PM Tool Meetup

How to select and implement a Project & Portfolio Management toolSANDRA @PMOGURU.COM

Agenda Why a Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Tool

Understand areas a PPM tool can help

Understand your tool – data

How to evaluate and select a tool

Scenario Planning example

Vendors

How to implement

Tool Challenges

Licensing consideration

What makes a tool implementation successful

SANDRA’S PERSONAL VIEW

About me Why do I think I can comment on this topic?

‘WHICH TOOL SHOULD I BUY?’

‘It depends….’

Why a PPM (Project and Portfolio Management Tool)?

Understand the areas a tool can operate

• Pipeline Management (capturing new ideas, new incoming work, new initiatives)

• Prioritisation of work (categorisation based on risk, complexity, strategic alignment, technology)

• Resource Management (which role is available, who is available when and with which skills)• When do we need to hire additional resources?

• Project Management (Risks, Issues, Decisions, Financials, Dependencies)

• Portfolio Management ($, Risk profile, Benefits)

TIPDon’t just look at

Project Management you might need some of the other areas

later on

Understand your tool - DataYour data comes from:

• PMO creates basic ‘project shell’ within tool

• PMO captures high level information to categorise project (prioritisation happen)

• PMO will start to move project through project lifecycle (funding approved, status changes)

• Resource Manager will be notified and will allocate team members and PM

• PM will start setting up project (budget, risks, background, benefits)

• Team members will use timesheet function

• PMO runs reports and portfolio and provides recommendations on performance improvements

• PMO can now assist with scheduling new projects based on priority and resource availability

•Resource Managers performs demand and supply analysis – who is available when

• PM will manage and execute project (risks, schedule, scope, time, decisions….)

• Time entered in timesheet will be converted to cost

TIPCapture your n2n process ‘as it is’

and ‘how it should be’ before

engaging vendor

Important – Your Data• You challenge will be to get ‘clean’ data in the tool, in order to get the real benefit (rubbish in – rubbish out)

• Define data standards

• When starting out have guidelines, glossaries, definitions• For example: do team members work 8hrs per day or 7.5hrs?• Is a PM always 100% allocated to projects? What about company meetings and admin time?• If somebody enters 10hrs per day in a timesheet – will there be overtime paid?

Tips on how to evaluate and select a tool

1. Is there a methodology your company prefers Agile – Kanban Board style, story card estimationPMBOK / Traditional – Schedule with WBS structure

2. Is your company mainly using contractors? If yes, quick onboarding and the use of an ‘industry standard tool’ might be good option

3. Choose at least 3 different vendors to get an idea of what tools can do

ExampleList of areas

Tips on how to evaluate and select a tool

4. Get a list with your overall requirements first (see slide before)

5. Use scenario planning for areas which are important for you – don’t use functions

6. Have your scenarios ready before you invite vendors

Example Evaluation Criteria: Project Risk Management

• Example Feature: • The PPM tool need to be able to perform Project Risk Management

• Better Example Scenario:• When creating a new project from a template (can I have templates?), most common risks should have

been added by default. The PM can set a contingency (% off overall budget) to each risk. The PM can select or flag risks for different reporting either Status report or SteerCo report. Risks can be printed. Risks can be easily exported into Excel. Single risks can be converted into issues. The ‘look and feel’ and the layout of issues will be the same as the risk layout. Once a risk is converted to an issue the contingency will be added to the project financials and a notification to the sponsor will be generated.

Sandra’s “ Must Haves” • Well documented API to integrate to other systems (like Finance system)

• Portfolio Management (rolling up project data)

• Resource Management (supply & demand, utilisation)

• Financials (NPV, by financial year, by project lifetime, cost and sell rates per resouce, )

• Out of the box Reports / how easy is it to customise reports? Can you print them?

• Test of import of large MS project schedule

Vendor Management1. Treat them nicely, they will appreciate it and you will get more benefits

2. Work out a win-win situation for both of you e.g. successful implementation – reference customer

3. Understand vendor structure: Sales team, presales, consulting team1. You will not pay for presales2. You will pay top $ for consulting3. Maximise as much presales time as you can!!!

4. Ask them for an example implementation and deployment plan, sometimes you will get this at ‘no cost’

5. Ask them if they have an example ROI calculation, which could help you with your business case

Evaluate Software Once you have selected a vendor, ask for a Sandbox environment where you can spend some time familiarizing yourself with the tool• Set at least one two full days aside to test• end to end scenario: from an idea to closing a project to benefit realisation• ask a PM and a Team leader to join• log into the tool using different roles to see security settings• run your reports and queries, print• import some of your existing projects (schedule, risk list…)• export project data

Document your findings. You will asked later on, why you selected this vendor and not ‘the other’

TIPEvaluate the tool with your data!

Vendor Once you have selected a vendor,

you signed the contract,

you will pay for everything!

How to implement (Sandra’s approach)

Phase approach (‘value’ for ‘effort’)

1. Setup project inventory

2. Use Timesheet functionality first – provides organisation with view of costsProject shell, simple project states – initiate, plan, execution, close, warranty

3. Start using Pipeline Management – prioritisation of new work

4. Start Portfolio Reporting

5. Basic Project Management for status reporting

6. Resource Management for supply & demand

7. Continue with Project Management

Tool challenges• Out of the box Reports

• Customising / Configuring will be expensive (e.g. even putting your logo on)• Can this be done in-house? • You want a demo on how to do this

• Print functionality is not always embedded or doesn't’t work as desired

• Export into common tools often not that easy• You want to demo to: export lists like change requests, risks, issues, decisions, financials, schedule

• Import often not available or clunky• Risk lists, schedules

TIPTest this in your

evaluation!

Mentoring & Training When developing a business case for a tool, make sure to include funds for training.

Training will be required for:◦ Administrator – who will configure tool, security, layouts, ◦ How to customise Report Training◦ PMO / Portfolio Management Training◦ PM Training◦ Resource Manager Training◦ Timesheet Training

After the implementation, you want a consultant be available for 2-3 days a week in the first 4 weeks (teams of 20-30 people) more time required if team is larger

Licensing Structure• On Premise or Software as a Service?

• Pay per year or per month or per usage?

• Which licenses are required?• Team member• Portfolio Manager• Project Manager• Admin

• Support• How often can someone call? • Ho often do they release software?• Try to ring support – how long does it take until someone takes your call?• Is the support in the same country or oversees?• Where is the data stored? Within Australia?

• Min of licenses required• When are discount available? • Can licenses be ramped up and down within month?

Why tools fail• Tool doesn't integrate into your systems

• Too many features and it is too complex

• Very hard to customise, it doesn’t fit your companies process

• Post implementation – tool is installed but nobody uses it

• Tool is being used in so many different ways by so many different people – data is no longer usable and meaningful for the future

• No funds set aside for ‘change management process’, ongoing training needs to be in place to support tool usage (e.g. onboarding of new team members)

Timelines Depends on tool complexity, the areas to implement and project size, members and physical location:

You would need to consider impact on timeline • defining your current process – do you know what it is? • configuration of tool• tool training by role (portfolio manager vs resource manager vs team member vs PM)• report development (PMs, Resource Manager, Exec)• process adjustments• possible project management training on financials, risk management, dependencies…• consider this as change management activity (and impact on their ‘daily’ work)

What makes tools successful• Communicate “what's in it for me”

• Endorsement and support from your Business Executives

• Change management strategy in place

• Training and mentoring and on-going support

Which tools are out there?• There are currently more than 100 software providers on the market, offering tools in the PPM space.

• They are targeted at different industries, different types of projects, different methodologies. Each of them has their different strengths and weaknesses.

• Website with common PPM tools: http://www.prioritysystem.com/tools.html#tools

Summary• Organisations can benefit from PPM tools in order to improve possesses and manage portfolio investments

• Nearly all tools can do simple data queries

• To get a good fit, you would need to do a tool evaluation with scenarios planning

• Support from Executives is essential to get everybody using the tool

• Implementing a tool is a change management activity – champions, working groups, pilots, training need to be included

• Have a good vendor relationship (e.g. win-win)

THANKS Q & A

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Capability for Pipeline Management and PrioritizationStandardized Work Templates; Hybrid Project Template (Duration and Effort Based)

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Capability to view resource interdependencies among projects.Resource Work Packages by Project – Work Contour Layout

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Capability to manage RBS; including resources, roles and skills.

Competency Structure

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Capability for Pipeline Management and PrioritizationInvestment Map: Final Proposal Ranking Determination

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Capability for Pipeline Management and PrioritizationWhat-If Scenario: Pipeline project delay scenario

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Capability for Pipeline Management and PrioritizationPipeline Resource Consumption Projections vs. Capacity Targets

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Capability for Pipeline Management and PrioritizationWork Pipeline Resource Demand by Projects