By: Peter Heinrich

When I saw Coleman Grimmett's previous chart at RPS 2010, I immediately knew it was an important moment for the Resource Planning Summit. The chart provided proof of something we all inherently knew - that a strong resource planning process would contribute to driving PMO and portfolio productivity. Conference attendees and clients had asked me forever, "Where are the metrics?" and here they were. However, when the updated chart was put in front of me this time around, it meant so much more to the discipline of Resource Planning and the validation of the Summit. Here is why:

First of all, the chart stands on its own.  Coleman's PMO at Medtronic  improved the percent of projects launching on time from 5% to 76% - stunning results. Even more amazing was the reduction in the average launch delay for the remaining projects from 18 months to under 2 months. The introduction of resource planning into the PMO was a major contributor to these results. Coleman reported this correlation at RPS 2010 and will speak about it again at RPS 2012 this year.

But Coleman did more than just report the results in 2010. He brought with him insights into the approaches he took to get there. He shared lessons learned and delivered thoughts on what he would do differently. The audience took note, and so did we. Coleman was ranked as one of the top speakers at the event, but the real excitement is what happened next.

One of the great dynamics of the Resource Planning Summit is the way people are willing to exchange war stories and best practices. Based on the feedback we get, it seems that everyone takes home something of value. Coleman was a veteran of the 2009 RPS, and he thought at that time he had gotten some real nuggets that he would use to kick off his PMO development project. At the 2010 Summit he reported his results -- he was the teacher and the students were listening.  

The proof came during our speaker search for RPS 2012. I was interviewing John Page of Becton Dickinson for one of the speaking positions and he described the success he had with his resource planning deployment over the past year. There were, of course, a number of factors that led to his success, but he was clear to point out the influence on his decision-making of the information he had taken home from RPS 2010 and specifically that of Coleman's presentation.  Amazingly, it had happened again.  

You can now understand why this chart is so important -- it shows that real results are possible and it represents the power of the Resource Planning Summit.  At RPS 2012 John Page will speak about his implementation of portfolio resource planning, his results, and how he adopted parts of Coleman's approach. We now know for sure he will have an influence on someone else. You should be there.