Hello! My organization is a small start-up. Currently we are using Jira for Project Management, as most all of the projects are data development associated to Jira tickets. However, we are moving towards more organizational development projects (for instance building our project management standardization) that do not make sense to track in Jira. I am currently trying to present to our leaders on why we should integrate MS Project and Jira, but am getting resistance from our CTO as he prefers working in Jira only. Has anyone encountered this before, or do you have suggestions on how to work with the CTO and make the case for the integration? Thank you! Saving Changes...
If you're proposing a situation where developers would have to track work in two places, I can understand the resistance.
If your new projects are going to require people who currently don't use a tool to track their work to start doing so, you can expect resistance from more than just the CTO.
If you are looking for a tool that will help you manage sequential projects better (I'm assuming you mean the MS Project Desktop client), manage resource allocation, have a more clear understanding of critical path and the impact of change on the schedule, as well as other features available in MS Project that Jira doesn't do as well, and you won't be requiring other people to do more administrative work, have you shared your value proposition with the CTO? Saving Changes...
I have certainly experienced directors picking a single tool, and insisting that all projects use that tool. When the nature of projects becomes diverse, that tool often becomes a big hindrance to projects types for which it was not intended.
To try and explain this, I would suggest providing concrete examples. In my own recent experience, my organization declared one tool for all projects, which is oriented around clearly defined stages such as problem defined, root cause identified, solution down-select, solution implemented, improvement maintenance. That doesn't work at all for projects better suited for something like Jira where you can have multiple parts of your project at different levels of maturity.
Likewise if you have projects that have long timelines, many inter-dependencies, and require significant predictive schedules, a tool like MSP is better suited than trying to shoehorn that into Jira but where you resort to really managing it in other better suited tools. Don't just talk about the shortcomings in broad terms though. Show real world examples to illustrate the point.
I also don't recommend trying to manage projects in 2 tools unless you have specialized tools for specific functions. You will spend far too much time managing the tools and trying to keep them synchronized. Saving Changes...
Desiree Underwood-WilliamsDirector, PMO (Innovation & Integration Office)| WCG ClinicalGlassboro, Nj, United States
If you plan to work on enterprise projects such as organizational development, you will definitely need a PMIs that is flexible enough to offer traditional project management tools.
I’ve used MS Project in the past but I’ve currently integrated Jira with Monday.com. The UI is more intuitive in my opinion.
Maybe see if your CTO would be open to a demo from an expert who can review the capabilities and how the PMIS can help with the emerging project scenarios your organization is facing.
If this is not an option then you have to truly work on expressing value and create a presentation if you haven’t already but make sure you connect your needs to your CTOs needs and vision. Find out what the CTO values and speak to that.
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