Proposed Solution For LKAB: P3M3 And Project Portfolio Management Essay.

In this assignment, you are required to prepare a proposal (in the format of a report) for the senior managers of your organisation. Your proposal will present a solution to your identified business problem (for assignment 1) and argue for the use of an Action Research method to trial the solution you have selected. Your proposal includes full details of how the Action Research process will be implemented to trial the solution.

Use the mark sheet file for this course which is available from the Study Desk and follow the instructions to create a single file for submission. That file may be a MS Word document or a PDF.

Issues Faced by LKAB

The following research is all about a proposed solution for Sweden based organization named LKAB. At present, the organization is encountering a large number of problems in their organization. There was a lack of visibility among the stakeholders and other employees of the organization. Two potential solutions which can be used by the organization are P3M3 and project portfolio management.

 In the coming pages of the report, a proper solution has been provided to the organization for addressing the issues. A risk register has been provided for understanding the priority of risk in this organization. A Gantt chart has been used for understanding the various phases.

LKAB is a Sweden based engineering and construction organization which comes up with a net profit of 31 billion(Bach, Zoroja and ?eljo, 2017, p.5). This particular organization is totally state-owned. The most active operations mainly encountered in the northern part of Norway. It is the place where major cargos are mainly shipped from harbor named Narvik. The most vital aspect or region of business are Logistics, mining and lastly refining. The organization comes up with a strength of employee around 4200. Around 750 employees are attached to the project management department which is further classified into eight more division (Backlund, Chronéer and Sundqvist, 2014, pp.837-846). Each year more than 200 projects are being completed.

Both stakeholder management and benefits management are considered to be of minimum maturity level. It can be analyzed that operation and middle-level management are weak in understanding the benefits, requirements, and tools (Beringer, Jonas and Kock 2013, pp.830-846). These things are mainly required for analyzing both business directives and objectives of the project. There was a lack of visibility from various executives at both the levels that are operation and executive. Without a proper tracking system is can be considered to be difficult for understanding the scope and planning commission. It requires years and months for understanding the effect of lag on the business bottom line (Brookes et al. 2014, pp.231-246). Apart from all these, there are a large number of problems which are encountered in LKAB organization like

• Various members of the projectteam like project leaders, project managers and lastly team manager are not made aware of the various aspects like market analysis and project of revenue.
• A projectmanager is burdened by the implementation of PM.
• The projectmanager is mainly considered to be accountable for fulfilling the bifurcated plans.

Making use of P3M3: It is a management maturity model which is needed for looking into the organization. It helps in analyzing the fact that how it provides or deliver the projects, portfolio, and lastly programs. It is unique in such a way that it can be considered the whole system and not just the process (Christoph and Konrad 2014, pp.162-171). It helps in analyzing the fact that all not all the given aim to maintain the highest level. So, the organization can easily look for middle levels for checking the aspiration of various business. Both acceptance and co-operation are required for understanding support at both the given level of project management. Weak support for project management is considered to be suitable for fragile acceptance which resulted in lack of education and training for employees (Delilbasic, 2011). Application of this model that is P3M3 can easily provide the large number of benefits which can be done improvement of performance in long-term. 

Potential Solutions

Organizational improvement can be easily achieved by making use of the P3M3 model which is considered an opportunity to maturity model:

Immature Organization: It is a culture of an organization which aims in delivering occasional initiatives (Galli, 2018, pp.19-38). It emphasizes solving the issues in a reactive way rather than proactive way. Both the budget and schedule of the given project can exceed due to a large number of estimation techniques.

Project portfolio management: Quality of project is mainly affected by three major aspects like Time, cost and scope. The process of project management mainly begins from initiation phase of the project which follows a list of the sequence by the plan, control, execute and lastly close. It is a well-known mechanism which is required for integrating some of the enterprise function which is required for managing the project (Görög, 2016, pp.1658-1669). It is mainly required for achieving the overall success of the project. There is a large number of benefits of using portfolio management (Turner 2014). It is mainly done on regular and basic which are implemented properly. There is a large number of organizations which makes use of management efforts for balancing the portfolio. It is mainly achieved for optimal performance and return on the portfolio. Project portfolio management mainly checks the fact that proper mixing of projects is done are properly (Heising, 2012, pp.582-595). It is mainly done so that the project portfolio of the given projects can easily provide values which differ from each other.

Table for Potential Solution

Potential Solution	Advantages
P3M3	v It helps the various companies in analyzing the performance capability which is needed for understanding PM objectives. v It aims in providing a proper kind of roadmap which is needed for continuous improvisation and its progression. v It helps in understanding the achievements from investment and justifying the investments.
Immature Organization	v Quality of deliverables can be compromised due to the deadline v proper management. v Both the review and activity of validation can be compromised if the given initiatives are not managed with the given schedule.
Project portfolio management	v Building an environment where the decision can be made easily and fruitfully. v Reducing risk on some of the individual projects in the domain of business impact. v Human resource has been maximized for both control and efficiency v Understanding the value of PMO to the stakeholders of LKAB. v Providing success to LKAB organization in a more repeatable way.

Project portfolio management can be stated method for integration of critical enterprise structure which is needed for achieving the success of the project(Jonas, D., 2010, pp.818-831)

. The project mainly comprises of project portfolio management tools which create a significant impact on the economic status of the given firm that is LKAB. Project portfolio management can easily provide a large number of benefits like:

• Balancing risk posed by projects
• Optimal allocation of resources
• Correction of a performanceproblem
• Align project with business goals
• Executive level business insight.
• Maximizing overall return.  

The project portfolio management has been chosen for this particular solution like

Alignment of Project to various Business Goals: It always makes the priority for the fact project which can fit into the scope of any organization strategic plan (Killen, Hunt and Kleinschmidt 2008, pp.24-38). It is considered to be an important for the project.

Communication of Project insight to executive level: Various kind of report is made to the stakeholders to the stakeholders of the project. The project manger mainly deals with the progress of the project.

Allocation of Resources: The project manager can easily allocate to the resources to the project then he/she can do same with project portfolio.

P3M3 Management Maturity Model

Identification and correction of project performance: At the time of managing a project portfolio where various kind of problem can easily arise over the time of a running project. 

 Various researchers have highlighted the fact that action was learning a collection of various research methods known Action Research (Langston and Ghanbaripour 2016, p.68). It can be stated as a process which is required for solving the problem by making use of sights and proper methods. Action research is considered to be one of the best methods which can be used for various scientific methods. Action learning is defined as the summation of knowledge programmed and asked the question. It is mainly required for understanding what people can feel along with reflection so that they can easily learn from the consequences(Man, 2007). In the year 1950, action learning formula has been considered to be very much successful. It is the time when the time when various professional has discovered this particular method that comes up with a powerful tool which can be used for improving the knowledge, performance and lastly behavior. Different business schools which are based in the Netherlands makes use of Action learning formula which is needed for facilitating both the manager and their team members for personal development and its growth. The main notion is to overcome and solve real and actual problems. It ultimately helps in gaining knowledge and experiences at the same given instance. Students encounter real-life projects which provide opportunity, challenge, and dilemma. The ultimate goal is considered to be of great importance for the given individual or even an organization.

In other words, action learning can be stated as the method of learning which can be done with the help of concrete experience (Martinsuo, 2013, pp.794-803). Along with this, it can be used for taking the result for the learning procedure. While Action learning can be stated as the cyclical iterative method which is based on various action and reflection. The main difference which can be encountered between Action learning and action research is the same as learning and research. Both of them are mainly inclusive of active learning, searching and lastly problem-solving.  The fact should be taken into consideration that action research is much more systematic in nature. It can be rigorously used for understanding, verifying and lastly making it public in nature.

According to Meskendahl,(2010, pp.807-817), action research can be easily stated as the method by which change can be understood and seen in various times. It can be easily stated as the cyclic with given action and various kind of critical working in a given turn. The reflection can be easily used for looking into the previous action and plan. It is mainly done by various common people, though in some instances it can be used for improving their experiences or practices. It can be easily used in the domain of education for this particular purpose. It can be easily defined that research action to be a proper kind of inquiry which needs to be taken in. The growing evidence outcomes can easily contribute to the given research which is needed for continuous development. Research can be stated as the method or way of generating proper knowledge. Research mainly helps in gathering knowledge which is based on specific and practical context.

Project Portfolio Management

Intervention: Organizational development mainly comes up with a certain number of actions which can be used for analyzing the behavior of organizational change (Miroslawdabrowski.com, 2018). It mainly covers a large number of theories, activities and lastly processes which is needed for improving the individual organization. Some of the independent variables is

Removing hierarchical decision making: At the time of development phase or change in an organization, the certain number of responsibilities concerning decision making needs to be done. It emphasizes the certain number of tasks which is needed for understanding the decision making.

Building trust: For making a certain number of changes and focus on communication, an organization should follow a certain amount of mutual trust (Rajegopal, McGuin, and Waller, 2007). Managers cannot expect the fact employees can be trusted in the given scenario.

Minimizing unnecessary competition: When the given competition is healthy, then it is not healthy for creating changes (Sánchez, 2015, pp.319-330). Instead of that a proper kind of environment needs to be created which will help in employee motivation and should on creating a culture which is focused. 

Investing in employees: When an organization starts investing in its employees, then its employee will also start investing in time and talent for the organization (Secundo et al. 2015, pp.419-442). Apart from monitoring goals, some positive kind of feedback and proper kind of reinforcement of employees. It ultimately aims to improve their sense of wellbeing.

A large number of people will be involved in trail intervention like stakeholders, employees, staff from management.

P3M3 mainly comes up with subcategory that is portfolio, program, and project. It is further classified as organizational governance, risk management, management control, finance management, stakeholder management, benefits management and lastly resource management (Silvius and Schipper, 2015). This particular model has five level of maturity that is awareness, repeatable, defining, managed and optimized.

The trial can act as one of the primary tools which are needed for the manufacturing of various toolkit of any organization. Currently, different organization is testing a large number of products before making any kind of investment which is millions of dollars (Tahri and Drissi-Kaitouni, 2015, pp.171-177). Three biggest disadvantage which can be encountered for trial are trade secret, invalid conclusion and lastly cost.

 The measurement needs to be considered when the possible solution trial is conducted on it. The measurement is mainly considered at both the phases that are beginning of the proposed solution to its outcome (Thomas and Mullaly, 2016, pp. 79-100). Generally, the success of the project is measured by the help of learning which is gathered from the projects that tend to have a big impact on the organization. Organization LKAB can easily employ the success of project management. It is mainly used for building confidence in the staff members and customers of the organization. At the time of evaluating a project, a proper evaluation needs to done on complete and honest in nature. The following report is all about project management maturity level of LKAB which is an Engineering and construction organization (Titov et al. 2016, Vol. 6, p. 03002). It can be done with the help of integration of the certain number of tools which are based on PM maturity.

Advantages of Project Portfolio Management

The trial will be conducted for a long time that till the possible and suitable solution is reached for the given problem. The cycle is briefly described by the help of the Gantt chart.

Diagram 1: Gantt Chart

(Source: Created by Author)

Stakeholders can be considered as individual or group of people who come up with interest in the success of the organization(Bach, Zoroja and ?eljo, 2017, p.5). Internal stakeholders are considered to be some silent partners, investors. External stakeholders are considered to be the group of people neighbor business, strategic partners and lastly community bodies. Role of stakeholders tends to vary depending on the organization. Its particular highlights the fact that a project is being developed or specified number of decisions are being made (Backlund, Chronéer and Sundqvist, 2014, pp.837-846). For the small organization, the end user is considered to be same important people who tend to work on the given project. If the given project does not meet the objectives, then it can be considered to be part of unclear objectives. All the parties involved in the organization can be considered to be important for analyzing the success of the project.

	Tarde secret	Invalid inclusion	Cost
	Unlikely	Likely	Very likely
Major	Medium	High	Extreme
Moderate	Low	Medium	High
Minor	Low	Low	Medium

A large number of measurement methods can be used for understanding the successful nature of trial solution for any organization like LKAB like

Determining the problem: The first step is all about understanding the problem so the possible and right solution can be taken as output (Beringer, Jonas and Kock 2013, pp.830-846). An evaluation needs to be done concerning stakeholders and satisfaction of customers.

Describing the problem: The next step is all about having some possible solution for any organization. An analysis needs to be done the fact the planned project can easily meet the objectives of the business.

Deciding the solution: Proper choice should be done concerning the ethical dilemma. The main focus would be end-user solution. Reaching out of the user of the given project can be considered to be beneficial in understanding the result of the project (Brookes et al. 2014, pp.231-246). If the given project is successful, then the individual can look for user adaptation and use in regular.

Monitoring the result: The given leadership should monitor the result which is encountered within the given solution. The final phase of the project is all about delivering the solution for the problem encountered in the organization (Christoph and Konrad 2014, pp.162-171). Projects need to come up with an excellent kind of outcome, but it can easily result in some kind of unnecessary headaches. (See the Appendix).

Action Learning

Various people of the organization like stakeholders, manager, and employees are mainly involved in providing proper information concerning measurement.

Internal stakeholders: Internal stakeholders generally come up with the financial interest in various organization like LKAB (Delilbasic, 2011). It is mainly inclusive of the board of directors and investors. Stakeholders tend to have an interest in the success of the organization as a result of a financial investment. One of the majors in internal stakeholder is all about voting rights which is based on the number of the number of shares. Board of directors usually votes for understanding new acquisition, key position hiring.

External stakeholders: Role of external stakeholders can easily affect the community, government and lastly environmental related concerns (Galli, 2018, pp.19-38). If the external stakeholders of the organization which can lead to stalling or any kind of projects. The most suitable for is to analyze the voice in the process along with brainstorming them with the proper solution. 

The measurement will be taken after the successful implementation of trail solution in this organization. Various authorities of the organization like internal and external stakeholders will be there at a time of understanding of measurement.

A large number of resources are required for understanding the measurements. The resources are schedule, quality, cost, the satisfaction of stakeholders and lastly performance to the business case.

Schedule: The success of the given project mainly depends on the whether it is aligned with the project or not. Various experience project manager understands the fact that how tough it is.

Quality: The last phase of the given project is a good time for understanding the review of the quality of the project (Görög, 2016, pp.1658-1669). A quality review can be considered to be beneficial whether the given requirements can easily meet the standard of the given quality plan.

Cost: Various executive round the globe can easily rate cost manage which is considered to be the highest priority of any project (Killen, Hunt and Kleinschmidt 2008, pp.24-38). It is all about the fact that how the plan can work better in a financial way.  

Stakeholder satisfaction: Stakeholders of any organization are considered to be important to the organization (Heising, 2012, pp.582-595). It is generally very much difficult for measuring the document in a much statistical way.

Performance to business case: An analysis needs to be done on the project team on the various kind of initiatives which are considered to be good (Jonas, D., 2010, pp.818-831). By the time the project is complete, they can easily finish the business environment needs to move on, and the project is redundant in nature.

Position	Supervisor for maintenance	Planner for maintaining	maintenance manager	Storeroom manager	Agent purchasing
Process
Development of Job plan template	C	A/R	C	I	I
Development of job plan for specific job	C	A	R	I
Keeping points updated and secured	C	R	A	C	R
Development of library	R	R	C	A	R

Conclusion

R-Responsible

A- Accountable

C-Consulted

I – Informed

Conclusion

 From the above pages of the report, it can be easily stated it provides an overview regarding the maturity model which is implemented on Swedish construction organization LKAB. The report highlights the current business problem which is encountered by the organization. Various kind of data needs to be analyzed for the survey process. It is all about having checked the maturity level of this construction company. It is considered to be the most vital problem which is encountered by the organization. In the above pages, the context of the given organization has been discussed in details. After that, the business problem of the organization has been discussed in brief. The potential solution for the business problem in the organization has been provided in details. The proposed solution of the problem has been provided for the particular organization. A proper idea has been provided regarding the action research proposal. After that, a trial solution has been provided for the encountered problem in the organization. The last section of the report is all about accessing the trial solution. The accessing trial is all about understanding the methods which is needed for understanding the trail in a much successful way. All the important bodies of the organization like internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, managers and lastly employees will be involved in access the trial solution. 

References

Bach, M.P., Zoroja, J. and ?eljo, A., 2017. An extension of the technology acceptance model for business intelligence systems: project management maturity perspective. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 5(2), p.5.

Backlund, F., Chronéer, D., and Sundqvist, E., 2014. Project management maturity models–a critical review: a case study within Swedish engineering and construction organizations. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, pp.837-846.

Beringer, C., Jonas, D. and Kock, A., 2013. The behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio management and its impact on success. International Journal of Project Management, 31(6), pp.830-846.

Brookes, N., Butler, M., Dey, P. and Clark, R., 2014. The use of maturity models in improving project management performance: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 7(2), pp.231-246.

Christoph, A.J. and Konrad, S., 2014. Project complexity as an influencing factor on the balance of costs and benefits in project management maturity modeling. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, pp.162-171.

Delilbasic, R., 2011. Project Portfolio ManagementA Case Study at Transportation Industry.

Galli, B.J., 2018. Project Management Maturity Models: An Overview of the Common Models and a Proposed Uniform Model. International Journal of Applied Logistics (IJAL), 8(2), pp.19-38.

Görög, M., 2016. A broader approach to organizational project management maturity assessment. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), pp.1658-1669.

Heising, W., 2012. The integration of ideation and project portfolio management—A key factor for sustainable success. International Journal of Project Management, 30(5), pp.582-595.

Jonas, D., 2010. Empowering project portfolio managers: How management involvement impacts project portfolio management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 28(8), pp.818-831.

Killen, C.P., Hunt, R.A. and Kleinschmidt, E.J., 2008. Project portfolio management for product innovation. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 25(1), pp.24-38.

Langston, C. and Ghanbaripour, A.N., 2016. A Management Maturity Model (MMM) for project-based organizational performance assessment. Construction Economics and Building, 16(4), p.68.

Man, T.J., 2007. A framework for the comparison of Maturity Models for Project-based Management. Utrecht University.

Martinsuo, M., 2013. Project portfolio management in practice and in context. International Journal of Project Management, 31(6), pp.794-803.

Meskendahl, S., 2010. The influence of business strategy on project portfolio management and its success—A conceptual framework. International Journal of Project Management, 28(8), pp.807-817.

Miroslawdabrowski.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://miroslawdabrowski.com/downloads/P3M3/OGC%20branded/P3M3_v2.1_Introduction_and_Guide.pdf [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].

Miroslawdabrowski.com.(2018).[online]Availableat:https://miroslawdabrowski.com/downloads/P3M3/OGC%20branded/P3M3_v2.1_Introduction_and_Guide.pdf [Accessed 11 Aug. 2018].

Rajagopal, S., McGuin, P. and Waller, J., 2007. Project portfolio management: Leading the corporate vision. Springer.

Sánchez, M.A., 2015. Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 96, pp.319-330.

Secundo, G., Elena-Perez, S., Martinaitis, Ž. and Leitner, K.H., 2015. An intellectual capital maturity model (ICMM) to improve strategic management in European universities: A dynamic approach. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 16(2), pp.419-442.

Silvius, G. and Schipper, R., 2015. Developing a maturity model for assessing sustainable project management. The Journal of Modern Project Management, 3(1).

Tahri, H. and Drissi-Kaitouni, O., 2015. New design for calculating project management maturity (PM). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 181, pp.171-177.

Thomas, J. and Mullaly, M., 2016. The Value of Project Management: Rethinking Project Management Maturity and Fit. In Gower Handbook of Project Management (pp. 79-100). Routledge.

Titov, S., Bubnov, G., Guseva, M., Lyalin, A. and Brikoshina, I., 2016. Capability maturity models in engineering companies: case study analysis. In ITM Web of Conferences (Vol. 6, p. 03002). EDP Sciences.