The Blog RSS feed for Portfolio Decisionware, Inc. Portfolio Decisionware http://pdware.com/blog Mon, 07 May 2012 15:50:00 Mon, 07 May 2012 15:50:00 http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/visions-2012-pdma-article http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/visions-2012-pdma-article http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/visions-2012-pdma-article Mon, 07 May 2012 15:50:00 Mike Berkowitz http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/gartner-ppm-it-governance-summit-taking-place-may-21-–-23,-2012-in-national-harbor,-md Thinking about attending the upcoming Gartner PPM & IT Governance Summit taking place May 21 - 23, 2012 in National Harbor, MD? The Gartner PPM & IT Governance Summit 2012 is the premier gathering of program and portfolio management executives focused on improving how organizations select, implement and manage IT initiatives and services. The summit will give you the tools and insight to anticipate portfolio fluctuations and adapt programs in the face of shifting risks, as well as make the business case for IT investment. PDWare is a sponsor of the Gartner PPM & IT Governance Summit. Hot topics: Effective approaches to project prioritization IT program and portfolio governance Enterprise PPM issues beyond IT Organizational change management Agile project leadership   See a demonstration of PDWare's Resource Planning and Portfolio Management Solution in Booth Q at the Solution Provider Showcase. Learn from PDWare's clients during our Solution Provider Session, Monday, 6:55-7:15pm in the Showfloor Theatre: "The Big Idea: Resource Planning Lost and Found". Gartner PPM & IT Governance Summit 2012 May 21 - 23, National Harbor, MD Register now with priority code PPMPDW Receive $300 off the standard price. Visit gartner.com/us/ppm or call 1 866 405 2511 http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/gartner-ppm-it-governance-summit-taking-place-may-21-–-23,-2012-in-national-harbor,-md http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/gartner-ppm-it-governance-summit-taking-place-may-21-–-23,-2012-in-national-harbor,-md Wed, 02 May 2012 14:28:00 Baruch Gabo http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/may/pdware-devlogs-introducing-pdware-pulse We have talked a lot about communicating the functionality of new and future features in the PDWare products. I'm happy to announce that we will finally deliver on our promise with our PDWare DevLogs series. In each post we will cover newly available or soon to be available feature we have been working on. We encourage you to comment and give us any feedback you might have. Yes, even the criticism.  --Baruch Gabo What is PDWare Pulse? PDWare Pulse  was introduced during the  Resource Planning Summit 2012 , and is a new event notification feature available in PDWare iTeam v6.0 with Messenger. The idea for the development of PDWare Pulse came from our marketing department after surveying a lot of the current iTeam users. Most of you wanted to have a notification system that won't send out emails on every possible event (something you could do with PDWare Messenger) but inform the users of specific events from within iTeam. Another request was that a user should be able to control which notifications to enable/disable to avoid high right level users from being flooded with multiple events they don't always care about. PDWare Pulse was designed using the current PDWare Messenger, our windows service based email notification engine, as the backend that generates and sends iTeam notifications to users.   Defining PDWare Pulse Notifications The new Messenger user interface allows administrators to define which notification will be used for updating the PDWare Pulse and/or send out email notifications. In the following screenshot we have a 'Submitted Timesheet' event notification marked for updating the PDWare Pulse and not sending out emails.    PDWare Pulse User Interface Once you log into iTeam, you will notice two new buttons in your menu.     The lightning button will bring the PDWare Pulse into your view, docked on the right hand side of your screen.   The Pulse screen will update automatically whenever the Messenger sends you a new notification. To disable or enable the type of notifications you want to see, click the 'Filter' button to show the list of available types, and check/uncheck the ones you want and click 'Apply'.   The view will refresh to show only the notifications you have enabled.   http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/may/pdware-devlogs-introducing-pdware-pulse http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/may/pdware-devlogs-introducing-pdware-pulse Mon, 07 May 2012 19:05:00 Mike Berkowitz http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/webinar-10-hottest-tips-for-sustaining-high-resource-utilization http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/webinar-10-hottest-tips-for-sustaining-high-resource-utilization http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/webinar-10-hottest-tips-for-sustaining-high-resource-utilization Thu, 08 March 2012 11:28:00 Peter Heinrich http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/february/proof-a-strong-resoure-planning-process-contributes-to-pmo-portfolio-productivity By: Peter Heinrich When I saw Coleman Grimmett's previous chart at RPS 2010, I immediately knew it was an important moment for the Resource Planning Summit. The chart provided proof of something we all inherently knew - that a strong resource planning process would contribute to driving PMO and portfolio productivity. Conference attendees and clients had asked me forever, "Where are the metrics?" and here they were. However, when the updated chart was put in front of me this time around, it meant so much more to the discipline of Resource Planning and the validation of the Summit. Here is why: First of all, the chart stands on its own.  Coleman's PMO at Medtronic  improved the percent of projects launching on time from 5% to 76% - stunning results. Even more amazing was the reduction in the average launch delay for the remaining projects from 18 months to under 2 months. The introduction of resource planning into the PMO was a major contributor to these results. Coleman reported this correlation at RPS 2010 and will speak about it again at RPS 2012 this year. But Coleman did more than just report the results in 2010. He brought with him insights into the approaches he took to get there. He shared lessons learned and delivered thoughts on what he would do differently. The audience took note, and so did we. Coleman was ranked as one of the top speakers at the event, but the real excitement is what happened next. One of the great dynamics of the Resource Planning Summit is the way people are willing to exchange war stories and best practices. Based on the feedback we get, it seems that everyone takes home something of value. Coleman was a veteran of the 2009 RPS, and he thought at that time he had gotten some real nuggets that he would use to kick off his PMO development project. At the 2010 Summit he reported his results -- he was the teacher and the students were listening.   The proof came during our speaker search for RPS 2012. I was interviewing John Page of Becton Dickinson for one of the speaking positions and he described the success he had with his resource planning deployment over the past year. There were, of course, a number of factors that led to his success, but he was clear to point out the influence on his decision-making of the information he had taken home from RPS 2010 and specifically that of Coleman's presentation.  Amazingly, it had happened again.   You can now understand why this chart is so important -- it shows that real results are possible and it represents the power of the Resource Planning Summit.  At RPS 2012 John Page will speak about his implementation of portfolio resource planning, his results, and how he adopted parts of Coleman's approach. We now know for sure he will have an influence on someone else. You should be there.   http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/february/proof-a-strong-resoure-planning-process-contributes-to-pmo-portfolio-productivity http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2012/february/proof-a-strong-resoure-planning-process-contributes-to-pmo-portfolio-productivity Mon, 23 January 2012 13:17:00 Phil Wolf http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/december/pdware-to-sponsor-the-resource-planning-summit-2012-conference We encourage everyone who has a problem with or is interested in resource planning and operational improvement to attend the third Resource Planning Summit to be held in Baltimore April 15-17, 2012. The conference provides a great opportunity to learn from experts, successful practioners, and from other attendees who have problems, issues, and questions similar to yours.   Please visit the conference web site at           www.resourceplanningsummit.com   or            www.rps2012.com   http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/december/pdware-to-sponsor-the-resource-planning-summit-2012-conference http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/december/pdware-to-sponsor-the-resource-planning-summit-2012-conference Mon, 28 November 2011 10:00:00 http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/improving-performance-with-dynamic-capacity-management Our own Phil Wolf, PDWare's SVP Enterprise Products, spoke with Food Manufacturing, MBT's sister publication, about how project managers and resource planners can best manage resources to maximize productivity.   Follow the link to read the article: Improving Performance With Dynamic Capacity Management http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/improving-performance-with-dynamic-capacity-management http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/improving-performance-with-dynamic-capacity-management Thu, 17 November 2011 00:00:00 Judy Nuestadter http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/pdware-announces-version-52-of-iteam-software The latest release of the thin client interface includes key features for improved resource planning and tracking. PDWare, a leading provider of resource planning software to organizations managing project portfolios, today announced the availability of iTeam 5.2, the latest version of its Web application product. The new version includes significantly enhanced functionality that allows users to address the operational challenges of managing people and projects in the workplace. PDWare's iTeam offers a thin client interface to project initiation, effort forecasting, project scheduling and time tracking among other features. The distributed iTeam environment spreads the workload across teams and contributes to the high credibility standard of PDWare data capture. The new version of iTeam also improves communication among project managers, functional managers and team members facilitating the working relationships of these key process contributors. President and CEO, Peter Heinrich said: "We worked closely with current users of our solutions to develop this latest version of iTeam. Our goal was to develop an updated and highly user-friendly version of the solution to support superior resource planning in driving the overall portfolio management process." Clear Data Input for Improved Analysis New features include: Improved effort forecasting - A key feature of PDWare Portfolio that is now available in a browser based interface, effort forecasting allows a more distributed group of managers to allocate resources in a meaningful way and improve data credibility. New browser-based Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) scheduler - This enhancement provides task level schedule planning, inter-project dependencies, critical path analysis, status reporting, and resource planning for projects. Enhanced risk and issues management - PDWare's iTeam 5.2 now gives project managers the option to track issues and risks on their projects and gives portfolio managers a view of issues and risks across the portfolio. Tighter messenger integration - iTeam 5.2 now provides a platform for viewing notifications generated from PDWare Messenger. This allows for immediate notification and action on status changes and requests. Create a customized personal workspace - As a widget-based, customizable front end for desktops, iTeam 5.2 highlights functions that are important to the individual user. The combination of event calendars, status views and notifications provides a single location where the user can see the current state and the items that need attention. For more information on PDWare's iTeam 5.2 product, please visit http://www.pdware.com/iteam . http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/pdware-announces-version-52-of-iteam-software http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2011/november/pdware-announces-version-52-of-iteam-software Wed, 02 November 2011 14:58:00 http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2010/march/pdware-release-5-for-ppm The PDWare™ PPM framework supports the complete project portfolio lifecycle with an emphasis on resource planning. The philosophy is that resource control ultimately drives portfolio productivity. With resource planning in place, the functions and flexibility of the project portfolio management system modules deliver powerful executive analysis. All PDWare™ modules are integrated in an environment that promotes accuracy and credibility of data. 360˚ ExecutiveView of the Project Portfolio PDWare offers complete vision into the portfolio. Dashboard views focus on project metrics, resource demand, resource utilization, actual effort and portfolio risk. Using interactive data warehouse style reports, executives can easily navigate to important data and drill down on the business unit or cost center of interest. Advanced users can build custom views to align PDWare portfolio management with established business processes. P ortfolio Management P D War e ™ o f f ers a s t rai g h t - f or w ard a p p r o ach f or a dd i n g p r oj e c t s a n d ma i nt a i n i n g a p or t f oli o . T h er e are al w ays m u l t i p l e w ays t o e nt er d a t a. F o r exam p l e, p r o j e c t s t a tu s d a t es c an b e e n t er e d t h r o u gh a gr i d vie w , or th ey c a n b e a dd e d th r o u gh a s t a t u s r e p o r t , o r t h r o u gh a d e t ai l ed p r o j ect p la n . P D Ware e a sily i m p o r t s d a t a f r o m M i c r o s o f t® P r oj e c t or M i c r o s o f t ® Ex c el.  Customizable Portfolio Management Process Through configurable data fields and views, PDWare is able to present the data the way you want to manage it. The combination of active grid views and drill-down dashboard reporting allows analysis of the portfolio from all angles. Using custom fields, project measurements and metrics may be added for analysis purposes.  Project Initiation PDWare™ begins the portfolio management lifecycle with a formal request and initiation process. The request forms are configurable so clients can include business case criteria, ROI data and internal cost codes. Requested projects are aggregated in a special area so they can be formally approved by the appropriate manager. Projects that pass the first level of review are now proposed projects competing for resources with other projects in the portfolio.  Manage Projects and Programs PDWare™ allows data management at multiple levels. Projects can have a work breakdown structure, and they can be part of a larger project hierarchy. The project OBS (or project hierarchy) allows projects to roll up to any level of the organization. If a project hierarchy changes, all projects are automatically updated with the new structure. This allows PDWare™ data to remain current, even when organizations and strategies are constantly changing.  Once the Project OBS is created, project data can be summarized at any level and displayed in a hierarchical report for analysis. Multi-level reporting is also available for both project and resource hierarchies.  Alignment to Strategic Objectives There are a number of ways that PDWare™ clients link projects against their business and portfolio objectives. PDWare™ has fields reserved for SOI (Strategies, Objectives and Initiatives) organization. SOI data can be managed for each project, while sort and filter criteria may be applied to manage sub-sets of the overall inventory. Once SOI data is logged, reports can be generated across any of these categories. Clients use project ranking fields to generate scorecards for each objective. Projects are compared against the overall portfolio objectives and against each other.  Risk Management SOI data can also be displayed in hierarchical form so demand for effort and cost can be shown at each summary level. Managers can review costs by project, by program and/or by release. Scorecard data is also used to determine Portfolio Risk. PDWare™ consolidates Portfolio Risk, Cost Risk, Value Risk, Investment Risk and Schedule Risk into an interactive dashboard that provides a consolidated view of portfolio challenges. This report can be adapted to client needs.  Resource Planning One of the primary differences between PDWare™ and other PPM systems is the resource planning functionality. PDWare™ starts with capacity, assigns teams via the effort forecast, and assigns work assignments via the scheduler without losing reference to the original capacity value. This is good as an initial setup; however, PDWare's most important strength is its ability to accommodate change at any point in the process, and resolve conflicts that arise in a straight-forward manner.  Capacity Management PDWare™ is more powerful than traditional PPM applications because it allows organizations to manage current short term capacity while modeling the longer term targets for future capacity. Capacity is measured in time-period FTE's (fulltime equivalents) or in hours. Resource managers usually enter capacity through a view. This information becomes the basis for all forecasting, demand and utilization data. At each level in the planning process, resource forecasts reference capacity to validate the reasonableness of the plan.  Capacity Modeling Capacity may fall short of the desired level in certain skill areas as a company looks towards future initiatives. The PDWare™ capacity modeler allows an organization to simulate the addition/subtraction of budget dollars (or headcount). It first analyzes the required skills distribution and makes recommendations for maximizing productivity under the current budget state. The final result is a recommended skills mix to best satisfy the portfolio at the desired level of investment. The ability to plan for change allows planners to build a more solid foundation to the portfolio.  Demand Management PDWare™ takes the approach that resource demand forecasts are at the center of Portfolio Management decision-making. Functional managers forecast their resources based on requirements outlined by project teams. The forecast is validated and updated periodically, usually, at least once a month and sometimes more frequently. Functional managers are responsible for the utilization of their staff. Overcommitted resources are replaced with available resources from within the group when possible. Otherwise, a search for similar skills from other business units is possible.  Skills Management A hierarchical skills grid is available to categorize resources by capabilities and proficiencies. Resource searches try to match skills to demand while taking remaining availability into consideration. The system is also capable of identifying people who match the high priority requirements, but are currently assigned to a lower priority project.  Project Management PDWare™ offers two types of integrated scheduling options. Users may choose the integrated PDWare™ Scheduler, or they can choose to work in Microsoft® Project. Both options are integrated with the database, and both will update status data at the portfolio level and allow time tracking to the project.  Project Scheduling with PDWare™ Scheduler PDWare™ supports the development of a project schedule including the work breakdown structure, dependencies, milestones and status tracking. Project work estimates are directly linked to the functional resource allocations and overall resource capacity. Project Status Reporting PDWare offers flexibility in the way managers choose to update status. Managers can update a status view, update a status form, enter their status through the PDWare™ Scheduler or use Microsoft® Project. This allows companies with multiple management standards to be successful with corporate portfolio reporting. Supports Hierarchical Projects PDWare™ supports multi-level nesting of subprojects and work breakdown structures. As discussed earlier, a Project OBS (Organizational Breakdown Structure) allows nesting of descriptive information and codes. Hierarchies can also be defined on the fly in the Project Hierarchy Module. PDWare™ project level data offers up to 90 custom fields that can be used for data entry and calculated values. Any of these fields can be added to views and the project status form. Web views are also available through our dashboard reporting system. With data warehouse style reporting, there are virtually no limits on the output.   Project Resourcing Through the PDWare™ Scheduler, resources who are part of a project team can be assigned to individual tasks. The system will show when the resources are available for work. If resource assignments exceed the allotment, a project manager can request additional commitment from the functional manager. Time Tracking PDWare™ offers time sheets that automatically populate with work assignments that require effort from the team member during  the time period.  Time sheets can include scheduled project work, unscheduled project work and overhead items. Submission of a timesheet kicks off a review/approve process that ultimately leads to approved actuals in the database alongside the forecast data. Once approved, actuals are immediately made available for reporting. PDWare™ automatically aligns actuals to the forecast and baseline. This allows analysis of variance trends over time.  Systems Integration eMail Notification PDWare™ Messenger offers eMail integration with most mail clients. Messenger provides executive alerts when changes occur along the portfolio management workflow. Messenger can also be configured to alert executives when changes occur to key project indicators. Interfacing with Microsoft® Project PDWare™ offers a 2-way interface with MPP files out of the box. PDWare™ also offers direct integration with Microsoft® EPM using PDWare™ Integrator. This interface usually requires some professional configuration. Interfacing Methods PDWare™ is an incredibly open system. It has been integrated with many ERP, HR, BI, PPM and Time Tracking systems. There are six common ways to interface PDWare™ with another application: Flat file import Paste import Web Services SQL coding Pivot-table ready output to Microsoft® Excel™ PDWare™ Integrator for PPM  http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2010/march/pdware-release-5-for-ppm http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2010/march/pdware-release-5-for-ppm Wed, 17 March 2010 00:00:00 Peter Heinrich, Eugene Kania http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/january/resource-management-where-enterprise-project-management-systems-fails As Product Development organizations rush to board the enterprise project management bandwagon, they dream of reaching the Holy Grail: operational excellence and business growth. But what more and more companies have found recently is that they are in for a rough ride that typically does not reach its promised destination. This article includes a Motorola case study that will explore why enterprise project management systems have failed to deliver portfolio achievability through effective resource planning and management. Project management and the discipline of good project planning have brought significant benefits to Product Development for many years now. Managing critical paths, coordinating key integration points, and developing contingencies to deal with the risk and uncertainty inherent in Product Development projects have helped to reduce cycle times and improve quality. But, by their nature, Product Development organizations do not execute projects in isolation nor do they typically dedicate resources to single projects. Product Development environments are characterized by multiple projects being executed simultaneously, using a limited supply of resources (human and physical). What we really have is a portfolio of projects; the challenge is to design a portfolio that is achievable and produces the expected results. Effective resource planning tools and methods are the key enablers for designing an achievable portfolio. Over the last few years many organizations have turned to enterprise project management systems to meet this challenge. On the surface, this seems to be a plausible approach. Using currently available project management tools, organizations can or already do assign resources to tasks in project plans. If the project plans are then rolled up at an enterprise level, organizations should be able to see the resource load to a capacity ratio and then manage the resources to ensure portfolio achievability. But it's easier said than done. The implementation of enterprise project management systems has been difficult, painful, and costly; and, in the end, most organizations have failed to attain effective resource planning and management. Portfolios are still unachievable and results are not meeting expectations. Why it's not working There are inherent differences between the project plan, which is used primarily to manage project schedule and the resource plan, which is needed to manage organization resources. The key reasons that enterprise project management systems fail to provide effective resource planning can be summarized as follows. 1 - All resource demand not captured In most organizations, some work (resource demand) is not captured in project plans. Enterprise project management systems require project plans from which to derive resource demand data. Small projects, administrative activities (e.g., training, meetings), current engineering, pre- and post-project support all put demands on resources but are often not captured in a project plan. This results in one of two situations. One situation is that the enterprise system substantially underestimates the total resource demand. The data say the system has excess capacity while resource managers know that their resources are overloaded. The system becomes unbelievable and the implementation fails over time. Another possibility is that management demands that all the "other" work be represented somehow in the enterprise system. This leads to a tremendous amount of detail, overhead, and upkeep which project and resource managers find to be cumbersome and tedious. Most managers will comply to get by; but, again, the implementation fails over time. Project plans with resource loaded tasks usually do not accurately represent the true profile of resource demand on the project. 2 - Inaccurate representations The total demand for each resource is usually inaccurate because of the discrete, detailed nature of task-based resource plans in project scheduling systems. Task work estimates do not include all the time required to be a member of a project: Task switching time, project overhead, and other factors that vary from person to person and project to project must be added to the work effort total. The following image illustrates this issue. As progress is posted against tasks during project execution, the profile of future demand becomes inaccurate and less reliable. As task completion dates change, task precedence relationships force a change in the timing of some or all subsequent tasks. This in turn changes the timing of resource demand. Also, as projects encounter issues, resource loading on projects may change. Resources may be added or removed from projects for brief periods of time. In most cases, the continued use of the project plan for schedule tracking is not dependent on updating the resource estimates. Therefore, neither project managers nor resource managers are willing to take the time to make the forecast resource demand profile "come out right"; they are working for the tool rather than the tool working for them. Thus, the resource demand data becomes out-of-date and inaccurate. 3 - No true "ownership" Resource managers do not "own" the project schedule plans that capture demand for their resources. Project managers are responsible for developing and updating the project plan periodically during the Product Development process. Only they and their subproject managers can change task timing, durations, and resource estimates in the project schedule file or database. Even if they rely on resource managers for resource estimates during initial plan development, it is very difficult to continue getting resource forecasts from all the resource managers who are involved. The result is that resource managers take no ownership of the resource plan, and the resource demand data are of poor quality and questionable usefulness for resource planning at the portfolio level. 4 - Uniformity not maintained Few, if any, companies can maintain a uniformly high degree of skill and discipline in the use of project scheduling systems. Project planning is a well-defined, complex professional discipline. Project managers come in all varieties of skill and experience; some are untrained, some are beginners, some who are skilled and experienced move on to other positions. If you know or suspect that some project schedule plans are incomplete and inadequate, you cannot have confidence using the resource demand data for portfolio decisions. A proven solution exists Today, many companies have concluded that enterprise project management systems are good for managing project schedules and deliverables but are not effective for doing resource planning and management at a portfolio or enterprise level. These companies recognize the need for a separate and distinct resource planning and management process that is tied closely to the portfolio management system and that drives and supports the project management system. An effective resource planning and management solution includes five key activities, as shown in the Box on this page. Capture supply Supply is the inventory of resources with its capacity for project work in all time periods. It is based on your organizational chart, down to the numbers of people, their names, specific skill sets (e.g., mechanical engineer, software engineer), and capacity. Capture demand Demand is the work required by current and proposed projects. Project managers prepare a timeline for each project, defining the schedule for various phases (design, development, testing, etc.) and they estimate the type and amount of skills required. The resource managers then identify the resources needed and the work required from each of them by time period. The next screenshot shows an example of a resource manager's demand forecast for resource "Cate" to satisfy the resource requirements for several projects. After a project is approved, the resource manager updates the demand forecast periodically. A monthly forecast update might look ahead three to six months. This simple method of capturing what resource managers know about the upcoming use of resources enables project managers and portfolio managers to anticipate and respond to signs of resource problems. Analyze portfolio resource demand vs. supply Analysis begins by aggregating the effort forecasts for each project into a composite picture of all the projects in the portfolio as shown in the next image. (Notice that the projects are sorted in priority order.) The values in the grid are the percent of resource demand that can be delivered to the project in each time period given the project's priority; the row totals are the percent available over all time periods. Highlighting shows where your supply of resources cannot meet demand. This analysis identifies projects that are unachievable as currently planned; it shows when in time and where on the prioritized project list resource supply-demand conflicts will defeat your plans. Make certain decisions Decision making is the difficult, but necessary final step to arrive at a portfolio of projects that does not overload your resources and clog your Product Development pipeline. This step must clearly be the responsibility of the senior management team and is integral to arriving at an achievable portfolio. They must be accountable for the portfolio resource analysis view in the last image and it is their job to remove the highlighting. The four decisions that can remove highlighting are as follows: Cancel the project with highlighting Delay the project until it can get the resources it needs Change the project's scope so it needs only the resource it can get Provide additional resources The outcome of a successful decision-making effort by senior management is an achievable portfolio of projects as shown here. Four Key Activities of an Effective Resource Management System Capture supply Capture demand Analyze portfolio resource demand versus supply Make certain decisions Motorola-GEMS Case Study The Government and Enterprise Mobility Solutions (GEMS) business unit of Motorola is a multi-billion dollar per year business with 6000 to 8000 resources in locations throughout the world. GEMS has well-defined product and project life cycle management processes that apply to all Product Development projects. Motorola standardized Primavera TeamPlay as their corporate enterprise project management system. All product delivery projects are represented by a project plan in TeamPlay, after initial approval. Projects tend to be large, long, and complex; and TeamPlay is well-suited to handle a large number of such projects. However, many departmental and nonproduct projects are not represented in TeamPlay. As a result, there was no easy way to assess resource availability for proposed projects. According to Matt Vlasaty, a department manager in GEMS Engineering, "The rolled up resource demand from the project scheduling system is highly inaccurate and extremely difficult to reconcile." As a result, GEMS developed a home-grown resource planning tool (Integrated Resource Management System or IRMS) some years ago to address this problem of forward resource planning and management for new projects. While IRMS was reasonably successful at gathering and presenting resource planning data, there were many problems with it. Perhaps the most serious according to Brian Pohlman, GEMS Program Office Director, was that "Resource managers hated it and its user interface." The GEMS management team wisely pulled together a working group to define requirements for a replacement. The working group included a representative sample of highly experienced and credible mid-level resource managers as well as very capable members of the engineering organization tools support team. After many months of part-time meetings and work, the team specified a set of requirements for an effective resource planning and management solution. The key requirements were as follows: Accountability: The solution must have clear roles and responsibilities for the key stakeholders in this process - the project managers, the resource managers, and the senior (portfolio) management team. It is especially important to leverage the knowledge of the resource managers and put them at the heart of the resource planning solution. Accuracy and Consistency: All resource managers must use the system to enter or validate their resource plans; as standard practice, resource managers forecast resource demand for the upcoming two to six months on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. Timeliness and Flexibility: An organization-wide resource forecast update must be completed in days rather than weeks (or months). The tools and process must be flexible, easy to use, and designed for resource management. The tool must have low overhead for the resource managers and project managers who supply the data. A ct io na b l e a n a l y s i s : T h e t o o l m u s t p r o v ide c o n s o l i d a t i o n an d i n t era c t i ve , a c t i o na ble a n a l y s is a t t h e p o r t f o l i o le v el .   The GEMS team specified a grid-style data entry and presentation interface with Microsoft™ Excel" type application functionality. But something more than Excel" was needed to get consolidation and actionable analysis of resource supply- demand conflicts in a prioritized project portfolio. They purchased and deployed a commercially available system designed for resource planning and management. The system allows the resource managers to easily enter and update resource information on a project basis. The project level data is then automatically consolidated and presented in an actionable format at the portfolio level. GEMS trained 300+ managers in a period of about two months from the deployment "go" decision, and held portfolio management team meetings that were based on resource manager data within a few months of the final training sessions. After several portfolio review meetings, GEMS executive, strategic, and financial management and portfolio, and resource department directors all agreed that they have actionable analysis that is helping them make better and more timely portfolio decisions. One GEMS manager in Europe said, "If I had had this tool and process in December last year, I could have completed the planning exercise in one week instead of the three months it took." Better resource management Enterprise project management systems are not providing the data that managers need to develop and maintain achievable portfolios. Organizations will benefit greatly from a solution that emphasizes the role of the resource manager and provides accurate, consistent, and timely resource information. The right tools enable timely, low overhead-data updates and provide consolidated and actionable reports that can be used to make effective portfolio decisions. The Motorola-GEMS business unit was able to deploy a new resource management system and was using it to make effective portfolio decisions within a four month period. All organizations faced with the universal resource supply-demand problem need to look beyond enterprise project management systems to solutions aimed at the specific requirements and needs of the resource managers; i.e., a simple but powerful solution aimed squarely at portfolio achievability through effective resource planning and management. http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/january/resource-management-where-enterprise-project-management-systems-fails http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/january/resource-management-where-enterprise-project-management-systems-fails Thu, 01 January 2009 16:11:00 Phil Wolf http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/march/whitepapardemandestimates http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/march/whitepapardemandestimates http://pdware.com/bloghttp://pdware.com/blog/blog/2009/march/whitepapardemandestimates Mon, 09 March 2009 13:14:00