Steering projects like investments with the Quarter Plan

How Sébastien Chailley uses AirSaas to build a portfolio-management approach focused on timelines, the business case and arbitration.

When Sébastien Chailley discovered AirSaas, he wasn't looking for a new project-execution tool.

He was looking for a different view of New Look Vision Group's investments.

A layer able to give visibility over the portfolio, without imposing the same method, the same tool, the same level of detail or the same formalism on every project.

At New Look Vision Group, projects are numerous, varied and very different in nature. A project can involve integrating an acquired company, building or renovating a store, an IT topic, an ERP change or a business initiative.

Not all of these projects call for the same steering model.

Some require structured, detailed project management.
Others can be run with simpler tools.
But all of them must be consolidated into a shared view of the portfolio.

That's precisely the positioning that convinced Sébastien Chailley.

AirSaas doesn't try to replace project-execution tools. AirSaas brings a quarterly arbitration system for investments (projects) that is shared, legible and resolutely decision-oriented.

The context: very different projects, but a shared need for steering

In a retail company like New Look Vision Group, a project culture already exists, even if it doesn't always go by that name.

Buying a company and integrating it is a project.
Building a new store is a project.
Renovating a store is a project.
Changing an ERP is a project.

The moment someone is given responsibility for carrying a topic from A to Z in order to generate gains on behalf of the company, project logic exists.

But not all projects are alike.

Their size, complexity, level of risk, duration, degree of interdependence and business impact can vary widely.

For Sébastien Chailley, it's precisely this diversity that makes the idea of imposing a single project-execution method on the whole organization dangerous.

Not every project needs a complex Gantt chart.
Not every project needs detailed person-level resource tracking.
Not every project needs timesheets.
Not every project needs weekly reporting.
But every project needs its contributors to commit to delivering what they must for the project to succeed and the identified gain to be achieved.

The project lead must be able to choose the tools and methods suited to the reality of their project.

The portfolio-management layer, on the other hand, must remain shared.

The challenge: not confusing project execution with portfolio steering

Before choosing AirSaas, Sébastien Chailley observed two broad families of tools on the market.

On one side, tools closely tied to the IT world, like Atlassian's Jira.
On the other, tools born of project management, the ones oriented toward task management.

The problem, in his view, comes from the fact that many portfolio-management solutions only work well when project execution itself takes place inside the tool.

Portfolio management then becomes a consolidation layer on top of a project-management tool.

This logic can work in some contexts. But it has a strong limitation: it pushes the organization to use complex, shared project management, even when that isn't necessary.

And in a company where projects are very different, this standardization can become counter-productive.

New Look Vision Group's need is therefore different: preserving teams' freedom over how they execute, while installing a single portfolio view.

This distinction is central.

Project execution belongs to the contributing teams, steered by project managers, program directorates or managers.
Portfolio management belongs to the organization — and to the exec committee too.

The solution: a portfolio layer focused on timelines and the business case

For Sébastien Chailley, the heart of portfolio management comes down to two priority dimensions:

1. managing timelines and value on each deliverable;
2. tracking the business case.

Behind every project, there's an investment.

So the real question isn't only: “is the project moving forward?”

The real question is also:

• are we allocating our resources to the right place?
• is the business case clear?
• is the project actually delivering what was expected?
• are the initial assumptions holding true?
• should we continue, arbitrate, postpone or stop?

This is where AirSaas brings specific value.

With the Quarter Plan approach — a shared quarterly arbitration system — the organization gives itself a regular framework to review projects, reset priorities, track commitments and structure arbitrations.

The Quarter Plan makes it possible to set a shared discipline, without imposing a single execution method.

Holding IT to the same constraints as the other departments

Sébastien Chailley makes an important point: IT is often the department most mature in project management.

That's logical.

Unlike other functions whose activity (the run) is recurring and largely dominant — sales, production, finance or marketing — IT often carries a very significant share of “project” work.

But that maturity can also create a gap with the rest of the company.

IT has its own processes, tools, methods and a level of structuring sometimes higher than that of other departments.

Even so, IT must not stay isolated in its own logic.

It has to answer the same constraints as the other functions:

• a business case;
• an expected return;
• deployment tracking;
• a measure of how the business case was realized;
• an arbitration process to decide whether or not to go ahead.

That's what AirSaas enables: creating common ground between IT, operations, top management, project managers and management control.

The Quarter Plan: resetting the counters every quarter

The Quarter Plan approach makes it possible to re-examine the portfolio regularly.

Every quarter, the organization can revisit ongoing projects, commitments, priorities, delays, arbitrations and expected results.

For Sébastien Chailley, this discipline is essential.

It doesn't aim to improve each project-execution method directly.
It aims to improve the discipline of portfolio management.

The nuance matters.

The Quarter Plan doesn't replace on-the-ground project management.
It doesn't dictate how each project manager should run their initiative.
It provides a shared framework to look at the portfolio, understand the structural topics and make better decisions.

This quarterly repetition helps structure the conversations.

It helps ask the same questions regularly:

• where do we stand?
• which projects are moving forward?
• which projects are drifting?
• which arbitrations are needed?
• which business cases must be reassessed?
• which results are actually being delivered?

Toward real management control of project activity

One of the strongest points in Sébastien Chailley's account concerns measuring project performance.

In recurring activities, companies have long known how to measure performance.

They know how to measure sales.
They know how to measure costs.
They know how to analyze margins.
They have management-control teams, FP&A analysts, financial reporting and stabilized indicators.

But on project activity, maturity is much lower.

Measuring a project's performance is more complex, because every project is different.

You can't simply compare a store renovation, a company integration, an IT project and an ERP change.

So you have to find another way to measure the performance of project activity.

For Sébastien Chailley, this is a major topic for the future.

The more a company transforms, the more project activity grows relative to recurring activity.

And the more space project activity takes, the more important management control of that activity becomes.

AirSaas opens this path by allowing you to track not only milestones and progress, but also the project's expected outcome and the realization of the business case. Tracking realized gains and setting up a benefits-tracking system become a backbone for the exec committee's monitoring of investments.

The expected outcome: connecting project, business case and real performance

By tracking the business case, AirSaas makes it possible to go beyond classic project reporting.

The goal isn't only to know whether the project was delivered.

The goal is to know whether the project actually delivers the expected value.

Sébastien Chailley gives a simple example: a store renovation.

If the company expects a 10% rise in revenue after renovation, the question becomes:

• is that rise actually observed?
• did the renovation produce the expected effect?
• was the business case accurate?
• which types of renovation work?
• which ones work less well?
• what can we learn for the next investments?

That's where the link with management control becomes obvious.

The project portfolio shouldn't only be tracked as a list of initiatives.
It should become a learning base for the company's investments.

Sébastien Chailley's advice for a successful Quarter Plan approach

1. Don't reduce AirSaas to a tool

For Sébastien Chailley, the most important point is clear: AirSaas shouldn't be seen as just a piece of software.

The value comes from the approach.

The Quarter Plan installs a discipline, a practice and a new way of looking at the portfolio.

It's this discipline that transforms portfolio management — not merely adding a solution to the information system.

2. Preserve the project teams' freedom

Not all projects are run the same way.

A store renovation, a company integration, an IT project and an ERP change don't call for the same tools or the same level of tracking.

So you have to avoid confusing portfolio standardization with execution standardization.

The portfolio layer must be shared.
Project methods can stay adapted to the realities on the ground.

3. Connect projects to their business case

Project steering can't stop at progress.

A project must be tracked like an investment.

So the real subject is knowing whether the expected value is actually delivered.

It's this logic that opens the project portfolio to management control, top management and the business functions.

Key takeaways

Sébastien Chailley's account highlights a strong conviction: in a company undergoing transformation, portfolio management becomes a discipline of strategic steering.

It's no longer enough to track projects.
You have to track investments.
Opening 10 stores or overhauling an ERP — these are the choices exec committees make in retail.

It's no longer enough to know whether a milestone was hit. Effort isn't what gets rewarded.
You have to understand whether the business case is delivered. Whether the gain is secured.

It's no longer enough to impose a single tool on every project.
You have to install a single portfolio layer, while leaving teams free to run their projects with the methods that fit.

It's this fine line that AirSaas helps address with the Quarter Plan.

A quarterly framework — shared, pragmatic, arbitration-oriented.

A portfolio discipline.

Not just a tool.

About New Look Vision Group

New Look Vision Group is a leading Canadian player in eye-care products and services.

The group operates at the crossroads of health and retail, with a portfolio of brands specialized in optics, eye exams, frames, lenses and the in-store customer experience.

Its Canadian and American network brings together several complementary banners, including New Look Eyewear, IRIS The Visual Group, Greiche & Scaff, Vogue Optical, Edward Beiner, Morgenthal Frederics, Robert Marc, Black Optical, Europtics and Georgetown Optician.

This diversity of brands, formats and markets explains the variety of projects the organization runs: renovating or opening stores, integrating acquisitions, IT projects, systems evolution, business initiatives and operational-performance tracking.

Adopt a real quarterly arbitration discipline for your investments with AirSaas

Do you have projects of very different natures, business cases to track and arbitrations to structure?

With AirSaas, install a shared portfolio-management layer, paced by the Quarter Plan, to steer your projects like investments.

Discover how AirSaas can help you structure your portfolio, track your commitments and better measure the value actually delivered.