{"id":12385,"date":"2019-07-23T11:50:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T23:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psoda.com\/global\/?p=12385"},"modified":"2024-03-19T00:21:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T00:21:34","slug":"will-horizontal-visibility-unlock-your-project-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psoda.com\/global\/2019\/07\/23\/will-horizontal-visibility-unlock-your-project-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Will horizontal visibility unlock your project success?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhat would you say if I told you you could increase your project success rates<\/a>, shorten delivery times and reduce rework? And that the information you need to do it already exists in your organisation?
\nYou\u2019d probably say I\u2019m crazy, right?
\nNo. Organisations have a huge amount of really valuable project data which they\u2019re just not accessing and using properly. It could be because it\u2019s locked down on network drives or on someone\u2019s computer. Or it could be that people just aren\u2019t aware that it exists.
\nMost organisations which run projects have great vertical visibility. What do I mean by that? Projects are likely regularly reporting to some kind of PMO and are organised into programmes with data flowing up and down. They might even have a portfolio office that strategically prioritises programmes and projects. All the project and programme data is regularly reported, tracked and analysed
\nWhat organisations don\u2019t have is horizontal visibility. And this is the key to making projects run more efficiently, shortening delivery times and reducing rework.<\/p>\n

So what is horizontal visibility?<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s exactly what it sounds like \u2013 visibility of a certain data type across every single project in an organisation.<\/p>\n

Who needs horizontal visibility?<\/span><\/h2>\n

You do!<\/p>\n

Why?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s use lessons learned as an example.
\nImagine you\u2019re a project manager in an organisation with 50 project managers, who each manage an average of three projects a year. That\u2019s 150 projects per year with a huge amount of lessons that are likely sitting somewhere. Not to mention historical information that\u2019s been archived and forgotten.
\nYou\u2019re planning a project that could benefit from some of the lessons learned by the other project managers, but how do you know if it exists? If it does exist, how do you access it?
\nIn an organisation with 50 project managers you\u2019re unlikely to know even 10 of them very well. Especially if they are in different offices or even different countries. So your chances of getting access to their lessons learned information is pretty slim.
\nWithout that information, you\u2019re going to repeat the same mistakes as the predecessor projects.
\nIf you did have access to that information you would avoid the previous mistakes and it could save you huge amounts of time, effort, pain and money! Multiply that across all of the projects in an organisation and you can really appreciate the scale of the potential savings.<\/p>\n

Why is it important?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Horizontal visibility is hugely important. It\u2019s using pre-existing data to stop re-inventing the wheel. If you could eliminate even 10% of the problems found in an organisation\u2019s projects, think about the efficiencies you would be making. It\u2019s huge!<\/p>\n

Where can you apply it?<\/span><\/h2>\n

You can apply horizontal traceability to any data set that crosses project boundaries, including:<\/p>\n