SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the midst changing the way it prioritizes information technology projects and funds them by channeling all IT projects through the office of its CIO. The idea, which hinges on the flexible application of IT talent, is to eliminate duplication of IT projects, make sure the company’s goals are met and use resources as efficiently as possible, said Mark Tallman, the Wal-Mart employee who created the plan.
To be sure, a centralized approach comes with many challenges, particularly for a company with more than 11,000 stores in 27 countries. In this new approach, projects have been consolidated into a single IT project portfolio, overseen by CIO Karenann Terrell, for the entire company. Projects are weighted based on corporate goals and software sorts them into order of importance. For example, anything to do with regulatory compliance is given a high rating of importance.
In the past, projects were not necessarily assigned based on company goals. In fact, in many cases, Wal-Mart managers couldn’t even answer why they were doing a particular project, said Mr. Tallman. Executives who were able to successfully lobby for their pet projects in the past now have less leeway to do so.
Once the list is prioritized, projects are matched with available resources such as employees and funding. Any projects left at the bottom of the list after resources run out simply aren’t done that quarter. That means IT needs to be able to communicate to business leaders why certain projects didn’t make the cut.
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
Part of the plan calls for the company to use IT talent in a more flexible fashion. For example, a software architect might be asked to pitch in on documenting a project for six weeks before returning to his main job. “The ability to put the right associate in the right place with the right skills at the right time allows projects to move forward,” said Mr. Tallman, who acknowledged that human resources isn’t happy about using employees for jobs they weren’t hired to do because it may mean that a highly-paid software engineer may spend some time doing a job below their pay grade. Mr. Tallman added that a software engineer or architect called to do tech documentation should continue to get his high salary. It actually costs more if projects are delayed because resources can’t be found, he said.
At Wal-Mart, though, employees are often encouraged to switch roles. Mr. Tallman worked as a manager in the project management office when he created the plan but is now working in disaster recovery. It’s this flexibility that has helped Wal-Mart with highly-developed succession plans, he said. And, this flexibility among employees helps projects to move forward and operate more efficiently, contributing to Wal-Mart’s philosophy of operating at a low cost so it can give customers low prices.
Using this approach, Wal-Mart is able to ensure projects with the greatest return on investment get done, said Mr. Tallman. It eliminates duplicate projects and also helps the company understand the limits of people, money and time and say no to projects that aren’t aligned with company goals, he said. By objectively ranking projects using an automated spreadsheet tool, it also eliminates politically-driven decisions.
“The days of bringing in contractors for staffing are gone,” said Mr. Tallman.
Many of the ideas Mr. Tallman used in creating Wal-Mart’s plan follow a project management model endorsed by the Stanford Advanced Project Management Program, the creator of the Strategic Execution Conference where Mr. Tallman spoke Tuesday. Wal-Mart, which has been prioritizing IT projects for the last few quarters, is still refining its approach. Mr. Tallman estimates the company is about one-third of the way there.
Date: October 21, 2014