Most organisation face challenges while managing projects, which are one of the most complex, investment heavy and extremely critical. Managing them with utmost care and diligence is critical for any organisation. Any delay in executing these projects can cost heavily to both the managements, of implementing organization & that of sponsoring organization. Therefore, implementing a Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Software at organizational level, covers all aspects of project management life cycle and is an ecosystem in which project teams perform.
Also, for an enterprise project to be successful, there should be a proper way to deal with scheduling the tasks and completing them on time. Project and Portfolio Management software can create the schedules that are needed for every task to be completed on time, keeping track of all aspects of the project.
Manufacturer and sponsor organization, both expect the implementing organization to be fully geared-up to manage projects. There are many sub-projects which form part of the larger project and needs to be managed well so that Project managers and key stakeholders can have clear visibility on to the project progress. Hence, it is essential for an organisation to choose software wisely. Let’s understand exactly what to expect from a world class Project and Portfolio Management Software:
Major expectations from PPM software are as follows:
- It should have world class project management features
- Should be established in its field and be able to service with maximum automation
- SaaS (Software as a Service) based installations are most preferred by the implementing organizations
- MIS at implementing organization level is expected, to ensure all dashboards are created at organization level
- Inter projects learning sharing within the implementing organization
- Collaboration features are a must, for enabling inter organization sharing of documents
- Automated intimations for delays in cost, time budget, tasks, allocation of resources to individuals etc.
- Steering committee meetings and recording of their minutes recording options. Actionable should be created from the minutes directly and be tracked till completion
- Steering committee status reports should be generated from the software on its own
- Project Manager need not have to send any manually created reports in specific, the software should be able to create these on its own
- Stakeholders should be able to login to the software and be able to see the reports according to their roles
PPM software also assists while scheduling projects when you are working on a large scale. It can be impossible to schedule these projects on your own, which is why using this type of software can help you with your endeavors. Making a schedule involves many different things to be in accordance with each other, and the software can help you to keep track of these things so that you have less stress.
Any project typically remains in implementation stage for at least 2-3 years, depending upon which modules the sponsors have chosen to implement. Therefore, it is critical to track and manage the project from end-to-end through an appropriate PPM software. It can be easily said that if projects are managed without systems, the sponsors are taking huge risk from successful completion of the projects perspective. If critical resources or the project manager himself leaves the project half-way, there are major challenges of getting the project to complete on time and within budget. As expected, handovers will not be smooth and the new project manager who is taking the project mid-way will be left lurking in dark for information. This further reduces chances of completion of the projects within time & cost budgets.
Therefore, it is ideal to implement a project & portfolio management software, which will not only track the project while it is on, but even when critical resources leave the projects mid-day.
