Project Management 2.0

Situation: You are asking yourself, "What do I really need from PPM software?"

I've been asked this question a lot lately.  So I thought it deserved to be addressed here, in a way that hopefully the asker can relate to. The answer of course, is "it depends".  It depends almost entirely on the maturity of your organization.

Even for something as important as "doing the right things" (PPM), most of us feel like we really only need a few key functions. With this in mind, software vendors have spent the last few years creating simple SaaS applications to serve our needs - each of them focusing on limited views of the portfolio that should be just enough to facilitate decision-making to accomplish mostly near to medium-term goals. Despite most of us having some similar basic needs, we still customize whatever we end up implementing. Since a lot of that customization ends up happening (i.e. - is funded) when the software is first bought, we end up optimizing the software for the needs we have NOW, versus longer term considerations.  Then we consider the PPM Project done.  Later, when PPM is less of a hot button at your organization, it becomes harder to have the system evolve as the company matures. 

So let's talk about the things companies generally want. I'll begin with a list of PPM functions from MS Project Server 2010. It a set of information management areas which are fairly comprehensive, yet their value probably varies a lot based on what your immediate needs are:

• Demand Management - Intuitively capture all requests within a central repository, and manage them using governance workflow

• Portfolio Selection and Analytics - Objectively prioritize, optimize, and select project portfolios that best align with the organization’s business strategy

• Resource Management - Proactively and reactively manage resources throughout the project life cycle

• Schedule Management - Easily create and communicate both simple and complex project schedules

• Financial Management - Control and measure project and portfolio financial performance

• Time and Task Management - Simplify the collection of time and task status updates from team members

• Team Collaboration - Better connect disparate teams to share information and drive collaboration

• Business Intelligence and Reporting - Effectively measure project performance and gain visibility and control across all portfolios

• Administration, Scalability and Extensibility - Streamline administration and effectively extend the solution to meet unique business requirements

How much do these matter to you?  If you are really having a problem "doing the right things", the prioritization might look like this:

1. Portfolio Selection and Analytics 

2. Business Intelligence and Reporting

3. Demand Management

4. Financial Management

5. Resource Management 

6. Schedule Management 

7. Time and Task Management 

8. Team Collaboration 

9. Administration, Scalability and Extensibility 

I often hear from organizations where project management itself is not part of the corporate culture, then time and task management are at the top of the list.  Almost universally, senior management would like everything fixed immediately by the new system - so most people are just trying to implement all of these functions.  Unfortunately, the functions are just the means of getting there.  Implementing functions individually doesnt really help.  It's how they comes together to form a complete system that creates the value you are looking for.

So you might be thinking, "it depends", isn't very helpful.  The key to getting the most value out of your PPM solution is understanding the PPM maturity of your organization and using that as a guide to rolling out new technology and processes.  It's more about looking at where your company is and what you can accomplish when, changing the focus of your efforts as the organization matures.

Gartner, some time ago, laid out a roadmap for doing just that.  It is available here on gantthead for your reading pleasure. You'll find that the maturity levels are not a direct match with the function, but rather imply that you focus your efforts in certain areas at different points in time.  There are dozens of other resources here on gantthead, a few of which I've listed below. Hopefully these will help guide you ithrough your PPM journey.

Also See:

• Effective Portfolio Management Implementation Tips by Andy Makar
• details on planning for and implementing Project Server, Portfolio Strategy wtih Project Server 2010  by Tim Cermack
• an exhaustive list of over 130 PPM functions, you can find a terrific selection matrix on Projects At Work

Situation: You want your PM software to be more playful.

Recently we spoke with Alex Leblanc, founding partner of Upstart Industries and creator of Vantage Software.  His ideas around making PM software as painless as facebook are very compelling.  If you think about it, everything in our world is moving in that direction.  The presentations we give have to be more interesting and entertaining than they were a decade ago.  Your personal brand is becoming more important by the day. People expect everything they do to be engaging.  If it’s not, the chances of it getting any attention at all go way down.  So it makes perfect sense that the next generation of business software would move in the same direction.

I personally love the idea of “software that works like you play”.  Here’s what Alex had to say about it…

DG.  You say that VANTAGE^TM software "works like you play".   What do you mean by that?

AL:If we have one guiding principle, it's to build intuitively.  Software is no longer the domain of productivity and businesses.  With the evolution of cloud and mobility, the proliferation of consumer apps, and the explosion of social media through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Color, and so on, expectations are raised.  There's an ever-increasing chasm between the software used on the job, and the apps we're willing spend our free time on.  And it's more than just the underlying purpose. 

Businesses don't think twice about implementing software that requires every employee to attend a week's of training before they can even begin to use it.  Think about that. Training.  How many hours of classroom time do people put in before posting on their friend's Facebook page?  Now, imagine implementing software in your business that your employees can simply use, because they already know how.  Because they use apps in their daily life that have familiar design patterns, familiar commands, familiar gestures.  And as a SaaS tool, they can access their new easy-to-use project app at home, at the office, waiting for their delayed flight at the airport, and so on. 

Vantage has its own internal social media stream called VantagePoint. A common project process is requiring review and consensus. An intuitive and extremely valuable feature of our product is the ability to gather consensus on these activities by posting a VantagePoint message for your team and having them simply clicking “Agree, Disagree or Tune Out”. That’s what we mean.  Work like you play.  Everything should be that intuitive, that easy.

DG.  Are there specific industries or types of projects that you think VANTAGE^TM is particularly well suited for?  

AL:Well, we don't build for industries, we build for usefulness.  So I guess you could say it's most appropriate to anyone that needs an intuitive app to help them manage and work on their projects.  On a personal level, our team has a great deal of project experience in a number of industry sectors and areas including financial, insurance, retail, aerospace, public sector, healthcare, emergency services, technology and we've built VANTAGE^TM leveraging and applying these experiences.

DG.   You view the ability to look across all resources in all projects in the organization as an advantage with your tool.  Are these just all resources involved in projects or does it non-project utilization as well?

AL:Both.  We originally viewed it as project utilization, across all projects.  But during some feedback sessions and demonstrations we held with various user groups in multiple industry verticals, our eyes were opened to how valuable it is to useVANTAGE^TM to combine those worlds - to give visibility to the operational and project day-to-day battle for resources and priorities. 

Our pre-beta users showed us how they can begin use VANTAGE^TM for both project AND operational initiatives and resource utilization in its current form, and that really sparked some ideas within the team.  So our engineers of course are off and running with some great new concepts of how we can develop this even more.

DG.  Many simple SAAS tools target small companies with less complex projects.  Do you feel that the tool is better suited to this sort of environment?

AL:No – not necessarily “better suited”.  I think small and medium sized companies naturally gravitate to us, as they tend to be higher adopters of SaaS in general, and VANTAGE^TM is a fantastic and much needed SaaS tool.  VANTAGE^TM is a full-fledged PPM app, with the ability to handle small simple projects to large multi-dimensional complex projects and programs. A good example is the flexibility that  comes with VANTAGE^TM to select the ‘type’ of project you’d like to use within the app;  either  a “task only schedule” or a fully robust “project plan with Gantt”.  Its intuitive design and ease-of-use tend to mask a lot of the complexity that resides under the covers. 

We invested a great deal in the underlying architecture of the tool, with a very clear vision of where we're going with it and what it needs to support and accomplish.  It's a workhorse.  It works for you, not the other way around, and it can handle whatever you throw at it.

DG.  To what degree can your clients customize or integrate VANTAGE^TM with existing software? (either through direct connections, importing or exporting data and files)

AL:We're providing an API in the coming months, for developers to go crazy with.  We're not as fond of imports/exports, only because we think there are better ways to achieve better results.  And we'll help you do it.  We'll be offering technical tips and support through our blogs and forums and such, so some great opportunities ahead.

DG.  What makes this tool a better choice than Basecamp?

AL:Project management is more than task management.  It's a constant juggling of priorities, resources, schedules, risks, issues and dependencies to name a few.  And when you add to that the need to manage multiple projects at the same time, and keep all of those balls in the air until you can gently guide them to where they're supposed to be, all perfectly timed, then you need VANTAGE^TM.

And also, project managers aren't miracle workers.  They rely on each project participant to contribute their part to the project's success.  So they have a real need to empower their resources.  Sure, resources need to know what's expected of them and when, and that's Task Management 101.  But beyond that, they need to see the whole picture.  What's the goal of the project?  What's the project schedule?  What are fellow project participants working on? How does their work impact others, and vice versa?

With VANTAGE^TM, all of that information and more is at your fingertips, and all in one place.  And the best part?  It's not passive.  It's not, "go look at your task list and get it done".  VANTAGE^TM is a virtual project workspace where participants can flag issues, identify risks, request approvals, discuss, question, comment, solve, and engage - with each other, with the project manager, with other project teams, and other project managers throughout their organization.  Imagine that.

Situation: Testing your large-scale applications would take more infrastructure than you can afford.  

Some of the most impressive global applications are customer facing retail systems that are underutilized most of the time, then must perform well during extreme bursts of activity that are nearly impossible to replicate in any testing environment.  Often the flaws in these applications only show up in production when the price of failure is high. Recently we spoke with Steve Dykstra, Product Management Director for Micro Focus and asked him a few questions about testing in the cloud.  His answers offer a pretty good overview of the subject and why it might be useful to look into.

Q.  Most large scale applications go through boom and bust periods of performance, yet testing peak performance would require huge investments in infrastructure.  How do organizations avoid purchasing large volumes of hardware to support the scale of tests that they need?

A.  Increasingly, companies are looking to the “Cloud” as a way to improve IT performance.  Imagine being able to focus the power of the world’s largest data centers onto your computing needs – just when you need it most.  That’s what the Cloud provides.  It is a virtual set of computing resources that can be securely accessed via the Internet.

And now through Cloud-based computing you can apply the power of the Cloud to peak load testing.  Cloud-based performance testing lets software quality teams rapidly launch any size peak-load performance test without the burden of managing complex infrastructures.  Now, you can test and diagnose Internet-facing applications under immense global peak loads.

In principle, your Cloud-based peak load testing solution should allow users to define the numbers of virtual users required for a given test, and schedule the computing resources necessary.  They should be able to match the geography of these computing instances with plans.  And they should be able to define the scripts that will be used to simulate user behavior.

These scripts are then accessed by Cloud-based test agents and run on a performance testing schedule.  Managers would then be able to monitor tests and efficiently locate and diagnose where performance issues arise in their applications -- a critical step for any test manager.

Q.  We have seen that some industries are particularly susceptible to problems with peak performance.  Retail is a good example.  Which retail-specific events lead to performance related issues?

A.  Thousands or even millions of customers, partners and employees engage with your company every day via the applications that you develop and test. So, these systems must perform as expected and be accessible when needed.

But your applications are under massive stresses.  Growing volumes of customers access your systems at peak times of the day, season, or at discrete events like following a major marketing promotion.

And it’s not just the volume of users that leads to higher demand on your applications; there is also increased application complexity.  Today’s Web 2.0 applications, which are designed to be more responsive to users, can be highly resource intensive.  This compounds the effects of increased demand.

When your application is subject to sudden spikes or sustained usage volumes, it can behave in unexpected ways.  The system may crash or become too slow to use.  It could also become inaccessible as customers compete for access.  Regardless, it leads to frustrated users and potentially lost business.  Every moment that the application is inaccessible is potentially millions of dollars in lost revenue.  Sudden spikes could be due to a holiday season or a sale.  The business of retail is built on these kinds of spikes, so your applications should be too.

Q.  Web 2.0 and social applications are often used to enhance shopping experiences.  Will that affect how retail organizations should handle performance testing?

A.  Today’s applications are often developed as dynamic and highly interactive Web 2.0 applications.  These Rich Internet Applications require special testing in order to access functionality developed in AJAX, Silverlight, and Flex, among other technologies.  Simple application testing is no longer sufficient because the background interactions and richness of the client-side are so great.  This is well-suited to Cloud-based testing as it requires more computing power to perform these more complex tests.  However, very few solutions are sufficiently mature to handle the dynamism of this style of application.  When looking at a solution, make sure to investigate whether Web 2.0 support is needed and the degree of coverage you have.

While many applications today are entirely browser-based, that is not often the case for large enterprise applications.  For instance, a bank’s core banking application will likely have a hybrid model.  Part of the application is browser-based Internet banking and another part may be only accessible via bank tellers’ terminals.

This means that you need to test both routes to your system for completeness.  An approach that relies solely on Cloud-based testing will be lacking since it needs to access the application via Internet protocols.  As a result, it is important to determine upfront whether you need a mixed model that combines Internet protocols with support for .NET, Java, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, COM, and other enterprise application protocols.

Q.  Most retail applications on the web are global.  Do testing needs change with a distributed user base?

A.  First off, not all Clouds are equal.  Some can scale more readily than others.  So, you should consider the levels that you need.  Whether you need computing power for tests with 50,000 to 100,000 to 200,000 virtual users and beyond.  Of course not all Cloud based load testing providers can scale to this degree and not all testing solutions can effectively harness these kinds of resources, so care should be taken when selecting vendors.

Further, you should be able to simply schedule time for a test and resources are automatically provisioned.  This avoids testing bottlenecks and prevents long delays as internally managed hardware is acquired and set-up.

Also, the global nature of some Cloud-based solutions lets you “place” Virtual Users in a variety of locations to test international performance.  No longer do you need to maintain hardware in a variety of countries in order to test.  Not all Cloud-providers or test solutions can provide this capability, so it is key to evaluate if global-readiness is a requirement for you.

Discovering that your application failed under peak loads is clearly not enough.  You want to discover why it failed and how to correct it.  While this may seem obvious, diagnostic tools are often excluded from testing solutions.  This is often the case when Cloud-based peak load tests are operating against an application you manage in-house.

Cloud-based tooling on its own cannot analyze the internal behavior of the application under test.  This can mean that applications may be incompletely repaired following tests, increasing the risk of a real-world failure.  It is more effective to combine the power of Cloud-based testing with “on the ground” diagnostics of your application performance.

Situation: You think it might be time to  focus on collaboration again.

In a few weeks I'll be attending the Gartner Portals, Content, and Collaboration Summit - which is an obvious thing to do for someone in my position.  This year, fellow collaborator, I think it's something you should consider doing as well.  I think we have arrived at a unique point in time where collaboration needs not be something you force people to do.  It's just something you set the stage for and nurture over time.  The forces I see making this a good time to focus on collaboration are:

Niche Communities
Every time I attend these things, I'm struck by how useful the event is to people who are responsible for enterprise collaboration - especially those who deal with niche communities.  Presenters used to point out modest internal successes and relate them to far more successful consumer-based ones.  These days, when we talk about collaboration, I hear more about internal successes that create immediate value far beyond what's happening more broadly online. These efforts are often more effective because they address smaller, more tightly focused, and interconnected communities.  Tight knit communities are motivated by shared needs that people on the outside simply don't share.  I know that tools matter, but to be honest they often feel as inconsequential as the brand of golf club you use.  It's mostly about the people and how much sharing between them "matters".  The more people share in common, the more they can help each other and the more they care.

It's not "weird and wasteful" anymore
People's willingness to share has changed a lot based a larger cultural shift. Society is just more attuned to social networking in general - more open to online interaction.  Ten (or maybe even just a few) years ago, it was near impossible to get people to participate in knowledge sharing of any sort online because they just didn't understand it.  Now so many people provide their "friends" with highlight reels of their lives through facebook, that it's just second nature to share.

People are seeing the value of it - personally
In Stephen Covey's book "The Speed of Trust", he talks about the importance of Social Trust and what he calls "The Principal of Contribution".  It's sort of an extension of "you get from life what you put into it."   Essentially, there is an increasing need for individuals to display their contribution to society online.  Here on gantthead, I talk about your profile being an central hub for your Project Management "body of work".  Facebook gives you a place to "let people know what you are up to" and Linkedin is pretty much a place for people to see what you've accomplished.  Again, it's all about the "personal show", not so much about the details of each transaction.

One of Gartner's Keynote speakers Clay Chirky wrote a book entitled, "Here Comes Everybody".  In this book, he explores how the content "balance of power" has changed over the years to where users are more in control. More recently, he wrote "Cognitive Surplus," where he reveals how new technology is changing us from consumers to collaborators, increasing creativity in many ways.

So I guess my point is that we're getting to the point where techniques, and perhaps where we are in our socio-technical evolution matters more than tools.  Attending conferences like the Gartner event can help you understand what's working.

Do you think it's gotten any easier to get people within your enterprise to collaborate online?  What's working well for you?

Note: If you would like to join me at the Gartner Conference, they are a sponsor of ours and will give you $300 off, if you use the promotion code "GANTT".

Situation: You want to know how you are measuring up these days.

Global Knowledge is conducting a salary survey that actually goes way beyond "how much do you make".  It asks some pretty detailed questions about job satisfaction, training, certifications, and other things that you might like to know about your peers.    As is typical with these things, you can get a copy of the results sent to you after completing the survey.  So if you have about 3 minutes, check out the  2011 IT Salary and Skills Survey