Implement Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Cheaper with a Hosted Solution

There's no doubt about it. The IT industry is headed toward hosted solutions, with their undeniable ROI due to infrastructure savings. And Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is no exception.

One of the best on the market is ProjectArena, as evident by the awards it has received, including the CIO Decisions Magazine/Nucleus Research ROI Award for 2005. I've already been impressed with ProjectArena's white papers (available free on their site) and their PPM Today Weblog.

If you're starting a PMO or looking to implement a PPM solution, check out ProjectArena's hosted solution below. And while you're at it, explore their white papers...

Project Arena - Hosted Project Portfolio Management

Peter F. Drucker Management Pioneer ...

Peter F. Drucker Management Pioneer: Via New York Times: Peter F. Drucker, a Pioneer in Social and Management Theory, Is Dead at 95 ...

... "He became internationally renowned for urging corporate leaders to agree with subordinates on objectives and goals and then get out of the way of decisions about how to achieve them. ... " ...

EVMS Earned Value Management: Federal Agencies Lag Behind

Primavera studies the adoption and implementation of earned value management processes and systems (EVMS) in federal information technology organizations. Current assessment shows that agencies lag behind on implementation versus their EVMS targets. ...

EVMS Earned Value Management: Federal Agencies Lag Behind: Via Primavera: Study Reveals Disconnect Between Perceived Merits of Earned Value Management and Federal Agencies Readiness to Implement ...

... "Specifically, the study indicates that the federal IT community agrees with OMB that EVM delivers improved project outcomes, with 60.6 percent of respondents reporting that EVM is very or somewhat important to achieving their capital investment goals. Despite this value perception, results do not demonstrate agencies movement from belief to action, with only 37 percent currently utilizing EVM and even fewer prepared to train or hire personnel skilled in EVM within the next 12 months. Respondents cited their top challenges to EVM implementation as unfamiliarity with EVM and lack of trained personnel. These findings indicate that agencies will not only have difficulty developing EVM implementation plans in time for the December 31 OMB deadline, but also will face challenges implementing documented plans. EVM processes, systems, and software enable the continuous assessment of project performance and status - providing a methodology that can help agencies effectively measure project alignment with resources and goals by comparing status to original plans and end goals. EVM can help agencies achieve green marks on the President's Management Agenda scorecard. To achieve and maintain this high score, agency projects must stay within a 10 percent variance from their cost, schedule, and performance goals. Further, OMB issued a memorandum in August 2005 requiring agencies to utilize EVM Systems (EVMS) on all new major IT projects. The memorandum requires development of written policies outlining agency-specific plans for EVM implementation by December 31, 2005. Agencies must also evaluate exiting, cost, schedule, and performance of ongoing IT projects and take any necessary corrective actions by March 31, 2006 and before devoting any FY06 funds to associated projects. In support of this effort, OMB is working with the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council to develop a model agency EVMS policy for IT projects ... " ...

Earned Value Management System: Risk Perspective ...

ASC will identify, manage and mitigate risks on its military projects using Welcom's software, which complements its existing use of the earned value management capabilities. ...

Earned Value Management System: Risk Perspective: Via Welcom: Australian Submarine Builder ASC Pty Ltd Chooses WelcomRisk ...

... "ASC has been using our Cobra project cost and earned value management system since 2002, and we see the selection of WelcomRisk as a further endorsement of WST Pacific and Welcom's project portfolio management solutions, said Steve Cook, president of Welcom. " ...

WelcomRisk is a formalized risk management tool for the proactive identification and mitigation of business risk, both threats and opportunities. WelcomRisk combines a user-friendly interface with a higher level of flexibility and granularity than other products. Its flexible integration capabilities and tight security provide companies with a better solution across the enterprise. WelcomRisk is part of WelcomSuite™, a comprehensive solution that supports portfolio analysis, project collaboration, planning and scheduling, and cost and earned value reporting.

IT Project Management: Seminar ...

Upcoming IT project management seminar ...

IT Project Management: Seminar: Via Bahrain News Agency: Aado to discuss it project management ...

... "The Arab Administrative Development Organization (AADO) is on the 20th of November to host a seminar on management and approaches to managing information technology (IT) projects in Cairo with participation of figures from 15 Arab states. " ...

Project Management Lessons from Desert Storm

All political issues and propaganda aside, few can argue that, as a project, the original multinational Iraq invasion in 1991 (Desert Storm), was expertly planned and brilliantly executed. Max Wideman makes this case on his Max's Musings site where he astutely compares the events to general project management.

Most importantly, the success (political and otherwise) of that initiative was due in large part to the strong strategic alliances behind it.

Wideman's article also supports my claims that speed is more important than cost, and success is more important than speed. He points out that this was a project with no budget constraints, yet because it was executed quickly and effectively, it was extremely cost efficient.

The full article is below...

Max's Musings - Project Lessons Learned?

IT Governance: Avoid Unintended Consequences ...

Avoid these unintended consequences of IT governance: Inefficiency and increased risks ...

IT Governance: Avoid Unintended Consequences: Via InformIT: IT Governance: Toward a Unified Framework Linked to and Driven by Corporate Governance ...

... "The operational reality in many of today's organizations is that IT governance is conducted as an unaligned set of activities based on a mix of competing micro-theories, the unintended consequence of which is the creation of the very inefficiencies and risk exposures that governance mechanisms are intended to address. " ...

Project Management Presentations; The Perils of Powerpoint

Anyone who's attended one of Edward Tufte's seminars has heard about Peter Norvig's biting satire of Powerpoint (Tufte loves to cite this example). As Tufte points out, Powerpoint is all too often used as a crutch for presentations (instead of being used more effectively as a prop).

Norvig makes the case by showing what it would have been like if Abraham Lincoln had used Powerpoint for the Gettysburg Address.

Here's the presentation...

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

And here's the real text of the Gettysburg Address.

And for some interesting background, here's Norvig's writeup on the making of the presentation.

Managing Web Design Projects; Top Ten Mistakes

Here's a great list of the top ten mistakes project managers (and web designers) make when leading web design efforts.

Although this list is from 1997, it still holds true today. From having managed several web development efforts, I can say that these items are right on.

Some of the points apply to almost any kind of project (for instance, confusing marketing studies with usability studies -- the latter is necessary for proper design and to clarify requirements).

Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management (Alertbox June 1997)

Project Management : Dealing with Stress ...

Project management priciples provide means to handle stress. ...

Via Project Management Source: Handling PM Stress

... "the principles of project management present a solution to handling stress at work and in our day-to-day life ... " ...

Project Management Software Conference: Primavera ...

Project Management Software Conference: Primavera: More than 40 Partners To Exhibit at Primavera Annual Conference: Via Primavera, Project and Portfolio Management

... "Primavera Systems, Inc., announced that 41 of its partners will exhibit at the company's 22 nd Annual Conference taking place November 13-16 at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The event, one of the largest of its kind, expects approximately 1,500 attendees, and is a major educational forum for individuals involved in project, portfolio and resource management. " ...

Primavera is the largest independent provider of collaborative resource, project and portfolio management solutions. Primavera's world-class software and services are used by Global 2000 companies to choose the set of projects that best enable their strategy to plan, control and govern the chosen projects, and to accelerate the delivery of high-quality results for themselves and their clients.

Project Managers: Sole IT Survivors ...

David Berlind stands by his prediction of the shrinking information technology department. ...

Project Managers: Sole IT Survivors: Via ZDnet: Long live the CIO, but kiss the IT dept. goodbye ...

... "By 2010, the majority of IT will be outsourced and the companies that outsource their IT will have a skeleton staff of IT and project management professionals ... " ...

IT Strategy: Integrate Mobile Technology and Workforce Mobility ...

Nokia offers advice on strengthening IT strategy by enabling workforce mobility through integrated mobile technology. ...

Via Nokia: Nokia identifies five phases of workforce mobility to help companies gauge and guide their use of mobile technology: Key stages help companies measure the value of their own approach to mobile technology and outline the building blocks necessary for a successful strategy ...

... "The five stages start from an organization's idea of mobile technology and the integration of mobility into an overall IT strategy, and play out the course of mobile technology to the point where the way business is done is forever changed. That shift is still ahead, but in between the two extremes lay several phases many companies can identify with now - from starting to mobilize workers as more of a matter of convenience, to taking the notion of mobility for granted and focusing on increased productivity. Integral to getting the most from mobile technology are several building blocks Nokia has identified that companies should keep in mind when developing and implementing a mobile strategy. These pieces consist of much of the same components that make up any IT strategy, including leveraging existing assets and infrastructure, addressing diverse user needs, and ensuring security, scalability and support is in place. " ...

Project Management News; Mercury Future Uncertain

Check out the latest article in IT Toolbox on how things are going with Merury Interactive, since their CEO resigned. As reported in the article, Mercury will try to avoid a NASDAQ delisting when it meets with the organization on November 15th. But still, it's stock has plummeted, and the company is now ripe for acquisition.

PM News: Mercury Falling?

When Good Projects Go Bad; How to Kill a Runaway Project

Ever have a project where the organizational, political, or external environment changes and suddenly the project doesn't seem to offer the benefits it initially promised? How about a project that ends up consuming resources like a mobile home eats gas, as problem after problem occurs?

Or one that keeps growing like the Blob (remember the old Steve McQueen movie? - OK, I'm dating myself).

Clearly, these are projects that we should seriously consider killing at the nearest stage gate meeting. It just doesn't pay to keep throwing good money after bad.

This article from the Sydney Morning Herald talks about when and how to "put an IT project out of its misery." Well worth reading...


Killing IT softly - Management Focus - Technology - smh.com.au

Project Management Jobs

Looking for a job in project management?

Post your resume for free on the Project Management Institute (PMI)'s website.
Browse jobs by state, province, or industry without logging in!
The site has about 3,700 resumes, 200 job openings and over 4,000 registered employers that search the site.
There are also career links, tips and tools.

Happy hunting!
Go to Link

Source: Nov 2005 edition of PM Network (PMI's mag)

Innovation is Everyone's Business ...

Business innovation does not come naturally in large organizations and is a key ingredient companies are searching for to create and sustain growth in their markets. Fred Smith, CEO Fedex, offers insights on business innovation and the responsibility of the workforce. This responsibility must be nurtured until it become a norm or core value of the enterprise. ...

Innovation is Everyone's Business: Via Business Innovation 2005: Interview with Frederick W. Smith: Innovation and business excellence at FedEx ...

... "Frederick W. Smith: Everyone in the company is responsible for innovation, though executive management must encourage innovation, reward it and measure it to determine success. We strive to have a culture where each member of the team feels free to advance good ideas for improvement. " ...

Microsoft Gates Ozzie Memo: Project Management Services ...

Microsoft Gates Ozzie Memo: Project Management Services: Via InfoWorld: Gates/Ozzie Memos-full text ...

... "Innovations abound from small developers ? from RAD frameworks to lightweight project management services and solutions. Many startups treat the ?raw? internet as their platform. At the grassroots level, such projects actively use standards such as vCards and iCal for sharing contacts and calendars. Most all use RSS in one way or another for data sharing. " ...

Project Management Software Learns from Success and Failure ...

Project Management Software Learns from Success and Failure : Via Ferret: CSIRO's Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology (CMIT): Minimising risk in engineering projects

... "A TEAM of scientists from CSIRO's Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology (CMIT) has invented project management software that learns from previous project successes and failures. " ...

CSIRO is Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. As one of the world's largest and most diverse scientific global research organisations, CSIRO's work touches every aspect of Australian life: from the molecules that build life to the molecules in space.

PMP 2005 Exam Information & PMBOK 3rd Edition Changes

If you haven't already heard, the exam to become a Project Management Professional changed in 2005. It is based on the new Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 3rd Edition).

According to the link below, the passing score is now 81.7%, the number of processes increased from 39 to 44, process flow diagrams were added, there were several changes to existing processes and even more has changed (not to mention, the book is just BIGGER!).

For more info about what's new in the 3rd addition see: Link

IT Governance: Manage IT Like A Business: Transparency ...

Tideway Systems sponsors research that shows operational efficiency is still the strongest business driver of information technology in the banking sector. There is a fair amount of diversity in approach to managing IT like a business and adopting the various best practice frameworks, like ITIL. ...

IT Governance: Manage IT Like A Business: Transparency: Via Tideway Systems: Confusion Remains While Compliance Remains ...

... "Due to the intrinsic role that technology is playing in financial services the need for effective IT governance, measurability, accountability and simultaneously cost savings, have become critical. Compliance pressures on the financial services sector have served to accelerate the focus on governance capabilities within the IT department, but have not addressed the fundamental need for a fully transparent, holistic view of the IT organisation that will allow IT to achieve the ultimate goal of managing itself like a business. A variety of best practice guidelines, including the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and COBIT (often applied to Sarbanes Oxley compliance), provide frameworks for how this is to be achieved, but the major incentives driving most projects still remain the need to achieve cost savings and provide cost transparency. " ...

UDDI for SOA: Govern Service Oriented Architecture ...

Flashline offers interesting solution for management of UDDI for SOA to enable more orchestrated process of governance for service architecture. ...

UDDI for SOA: Govern Service Oriented Architecture: Via Flashline: Flashline Offers $50,000 Credit to UDDI Registry Customers

... "Flashline has extensive experience deploying strategic enterprise SOA with Fortune 500 companies and Federal agencies who have documented annual returns in the millions of dollars. Where UDDI is in use, the majority use it for Web service discovery at runtime. They have found that UDDI presents limitations for enterprise SOA, however, because it provides no support for managing or governing services during three key stages of SOA implementation: plan-time, design-time and deploy-time. In addition, standalone programs centered on UDDI registries force enterprises to manage Web services apart from the other software assets and architecture necessary for SOA success. This isolation inhibits the ability to perform impact analysis and increases complexity as Web services and supporting artifacts proliferate. " ...

IT Governance: BoundaryLess IT: Leadership ...

What can a boundary-less IT organization create? Susan Cramm explores involving the information technology workforce and all its leadership to drive alignment and create a boundaryless organization. ...

IT Governance: BoundaryLess IT: Leadership: Via CIO: Leadership at All Levels ...

... "For enterprise integration to be realized, IT governance structures must be in place; for IT efficiencies to be realized, shared services organizations should operate like external service providers and treat the mini-CIOs as customers. " ...

IT Governance: CA Enables Optimized Resource Management: Clarity ...

CA provides improvements to Clarity IT governance software that enable optimized resource management. ...

IT Governance: CA Enables Optimized Resource Management: Clarity: Via Computer Associates: CA Delivers Enhancements to its Clarity IT Governance Solution, Enabling World-Class IT Performance

... "To be effective, IT organizations must be able to quickly and appropriately allocate the right resources to the right projects. Clarity now allows this optimized allocation process to be performed dynamically - even as project plans and schedules are being changed - by empowering resource managers to shift resources based on evolving requirements. Clarity also now supports withholding certain functionality (such as access to project documents and time recording) from resources until they are formally assigned to a project, enabling greater process control. In addition, Clarity's enhanced organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and reporting structure filtering ease the complexity associated with juggling demand across teams. IT department managers can use a variety of powerful resource analysis screens to zoom in on the capacity and demand for the specific needs of a particular part of their organization, for a certain line manager, and for custom groupings such as application area, customer or project type. " ...

Clarity, the industry-leading IT Governance solution, enables IT organizations to achieve world-class performance by improving the quality of their engagement with the business and enhancing their ability to run at peak efficiency. The Clarity system features integrated portfolio planning, demand management, project management, resource planning, and time and cost management. More than 425,000 users at 425 companies depend on Clarity to govern IT and, increasingly, to manage new product development. The Clarity Division (formerly Niku) is part of CA's Business Service Optimization (BSO) unit, which offers leading systems for service, asset and change management and provides a comprehensive framework for delivery of world-class IT services.

Is IT Strategy Harmful?

Here's an article from CIO Magazine that suggests that IT strategic planning can actually be detrimental, if implemented purely as an annual process. That's because by the time projects are reviewed, the strategy is often no longer valid, so the wrong projects get approved.

Instead, the article suggests that strategic planning and alignment should be an ongoing, dynamic process--not only looking at corporate strategy, but the business units' strategies as well.

Here's the full article...

IT Strategy - Beneath the Buzz - Leadership RC - CIO

PMI Delaware Valley Tools Conference

An interesting morning on Saturday at Valley Forge for the Delaware Valley Chapter 2nd annual tools conference. Apart from chatting to a number of interesting people with a variety of project management tales to tell, there were the presentations.
Ken Barnhart gave the keynote address. His opening story about planning and executing an attack through a minefield against vastly superior numbers and with a number of strategic constraints during the first Gulf War gave a real world perspective to the phrase 'mission critical'.
One of his views that really resonated was dislike of the need for heroics. When the heroes are doing their stuff - commandeering resources, breaking rules, ignoring risk management - the rest of the organisation has to suffer all the disruption and clean up afterwards. The overall theme was 'Value Recovery' with a strong emphasis on doing the work that adds the most value.
And then there was the closing quote 'the man who says he can - and the man who says he can't - they're both right'. Deeep!
For the tools presentations, one could choose three out of seven presentations. The Planisware, Primavera and Microsoft Project (by Ken Barnhart) sessions were all interesting and well presented. Eventually one was left with a sense of deja vu.

ITIL Incident Management PostMortem ...

Continuous improvement in ITIL service management can be enabled through a strong post-mortem process. Brian Corrington, Codesic, explores the importance of using post-mortems to improve IT service levels. ...

ITIL Incident Management PostMortem: Via CIOUpdate: Anatomy of a Major Incident Postmortem

... "A well designed postmortem process can be used to develop comprehensive IT action plans and serve as a powerful building block in launching an overall service improvement program, which may also involve implementation of a best practice framework such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). " ...

Project Management Joke of the Day

For a humorous project management version of the Book of Genesis, check out the link below. You will not be disappointed...

GENESIS :: Short Jokes > Jokes_006 > GENESIS

Projects and Other Work; The Case for the Projectized Organization

There's a good post in Project Arena's PPM Today blog about the "project concept"; in other words, the concept of projectizing your work.

Like Tom Peters has suggested in several of his recent books, Demian Entrekien's blog makes the case that "other work" should ideally be made part of a program, where practically all work in an organization is part of a project or program. This certainly makes Project Portfolio Management (PPM) the heart of running your organization and is worthy of consideration.

This is also consistent with some of our posts (and those of Garry Booker at Project Frontier), where all operational work is driven by deliverables and viewed as part of the organization's total portfolio.

Here's the full blog entry...

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Today

Project Management Event: Pitch Brilliant Idea ...

Project Management Event: Pitch Brilliant Idea: Business calendar: Via PittsburghLIVE.com

... "Project Management Institute, Pittsburgh Chapter -- 5 to 8 p.m., Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania, 337 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Audrey J. Murrell, University of Pittsburgh's Katz School of Business, will present How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea and Laura Reilly, St. Clair Hospital, will present Evolution of the Hospital Pharmacy. Attendance to the presentations are free, 6 p.m. dinner is $25. " ...

Project Management Event: Business Development ...

Project Management Event: Business Development: Green Bay Press-Gazette - Upcoming meetings and seminars ...

... "Project Management Institute-Northeast Wisconsin Chapter meeting: 5:30 p.m. social at Rock Garden/Comfort Suites, 1951 Bond St., Howard. Ginger Levin, UW-Platteville, discusses the link between business development and project management. " ...

Project Management Certification: Global Recognition ...

Project manager certifications are gaining global interest. Ho Siew Yee explores the project management certification strategy at Kompakar, where a major investment in its project managers is expected to increase brand value, name recognition, and global status. ...

Project Management Certification: Global Recognition: Via Business Times: Kompakar raises spending to certify project managers ...

... "By year-end, all Kompakar project managers being deployed will be internationally-recognised project management professionals who will undertake large-scale overseas projects. " ...

Project Manager Certification: Info Session ...

Project Manager Certification: Info Session: Via TimesDispatch.com: METRO BUSINESS CALENDAR

... "Wednesday, Nov. 16: Virginia Tech Richmond Center offers an informational session on Project Management Certification, 6 p.m., 2810 N. Parham Road, Suite 300. " ...

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap ...

Measuring the performance of IT governance, the project management office (PMO), and individual projects is critical to understanding your current capability and to chart a future course of action. Shashwat Singhal explores the IT governance roadmap and the use of an IT balanced scorecard (BSC) to ensure that decisions are made in the interests of shareholders. ...

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap: Via Express Computer: Implementing IT governance ...

... "The IT balanced scorecard is an important mechanism for managing and aligning IT. Therefore, step 11 of the implementation road map refers to the establishment of an IT balanced scorecard. " ...

ITIL Best Practice: Change Calendar: Peregrine ...

Peregrine Systems has introduced a new Change Calendar capability to its ITIL-compliant service management solution, ServiceCenter 6.1. This new capability provides a calendaring solution that enables better organizational change planning. ...

ITIL Best Practice: Change Calendar: Peregrine: Via Peregrine: Peregrine Streamlines Change Management Process with Change Calendar for ServiceCenter® 6.1 ...

... "Peregrine will demonstrate Change Calendar during a Webcast on November 8, 2005 from 9:00-10:00am PT. During the Webcast, customers will be able to view key features and benefits that include: actionable read and write capabilities, allowing accurate information sharing; intuitive graphical user interface, empowering users to easily share schedules; and default and customizable fields, enabling users to track unique operational information. Peregrine's Change Calendar also meets well-defined ITIL best-practices. " ...