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One important decision you will need to make when setting up a PMO or transforming your project management practice is selecting the right technology. With your people and processes in place, the technology solution is the critical third leg of the stool. Too often we see organizations fail at the implementation of project management toolsets because they didn’t ask the right questions first.
Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) is a broad term that encompasses the disciplines and technologies that facilitate best practices in work management, project management, program and portfolio management, resource management, and strategy. With an average experience level of 20+ years, the team at Sensei specializes in PPM best practices and the technology that supports it. We understand the considerations that go into making great choices in this realm.
These are the questions you should ask to ensure a successful foundation for your PPM initiative.
This is a very basic question that everyone should ask themselves first. Has your organization determined your needs adequately to be able to select a solution in the PPM space? Are you able to define and discuss your business needs with all the stakeholders that are accountable for the delivery of projects/programs/portfolios in your organization? Have you considered the technology standards that your IT department is working to maintain? We suggest you do a capabilities mapping to compare your business needs with the features of the proposed PPM solution.
Related: Download Sensei’s “PPM Maturity Roadmap – Self-Assessment”
Are you choosing a PPM solution mainly because of its simplicity? If so, will your organization grow out of it? It’s important to choose a PPM solution that will not become obsolete with your growth in maturity. Think about it like this: 1) Start where you are today with simple solutions that can be implemented quickly. Ease of use and adoption are important, but make sure you can turn features on and off. 2) Adjust the features to suit your evolving project needs by supporting different enterprise project types. For example, if certain projects don’t require status reports, turn that feature off. 3) Turn on advanced capabilities when your teams are ready. As your teams’ maturity grows, you can enhance their project management processes, even if you started out with only a few simple ones.
Can you tailor the PPM solution to your processes, or do you have to tailor your processes to the PPM solution? For example, perhaps your company calls a project sponsor the project “champion.” Can you easily make basic changes like that in the tool and in the reports? What if you have a specific process flow for project approvals? Is it easy to change the approval flow and the approvers’ names or roles? Are you able to do your own changes within the solution? Do you need special skills to update reports and workflows? Our clients tend to favor the new platform approach from Microsoft with its ease-of-use and the no-code / low-code capabilities of the Power Platform. Imagine if you had to rewire your house every time you wanted to turn the lights on? Wouldn’t you rather just flip a switch? Ask to see those switches in your PPM product.
This is a big concern these days, as trusting your data to a third-party vendor means accepting the risk that their systems may be compromised. When you are thinking about the security of your PPM data, you will want to know where your data is stored. By storing it inside of your Microsoft 365 tenant, its security has already been vetted by your organization, and you maintain control over the security perimeter of the data through access controls. No one invests more in data security than Microsoft. Having your PPM solution inside of your Microsoft 365 tenant includes the added benefits of single sign-on through Azure Active Directory (now Microsoft Entra ID).
Related: Recorded Demo: Project & Portfolio Management in M365
If your PPM solution is a one-time install without the capability to accept new updates, will you find yourself locked into that feature set without the ability to access current or updated functionality? Will you be waiting on prioritization from the vendor that can take years? Technology is advancing too quickly to be stuck in a solution without frequent updates. Consider how Artificial Intelligence can help Project Managers be more efficient and productive. Would you be missing out on this boost to worker productivity if you chose the wrong platform?
It’s important to understand what your PPM partner is offering. Is this a turn-key product that has standard functionality available to various markets? Or is this a service that builds a one-off solution that may or may not be able to produce consistent results, and may or may not be sufficiently documented? Why is this important? A product that is mature in the market will have been better tested and will have references across many industries. A service may be a custom prototype that may not have repeatable results or the ability to scale without significant additional cost.
Implementing a PPM solution goes hand in hand with implementing best practices, and there is no better way to deploy a PPM solution than pairing that deployment with on-demand training covering all aspects of process and procedure. We want best practices to become muscle memory for our teams, and having training for the skills is essential in that process.
PPM solutions can cover a large amount of behavior for a large population of people, from team members and project managers to resource managers, portfolio managers and administrators. Each group will need dedicated material to understand and reinforce their best practices.
While many organizations have made the move to all on-demand training, some organizations prefer instructor-led classes for their teams, building shared experiences and getting access to subject matter expertise for interactive question and answers. Does the PPM partner provide this training?
At Sensei, we’re big believers in Microsoft’s Platform for PPM approach. It’s a differentiator for Microsoft, it benefits clients, and it enables partners like Sensei to provide value-add solutions. The goal is to provide visibility into all the work that an organization is performing, regardless of the work management tool the individual teams are using. This enables a single source of truth, enabled by automated reporting, so that team members can get a clear overview of all work and priorities across projects, and project managers and resource managers can get the control they need to keep everything running smoothly.
Our clients are adopting PPM at a much faster pace than just a few years ago, at a fraction of the cost, and the benefits are accruing value to their stakeholders better than before.
Related: Microsoft’s Platform for PPM – what is it and how does it benefit me?
If a turn-key template PPM solution is right for your organization, be sure to get in touch. We offer our 30-day guarantee, where you pay no subscription fees if we can’t show you a path to success within the first 30 days of deploying Sensei IQ™ into your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Contact us: info@senseiprojectsolutions.com
