What can you do to make sure your projects fail--and fail in a big way? History and experience have shown this writer that it's an art form unto itself. Here are some ideas to consider to help make your next project a colossal misfire.
CA Technologies recently introduced a new version of its PPM solution. Among the updates is the integration of Chatter, a collaboration application from Salesforce.com.
A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our August roundup of recent updates and announcements from CA, Daptiv, Innotas, Oracle Primavera, Planview, PowerSteering, Rally and others.
Portfolio managers don’t always need a full-feature package with all the bells and whistles. Reviewing the variety of solutions available led this writer to generate a basic list of PPM requirements as well as a few nice-to-have features--leading him to a recommendation.
Here’s our May 2010 roundup of the latest technology solutions and services for project management practitioners and teams, including collaborative access to the cloud and a variety of Agile offerings for portfolio management, application lifecycle management and dispersed teams.
Are you ready for ERP? These implementations are notoriously big and scary. Let our complete project plan hold your hand and see you through from project planning through post-production support.
Because many systems are modular and large ERP application suites can contain hundreds of subsystems, the need exists to diagram system functionality at a detailed enough stakeholder level to understand impacts. Thus, a person assessing a system needs to identify all of the modules and all of the places where people are affected by the system. In other words, these are points where the direct and indirect stakeholders are touched by the system. Use this "Touch Point" template for help.
A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our April roundup of recent announcements from Daptiv, HP, Oracle, Planview and PowerSteering.
Integration testing ensures that each component of the application you develop works correctly within the system as a whole. Record any errors discovered through integration testing and request system changes using this form.
In the years ahead, the job of project manager will only become more complex. That’s largely because the profession has finally gotten the recognition it deserves, taking its much-deserved place alongside other essential organizational functions. In this installment, we find out more about the value of PMI certification, industry-specific requirements and what industries will be aggressively hiring PMs next year.
Most project managers think of changes to a project to be related to change requests that modify the scope of deliverables. But changes to projects go far beyond mere scope changes, so it's important to have a change management process in place that can address any manner of project change. While the majority of organizations have fairly mature change request processes in place, most lack similar processes to handle event-driven changes.
When newer firms go into cloud computing, they have a distinct advantage over established organizations. Organizations that have IT history, however, are more likely to have legacy systems to support--making their integration of cloud computing a much greater challenge.
2010 saw Cloud Computing advance in popularity and in controversy. While the allure of reduced investments in infrastructure grows, so do the issues related to security and control over information. So what does the future of Cloud Computing look like?
Merger-and-acquisition-related projects pose daunting challenges to executive leaders, not the least of which are conflicting agendas and compressed timelines. Understanding and anticipating four “enduring M&A realities” can smooth the transition and help companies achieve the intended strategic benefits.
Many large work initiatives run as projects would be more successful managed as programs. Such misdiagnosed projects include dimensions of size, complexity and duration that challenge the project perspective and lead to a higher likelihood of failure. A different methodology is called for, one that recognizes the difference between a program and a project and adopts the right set of skills to the task.
Just as you were getting comfortable with EAI, IDI comes along and turns everything on its head. Learn just how IDI is making its presence felt in the data and application integration arena.
When project portfolio management is conducted in a data/process “vacuum,” it often does more harm than good. Breaking down departmental walls and building an integrated, holistic approach to PPM will help to eliminate bottlenecks and improve decision-making. Here are steps to make it happen.
It's time for some observations and lessons learned from the acquired perspective of a company integration. For those of you who find yourselves managing integration projects--whether from the buyer’s perspective or the acquired company--hopefully some valuable lessons can be taken from this writer's experience.
Here is a solid outline of a plan for testing individual development components in context with the overall system.
When implementing Siebel, you need to make sure your data conversion goes smoothly. Here is a detailed outline of tips to help you do just that.
This procedure defines all the activities involved in software development, from design through unit testing.
Project managers usually tend to focus on the methodology for executing the technical part of the project. However, a good understanding of a practical SOA landscape and its associated challenges can help a technical PM make the SOA adoption on technology projects run even smoother.
It's easy to get lost in the Cloud if you are unsure who the major players are out there. This overview will examine several Cloud frameworks and identify the who's who of the big-league Cloud riders.
There are a lot of misconceptions about software integration. The concept can be deep enough to evoke hundreds of questions specific to a company’s back-end systems. Here are five common questions that many sales reps dance around, possibly because of either shortcomings in their products or a lack of knowledge on how integration is really implemented.
From definition and design to implementation and validation, the stages of building a distributed system can be taxing. Relieve some of that stress using this project plan.
Get off on the right foot in your affiliate program with this project plan. This sample assumes that (1) the requirements have already been defined, (2) the Web service will be hosted on a J2EE platform and (3) the client will be browser-based.
Use this plan in conjunction with the effort-based project forecasting article and workbook.
What is our purpose in acquiring and using an application package and what compromises are permissible? Determine the key business drivers, must-haves and tradeoffs before you begin the acquisition and implementation process. This information is critical to making a business case for a packaged application business solution.
Has your system been properly tested by phase (unit, integration, user acceptance), and do you have the formal sign-off of approval to proceed?
How risky is your project schedule? This assessment template will help you catch scheduling risks and address them before they become problems.
Are you lucky enough to keep team members for the entire project? If not, utilizing standards in coding, such as these, will help speed up the integration of new team members along the course of the project.
The RFP you just got is asking for a distributed generic billing system. Use this comprehensive document as a framework to write your own proposal for building and implementing a winner of a distributed application.
This procedure defines the activities involved in the lifecycle of software product development .
This Testing Tools Evaluation Form details a complete description of the expected level of service and performance to be provided by prospective testing tools.
There's no doubt that Cloud Computing is a major force on the IT horizon, but security and continuity risks may develop into a dangerous storm for organizations relying on this low-cost alternative.
Introducing new applications to your existing systems without wreaking havoc is a tricky prospect. The Enterprise Application Integration process could well be Next Big Thing in systems development.
Project portfolio management is helping to bridge the gap between project management and operations for professional services organizations. But their needs are not the same as an IT organization’s. Here’s a roundup of PPM solutions that recognize and address these significant differences.
Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.
As products become increasingly complex, design teams must integrate a wide range of expertise throughout the development process. This offers new opportunities for innovation while helping to carry the vision all the way through to production and curtailing late compromises.
Websites are becoming bigger and richer in content. This is making the job of maintaining a website complicated and elaborate. A solution to this is a good Content Management System. There are so many solutions available, and selecting one that suits your requirement is not easy. Here is some help.
Warning: You are about to enter the Government Project Failure Zone. The government is the poster child for IT project failure, but it is not alone. What can you learn from these unfortunate lessons?
There is lots of great information available on how to use agile methods for custom software development projects, but less so for package implementations. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf solutions make up a large percentage of the IT projects undertaken by companies each year, and many organizations are missing out on benefits that an agile package approach can bring.
How not to underestimate the effort and time needed to intergrate a new system into existing business systems. Plan now, or pay later.
Microsoft hopes a beta release feature pack that integrates Project Server and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server will bridge project managers, software developers and different methodologies by simplifying data exchange.
When choosing the ideal CRM system, it's best to inject a healthy dose of realistic expectations into the selection process.
Making your website e-commerce enabled is a big undertaking. Use this plan to make it more manageable.
Rally Software has extended its Agile ALM platform to meet the needs of global organizations with customization options, full traceability with build and source code, and corporate dashboards to create a single source of record for progress and quality.
Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.
It was inevitable that we would start to look at branding our projects. But does it make a difference? Does anyone care? And most importantly, does it help? And if it helps, exactly who is it helping, anyway? The answers are a click away...
This cloud thing’s just not working...the silver bullet seems to have misfired. So what went wrong? A tool won't solve all of your problems; in reality, it's a combination of the tool, training, process re-engineering and integration with other corporate functions that will keep you up to speed.
