Enterprise Project Management (EPM) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools – the Rest of the Story

March 24, 2012 — Bruce McGraw

This year I have been asked about EPM / PPM solutions, as opposed to project level tools, more often than in the past – at conferences, after presentations and in the coffee shops. Senior managers and CIOs want tools that can work organization-wide to improve performance, support decision making and to manage risks. Maybe this new level of interest is caused by worries about the whispers of economic recovery or comes from the frustration of trying to integrate disparate pieces of project data for the last few years; I am not sure. What I know is that managers today want information that is broader, deeper and richer than they have had in the past.

Never wanting to miss a sales opportunity, many vendors of process or project management software are portraying their products as being up to the challenge of providing enterprise process management. Maybe. But, caveat emptor folks.

What is Enterprise Project Management?

OK – before I start spouting off acronyms, how about a few definitions:

  • Enterprise Project Management (EPM) – to quote Paul Dinsmore, “Enterprise Project Management is based on the principle that prosperity depends on adding value to business, and that value is added by systematically implementing new projects of all types, across the organization.”
  • Project Portfolio Management (PPM) – is the practice of managing an organization’s or enterprise’s projects as a visible collection (or inventory), combined with a process which ensures that the projects in the collection contribute directly to the organization’s goals (from BKC).

Using these definitions, enterprise represents the aggregate of activity across multiple projects and departments. In fact, I submit the EPM is more about process than technology and this is why throwing a tool at projects without focusing on processes is not going to improve anything!  Although information on task status, budget, schedule, documentation and resources is available for individual projects within an EPM tool suite, the EPM’s power comes from the ability to retrieve and aggregate information across all projects easily.  According to Deborah Nightingale of MIT presenting the “Principles of Enterprise Systems” at the Second International Symposium on Engineering Systems in 2009, enterprise project management facilitates the following:

  • Understanding status relative to strategic goals, vision and direction of the enterprise
  • Meeting information needs of the enterprise
  • Representing organizational structure of the enterprise, including boundaries between individuals, teams and departments
  • Collecting knowledge, capabilities, and intellectual property resident in the enterprise
  • Producing products and providing services and product support efficiently and effectively
  • Creating greater value for stakeholders

There are some basic capabilities I believe should be in any EPM/PPM software toolsuite:

  • Schedule Management – Gantt chart, scheduling engine, etc.
  • Resource Management – must have a global (i.e., single) resource pool and allow assignments to generic and real resources. Must also allow for progress tracking and reporting either by time or work complete.
  • Governance – must allow for roles and rules on how to approve and view information
  • Collaboration – should provide for an easy to use (hopefully, web based) mechanism for content management and storing of shared artifacts.
  • Reporting – tailored reports, dashboards, and general business intelligence to look at the project and program data in many ways.
  • Status – this may be similar to reporting, but the tools should allow for good communication and status updates with both quantitative and qualitative information

This is not an exhaustive list, but a good basic set of features that should be provided by EPM tools.  You may have your own list or use someone else’s, like the one on ProjectManageSoft’s website.

Capabilities of Enterprise Project Management Software

I believe that EPM and PPM applications must support individual projects and programs, as well as the larger enterprise. That means I want an EPM/PPM tool suite that allows “cradle to grave” tracking for projects — from selecting, planning, and scheduling, to status tracking, sharing, resource management and storing project artifacts. Project and program managers should be able to easily view information by portfolio, project, work site and resources. They should also be able to compare task schedules across multiple projects and for individuals. (I call this accountability.)

EPM applications should provide:

  • easy interface through corporate portals and intranets using a familiar browser interface
  • portfolio analysis and reports with visibility into ALL projects, programs or groups of projects
  • a central resource pool (so you can see ALL work for a resource – both people and generics)
  • managed, secure real-time access to project artifacts – like process diagrams and documents stored in a central repository
  • support for authorization or permission to access project related information and artifacts
  • “near real-time data” and historical data analysis and update notifications
  • easy integration with existing spreadsheets, word processing and desktop applications, like a PDF program
  • value to individuals and teams, such as what am I assigned to, how do I update progress, calendars, document libraries, and collaborative tools

 

The Rest of the Story

Purchasing an EPM or PPM application suite is not cheap — whether you choose Clarity, Microsoft Project Server, Primavera, PlanView or one of the other 50 less well known tool suites that claim to support EPM and/or PPM. And, purchasing the software is the beginning of having an EPM system, is not the end – you still have to implement it and support it.

Software tools that provide the power of a true EPM system and processes should be set up to integrate with your organization’s existing hardware and software. For most offices that means a tight integration with Microsoft Office. It could also mean sharing data with your finance or HR systems.  The applications must be tailored to your organization and your needs. This means you should only select an experienced professional consulting firm with in-depth knowledge of the tool, project management and business processes.

One other key part of implementing an EPM/PPM is that your staff requires training in using the tools or your organization will not gain the desired benefits.

Last, but not least, you should have a support plan in place.  In large installations, you will also need on-site support and maintenance that can be provided by direct staff or on contract.  Smaller implementations and organizations should have either a part time admin or support.  These complex applications do not run themselves.  And don’t make the mistake of “our IT guys can handle this.”  I have seen many good implementations fail because the IT staff is not experienced nor equipped to provide support for an EPM tool suite.

So is your organization planning to implement an EPM or PPM solution this year?  I would love to hear your fears and experiences on the subject.

One last thought – “A fool with a tool, is still a fool!”

Posted in EPM, General Project Management, management, Project Management, project management office, Technology, Tools. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

The Accidental Project Manager – Part 2

January 31, 2010 — Bruce McGraw

Or, Improving the Perceived Value of Project Management

In Part 1, we talked about how some people end up with the title “project manager”.  It sometimes seems that organizations created the position of project manager so they will have someone to ask about project status and someone to blame when a project goes south. This is sometimes due to project management being seen as a task, not a career or profession. In addition, project managers are rarely part of the greater management team—those who possess knowledge, vision, and skills essential to driving the organization. So why is a function so critical to project and business success trivialized and minimized in the organization?  Or better yet, how do we help project managers become more respected or valued?

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” (William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar)

A bit of history
In 19th and 20th century business models (think Henry Ford), projects were activities outside of business-as-usual. Projects were managed ad hoc, operated for a short time, and then disbanded. According to Wikipedia on the history of project management, the 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management as a specialized field with the advent of formal mathematical project-scheduling tools.

As Information Technology matured in the latter half of the 20th century to become profitable businesses, projects became business models in many companies. Perhaps because those who managed IT projects were technically trained rather than business trained, managing projects was deemed a support function rather than a skill essential to success. Companies valued those who brought project dollars in the door more highly than those responsible for executing the project.  As Harold Kerzner states in his book Advanced Project Management, “For almost 35 years project management was viewed as a process that might be nice to have, but not one that was necessary for the survival of the organization.”

How to improve the perception of value
As a reader of Fear No Project, you know I believe strongly that project management can be done well or done badly. Project management is a profession, and businesses that understand, embrace and reward effective project management will do better in the marketplace than those that do not.  So, how does a project manager or project management organization (PMO) improve the over-all corporate perception of its value?

Think like a CEO when you interact with clients, create status reports, ask for resources, make assignments, establish priorities, create benchmarks, monitor expenses:

  • Consider the value of your project in terms of corporate identity and long-range plans. (To the CEO, projects are rarely ends in themselves, but part of a bigger picture.)
  • Understand the importance of risk identification and risk management
  • Work to get new customers and keep existing customers happy
  • Look for and become an advocate for opportunities
  • Think outcome not process (process is what you do, outcome is the result)
  • Solve problems do not present them. In the words of a CEO Curt Finch, “Be an executor and not an academic.”  If you cannot solve the problem, see “Talk like a CFO”.

Talk like a CFO when you create a project budget, present project status, or identify and solve project issues:

  • Know the status of key project tasks at all times
  • Become comfortable assessing costs of labor, time, success, and failure
  • Talk in dollars made, dollars lost, and dollars at risk
  • Evaluate recommendations in terms of ROI (return on investments) and ROA (return on assets)
  • Project costs forward relative to project budget
  • Present possible negative outcomes that might result from failure to follow correct PM processes in terms of tangible costs and intangible impact on reputation

Sell like a Salesman by using data and specifics. Your instincts and intuition—based on years of project experience—may be correct. However, real data talks louder and with more credibility than opinions, no matter how well founded.

  • Use costs and LOE estimates based on previous project experiences
  • Track project costs in terms of actual versus planned costs
  • Apply predictive scheduling to show dependencies and implications of schedule variations
  • Analyze prior project debriefings or lessons learned. Use summary data to backup recommendations or conclusions
  • When presenting opportunities, quantify the risks and benefits of action and inaction
  • Check out Jimmie White’s post “Selling the Value of Project Management”. He references a new report from PMI that promises specific research data on project management value added.

Act like a politician when you engage executives, stakeholders, customers, and other parts of the organization:

  • Know what is important to the person you are talking to
  • Form a relationship with the influencers and decision makers
  • Learn to negotiate in order to be successful

Alright, so you start behaving and performing with these four attributes – what does this do?  It begins a process that shows a huge difference between the accidental project manager and the dedicated professional.  I have always held the belief that if you want to be something, like a vice president or manager, then start behaving like you are one.  And the best way to show an organization the value of a good project manager is to perform.  I am not saying this will be a quick process, but I will bet that when you and all career PMs start behaving and performing this way, your organization will take notice and have a new respect and value for the profession and role.

So what do you think?  Do you face any of these challenges in your organization?  Please leave me a comment or suggestion on how to address the culture of accidental project management.

Posted in General Project Management, Leadership, management, Professional Development, project management office, Strategy. Tags: , , , , , , . 3 Comments »

Getting a PMO Right is Worth the Effort

November 12, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

I want to say thanks to the PMO Sig for the PMO Symposium they held this week in Atlanta!  It was informative and had some really good information on how to setup and improve PMOs.  This week I wanted to share some thoughts on getting your PMO right.

The Project Management Office is a repository of corporate knowledge and best practices that help sustain and grow an organization’s business through more effective project management. The PMO brokers between IT and other divisions, it reviews deliverables for compliance with standards and stakeholder requirements, and provides training, mentoring, and resources to project managers and developers. For newcomers to the Blog, back in February 2009, I wrote about when an organization needs a PMO. To recap—you need a PMO when:

  • The development effort crosses multiple departments with different stakeholders
  • Staff is being shared across several projects
  • Projects are complex and last over several years or have hundreds of workers during the project’s  lifecycle
  • There is an outside independent validation or audit
  • The project has special compliance requirements
  • The organization desires a single methodology across multiple programs

In today’s tough economic climate, the contribution that the PMO makes to ensuring each project produces results that meet organizational and stakeholder goals has increased in relevance and importance. So why is it so hard to get a PMO right?

A tongue-in-cheek blog post, “10 Ways to Destroy the Effectiveness of Your Project Management Office” by Alec Satin captured a few of the bad decisions organizations make in their PMOs. Here are a couple of gems from his post:   

  • Make sure to set up a climate of fear by emphasizing the penalties for non-compliance.
  • Locate the PMO as far away from project managers as possible.
  • Leave the vision to Oprah and Deepak—PMs should focus on getting the work done. They don’t need to know about business goals, objectives and customer needs.

There are other reasons organizations fail in effectively implementing a PMO. One of the reasons is lack of patience. It takes time for the PMO to get established and make a difference in ROI and productivity. In its initial stages, “the PMO is a cost without a measureable return”. Pulling the plug too soon means the investment will never be realized in improved performance.

An organization’s culture can quickly defeat the positive potential of a PMO. Creating a PMO requires changing the organization’s how-we-do-things-here—sometimes in big ways. If an organization has a cowboy culture where each PM runs his or her own show, getting everyone on board with common processes and metrics, sharing key resources, and using lessons learned from other projects are alien concepts.

Placing the PMO at the wrong reporting level is another problem. If the PMO is treated as just another support service like training or SQA, it will not have the clout, respect, or visibility to make a difference. In the “my vice-president is bigger than your vice-president” world, hanging out at the bottom of the organization chart is not the right place for an effective PMO.

Is a PMO worth it the cost and effort? ABSOLUTELY!
From CA.com, “This European PMO Value Survey conducted on behalf of CA highlights that a centralized PMO can significantly improve the delivery of projects for an organization and help improve business performance.”

From Joliet College, “IT organizations that have organizational standards for project management, including a program office with suitable governance, will experience half the major project costs overruns, delays and cancellations of those that fail to do so.”

From Paul Checkowskyin of General Motors (GM), “[Organizations] themselves are finding ways to leverage these PMO capabilities and this expertise especially helping to identify and resolve integration issues, mentoring of enabling processes and eliminating deployment roadblocks. So I think it’s been very positive…”  

Our experience at Cognitive Technologies has shown that organizations executing complex software development projects using a PMO as part of standard operating procedures report greater control, more effective collaboration and increased communication. Organizations supported by an effective PMO have greater confidence in their project bidding and delivery promises.

Share your experiences with a Project Management Office via the comments section.

 

Posted in project management office. Tags: , . 3 Comments »
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