By Robert D. Anderson, CPA
An article by Adam Bookman provides an interesting perspective on why about 68% of IT projects fail to deliver the original desired benefits. He quotes from a study done by the Standish Group that identifies three primary reasons:
1. The initiative was outsourced to IT and not owned by the business
2. The right tool drives success
3. Best Practices represent the best starting place
Looking back over 20 years in the Accounting and Finance role at major US firms and another 14 years consulting with large international companies, these findings agree with my observations. The most successful initiatives have always been the ones where people in the direct operational area take full ownership and IT plays a supporting rule. The worst initiatives have been the ones solely driven by IT with no business buy in. Read the rest of this entry »
Since January, Project Partners consultants, both in the US and in India, have had the privilege of working on-site with Oracle to test the Fusion Applications. An absolute win-win situation for everyone involved. It is our chance to see the live product in action, to test, test and test again to insure quality and to get hands-on experience and training using the best-of-the-best in Projects Applications. In exchange, Oracle receives a tremendous amount of feature validation, field expertise, and knowledge from those of us who live and breathe the world of Projects every day. This early look at the product before all the code is frozen helps guarantee the quality release we have all been waiting for.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Robert D. Anderson, CPA
During the last two years, Project Partners has been approached by several firms who run Oracle Order Management and now want to implement Oracle E-Business Suite Projects applications to provide a project-level profit and loss view, as well as contract and client profitability across the firm. Generally this request is happening at the same time the firm is undergoing massive growth and management wants it done quickly so they can get a handle on the growth that is happening and make sure it is profitable or identify problem areas quickly so action can be taken to prevent serious impact to the overall business.
The Oracle E-Business Suite Project Management module (PJT) does not create transactions but provides several tools to allow the tracking of financial transactions that are happening in the Project Costing and Project Billing applications. In addition, it offers both direct tracking in the tool and integration with project management tools, such as Microsoft Project Standard Edition and Primavera P6, as well as an open interface to interact with other similar management and scheduling tools in the market. Since the financial, resource and schedule information all resides in Oracle, the ability to leverage Key Performance Indicators and grouping them into Key Performance Areas, progress tracking and status reporting all combine to offer a strong tool to present the exceptions out of large volumes of data so the firm can take appropriate action at an early stage in the work. Read the rest of this entry »
By Tamim Kulaly, PMP
The first important question is “why do projects fail?” There could be several reasons:
- Project over run – The project takes longer than planned
- Cost over run – Executing the project cost more than budgeted
- Underperformance – The project team did not deliver the goals of the project
- Plan too optimistic – Evidencing a lack of understanding of true scope of the project
- Scope creep – The scope of the project increased but plans and budgets were not revised accordingly
- Other – Sometimes things go wrong due to lack of appropriate resources or equipment failure or bad weather or other unpleasant surprises.
To avoid the downfalls of project failures, project centric organizations should look into Risk Analysis products to minimize project risks. Oracle’s Primavera Risk Analysis is a full lifecycle risk analytics solution integrating cost and schedule risk management. Users will have an objective view of required contingency to account for cost and schedule uncertainty as well as analyzing the cost effectiveness of risk response plans. Read the rest of this entry »
Join Project Partners and Oracle Corporation on Wednesday, February 24 for a free, live webinar to learn about Oracle’s Application Integration Architecture (AIA) solution for integrating Oracle Primavera and Oracle E-Business Suite applications. You’ll gain valuable information about how this solution will help their organization bring E-Business Suite and Primavera silos together. Read the rest of this entry »
By Tamim Kulaly, PMP
Oracle’s Primavera Portfolio Management (formerly Prosight) is a leading Project Portfolio Management application that is very intuitive and utilizes a 100% web interface. Using Portfolio Management’s top-down approach, clients are able to manage their business objectives and rank their investments prior to selecting them. In terms of processes defined in PMBOK, the main focus of the tool is to provide users better control in the two major aspects of a project life cycle: the Planning phase (propose initiatives, clarify objectives, and prioritize/select investments) and the Controlling phase (track performance, review portfolio and adjust course). Read the rest of this entry »
Project Partners LLC invites you to the
Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Virtual Summit
January 20, 2010
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET / 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. PT Read the rest of this entry »
Project Partners has been delivering integration between Primavera and Oracle E-Business Suite Projects applications since 1998. We’re excited that Oracle has released its own integration between these project management applications, and pleased to provide a high level, introductory overview in this article. You will find more detail in future blogs on this topic. Read the rest of this entry »
Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management – New Release
Oracle released a new version of the existing popular product P6 EPPM. Surprisingly, this new release is still called P6 but it has a revised release number v7. The new product is called “Oracle Primavera P6 v7 EPPM”. Many organizations would like to know what new features are added and bug fixes incorporated. I will try to discuss a few main enhancements and your IT/PMO teams can review and determine if your organization is ready upgrade to this release.
Improvements:
- Open Enterprise Architecture
- Event-Driven Architecture: Developers can now utilize this new feature to write “event-driven” triggers and build integration to any product. Project Managers can get notification on their PDA, iPhones or Outlook; external workflow can be initiated or dashboards can be updated based on any event.
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – In the past, clients either used Primavera SDK or APIs to build integration to other ERP or legacy systems. With the new improved SOA model and Primavera Web Services there are additional options because of the open architecture for building integration between P6 v7 and other products.
- Sharepoint Integration: MS SharePoint integration enables plug’n’play interoperability.
Read the rest of this entry »
Gartner’s February 2008 report “PMOs: One Size Does Not Fit All” found that there are very high rates of failure when setting up a PMO. Success or failure depends largely upon two aspects:
- How closely the PMO’s mission and objectives are linked to the real needs of the organization, and
- How well the role of the PMO is matched to the maturity of the organization.
As Project Partners has written in prior whitepapers and presentations (See Return on Investment – Building the Business Case for Project Portfolio Management and Return on Investment – Building the Business Case for Professional Services Automation), you should not attempt to become a Level 5 organization immediately – you need to evolve.
Benchmarking your organization’s maturity
As we have stated in the whitepapers referenced above, and as Gartner states in their 2008 report, the key to setting up a successful PMO is to first understand where your organization fits in the “Maturity Model” and then to organize a PMO structure that fits in your organization’s maturity model. The main goal should be to continuously maturing your organization’s PMO, moving up the scale from Level 0 to Level 5. The optimum level of maturity is recognized as being the level that delivers your organization’s strategic objectives most effectively and efficiently, and for many organizations that does not necessarily imply you must reach Level 5.
Gartner PPM
Maturity Model |
Level 0: Nonexistent – ad hoc |
Level 1: Initial – reactive |
Level 2: Developing –emerging discipline |
Level 3: Defined –initial integration |
Level 4: Managed –increasing efficiency |
Level 5: Optimized –enterprise-orientation |
| People |
Staff assigned to projects on a first available basis. PPM activity limited to interests and actions of Individual managers. |
Priority projects get appropriate staffing: everything else is “first available.” Nascent PPM leader role – primarily still an individual manager focus. |
PMO(s) established. Programs increasingly managed in-house. Project staffing/ resource capacity issues begin to be addressed. |
PPM leader role formalized and Increasing specialization trend beginning. Shared resource pools formalized. |
Network of PPM leaders exist companywide in a federated model. Centers of excellence improve workload management. Capacity planning enabled.
|
PPM leader role formalized and Increasing specialization trend beginning. Shared resource pools formalized. |
| PPM Processes |
Projects are assigned to line or staff managers. No formal PPM processes beyond high-level budgeting, except as provided by outside vendors. |
All internal processes centered on management of critical projects. Vendors are often responsible for large initiatives. |
Project processes in place. PMO(s) organized. Emerging Understanding of PPM. Risk now reviewed. |
PPM function established. Projects are approved on a portfolio basis. Enterprise architecture (EA) functions involved. |
Similar projects managed as Programs. Portfolio is actively maintained. |
Portfolio extended beyond IT. Comprehensive PMO. Pipeline managed in real time.
|
| Technology |
Intermittent use of project schedulers, spreadsheets and other point tools on a “by project” basis. |
Project scheduling tools and milestone reporting adopted. |
Project collaboration and team workspaces supported. |
Portfolio tool is in place. Reporting dashboards |
Workflow added to toolset. Business users adopt tools as useful. |
Single, integrated system supports reporting, Collaboration and analysis.
|
Financial
Management |
Projects done without formal cost, benefit or risk valuation. |
Projects have budgetary estimates, Actual cost can be estimated. Some benefit statements. |
Project cost and labor hours captured. Estimate of benefit made for each project. |
Costs are captured and forecast. Benefits are identified and related to strategy in the portfolio. |
The portfolio is modeled and Appropriately optimized, factoring in risk. Benefit realization is tracked. |
Programs have their own financial resources, and full life cycle. Costing is available. |
| Typical Tasks Performed |
- Task Lists
- Project List
- Isolated High-Level Scheduling
|
- Task Lists
- Project List
- Remedial Collaboration
- Isolated High-Level Scheduling
- Multiple Manual Status Reports
|
- Time Tracking
- Expense Capture
- Disconnected Project Mgt.
- High-level Resource Allocation
- Skills Management
|
- Multi Project Collaboration (doc mgt./work flow)
- Project Template
- Static Portfolio
(Dashboards, Benefits, High-Level alignment)
|
- Integrated Project Management (risk & scheduling)
- Actuals performance monitoring
- Weighted estimation
|
- Dynamic ROI
- Portfolio Optimization
- Soft Metrics
- Stage gate performance
- Integrated alignment
|
| PMO Structures Mapped to Maturity Levels |
Individuals
|
Project Support
Office
|
Project Management Office |
Portfolio Office,
Centers of Excellence,
Best-Practice Councils |
Federated
PMO
Program Offices |
Enterprise
Program
Management
Office |
PMOs: One Size Does Not Fit All Feb 2008, Gartner Inc. http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/computerassociates/143645.html#1_0<!–%20entry%20label%203–>
How can you improve Organization/PMO maturity?
- Establish a vision. In order to know whether or not your efforts are successful, you must be able to articulate what will be different about your organization after you’ve launched the PMO
- Process. Adopt project management methodology, institutionalize its use within your organization, assign owners for every process, and use it and improve upon it continuously.
- PPM software. Introduce PPM software which enables more efficient and effective project, program and portfolio management delivery and support processes
- People Power. Expand project managers’ communications and interpersonal skills.
- End Result Driven. Encourage project manager certification, but manage, appraise, and promote based upon the end results achieved by project managers.
- Management Buy-In and Support. Strengthen involvement and support by executives and the leadership team by giving them what they need in order to be engaged, make effective decisions, and appreciate and support the project management maturity needs of the organization. Often this can be achieved via executive-level PPM software reports and/or dashboards.
- Project Planning/Execution. Developing effective and detailed plans at the beginning of the project; execute the project according to plan established.
-
Reporting. What is not reported is not measured. Use scorecards and dashboards to keep everyone informed and involved.
Where does your organization fit in the maturity model?
In order to know what the focus of your PMO should be, you need to first conduct an honest assessment to determine where your organization presently fits in the maturity model.
