Whitepaper: APO ITMI, Clarity

Whitepaper – APO, ITMI, Clarity 09/14/2010

Whitepaper – APO, ITMI, Clarity

By Peter Lechner

This whitepaper describes Computer Aid Inc.’s (CAI) products Automated Project Office (APO), IT Management Insight (ITMI) and CA Technologies’ Clarity. The objective is to provide the reader with an understanding of their key components, key benefits, strengths and weaknesses.

Page 1This document is the exclusive property of Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI) It contains proprietary information and may not be disclosed to others for any purpose without written permission from CAI


Table of ContentsI. Executive Summary Page 3

II. APO, ITMI, Clarity at a Glance Page 4

III. Key Components Page 7

a. APO Page 7

i. Scope Management Page 7

ii. Quality Page 7

iii. Integration Page 7

iv. Human Resource Management Page 8

v. Communications Page 8

vi. Risk Management Page 8

vii. Procurement Page 9

viii. Methodology Page 9

b. ITMI

i. Metrics Page 9

ii. Dashboard Objects Page 10

iii. Data Elements Page 10

iv. Data Collection Page 10

c. Clarity Page 10

i. Identification/Definition of Business Needs Page 10

ii. Priority Setting – Project Selection Page 11

iii. Budget and Funding Page 11

IV. Pricing, Deployment, Support Page 11

a. APO Page 11

b. ITMI Page 11

c. Clarity Page 11

V. Summary Page 12

VI. Appendix Page 13

a. Detailed Comparison Matrix Page 13



I. Executive Summary

The Information Technology (IT) industry is very quick to label a product as a

complete Project Management Office (PMO) support tool. It’s important to first define

what a PMO is. Thomas Clark, founder of Project Success, Inc. (PSI), describes a PMO

as a staff function that builds, maintains, and improves the project management policies

and procedures in the organization. A PMO supports project managers and their teams in

the effective application of sound project management principles and techniques to

achieve project success. PMO’s often perform tasks that are normally the responsibility

of other functional groups, such as procurement, quality assurance, legal, human

resources and financial departments. The bottom line is that a PMO’s mission is to

ensure that projects succeed every time.

CA Technologies Clarity is not a complete PMO tool. It is a project portfolio

management tool in which projects are prioritized based on specific business criteria. Its

emphasis is specifically on:

Definition of Business Needs

Priority Setting

Project Selection

Budget and Funding

Clarity does improve visibility into key initiatives by prioritizing people, projects and

programs through a portfolio view. This portfolio view is complex. Clarity costs

hundreds of thousands of dollars and can be challenging to set up. It can take a year or

more to implement.

Computer Aid Inc.’s (CAI) Automated Project Office (APO) is a PMO tool that

enables the PMO to manage aspects of projects not addressed by any other application. It

does not compete with Clarity. APO’s concentration is on:

Best Practices

Leveraged Knowledge

Proper Governance

Risk Management

Total Visibility



APO is an intellectual system that was designed by industry experts and collegiate

educators. APO starts with questionnaire responses and data fed from these answers to

provide insight into a project’s health. APO has the flexibility to be configured without

programming. APO’s dashboards allow you to manage scope, quality, integration,

human resources, communications, risk, procurement and methodology. Implemented

via Software as a Service (SaaS), APO can be deployed in five business days and costs

approximately ½ a FTE.

CAI’s IT Management Insight (ITMI) will focus on all aspects of an IT

organization. Its goal is to improve the effectiveness of IT management. ITMI will

include 20+ integrated ‘applications,’ including APO and project portfolio management.

Additional ITMI applications include: Executive Information System, Issues

Management, Unit and Individual Performance Assessments, Voice of the Customer,

Process Assurance, Cost Benefit Analysis, Capacity Planning and Operations Support

Assessment. The key structural components of ITMI are: metrics, dashboard objects,

data elements and data collection. ITMI defines IT as a collection of domains. Each

domain is broken down into a series of activities. Activities are monitored and measured

by a number of data feeds, assessments and plug-in tools. ITMI will cost less than $1.00

per project per day.

This whitepaper will describe and compare the scope and functionality of CAI’s

APO, Clarity and ITMI.

II. APO, ITMI, Clarity at a Glance

a. APO

i. To address the needs of the IT organization specifically application

development, Computer Aid Inc. (CAI) developed the Automated Project

Office (APO) tool. It is implemented as an ‘application’ which is powered

by Automated Management Insight (AMI). The tool offers a unique,

practical solution for managing scope, quality, integration, human

resources, communications, risk, procurement and methodology. These

categories can be displayed in either a data grid or a graphical output

specific to each category.



ii. The core of APO starts with questionnaire responses and data fed from

these answers to provide insight into a project’s health and potential risks.

It is a ‘control room’ that measures health of your project providing early

warning. The question sets were designed around several years of

experience with insight from collegiate educators and industry experts.

They incorporate existing or company-specific practices and processes.

APO has been assembled with the summation of numerous key features

into a unique tool.

iii. APO alerts you to issues before they become catastrophic problems,

giving you the time you need to address them.

iv. APO provides at-a-glance project health and status, letting you focus your

attention where it's needed the most.

v. APO allows you to identify where project costs can be saved, quality

improved, and customer satisfaction boosted.

b. ITMI

i. IT Management Insight (ITMI) is currently in the conceptual stage. It is

really an extension of APO to be used across all aspects of IT

Management.

ii. The ITMI Architecture is based on five domains organized into two

interlocking process loops; one for Service Delivery and one for Process

Improvement.



iii. The two loops above can also be depicted individually as wheels where

each domain is represented by a 1/3 wedge of the wheel. This is shown

below.

iv. Each domain, Project Portfolio Management being an example, is broken

down into a series of Activities (light blue) and these in turn are supported

by a number of data feeds (brown), assessments (green) and plug-in tools

(orange) which provide the substance to those activities.

c. Clarity

i. CA Technologies Clarity is a ‘portfolio management’ tool. Its focus is in

business alignment and user interaction. Specifically on



identification/definition of business needs, priority setting – project

selection, budget and funding. The goal is to improve management and

administration of your portfolio of projects, applications and service

offered by your organization. You can select the investments which best

match your business strategy, ensure follow-up from the project

conception until it becomes a product or service.

ii. Clarity’s system for management of projects and applications covers the

planning and analysis of the portfolio.

III. Key Components

a. APO

i. Scope Management

The knowledge area of Scope Management includes the processes

required to ensure that the project includes all the work, and only the work

required to complete the project successfully. It is primarily concerned

with controlling what is and what is not in the scope. APO allows you to

manage scope by monitoring the project’s scope stability and scope

adherence. This is viewed on the APO Score Card Dashboard.



ii. Quality

The high-level views of the performance of the projects within a portfolio

as well as indicators of potential quality problems can be easily reviewed

and leveraged. The drill-down capability of the portfolio management

components allows the manager to distinguish the source of a given

problem and where potential quality problems may reside. This provides

the project manager with an ‘early warning’ of potential problems and at

the same time gives them a method to investigate issues with the proper

level of detail. If quality is slipping the Service Level Agreement (SLA)

will not be met. This is monitored on the APO Dashboard Score Card by

showing whether or not the SLA’s are being me. Quality is also

monitored on the Quality Assurance Graphs showing requirement

adherence, test case success and defects logged.

iii. Integration

Incorporated in the APO is a repository of project data. As projects are

created their attributes provide information for classification and best

practices advice. This classification and advice is based on data that is

collected from the questionnaires. The project integration management

knowledge area ensures that all project components are coordinated.

Areas that are crucial for project completion are most critical. On the

APO Dashboard Score Card this includes Lost Time and Turn Over.

iv. Human Resource Management

Human resource management includes the processes required to

coordinate the human resources on a project. Such processes include

those needed to plan, obtain, orient, assign and release staff over the life of

the project. This is monitored on the APO Dashboard Score Card by

showing turn over, staff capability and morale. This is drilled down even

further via the Staffing View. Items such as task accomplishments,

whether or not the tasks are understood and morale KPI over time are all

monitored. APO allows changes to be made once these items become a

problem.



v. Communications

Each person on the project will be answering the same questions

dependent on their role and the phase of the project. This ensures that

everyone understands what is being asked of them. Communications are

thus clear and consistent. The project stakeholders are selected to answer

these specific question sets via APO. Careful communication planning

and setting the right expectations with all the project stakeholders is

extremely important. Many times today ‘management by walk around’

can no longer occur. Communication can no longer occur face to face.

APO allows ‘management by walk around’ to occur on a consistent basis.

vi. Risk Management

One of the problems with the risks associated with developing and

maintaining applications is that they are often not recognized until they are

realized. Or, if they are recognized early, they are often left to chance.

The APO takes steps to fix this. By providing a base set of intuitive

questionnaires, the APO helps project managers to recognize potential

risks early. The questions are in a simple multiple choice format that

addresses potential risks in conjunction with the current phase of the

SDLC. The answers are weighted, and through a series of thresholds the

APO identifies the areas of the project that are of concern for the well-

being of the project as a whole. In addition, APO provides the user a

series of assessments. The warnings, which are displayed in a simple

‘stop-light’ format, draw attention to problem areas. Customizable

questions can be added to the initial set with weights assigned to highlight

the most critical risks. The question sets apply to all projects of a common

type.

The APO also provides the ability to perform risk analysis from the

viewpoint of different personnel associated with the project. Besides the

primary set of questions that is directed towards the project manager, there

is also the ability to tailor additional question sets for other project

members, such as a quality assurance manager or business owner.



Risk is monitored on the APO Score Card.

vii. Procurement

Project Procurement Management is part of the project management

process in which products or services are acquired or purchased from

outside the existing associate base of which would work on the project in

order to complete the task or project. Physical assets, delivery issues,

contractual situations, vendor management can all be monitored as long as

the question set within APO is modified.

viii. Methodology

A project methodology tells you what you have to do, to manage your

projects from start to finish. For example: did you create a project plan?

What has been the time spent? How many resources are being used and

are they right for that particular project? APO drives adherence to the

methodology that has been set within an organization.

b. ITMI

i. Metrics

Metrics are one of the structural components of ITMI. They are reported

by calculating Risk Scores from assessment results which compute a

defined Risk Score. This includes: A Risk Score for each of the

predefined risk categories; An overall risk score—which is the weighted

sum of the category risks; An Opportunity Score for each of the

predefined opportunity categories; An overall Opportunity Score for the

project—which is the weighted sum of the category opportunities.

ii. Dashboard Objects

Dashboard Objects are a Risk/Reward comparator that plots the inherent

riskiness of projects against their projected benefit. It is another structural

component of ITMI. The size of the data point is indicative of the

financial cost of the project. Charts depicting the distribution of

dispositions for proposals that can be grouped by business unit or other

category variable

iii. Data Elements



Data Elements are generic risk data that is collected almost exclusively

through assessment questionnaires. Project sponsors, PMO and senior

project staff are posed a series of questions that—in aggregate—assess

various categories of risk. Risks are typically not identified until the

project is approved and is in flight. However, any that do happen to be

identified prior to the project starting are logged and added to the risk

profile for the project.

iv. Data Collection

Data Collection is the final structural component of ITMI. It is defined by

project scoring data to be collected via a questionnaire distributed to

assessors who have reviewed the proposal documentation. If there is a

financial justification for the project, that data will typically come from

external sources. It could be collected via a questionnaire if-and only if-

questionnaire data can be used to populate profile fields. If not a web

services call will be required

b. Clarity

i. Identification/Definition of Business Needs

Clarity provides a vision of your investment portfolio, being able to make

analyses by the risk, cost and profit involved in these. It allows you to

create virtual scenarios and analyze the possibility of taking on a new

investment with objective data. You may select the best investments going

by the metrics available to your organization.

ii. Priority Setting – Project Selection

Clarity carries out the planning of the project either through its Web

interface or through leading tools such as Open Workbench and Microsoft

Office Project. It follows-up the project, creating personalized processes

per type of project, creating points of control over these processes,

verifying any deviation from the projects and managing the problems and

risks of these. It audits the processes used in your projects to verify

compliance with the organizations methodology for project management.



iii. Budget and Funding

Clarity can be used as the primary point to allocate budget and funding to

your project portfolio. It creates a process for converting an idea into a

project, or a process for management of an incident or request for service.

It makes an analysis of the type of work that is done most by the

departments at your organization.

IV. Pricing, Deployment, Support

a. APO

i. $5,000 a month for first 10 users and first 100 projects

ii. $3,000 a month for every 10 users thereafter and first 100 projects

iii. $3,000 a month for first 10 users and every 100 projects thereafter

iv. About a month install

v. Unlimited Survey takers in or out of your organization

vi. Robust training & support included

b. ITMI

i. TBD

c. Clarity

i. It is offered via a per user licensing model or customers can also subscribe

to a software as a service offering for a monthly per user subscription fee.

Hosting is also available.

ii. $250,000 as reported by CA Technologies on the average cost per deal

iii. Implementation costs vary dependent on the scope

iv. Maintenance is priced at 20% of the license fee

v. Apx. 30 days to install

vi. A wide range of training services are offered. Most of which are included

in the license agreement

vii. 24*7 support is included via toll-free phone lines, web and email channels

V. Summary

a. APO is a robust, intellectual system that is very easy to use. The application itself

is fast and easy to implement, requiring minimal startup effort. It can be

customized if needed. APO provides the ability to have ‘project office’ reviews



of all projects. It provides a proactive and quantitative approach for identifying

and mitigating project risks before they are realized. It collects data and shows

metrics based on how pre-defined specific questions are answered. While ITMI

focuses on all aspects of an IT Project. It looks at very detailed metrics. ITMI is

projected to include 20+ unique ‘applications.’ While there could be some

overlap between APO and ITMI with Project Management Methodology neither

competes with Clarity. Clarity is a project portfolio management tool where

projects are defined based on specific business rolls. APO and ITMI are

implemented by CAI while Clarity uses 3rd parties the majority of the time.

VI. Appendix

a. Detailed Comparison Matrix

The matrix graph below compares APO, ITMI and Clarity to one another within

specific spaces of an organization. Other CAI and outside tools are compared as

well.
