As part of ICANN's transparency and accountability mechanisms, ICANN has been sharing a regular snapshot of the Project Portfolio Management System with the community since January 2013, providing visibility into ICANN's workload, progress and status of projects underway. This is just one of ICANN's performance reporting mechanism amongst others, including the Quarterly Stakeholder Calls and the KPI Beta Dashboard anticipated to launch on 20 August.
ICANN's work is guided by the Strategic Plan and Five-Year Operating Plan, which were developed by the community with staff, and organized in a hierarchy of Objectives, Goals, Portfolios, and Projects.
We are updating ICANN Project Portfolio System to reflect the FY16 Operating Plan & Budget structure, which now has five objectives.
Below is a high-level composite of ICANN's work structure showing the changes from FY15 to FY16:
| Structure | Definitions |
FY15 |
FY16 |
| Objectives |
Core foundational strategies upon which goals are based |
4 |
5 |
| Goals |
Desired deliverables to meet organization-wide objectives |
16 |
16 |
| Portfolios |
Cross-functional work undertaken in support of goals to fulfill core deliverables and services |
62 |
59 |
| Projects |
A temporary endeavor that has a defined beginning and end and a specific set of deliverables |
300+ |
300+ |
Recent comments from some in the ICANN community suggest that the Project Portfolio Management System that is currently posted on our website may have been misunderstood and created confusion. In addition to the changes outlined above, we will be making minor changes in terminology to reflect more clearly the intent of the Project Portfolio Management System and eliminate confusion.
To be clear, the Project Portfolio Management structure is not an organization chart and was never intended to outline or reflect reporting structures or budget oversight responsibilities. It describes broad cross-functional goals and objectives, not reporting structures or budgets. Virtually every objective and goal in ICANN's Strategic Plan and in the Project Portfolio Management System is cross-functional and involves multiple departments within the organization. The current identification of an executive as the "owner" of a goal or objective in the Project Portfolio Management System was never intended to signify that everyone involved in implementing that goal or objective reports to that executive or that the executive oversees the budget for all activities relating to that goal or objective.
Accordingly, as we roll out the revised Project Portfolio Management System, we will no longer use the term "owner" in connection with any goal or portfolio, a term which we believe was a key source of confusion. Instead, we use the term "shepherd" to identify the executive who is primarily responsible for collecting and communicating cross-functional performance relevant to that work at ICANN. For some goals and portfolios in the updated version, you will also see changes to the particular executive who is identified as the "shepherd" of those matters.
As always, we are continually working to improve the tools we use and the way we present information, and these changes are part of that ongoing process of improvement.