Have You Considered Adoption? (of Project Management Tools)

Situation: You feel challenged by user adoption of PM tools.

User adoption is one of the toughest challenges related to PM and PPM software.  Users “live” in email, MS Word, etc. and will only use other applications if there is some sort of carrot and/or stick involved.  The folks at Clarizen feel that they have developed some unique angles on user adoption and introduced me to one of their customers. Jim Herries, Program Manager, Business Products at ESRI, to find out more.



Q.  Prior to your most recent implementation, what were your experiences with PM software adoption?

Prior to Clarizen, we used Microsoft Project but team adoption was not sufficient enough to meet the demands and expectations we set on our company and products. Our team consists of 50 people across eleven cities and thirteen time zones – without constant guidance and monitoring, it was difficult to communicate effectively between teams to meet deadlines and deliver products on time. Microsoft Project limited our team’s potential – even the most effective project manager can spend time and resources on creating a plan and, for various reasons, fall victim to not executing the plan effectively and efficiently. Clarizen’s focus on execution won us over – the features and functionality that the solution provides ensures that our teams followed the plans that they spend time creating.    

Q.  What were some negative lessons learned from those experiences? (“I’ll never do that again” sort of stuff)

We frequently saw the project plan fall behind reality, and reality had this annoying habit of winning out over the project plan every time. We saw the project plan become outdated, despite all the planning and best efforts of the contributors. Weekly status meetings could take an inordinate amount of time rehashing decisions already made but not reflected in the plan. Stakeholders could become disillusioned with the entire project management process and begin to see it as an enemy to progress. 

Q.  What are the top three things to keep in mind, relative to adoption, when implementing PM software?

1. Choose a solution that does not require extensive training. Employees are already set in their ways and comfortable with past methods of planning and working on a project, even if the methods are not effective. By implementing a solution that is user-intuitive and easy to understand, team members are more willing to exchange their old tricks for better solutions that save time and resources. Online demos, tours and resources for training, that are insightful to the everyday user, are also helpful if a project leader is not available to train an entire team. 

2.  Choose solutions that integrate with everyday tools. Clarizen’s integration with Microsoft Outlook, for instance, ensures that team members who are hesitant to use the new solution will jump right in because it is a comfortable medium.  Our teams and various project constituents receive email updates pertaining to their activities, and with multiple projects going on simultaneously among team members in offices across the country, this feature facilitates clear communication on deliverables and deadlines without overwhelming the team with unnecessary details.

3. Choose Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions because it is constantly available from any web browser, allowing project managers and leads to communicate, update, add tasks, etc., from anywhere in the world. This reliability for on-demand and real time updates becomes critical to day-to-day activities and long term success.  Clarizen’s “Roadmap” feature allows PMs to easily monitor the status of the project with a real-time view of where items stand, behind or ahead of schedule. This allows us to be nimble and alter the plan as needed. By inputting and tracking the milestones of each phase of the project in the Roadmap, our team is keenly focused on each step, helping create and follow a meaningful plan.  

Q.  If you were to offer one specific approach or technique to help with PM software adoption, what would it be?  (going through it step by step would be great)

It is difficult to shift a team’s mindset when first implementing a solution – team members must receive explanations about how the software will make their lives easier by enabling communication and task completion accountability. As our team started using Clarizen, we no longer needed to spend time convincing people of the benefits because they became apparent.  Ensuring internal executive sponsorship is fundamental to succeed but just as important is grassroots adoption and end-user buy-in.  Prior to making the go-ahead decision, having more end users involved increases adoption and commitment from the extended team.

As a program manager, I have told people that if I see their concerns reflected in the plan, I will back them publicly. If they choose to run their part of the overall project without benefit of the project plan, then they are expected to be on time, on budget, no issues, no excuses. The point is that we use the software to surface and address issues. 

Q. How did the Clarizen software suite facilitate better user adoption?  Was it more about the software’s functionality or your approach to implementing it?

Clarizen is intuitive to our user needs and this eased the process of getting our team up to speed on the solution. Since February 2009 when our software development team started using Clarizen, our level of team effectiveness has improved drastically. Now PMs structure meetings around Clarizen, which helps them remain focused on primary issues and not get sidetracked by updating status items. This level of focus and efficiency alone has reduced time, money and resources spent on a project, ultimately encouraging company-wide adoption.

Particularly, the PMs benefit from the scalability of the interface, allowing them to see issues and delays in schedule in a matter of seconds. This level of accountability has improved meetings exponentially and resulted in more meaningful discussions about the status and progress of a project. Because we are able to focus less on updating the team and more on developing products, we are hitting all our release dates. Subsequently, the team is pleased and clearly working more efficiently because the projects are going much better overall. Even those who were skeptical about using the tool at first are now eager to use it.