Writing on competitive advantages in his seminal work, “Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,” famed business scholar Michael Porter notes, “There is less to fear from outside competition than from inside inefficiency.” In other words, companies should first “look within” to do what they do with efficient excellence before “looking without” to competitive moves.

One of the wisest ways organizations maximize internal efficiency is investing only in high-performing and strategic initiatives. Project selection, return on investment (ROI) analysis, risk identification and mitigation, and continuous process improvement are imperatives. The challenge is that in many organizations management has little visibility into the scope and progress of projects across the enterprise. “Silo thinking” prevents resources from being assigned most effectively across departmental and geographical boundaries, project management procedures are not standardized, schedules are not met, and budgets are routinely exceeded.

Adding stress to the system are regulations that govern how time and talent must be tracked to accurately allocate cost and revenue to work performed. Some of these regulations are labor-related  such as state-specific wage laws, the Family Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act  and some are related to financial governance and accounting requirements, such as Sarbanes- Oxley, the AICPA’s Statement of Position (SOP) 98-1, and the cost accounting contract guidelines of the Defense Contractors Auditor Agency (DCAA). All require meticulous planning as well as accurate recording, tracking and auditing to ensure compliance.

These challenges have led most organizations to seek technology to simplify and structure the process of prioritizing internal and IT projects, assigning the right talent to them, and guiding their progress. Some organizations have tried using Project Portfolio Management applications (PPM) or Professional Services Automation (PSA) applications, only to be disappointed in their scope and lack of easy integration with their existing business management systems, such as project management, finance, payroll, human resources and procurement.

This white paper introduces Project Workforce Management for Internal and IT Projects, a next-generation solution that helps organizations effectively select and prioritize projects, assign the right talent to them, and track their progress to ensure efficient execution. The paper explores the challenges of internal and IT project management, and notes the shortcomings of Project Portfolio Management applications. Concepts presented also apply to managing service organizations, and reflect information found in our companion white paper Project Workforce Management for Service Organizations.