Deepa KalangiManager, Program Management, Author, Trainer| CVS HealthCharlotte, NC, United States
Hi, this is a good question. Not a particular tool I used in the past other than MS Project. What we did was use a master Project Plan and tie the projects dependent on each other to the master and then we would see all inter-dependencies in a holistic view. All the PM's used to meet once a week to understand, update, mitigate, clarify anything new in terms of dependencies. Hope this helps.
For Agile projects though, TFS does a good job, and so is Jira as far as I know.
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1 reply by SHAMIK SENGUPTA
Sep 13, 2017 9:21 AM
SHAMIK SENGUPTA
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Thanks Deepa for your response. MS project works well when there are few to moderate dependencies across various projects. My question around the inter-project dependencies across the enterprise. I have a critical program where I have dependencies across 200+ projects across the organization. I was wondering if there is better way(or tool) to manage and track the inter-dependencies between such multiple programs/projects.
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Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Agree with Deepa. We would normally have a high-level program schedule using any scheduling tool such as MS Project where the key elements from the different project schedules are plugged in. 'Key elements' is a relative term and would depend on what dependencies you want to see i.e. you might only plug in critical path activities from your different project into your program. Saving Changes...
We've also used the same approach described by Deepa and Anton. You will notice that external dependencies show up with a different colour in your own schedule.
Alternatively, if you don't want the overhead of inter-schedule dependencies, you can simply use milestones to show external dependencies. The only drawback is you have to manually adjust dates, as and when necessary. Saving Changes...
1. Activity or schedule related dependencies - tracked in a project scheduling tool which supports cross-project activity dependencies
2. Other dependencies - MS Excel listing the dependencies between projects with projects in column A and row 1 with either an X or details provided in the intersection cells
Kiron Saving Changes...
SHAMIK SENGUPTASenior Project Manager| Infosys LtdCranston, Ri, United States
Sep 06, 2017 1:29 AM
Replying to Deepa Kalangi
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Hi, this is a good question. Not a particular tool I used in the past other than MS Project. What we did was use a master Project Plan and tie the projects dependent on each other to the master and then we would see all inter-dependencies in a holistic view. All the PM's used to meet once a week to understand, update, mitigate, clarify anything new in terms of dependencies. Hope this helps.
For Agile projects though, TFS does a good job, and so is Jira as far as I know.
Thanks Deepa for your response. MS project works well when there are few to moderate dependencies across various projects. My question around the inter-project dependencies across the enterprise. I have a critical program where I have dependencies across 200+ projects across the organization. I was wondering if there is better way(or tool) to manage and track the inter-dependencies between such multiple programs/projects. Saving Changes...
If those are activity-type dependencies then you'd need to look at a robust portfolio level scheduling tool. That won't be cheap and it'll require a high level of discipline from your PMs and teams.
If its more subjective, then the Excel approach I suggested would still work...
Kiron Saving Changes...
Philippe SchulerSenior Instructor/Lecturer in Project/Program/Account PMO Management| Independant ConsultantLes Choux, France
We use same Tools as described above (MS Project, Excel). On large Transformation program we assign a "Dependencies Manager" who is responsible for the identification and resolution of all cross-projects dependencies. He/she owning a Dependency List with a status integrated into the global Schedule and program status. This person manages the resolution of the dependencies will all project managers and validate the status. Saving Changes...
You can try online project management tool ProofHub. You can get a visual picture of your projects using Gantt chart software in ProofHub. Create project schedules, track progress made in tasks, set task dependencies, and plan & iterate projects effortlessly. Saving Changes...
Hi Shamik, Yes, there are tools available now that have been developed in the last few years. My company, ProjectPro, developed a tool called CrossLinksPro. Matan in Israel developed MasterLink and C&S developed a Program Management Suite. These are all add-ins/applications for the Microsoft Project world. I encourage you to request a demo at each of these companies because you will find that each tool is best suited for their own specific situations: e.g. MasterLink requires you to have Project Server, our tool CrossLinksPro works inside and outside Project Server. I hope this helps. Saving Changes...
