Are We There Yet?

The Portfolio Manager needs a clear line of sight to everything. This has to start with being able to see everything of interest at once and having the ability to drill into anything at will. In P3M Engine, that starts with the ad-hoc Portfolio view of projects. This is distinguished from an investment portfolio, which is defined as part of investment management processes. You can add any project you want to an ad-hoc portfolio and then name it and save it for quick reference later. From the portfolio (saved or not), you can see a list of all projects it contains, with relevant information for each project. You can drill into each project to see the details. That context makes the portfolio view a convenient starting point, or work hub, for the Portfolio Manager. From the Monitoring and Controlling screen, every dashboard and chart that you normally see for a project, will display data for the entire portfolio that is selected. So, for example, if you want to know the average time it takes to resolve high and critical issues across the portfolio, you have an answer. If you want to know the total accumulated cost of all approved change requests across the portfolio, you have an answer. If you want to compare the health and performance of all projects in a portfolio but are not sure if all Project Managers manage health the same way, never fear. P3M Engine is here. Health flag rules can be defined by your organization. They are standardized across the organization. They can even be configured to set automatically, taking that decision out of the hands of the project manager. Under these conditions, health flags are guaranteed to be consistent across all projects, for all portfolios. Whether your most important need is to have broad, deep, and flexible visibility or to have consistency that allows you to compare projects across a portfolio, P3M Engine has you covered. For more information see https://www.p3mengine.com .

Department Heads need to ensure everything is running smoothly and efficiently. They cannot afford any wasted motion or cost. The most vulnerable aspect of complex program management to this wasted motion is the planning. Fortunately, P3M Engine does a very nice job of fixing this problem. The larger and more complex that projects and programs get, the more critical it is to be very organized and plan well. The cornerstone of that planning is the PMP (Program/Project Management Plan). The PMP needs to be very comprehensive and cover every aspect of project or program governance. This will include a subplan that addresses each knowledge area of PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge). I have seen PMPs take as long as four months to define, as program managers seek out necessary requirements, priorities, and guidance from multiple stakeholders and then go through a procession of approval processes. It is painful to a Department Head to watch the budget and time bleed away like that. P3M Engine comes with a default PMP, including a sub-plan for each knowledge area, that is tailored to the processes and features embedded in P3M Engine. So, the default PMP is highly effective right out of the box. But clients can configure every element of the PMP as they want. Since the PMP drives system behavior, configuring the PMP declares policy and governance, and at the same time makes it happen. P3M Engine supports multi-layered configurability. So, every part of the organization can configure independently. This is how it works. The organization starts with P3M Engine’s default PMP. They will configure it to define the organization’s governance and standards. If the organization allows it, each PMO in the organization can then modify the organization standard PMP to suit their PMO governance and standards. In turn, if the PMO allows it, programs can modify the PMO PMP to suit their governance and standards. Modifying an existing PMP takes a fraction of the time that preparing a PMP from scratch would take. You have all the benefit of the time and thought that went into configuring the level above you. And the level above you had the benefit of the years of experience that went into defining the default PMP. As a result, all projects and programs save time, effort, and cost as they are planned. They also operate more efficiently and effectively since their planning leverages years of expertise and the P3M Engine PMP forces operations to execute as governed. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

I can remember preparing project status reports manually. It took a couple hours to collect information and copy and paste it into a status report. Then you had to adjust the formatting so it would look good. If you were lucky, you only had one report to do. I have had as many as five stakeholders, each with a different status report format they wanted. Fortunately, project managers do not face that anymore if they have a tool like P3M Engine they can use. P3M Engine provides several ways to reduce the workload on Project Managers and improve the accuracy of status reports. These include: · Automated Data Load · Configurable Content Type · Multiple Stakeholder Support · Configurable Inclusion · Hierarchy Support Automated Data Load – P3M Engine status reports are a combination of quantifiable data that is pulled from the system, and subjective content written by the Project Manager. The system data is automatically loaded to a new status report. The data is unalterable and accurate. The Project Manager is unencumbered by the retrieval of all this system data. Project Managers now do what they should be doing—commenting on the data. Configurable Content Type – Many different types of content can be loaded into a P3M Engine status report. This includes risks, issues, decisions, change requests, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies. Typical information will include data such as title, due date, and health flag. You can configure which content types are included and which are not. If the system finds any included content type to have no relevant records, then the content type is left off the report. Multiple Stakeholder Support – Part of the beauty of having Automated Data Load and Configurable Content Type is that you can now prepare as many different status reports, in differing formats, as you like. Different report formats can be prepared, including any content type in a variety of locations on the report. The Project Manager’s subjective comments are stored in a single location, like the rest of the data. Now you are setup to publish status reports of varying formats with the click of a button. Bring on the stakeholders. Configurable Inclusion – Not everything should be showing up in a status report. For each content type, the Project Manager has the capability to mark what should be reported. For example, the Project Manager may be tracking 20 risks, but only three of them warrant the attention of stakeholders and should appear on a status report. The Project Manager will mark those three risks as visible and only those will appear on the status report. Hierarchy Support – The Project Manager can also mark at what level an item should be visible. So, in the example above, if one of those three visible risks has been escalated and needs to appear in the program status report, the Project Manager can mark it as Program level. In that case it will appear in both the program status report and the project status report. It needs to be visible in both places since it is managed by the project and escalated to the program. P3M Engine tracks this and takes care of it for you. P3M Engine does what a software system is supposed to do. It enables users to execute processes faster and more reliably with less effort and less cost. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

One of the ways to make order out of chaos is to organize. The brain recognizes patterns and can work on something familiar much more effectively than something unfamiliar. P3M Engine does some things to provide familiarity. P3M Engine organizes work according to PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and it provides context for everything. A program manager can readily identify the five PMBOK process groups and leverage them like a checklist to ensure a program is well managed. · Initiating - Essential information is collected and communicated to ensure approval and successful communications. · PMP (Program Management Plan) – The governing structure and operating processes are established. P3M Engine provides a great PMP, by default. It can be modified as needed. · Executing – Everything that must be managed to execute effectively is included in P3M Engine. No need to go elsewhere. · Monitoring and Controlling – Status reporting is very robust. Over 30 charts across all PMBOK knowledge areas are included to monitor operational effectiveness. · Closing – There is even a way to provide feedback, collect lessons learned, and ensure stakeholder acceptance. P3M Engine provides the right context for a program manager. Context is important. Context provides familiarity. It also provides an anchor from which to work. In P3M Engine, everything is displayed for you with context. A program manager can define their program as a portfolio of projects and then view them together on one screen, as a program. From the context of that program, each project within the program can be viewed. Click on it to see a detail screen. From the project detail screen, you can see singular information about the project, such as start date, end date, budget, sponsor, and manager (at the top). You can also see related lists of information (at the bottom), including: · Status Reports · Reviews · Change Requests · Risks · Issues · Action Items · Decisions · Deliverables · Milestones · Dependencies · Resource Allocations · Costs · Communications Plan All of this can be seen from the program details screen as well as the project details screen. So, you can view individual project information and you can view program information. So, for any given project or any given program, you can see all the status reports, all the reviews, all the change requests, etc. From the detail screens for each of these, you will see the same familiar pattern – details at the top and related lists at the bottom. It is all delivered with context. For every communications plan, you will see a list of communications needs. For every communications need, you will see a list of communications events. For every communications event, you can see a list of documents, identified risks, identified issues, action items, and decisions. If every performer, on every project keeps information in P3M Engine, then the program manager can see everything at their convenience instead of being constrained by the availability of project performers to get information. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Status reports are a tried-and-true way for a project team to communicate progress and health of a project to the stakeholders. P3M Engine can generate some powerful, information-packed status reports. But what is a stakeholder to do if they want more information than is in the status report? What if the stakeholder is more hands-on than the typical stakeholder? In P3M Engine, stakeholders can subscribe to specific items like decisions and change requests. That will give them two tools at their disposal. On their Personal Control Panel, they will be able to monitor all items to which they are subscribed. That means they will see the open items in a list, and they can click on them to see details. They will also be notified, by email, of any changes and upon important events in the life of their subscribed items. The combination of subscriptions and the Personal Control Panel provide a tailored way to manage your work. If a stakeholder needs to find something in P3M Engine that is not at their fingertips already, by way of the Personal Control Panel, they can search for it. There are multiple ways to search P3M Engine for the information you need. · System-wide Simple Search · Item-specific Simple Search · Item-specific Advanced Search System-wide Simple Search You can search all item types at once with a simple key word search. For example, you might conduct a simple search on the word ‘count’ and get a list of items including a deliverable to create ac count s, an action item to establish head count , and a change request comment declaring the request to be count er to the architecture plan. Click any item in this list and you will navigate to the detail screen for that item. Item-specific Simple Search If you know what type of item you want, you can go to the right list and search only within that list. The list will be filtered to only the items that match your search. This simple key word search is available on all the lists that can be found on the main menu bar. Item-specific Advanced Search If you need more muscle than a simple keyword search, you can use a more advanced search that lets you search on elements specific to the item type, such as due date. This advanced search is available on all logs. Click the Advanced Search button and the advanced search features will become visible for you. You can add search criteria to any field that is visible. The list filters automatically as you fill in search fields. The top row has a Select Search dropdown box and a button to Save Search. You can save any search criteria you create and then select it from the Select Search dropdown box in the future. Regardless of how you choose to find information and documents, you do not have to search in multiple locations. Simply look in P3M Engine. These capabilities give the stakeholder everything they need to be knowledgeable and effective. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Larger enterprises with robust program and project management operations have two needs that tend to be in opposition to each other. · PMO Flexibility - An enterprise may have multiple PMOs and each PMO may run multiple programs. Each PMO and program should have the flexibility to tailor their governance to their specific environment and needs. To accomplish this, each PMO or program typically needs a different instance of PMIS (Program Management Information System) software. · Enterprise Consistency - It is important to be as consistent as possible across the enterprise so all reporting can roll up to the enterprise and performance comparisons can be made. It is important for PMOs to be able to share information with other PMOs. To accomplish this, you typically place all on a single instance of PMIS software. You cannot have both. If you provide flexibility, you sacrifice consistency. If you enforce consistency, you give up flexibility. But not anymore. P3M Engine has solved that problem. P3M Engine enables each client to tailor P3M Engine behavior through a new concept called Layered Configurability. Through Layered Configurability, each layer of your program and project management organization (enterprise, PMO, programs) can configure P3M Engine and their processes as needed and manage the capability of the downstream layer to configure their processes. This will provide the flexibility of tailored governance and processes wanted by each part of the organization while giving each layer the consistency needed to facilitate cross-communication and upward reporting and analytics. Security and project health configurations are available only at the enterprise level. This will support consistency and communications across the enterprise. The remaining configurations are available at all levels. Over 120 items are configurable in P3M Engine. Here is a summary look. Login and password security is configurable at the enterprise level. Health Rules are configurable at the enterprise level, including: · Scope · Schedule · Cost · Resources · Colors · Issues · Risks · Actions · Decisions · Status Reporting Operational and process parameters are configurable at all layers: · Project · Work Hierarchy · Logs · Change Control · Reviews · Communications · Risks · Issues · Resources · Status Reporting For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

This post tells some of the benefits project team members get by using P3M Engine instead of various other means to track information, communicate, and contribute to the project.

PMOs vary in scope and responsibility, and so the daily activities of the PMO director can vary as well. Usually, PMO Directors will have responsibility for the successful completion of all the programs and projects under their purview. The PMO Director will get a lot of questions and needs to have all the answers. They will be expected to do far more than what any one human being can accomplish. P3M Engine provides the tools a PMO Director needs in two important ways. · P3M Engine provides visibility to everything from one place. · P3M Engine provides active prompting to everyone on the team to complete their tasks in a timely manner. Visibility to Everything – Not only does P3M Engine provide visibility to everything, but it does this with the right context. Nobody needs everything thrown at them. You cannot find anything that way. A person needs context. The PMO Director can start with their portfolio of work. From the context of that portfolio, select a program or project. See everything about that program or project, including charter, PMP, and how the work execution is progressing. From the context of the program or project, the PMO Director can see subordinate work, status reports, reviews, change requests, risks, issues, action items, decisions, deliverables, milestones, dependencies, resource allocations, costs, and a communications plan. Seeing those details is good for executing. But PMO Directors need to monitor and control as well. P3M Engine comes with over 30 charts for just that reason. The charts cover all the areas mentioned above. A PMO Director can view each chart for each program or project or for their portfolio, as a whole. Active Prompting – Everybody on the team is at or over capacity. It is so easy for things to get missed or fall through the cracks. Start by recording things in P3M Engine and assigning someone to complete them. That includes risks, issues, action items, decisions, and change requests. P3M Engine will keep you organized. Whoever is assigned will be notified. The assignment will appear in their Personal Control Panel and in a Taskbox that can float on every page of P3M Engine. These tools give everyone a direct link to their work and an idea how much work is in their queue. As deadlines approach and health status moves from green to yellow to red, people assigned are actively prompted to pay attention to these tasks. This is an enormous help to everyone in prioritizing their work and helps the PMO Director ensure that everyone on staff is prioritizing work and not missing anything. These are just two of the ways P3M Engine helps the PMO Director. There are many more. As P3M Engine helps all the other roles, some of the burden is lifted from the PMO Director. I will address more roles in future blog posts. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

One of the advantages of a system like P3M Engine is that all people in all roles on a project will come to one place to share information. Here is a look at some of these roles and why they would like a system like P3M Engine. PMO Director – Not only do my Project Managers have better oversight, but P3M Engine does too! P3M Engine knows who should be doing what and when. It lets people on the team know when to start, how they are progressing, when they are nearing deadlines, and when they are late. P3M Engine keeps everything moving! Project Performer – P3M Engine holds all information, which is great. But I also start everything from the same place in P3M Engine, my Personal Control Panel. That is even better. My Personal Control Panel has all my tasks, everything I want to follow, my favorite links, and my private action items to keep me well organized. Program Manager – I don't have to wait for other people to get the information I need. I just go to P3M Engine. No matter what PMBOK process group or knowledge area, the information is in P3M Engine. Stakeholder – Nothing eludes me. You can find anything in P3M Engine. It is all there. I can do one search that will look at every type of item in P3M Engine or I can do advanced searches for specifics. VP Project Management – I can let each PMO configure and govern the way they want. Information still rolls up to me with the consistency I need to compare performance across all PMOs. Project Manager – My status reports are mostly built for me. I can support multiple stakeholders with multiple reporting requirements without extra work. Portfolio Manager – All the health flags are system generated and I defined the rules. This is NOT open to interpretation. I have complete confidence in the reporting. Department Head – Each new program has a Program Management Plan already in place when the program launches. That saves me two months of work for every program. In the months ahead I will take a closer look at these roles and explain how they each get the benefits they see. For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .