I've stumbled across this informative site and being in the midst of starting up a new PMO from scratch I thought I'd ask for someone advice re PMO software.
Currently reporting is all completed manually by PMs and Project Plans are all saved locally so lack of visibility and transparency for Senior Management.
Couple of questions, if we are using Microsoft Project as the preferred software, is our only option to have greater transparency of project plans through implementing Project Online / Server? If anyone uses this does it come with reporting dashboards that we could configure for Senior Management or would that be a separate product or integration required?
Yousaf KhanPM Consultant| City of TorontoToronto, Ontario, Canada
You could "hack" a server type setup with a main file with all shared resources that other PMs can use for their projects. All files could be centrally stored and data pulled through macros for creating complex dashboards.
The easier and more integrated approach would be with MS Project Online that comes with workflows and customizable reporting.
The next level is portfolio level reporting which will also help to improve investment strategies. In addition, there are connectors into other tools such as Jira and O365 (possibly additional cost). Saving Changes...
Greg FabianRetired IT Project/Program Manager and Technology Strategist| RetiredFairfax Station, Va, United States
You don't say what kind of projects your PMO is working - is it IT, construction, something else? If it's IT, be very careful using MS project. I've seen a couple of PMOs fall into the trap where the PMO becomes the tool of the tool. You'll know this is an issue when your project teams spend an inordinate amount of time putting their project plans (usually schedules) into the system to discover the information they've entered is out of date as soon as they entered it. I remember spending several days breaking down an Agile project into a classic work breakdown structure - the the control account level - and entering all of the task schedules corresponding to the WBS into Project Server because the PMO required it. It was a huge waste of time and the information we entered was out of date two weeks later. Saving Changes...
We at https://icotechservices.co.uk deliver PPM solutions that are completely tailored to your needs. The beauty of this is that you won't pay for the features that you don't need, whilst getting maximum value from the ones you do need.
We are a Microsoft implementation partner and can configure a custom PowerApp that is perfectly suited to your organisation. We have recently done this for a number of Private Sector companies, as well as some key areas of the UK Government (all remotely). We can also implement Project Online or the all-new "Project for the Web" with a custom PowerBI reporting system.
I agree that Jira is a great tool. However, it works even better with a PPM addon like BigPicture. The combo of those 2 tools allows to manage and track projects starting from single iteration to portfolio level and provides a big picture view for Senior Management. Saving Changes...
If you're going to use project online/server, go easy on the administrative burden. It's been 6 months since I played with it, but it didn't look like it had changed much in the past 5 years.
What has changed, and I think I like, is the free Power BI content pack that Microsoft has made available which provides a dashboard for portfolios, projects, resources, etc... Here's a couple of links:
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