits realization is really about value management. The reasons for implementing a benefits realization process listed above lead us to the heart of this post, value management in the context of project portfolio management.
