This article was what kicked off the Microsoft TechNet “From the Trenches” column which I still write for. It addresses a key question: When deploying an EPM system should you a) make a big bang type of approach to release all designed EPM functionality at once or b) go with a more phased approach. And, if so, why?
Many organizations deploy enterprise systems and many of these deployments generate tremendous efficiencies in the organization. However, some organizations get tempted to deploy more than one enterprise system at the same time and this can lead to a tremendous challenge or even failure of both systems. In some cases, the two systems are pushed into one massive project, in other cases, separate teams pull the company into different directions at the same time. This article looks at the particular challenge of doing more than one enterprise system deployment at a time.
Microsoft maintains a column that I write on TechNet called “From the Trenches. My latest column there is entitled “Creating an EPM Deployment Plan” and discusses the elements of an EPM Deployment that are not just technical. From getting management on board with the original decision making requirements to ensuring that the solution solves the problem it was purchased for, this article opens the door to the many things that need to be considered in deploying an EPM solution.
What is it about EPM System deployments that makes them seem like the appetizer instead of the meal? Are the frequently challenging EPM system projects just the result of a project management ‘eyes too big for the stomach’ syndrome?
All too often project managers working on an EPM deployment get enthralled by their ability to do something and forget to ask “Should I do it?”.
I was working with a large Canadian company recently, helping with their enterprise project management processes. As part of my work, I got to watch while a project control officer prepared a report for the Chief Financial Officer. It was a work of art. First data was grouped together from multiple projects in the desktop version of a popular project management system. That data was copied and then pasted into a massive Excel spreadsheet as…
The quest for a real-time dashboard would seem to be a perfect fit for project management data but there are assumptions that lie beneath the surface of EPM and PPM data that hold numerous challenges when we apply them to real time analysis.
People are always coming to me asking for my help designing a solution they’ve already designed. It’s not their fault of course. Project Management software vendors have become very adept at creating marketing materials that make it look easy to deploy an enterprise project management solution “out-of-the-box” so if you find some solution for a particular problem in the marketing literature, it seems an easy decision to make. Take an example I had recently. A…
Moving to the cloud has nothing to do with the weather. It’s all about moving software into the Internet as a globally-available service. Is it time to do this with EPM systems?