The company I work for is an ASP that supplies web-based HCM solutions to the Global 2000. We have about 65 FTE's in our Technology department. We have approximately another 10-15 PM types & BA's in our Consulting & Implementation Group.
We're number one in our industry, but have grown to the point where our processes need to mature if we are to sustain growth and adequately support our current book of business.
Currently, we're in the process of A) re-inventing our PMO, and B) creating a project selection process - i.e. evaluation criteria to score, rank, track new project proposals. Likewise, I am trying to build a business case for purchasing a PPM tool to manage our project portfolio... and would like one that includes a decision support tool to optimize our project mix, and a dashboard to allow execs to see realtime snapshots of portfolio status, performance, etc?
I've read everything I can find from Gartner, IDS, Butler and Business Trends... but... can someone recommend a PPM solution that fits a small IT organization -- yet is scalable for future growth? More imporantly, does anybody have experience with Business Engine? Pacific Edge? PlanView? UMT? Barometrix (formerly ITCentrix)?
Do any integrate with ALM type tools? Telelogic?
Thanks in advance... RWW
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Ronald, all of the PPM tools you mentioned are quite good and can drive your process maturity objectives. Of course, "process maturity" is different than "tool maturity" and some organizations can spend a lot of time and money on PPM tools with little to no improvement in processes and the performance of the PMO. Being a savvy technology firm, I doubt that would be the case for your organization. You might also have a look at eProject. And don't forget Niku - they have surprisingly competitive prices and programs for small organizations these days. Good luck..! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Excellent points, Mark. Unfortunately, our PMO processes and metrics are NOT fully defined yet. Internally, it was communicated that there was a sense of urgency from senior mgt to implement process improvement -- quickly. I was hoping to introduce a tool that could force process improvement. I now realize this is a recipe for failure. I also know the s/w devt teams perceive a new tool as imposing ‘more work’ on them and reject it out of hand; they already exhibited this behavior during a demo. So, our strategy will shift to have the PMO target a few pilot projects that we will provide PM "services" to the s/w devt team to help them plan / track / improve delivery. Only when we have a few wins under our belt, proven processes that are value-added and a general acceptance of the value of PM principles… can we introduce PPM / ALM tools. If we follow these steps, any new tools we show them down the road will be more likely to be perceived as a "time-saver" instead of an additional documentation burden. Your thoughts? Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Ronald, I entirely agree with you and your approach. One of the best ways to implement process improvement is to focus on first "defining" the as-is state and then address "process improvement" vis a vis management directed priorities (top-down) and project participant initiated suggestions and process improvement feedback (buy-in) as part of the PMO pilot projects, early successes, and further stepping up (maturity) of processes and best practices. And you are so right, establishing the value-add will help with general acceptance far more than top-down mandates and forced marches - though sometimes it helps to have a little of both..! For most organizations, PM Value Add is more effective than PM COP..! In terms of approaches to establish the PMO processes, metrics, and value-add, you might have a look at some of the ready-to-use, customizable, process solutions for PM/SDLC such as ProcessMax by Pragma Systems, PMCoP by PM Solutions, Tenstep by Tenstep.com, Processes On Demand by BOT International, and others... Each of these solutions have their own strengths and positioning. For example, ProcessMax is an excellent CMMI process tool and well suited for any software development organization. PMCoP is a complete PM Portal and online repository of knowledge. Tensteps is a popular life cycle methodology available as a subscription or even on your own server. And Processes On Demand is software solution for PMO processes and best practices scalable to project type and size such as PMBOK, SDLC, Change Management, etc. All of these tools have large customer bases and generally are great "time-savers" and save organizations the time, money, and frustration that it otherwise takes to set up from scratch, not to mention get right, such de facto standard PMO processes and best practices. And one of the nice things about focusing on processes and process improvement is that it is far easier to implement new tools and ideas such as PPM tools or new development techniques when the ideas are birthed out of project team participation and improvement feedback than it is when the project teams haven't bought it or are not involved in the PMO re-invention and on-going care-taking. Sounds like you are in a great spot - great company, best in class product, management committed to process improvement to maintain your leadership position. I doubt that you need it, but good luck nonetheless..! -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Ronald - I'm glad to see you zero'd in on one of Mark's key points - project culture before PPM tools. I'm even starting to see some consulting companies are moving in this direction when offering PPM services - they no longer look to be a product VAR first and an Org Change clean up crew second. They are now promoting parallel development of project culture and PPM software - though I'd prefer to eventually see the former proceed the latter. The companies I've met with that have really succeeded at this portfolio management stuff are the ones who have been tracking and supporting projects with a set of Excel/Access solutions. That is, whiz-bang comes after the grunt work of org change. Then as their resource management enters the realms of critical chain complexity, they have a good PPM software RFP in place with their current Excel/Access applications. Saving Changes...
Douglas BrownBusiness Advisor| Decision Integration LLCAlexandria, Va, United States
The truth is that strategically the PMO will not succeed if the organization does not have a PM culture (i.e weak accountability, weak planning, limited concern for timeliness or cost, etc.). But, sub-optimizing, one assumes that your mission is to institute a working PMO. We did end up procuring a PPM tool because if you can enshrine some process discipline inside a toll that is itself coupled to a valuable goal, then people will adopt the process willy-nilly to get the valuable goal. In our case it is that the project team must use the PPM tool in order to generate the project plan which must be approved through the workflow in the PPM tool in order to get their funding. We chose the Clarity tool because (of those offered) it was the only one with an integrated workflow engine, and for the PMO it is the workflow more than the PM artifacts that make the difference. Saving Changes...
