21. Bodies Matter

ISO 56007 stresses the importance of selection and portfolio management in managing opportunities and ideas but it does not describe how to do it. To avoid wasting resources, organizations should establish a well-thought pre-project stage governance. This chapter explains how it can be done by providing best governance practices for managing ideas and opportunities, including the choice of a list of official selection criteria, publishing the criteria for transparency, using the criteria for all resource allocation decisions, and ensuring projects are screened against the criteria. Additional best practices also include creating a team of experts to coach applicants, keeping a non-earmarked budget for worthy projects outside the official budgeting pipeline, deploying the use of standardized Opportunity Case templates, training people to produce these Opportunity Cases, and establishing an evaluation board to analyze and recommend projects to Decision-makers. The chapter also recommends periodic monitoring and comparison of project results with the Definition of Success and the Definition of Failure. Overall this chapter emphasizes the role of different corporate bodies in the decision-making governance and suggests tools and methods for effective pre-project management.