There are a number of reasons behind an organisation’s decision to implement Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software. Key motives include a clearer understanding of whether projects currently being executed are aligned to strategic objectives in terms of benefit realisation, assessing the prioritisation and sequencing of projects given the company’s capacity, and measuring health levels of the portfolio of projects currently underway.
These are all valid reasons for the implementation of PPM software, but one mistake that businesses frequently make is that, once rolled out, the solution is used solely by the project manager.
The series of articles PPO will be publishing aims to dispel the most common myths around the use of PPM software and to assist you and your organisation in obtaining optimal value from this type of solution.
Myth 1: Executives do not need to access the PPM software on a regular basis
Within most organisations, the key role of the executive is to balance and manage a portfolio by selecting the right projects, while continuously assessing resource availability and allocation for the achievement of business performance objectives.
Most PPM solutions can provide executives with a range of standard portfolio reports and graphical dashboards to monitor and analyse portfolios based on priority and category. Insight gained on the status and health of the projects within the portfolio facilitates decisions around whether a portfolio has the correct mix of projects, if they need to be re-prioritised and to what extent business objectives are being achieved.
The reality is that only executives using a “top-down” approach can drive the behaviour of project teams to provide data of the quality necessary for key decision-making. Should the data within the PPM software be unreliable, executives will not see this as a trusted source of information and teams will quickly revert to the “old” way of reporting or duplicating administrative efforts. One way to counter this is for management to regularly access and review their portfolios, as well as asking the right questions of teams.
Are you looking for a single tool that can provide portfolio reporting and graphical dashboards with drill-through reporting directly to your executives? If so, try a free 30-day trial of Project Portfolio Office (PPO) today at www.go2ppo.com/tryppo.
PPO is an award winning online project portfolio management and collaboration application. PPO is simple, immediate, secure and affordable. PPO is flexible and can be configured to support any methodology.
