Project Management ABC: B for Balanced Scorecard

Securely Planning and Measuring Success in Strategic Project Management

What is the Balanced Scorecard?

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is much more than just a tool for measuring financial metrics. It represents a comprehensive management method that assists companies in defining, measuring, and achieving their strategic objectives. Originally developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the BSC expands the traditional financial viewpoint by incorporating three additional perspectives: Customers, Internal Processes, and Learning and development. These perspectives create a balanced view of corporate performance and contribute to targeted project and organizational management when linked to metrics, targets, and actions. As a result, the Balanced Scorecard acts as a dashboard for corporate strategy, making visible to employees what matters and guiding them towards decisions aligned with objectives, or the actions required to achieve the goals.

The four standard perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard

1. Financial Perspective:

The financial perspective remains fundamentally important as it reflects the financial health and success of a company. Goals are measured with metrics such as revenue, profit, return on investment, and capital return.

2. Customer Perspective:

This perspective focuses on customer needs. Customer satisfaction, loyalty, market share, or service quality are typical metrics, as are recommendations and complaints.

3. Internal Process Perspective:

Here, internal processes and workflows are examined, enabling the company to meet customer expectations and achieve financial goals. Efficiency, quality, innovation, rework rate, and process lead times are typical metrics.

4. Learning and Development Perspective:

This perspective deals with the continuous improvement and advancement of the company, allowing for an assessment of the internal potential employed. Employee competencies, training, innovation, and knowledge management are relevant aspects here.

Additionally used perspectives in the Balanced Scorecard

5. External Factors:

It’s important to consider external factors in the Balanced Scorecard as they can significantly influence a company’s performance. By taking into account external factors from the economic, environmental, societal, and technological domains, companies gain a more holistic view of their strategic direction and can better respond to changes in the external environment. This contributes to effective utilization of the Balanced Scorecard as an instrument for corporate management.

6. Sustainability:

Sustainability plays an increasingly important role in corporate governance and reporting. The Balanced Scorecard and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting are two approaches that help companies define, measure, and communicate their sustainability goals.
Typically, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics are considered in a sustainability-focused Balanced Scorecard.
Companies can use the data collected in the sustainability perspective of their Balanced Scorecard to create their GRI report.

The four standard perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard are closely interconnected and traditionally support a company’s overall strategy. Each perspective offers a unique viewpoint that contributes to viewing goals and measures from different angles.

Application of the Balanced Scorecard in project management

Project management should also be aligned with the company’s goals to implement the right projects that support the corporate strategy. The BSC provides a clear structure as well as a balanced, holistic approach to the strategic alignment and implementation of projects in project management. By applying BSC concepts to project goals and measures, it ensures that projects are not considered in isolation but fit into the context of the company’s overall strategy. The BSC can be applied in project management as follows:

1. Strategic project selection and alignment:

The BSC assists in selecting projects from the project portfolio that best align with the long-term corporate strategy. By aligning project goals with the perspectives of the BSC, projects can be evaluated to ensure they support the company’s objectives.

2. Clear goal setting and performance measures:

The BSC allows for precise definition of project goals in each of the perspectives. For each objective, appropriate performance measures are defined to quantitatively measure the project’s progress and success. This provides a strong tool for monitoring and assessing project performance.

3. Balanced project planning:

By considering projects from different perspectives, the BSC ensures that project planning is balanced. In addition to financial aspects, customer satisfaction, process optimization, and team development are integrated into the planning. This leads to holistic project planning and implementation.

4. Transparency and communication:

Moreover, the BSC facilitates communication and improves transparency in project management. All stakeholders, including team members, executives, and external partners, can use the BSC to understand project goals and how they contribute to the company’s overall strategy.

5. Early identification of deviations:

Continuous monitoring and measurement allow for early identification of deviations from project goals. This enables timely corrective actions to bring the project back on track and minimize negative impacts on the overall strategy.

The application of the Balanced Scorecard in project management thus creates a framework that helps companies view projects not in isolation but as part of a more comprehensive strategy. This promotes effective resource utilization, optimal results, and ultimately ensures the success of both individual projects and the entire company.

Connection of project goals with BSC perspectives

Connecting project goals with the perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard helps to view projects holistically and align them with the company’s strategy. Each of the four BSC perspectives offers a unique view of project goals, resulting in a comprehensive understanding of the project’s value and impact. At the same time, each perspective serves as a guide to ensure that not only short-term project goals are achieved but that projects also contribute to long-term success and the company’s strategy.

1. Financial Perspective:

Project goals from a financial perspective aim to evaluate and measure the project’s contribution to the company’s profitability and financial stability. This could include increasing revenue, reducing production costs, or improving capital return on investment. The financial perspective helps identify projects that directly impact company profits and thus support financial goals.

2. Customer Perspective:

In this perspective, project goals are defined to meet customer expectations and needs. This could involve developing a specific product by the end of a project, increasing customer satisfaction, improving product quality, or offering customized solutions. By aligning with the customer perspective, projects ensure optimal adaptation to market demand, strengthen customer loyalty, and ensure long-term value creation.

3. Internal Process Perspective:

Project goals in this perspective relate to the efficiency and optimization of internal processes. This may include reducing process lead times, minimizing bottlenecks, or increasing production quality. By improving internal processes, projects contribute to enhancing the overall performance of the company and reducing costs.

4. Learning and Development Perspective:

Goals from this perspective focus on the continuous improvement of the team’s skills and competencies. Projects could, for example, aim to provide training, foster talents, or establish innovation processes. This perspective ensures that the team is capable of successfully addressing project challenges and the future business environment by constantly evolving, learning new skills, or using innovative approaches.

Creating a Balanced Scorecard for a project

1. Definition of project goals: Identify the main objectives of the project in terms of finances, customers, internal processes, as well as learning & development. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
2. Mapping to BSC perspectives: Assign each project goal to one or more BSC perspectives. Ensure that each perspective is adequately considered, and all relevant aspects are covered.
3. Setting performance measures: Define clear performance measures for each goal. These should be quantifiable to make the project’s progress toward each goal measurable.
4. Setting target values: Establish target values for each performance measure to be achieved. These serve as reference points for evaluating the project’s progress.
5. Development of initiatives and actions: Identify the specific initiatives, actions, or measures required to achieve the project goals. These should be described in detail, outlining the planned steps to achieve the objectives.
6. Review of balance: Ensure that the project BSC is balanced and adequately represents all four perspectives. Overemphasis on one perspective can lead to imbalances that affect overall success.
7. Alignment with company BSC: Compare the project BSC with the company’s BSC to ensure that project goals align with the overall company strategy.
8. Communication and acceptance: Clearly communicate the created project BSC to all project stakeholders, including team members, leaders, and stakeholders. Ensure that the team understands the significance of the BSC and can identify with it.
9. Continuous monitoring and adaptation: Continuously monitor the project’s progress using BSC performance measures. Adjust the BSC if needed to reflect changes in project dynamics or company strategy.

Measurement and evaluation of project performance

Measuring and evaluating project performance is a crucial step to ensure that the goals of the Balanced Scorecard are achieved in project management. Through regular monitoring and analysis of performance measures, the project team can react to deviations in a timely manner and ensure project success.

• Data collection and analysis: Continuously collect data relevant to BSC measurements. This could include financial metrics, customer satisfaction ratings, process lead times, and progress in employee development. Analyse the data to identify trends, patterns, and potential deviations.
• Comparison with target values: Compare collected data with the predefined target values from the project BSC. This indicates whether the project is on track to achieve the desired goals or if adjustments are needed.
• Early detection of deviations: One of the strengths of the BSC is its ability to detect deviations early. When data suggests that project goals are not being met, corrective actions can be taken in a timely manner to get the project back on track.
• Root cause analysis: When deviations occur, it’s important to analyse the root causes. Is the issue related to internal processes, unexpected market changes, or other factors? This analysis helps identify the necessary steps to rectify the situation.
• Communication and reporting: The BSC facilitates regular communication of project performance status to all relevant stakeholders. Sharing information about progress and challenges promotes transparency and helps mobilize support as well as resources.
• Adjustment of project BSC: Based on insights gained and performance evaluations, adjustments can be made to the project BSC. This may involve changes to target values, measures, or priorities to ensure that the BSC continuously reflects project progress.

Adaptation and flexibility: Benefits of the Balanced Scorecard in a dynamic environment

The business world is subject to constant change, which can impact companies and their projects. In this context, the Balanced Scorecard plays an essential role in project management, enabling companies to respond flexibly to changes without losing sight of the overall strategy.

• Dynamics of the business environment: Projects can be influenced by external factors such as market changes, technological breakthroughs, or regulatory requirements. The BSC helps consider these changes by encouraging companies to analyse their impact on project goals and make adjustments if necessary.
• Adjustment of performance measures: When circumstances change, originally defined performance measures might no longer be relevant. In such cases, companies can use the BSC to define new measures that align better with the changed situation while still supporting the overall strategy.
• New opportunities and risks: The BSC in project management allows companies to identify new opportunities and evaluate risks that arise during project execution. This enables projects to expand into potentially lucrative areas or proactively address potential hurdles.
• Agility and iteration: The BSC can also be seamlessly integrated into agile project management approaches. Agile teams can adjust their goals and measures accordingly as they work iteratively and respond to customer feedback. The BSC serves as a guiding framework for these adaptations.
• Consistency and overall strategy: Despite its flexibility, the BSC emphasizes the importance of consistency in the overall strategy. Adjustments should always be made about the company’s long-term goals to ensure that short-term changes do not distort the strategic alignment.

Challenges and best practices in applying the Balanced Scorecard in project management

While the Balanced Scorecard offers numerous benefits in project management, there are also challenges to consider. Successfully implementing it requires a deliberate approach and consideration of best practices to achieve optimal results.

Challenges:

• Complexity of measurement: Selecting appropriate performance measures can be challenging, as not all project goals are easily quantifiable. Creativity and strategic thinking are required to identify indicators that adequately represent progress.
• Data availability and quality: The accuracy of BSC measurements depends on the availability of high-quality data. Companies need to ensure they have reliable data sources to conduct accurate performance assessments.
• Alignment with company goals: Harmonizing the project BSC with the overarching company BSC can be challenging. It’s important to ensure that projects not only pursue their own goals but also contribute to the overall strategy.

Best practices:

• Clear communication: Ensure that all project stakeholders understand the goals and principles of the BSC. Clear communication promotes acceptance and engagement from all team members.
• Involvement of employees: Involve the team in the BSC development process. This enhances their understanding of goal significance and promotes collaboration in implementation.
• Ongoing training: Train employees in using the BSC and its measurements. This empowers them to interpret data correctly and derive measures for performance improvement independently.
• Monitoring and adaptation: The BSC requires continuous monitoring and adaptation to changing conditions. Regular reviews help identify deviations and adjust the BSC in response to changes.
• Focus on relevant goals: Ensure that the project BSC is balanced and not overloaded with too many goals. Focus on goals that have the greatest impact on project success.

BSC and agile project management: Synergy between structure and flexibility

Combining the Balanced Scorecard with agile project management approaches may seem paradoxical at first glance. After all, the BSC emphasizes structure and planning, while agile methods require flexibility and adaptability. However, these two approaches can effectively merge. Here are some tips on how that might look:

• Agile principles and BSC perspectives: Agile principles such as continuous improvement, close collaboration, and customer focus can easily be integrated into the BSC. Short-term financial goals from the financial perspective could, for instance, be adapted to the rapid requirements of agile iterations. The customer perspective can be strengthened through constant customer feedback. Agile methods can optimize internal processes within the internal process perspective. Meanwhile, the learning and development perspective aligns with the continuous improvement of the team’s skills, a central aspect of agile methods.
• Flexibility in implementation: The BSC can serve as a flexible framework in agile projects. While the specific goals and measures of a project evolve in an agile manner, the BSC remains a guide for aligning with strategic goals. The BSC perspectives provide a holistic view, ensuring that agile adjustments align with the company’s overall strategy.
• Measurement and adaptation: Agile project teams can also use the BSC to measure progress and continuously assess whether agile adjustments correspond to the desired strategic outcomes. The BSC supports retrospective analysis to determine which adaptations lead to better results.

BSC in project portfolio management: Strategic alignment and prioritization

Project portfolio management focuses on selecting, prioritizing, and controlling projects to ensure they support the company’s overall strategy. In this context, the Balanced Scorecard plays a crucial role in selecting the right projects and aligning the portfolio optimally.

• Strategic selection and alignment: The BSC provides a clear structure to ensure that projects align with the various perspectives of the company’s strategy. Financial, customer-oriented, process-related, and development-related goals can be considered in the portfolio to ensure projects deliver the desired value.
• Prioritization and resource allocation: The BSC enables informed prioritization of projects within the portfolio. Strategic goals and expected outcomes defined by the BSC can serve as guidelines to efficiently allocate resources to projects that contribute the most to the goals.
• Impact on the project portfolio: The BSC allows for better evaluation of projects’ impact on the overall portfolio. Projects can be evaluated based on their contribution to different BSC perspectives, making it easier to strategically decide which projects to include, retain, or reject.
• Ongoing review and adjustment: The BSC also supports the continuous review of the project portfolio. When the company’s strategy changes or new opportunities arise, existing projects can be reevaluated based on the BSC, and new projects can be added to the portfolio using BSC criteria.

The future of the Balanced Scorecard in project management

The Balanced Scorecard has established itself as an extremely valuable tool in the world of project management, helping companies set strategic goals and measure project success. However, while the fundamental principles of the BSC are timeless, its future, in our opinion, will be characterized by innovation and further development.

1. Integration of technology and data analytics: Advancing technology allows for better data capture and analysis. In the future, technologies such as artificial intelligence, business intelligence systems, and data analytics will increasingly be used for creating a BSC to gain meaningful insights into project performance and trends.
2. Real-time performance measurement: The BSC will move toward real-time performance measurement, allowing companies to monitor project progress to the current status at any time. This enables swift responses to changes and more agile project execution.
3. Integration of sustainability and CSR: The future of the BSC in project management will more strongly consider social, environmental, and ethical aspects. Incorporating sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the BSC will demonstrate a company’s commitment to society.
4. Personalized and adaptive BSC approaches: The BSC will also evolve to support personalized and adaptive approaches. Depending on the type of project, industry, and company goals, BSC concepts might be individually tailored in the future to ensure maximum relevance and effectiveness.
5. Integration of agile and hybrid approaches: As agile methods continue to gain importance, the BSC will become more flexible in integrating agile approaches in project management. Hybrid approaches could emerge, where the BSC provides structure and alignment, while agile methods drive execution.
6. AI for decision support: Artificial intelligence will increasingly contribute to data-driven decision-making in project management. AI-powered algorithms can provide recommendations for project decisions based on BSC data.
7. Linking BSC with other frameworks: Furthermore, the BSC will increasingly be connected with other frameworks and methods, such as Design Thinking or Lean Six Sigma. This allows for a comprehensive approach to project management that combines different methods.

Conclusion

The Balanced Scorecard connects strategic goals with tangible project outcomes, creating clear alignment, transparency, and effective performance measurement, making it a valuable tool in project management. It enables companies to view projects not in isolation but as an integrated part of their overall strategy, thereby promoting success holistically.

Learn more about the project and portfolio management software myPARM:

Would you like to get to know myPARM in a demo presentation? Then make an appointment with us right away!