Years ago I wrote an article about how project management required tracking not just planning. It was a time when many organizations used the terms project management and project planning synonymously. In fact many of what we referred to at the time as project management software systems were, in fact Critical Path Methodology calculators which were all about the planned schedule and very little about the actual progress. It’s almost 15 years later but it…
Services are a key factor in the success of project management software vendors. With the trend towards certification how will clients know who has the skills they require? I thought I’d spend some time talking about one of the most significant elements of technology deployment in the project management sector – services. With numerous project management software vendors, the revenue from services outweighs the revenue from software sales. Perhaps that’s a good thing. After all,…
I’m a child of the 60s. Born in 1958, I was 8 years old when the original Batman TV series came on the air in 1966 and only 10 when it wound up in 1968. It lasted a 120 episodes but the impression it made lasts to this day. In the world of Adam West and Burt Ward who played Batman and Robin, there was a ‘bat’ solution to everything. No matter what the problem,…
It’s the hot button lately in project management circles. How can teams collaborate? It’s not idle chatter. It’s been apparent for a long time that a project manager’s role is not just calculating a schedule from his hidden laboratory deep in the bowels of the organization. Now a project manager is expected to spend the vast majority of his or her time working with others. They may be negotiating with the clients or recruiting new…
EPM Vendors love to target the big enterprise. In some cases, so much attention is put on the hundreds of largest companies in the world that the hundreds of thousands of mid-market companies are ignored. This article takes a look at what kinds of tools and systems haven’t left the mid-market organization behind.
There’s lots of talk lately about the project management maturity model but this principle can also be applied to project management systems and software. This article looks at how an organization’s use of project management systems matures over time and how it follows a common pattern in most organizations.
Are you baselining? I know, it sounds like some drug-related crime, doesn’t it? It’s actually one of the most fundamental aspects of modern project management and a stunning percentage of project managers don’t do it. So this month I thought I’d dedicate the column to the elusive art of baselining. So, what’s a baseline? First of all, what is a baseline? Everyone agrees it’s a snapshot of your project which is frozen now for use…
We tend to talk about project management systems as an end unto themselves but what help is there for automating or improving project manager’s soft skills? There’s lots. From training to aids and enablement systems, project managers should be aware of what can help them be a good leader, a good negotiator, a good collaborator and a good communicator.
So many people approach me to ask if the EPM system they saw in some demonstration last week will fix their enterprise project management challenges. “Do you have a PMO?” I always ask. The challenge of implementing an EPM system successfully comes with some presumed prerequisites. I’ve listed several in this article.
Purchasing is such a routine of process and procedures in each organization that the effects of the process are rarely challenged. Well, we do so in this article on how standard purchasing practices are applied to the selection of enterprise project management software.