Project Tracking Applications for cross project dependencies...
Matthew LennartzIT Business Manager| AT&TWentzville, Mo, United States
All:
I am looking for a low-cost solution to track "driver" projects and their subordinates. For example, if product A is enhanced by department A and 3 weeks later department B asks for the same enhancement, I need an application that will let me know that a request has already been submitted.
Thanks in advance for your assistance! Saving Changes...
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Anonymous
Matthew,
It sounds somewhat like a portfolio management process.
It could be as simple as a shared spreadsheet that tracks all change requests by product. The thing you have to be careful about is ensuring that the change is specified to sufficient detail that they can be easily compared.
There would have to be product change request custodian that would ensure that the requests are recorded and that no work begins without checking with them.
I think the tracking mechanism isn't the difficulty rather than ensuring that all departments follow the process. I think it somewhat depends on who does the change and how departments A and B relate to each other and the department performing the change.
Hope this helps,
Taras Saving Changes...
Jayson ReadProject ManagerEden Prairie, Mn, United States
I've experienced similar issues like this. What all boiled down to was there were too many people with their fingers in the mix that wouldn't take the time to research the existing list before adding a new request.
We resolved this by assigning one person as the owner of that list. Any requests came directly into that owner and he managed the research and follow-up of those requests. All of this was done using a spreadsheet which captured all the necessary data for the request. Saving Changes...
Gary DrummCEO - Sr. ITSM Consultant| Drumm Consulting GroupKennedale, Tx, United States
Define "low-cost". In our organization, we could send maybe $30-$40K for a solution that solves this problem, and that would be a relatively low cost. Your situation may be different.
I agree with the other two posts, however; this appears to be a portfolio management problem.
A simple solution would be to track all of these items on a spreadsheet, database, or ever document and have a central person manage it. A more complex solution would to implement OpenProject or MS Project Server and build a dependencies matrix and enhancement request list. Saving Changes...
