The 25/25 rule: achieving more by doing less

Abstract

Many organisations suffer from a self-inflicted wound – they attempt to do too much! As a result, nothing is done well and profits suffer. Our article addresses this problem by suggesting that managers should focus on a subset of their current initiatives – a subset selected to maximise returns without overstraining resources. We address the following issues: What are the symptoms of work overload? How does an excessive workload adversely impact the bottom line? How can managers determine the throughput capacity of their organisation? What can be done to address the problem of excessive workload? Many, if not most, organisations attempt to operate beyond their capacity, with the result that inefficiencies abound, deadlines are missed and profitability drops. Based on research and consulting experience in many companies, our paper explains the basic concepts of ‘the 25/25’ approach to project portfolio management – an approach designed to increase profitability by concentrating only on the work that is essential to the survival and profitability of the organisation. The approach has been successfully applied to dozens of public and private sector organisations companies.

Keywords:

• project portfolio
• efficiency
• throughput maximisation
• Theory of Constraints

Notes

Notes

1. The names of the companies cited in this paper are kept anonymous but are known to the authors.

2. Adding more resources may not help. According to Brook's Law ‘Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later’ – because of the additional setup, communication and integration costs involved (Brooks 1975).

3. A full description of the focusing approach described in this paper is described in Ronen et al. (2006) and Ronen and Pass (2007).