Project interdependency mapping

Abstract: To manage project and portfolios it is highly important to take into account the interdependencies that these have with external projects. The outcome of any projects depends, both directly and indirectly, to the performance, timelines and capabilities of other projects and portfolios. To better understand these interdependencies an organization can, make use of a project dependency mapping tool, a method based on network mapping highly used in companies to understand relationships between organizations, employees, and communication flows. This tool creates a visual representation of the interdependencies between projects and helps gather both types of data: quantitative and qualitative. Representing mainly qualitative data in a easy way for everyone to read, analyze and drive conclusions can help drastically to the performance and outcomes of a project in a company. The methodology of visual project mapping is explained in this paper detailing all the steps and resources needed for the tool.

• Context of approach and need for methodology
• Basis of methodology and situations in which it can be used
• Specific implementation for project interdependencies with resources and data required as well as steps to follow
  • Define objective of the methodology
  • Choose type of data that will be gathered and proxies of data collection
  • Collection and analysis of data
  • Results and conclusions
• Examples in which the methodology has been used and relevance to project management
• Pros, cons, and limitations of methodology

1 CONTEXT OF APPROACH AND NEED FOR METHODOLOGY

Projects are complex processes, they are a combination of people, resources, and planning with focus on one or several objectives and goals. Projects can occur in enterprises, all kinds of organizations, or be born in any kind of environment. The external aspect of projects affects both directly and indirectly to the process and their outcomes. Specifically, projects being carried out in a company in the same sector, maybe a close competitor, may affect the project of one’s own company. Projects interact with other projects, and this gives a mass of dependencies between them. It has been studied that knowing these dependencies can help improve the performance of a project. It is like knowing the stakeholders of company, having knowledge of their weaknesses and strengths and how they affect one’s own business can help a company use this for its own strategy. this also happens with projects that is why it is so important to either enter the pendency that projects have with other projects.

Aside from this, projects have a certain level of uncertainty and coping with that uncertainty is one of the most difficult things managers have to deal with. Uncertainty means losing money, time, resources, and having to reschedule all of the above. That is why it is so important for project managers to have some tools that will help them reduce the uncertainty in its projects and portfolios. In this paper we want to introduce a methodology for understanding better the interdependences in projects and portfolio. This tool uses visual representation and mapping to facilitate the process of getting to know the project better and its relations with others. there can be different implementations of this tool dependent on the characteristics of the project and the scope and objectives as well, but here we will explain the main ideas and different types of structures in order to help develop the methodology as best as possible.

The methodology can be named in different ways since it has been developed by different sources and studies. In this case we will use project interdependency mapping as well as sometimes visual project mapping.

2 BASIS OF METHODOLOGY AND SITUATIONS IN WHICH IT CAN BE USED

This methodology is based on the idea of project interdependencies combine with the visual aid that network mapping provides. The interdependencies are defined as capabilities to assess a project successfully. These can be seen from different perspectives, as capabilities that the project requires from external sources or capabilities that the project needs to deliver to external sources. As it can be seen interdependencies explain the relationship between the project and its external context, in particular with other projects. A good example could be a when a project needs to have some resources and these have to be shared with other projects or maybe the company has to wait to use it.

This methodology is based on what is called network mapping. Network mapping is a tool used in different feels such as mathematics, biology, management, and so on. The tool consists of creating a network with notes that are connected with arrows or simple lines. this network represents their relationships between the nodes. The meaning of the layout can change accordingly to the needs of the project and the company. A special version of the network mapping is called the social network mapping which describes the relationship between people in companies as well as organizations within organizations. in this way of implementation of the tool each node represents a person in the network and its importance can be represented as the size of the node, for instance. As we will see below people are not the only possible usage for this methodology in this case it has been proven that projects can be used as the nodes for the network.

Even though projects are of very different natures and half a huge variety of scopes they all have in common that they depend on other projects. these projects can be government interests and their own objectives, other companies’ projects which collapse in interests, or it may be inside the same company projects from different departments that has to align inside the same framework. This makes the project interdependency mapping tool one that can be used in any case scenario which makes it a very interesting methodology for any type of project.

3 SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATION FOR PROJECT INTERDEPENDENCIES WITH RESOURCES AND DATA REQUIRED. STEPS TO FOLLOW

As we have indicated above there are different approaches for this methodology developed by several sources. In this specific case we will follow the methodology developed by Catherine Killen and Cai Kjaer named visual project mapping for project interdependencies. As an overall view of the methodology there are three phases for conducting the tool:

• (1) initial qualitative research and scope definition
• (2) quantitative data collection and analysis
• (3) final qualitative feedback session.

In the next sections we will detail the methodology for a better understanding of the process and for the reader to be able to reproduce the methodology. At the end of the article an example, developed by Catherin Killen and Cai Kjaer, the “creators” of the methodology, will be shown as well as the limitations, advantages and disadvantages.

3.1 DEFINE OBJECTIVE OF THE METHODOLOGY

Every time you start an analysis of a situation you need to stablish the objective of the analysis. This will help at the moment when making decisions and getting into arguments, having a stablished objective helps the whole team and people in charge of the decision making, go in the same directions reducing conflicts. Also, this helps on achieving the main goals, without an objective maybe the analysis does not give us the information we initially needed.

Main reasons for conducting this methodology are reducing uncertainty levels, having an overall knowledge of the project, anticipate opportunities as well as threats, and restructuring project planning, among several.

The reason all projects are affected by is uncertainty. As explained before, project managers want to reduce as much as possible the unknown parts of parts, as these entail money and time loses. With this objective the analysis will focus on finding the bottlenecks of the projects and most affecting projects.

If the objective is having an overall knowledge the data that will be collected wont need to be very specific. The managers will use this tool to help make decisions in a superficial level, it won’t be their main driver for decision making. In the contrary we have the objective of restructuring planning details. In this last case the managers are looking for the small details that can be changed in order to make the process more efficient and take advantage of the interdependencies. In this case, the search will be much more focused with detailed questions.

3.2 CHOOSE TYPE OF DATA THAT WILL BE GATHERED AND PROXIES OF DATA COLLECTION

Having chosen the main objective of the methodology, data has to be collected. This methodology lies on the data collection that will be represented in the visual network. This process will comprise qualitative and quantitative data collection, which has to be handled carefully. Combining an analysis with both types of data makes it harder to study and arrive to conclusions. That is why, choosing a good data collection method is very important for this tool.

There are multiple types of data collection methods. Catherin Killen and Cai Kjaer used primary data collection, conducting interviews of different sorts. This will always be the case for this methodology, using primary data. Secondary data is not available for projects since each project is unique and has a specific network of communication with other projects, this means that primary data will always be necessary. However, it does not need to be only from interviews. In the first phase of the data collection, it helps to have an understanding of the big picture. This can be done with interviews with project managers and executives. Once this has been done, more detailed interviews with other project managers or questionaries can be done to gather specific information.