Projektballast: Ein Ansatz zur Verbesserung Ihrer PPM-Prozesse

Sciforma encourages prospects and customers to focus on what we call “project ballast.” Before we explain why this is so important, let’s first define what project ballast refers to.

We generally refer to “project deadweight” as the time wasted performing non-value-added work throughout the lifecycle of a project.

To be precise, it’s about the discrepancy between the time it actually takes to complete non-value-added tasks and the time it might take if the process associated with these tasks were fully automated.

Here are some examples of tasks that involve project ballast:

  • Capturing and reconciling data discrepancies and formatting data for various reports and project reviews as well as manual quality checking
  • Searching for information such as project templates, metrics and financial data; Many organizations report that project managers and team members spend more than one day per week searching for information
  • Filling out timesheets for time recording takes a lot of time, but does not provide direct, immediate added value
  • Manually uploading and transferring data to and between spreadsheets, MS Project and other systems
  • The management and coordination of project and work activities

Of course, minimizing the time required for these works is all well and good, but the question is, why should you pay special attention to this category?

Most PMOs or project-based companies underestimate the amount of work that comes from non-value-added tasks. According to a study published in Lean Office Innovation, 90% of all office work does not add value. Only 10% of work actually offers added value for companies. But this is exactly where the problem lies: The focus in companies is usually on this 10%, i.e. on project selection , resource management , capacity planning , project and task processing , portfolio planning , risk assessment , etc. It is of course important that you optimize the process and results for these value-added tasks. However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the mundane, non-value-added tasks, because these are the so-called low-hanging fruit that have a big impact on improving your PPM processes . While it’s counterintuitive, it can significantly improve overall PPM productivity and key metrics like project lead time.

To illustrate the statement, here again in numbers:

If you increase the productivity of tasks without added value (remember: 90% of all office work falls into this category) by, for example, 50%, the productivity of the entire project execution will be significantly increased. In comparison, the improvement in productivity when focusing on the 10% of value-adding work is limited to a single-digit
increase in productivity.







In our next post we will look at what an initiative to eliminate project deadlock could look like. You can also find further information in our e-book “Get rid of project ballast”.

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Valerie Zeller

Valerie Zeller ist Chief Marketing Officer bei Sciforma. Valeries Hauptinteressen sind Digitale Transformation, Change Management und Strategieumsetzung. Teilen Sie Ihre Meinung mit @valeriezeller