Answer to Question #221085 in Management for Emy

Question

Take one company applying information system in its business functions and answer 

whether the system is successful or not in terms of the IT Project Management Life 

Cycle.

Answer 1

Project management software, significant activity planning software, monitoring software, and a variety of related functional software are all fairly sophisticated and mature. These technologies are nearly always used by organizations who are able to complete projects on time and on budget since they help monitor project progress and identify bottlenecks in a timely manner.

But do not exaggerate the role of such programs in the process of real project management. Indeed, very often they hide traps invisible at first glance.

It is rather difficult to work with the most powerful packages, it requires serious preliminary preparation. The Ewing, Northrop Grumman's e-business leader, uses the Open Plan project management suite and its associated WelcomHome Web portal to facilitate effective collaboration. But, she said, “Teaching people how to use Open Plan is not easy because the software is so powerful and has tons of redundant features.” To make things easier, Ewing initially creates a project template with default settings.

Top managers should support and encourage the use of appropriate tools. In addition, they need to view interim reports and promptly take action in the event of any inconsistencies. Only with this approach, in the end, they can get what they hoped for.

The tools do not always fully support all vital information. Matt Bright, head of project management at one of the largest financial companies, noted that “project management tools allow you to cover no more than half of what needs to be done. But how to “convey” to the electronic system such, for example, a remark: “I did nothing because I was not in the office?” This is a serious question".

Project management tools often lack any interfaces to critical ancillary applications, such as labor calculator and accounting systems, or portfolio management systems.

According to Bright, most of these funds only allow you to keep track of the hours spent on the project.

Paul Chartier, Senior Manager of Management Information Systems at Friendly Ice Cream, prefers Microsoft Project 2000, which, however, does not have sufficiently developed personnel management tools.

The question “So what do they do after all” is periodically raised in the company over and over again, but the existing system does not allow to give an exhaustive answer to it.

Even tools offered by the same manufacturer for solving related problems do not always work well together. As an example, Chartier cites synchronization errors that occur between Project and Project Central: “The documentation does not allow us to identify the cause of their occurrence. The developer's technical support service also does not give a clear answer, and in the case of expanding the scope of these products, we risk losing control of the situation. "

And yet, given the downsides, it can be said that project management tools are more suitable for large organizations. “In large companies, there is a tendency to create divisions for enterprise software management, and these divisions need tools to manage corporate projects," said Melinda Ballou, senior analyst at Meta Group. "It is very important now to provide an opportunity to analyze the existing portfolio in terms of programs and projects."

Bright notes that project management systems are developing and today allow not only to cover individual projects but also to establish control over the state of the entire portfolio, as well as organize resource management.

Portfolio analysis is becoming increasingly important. Primavera Systems' TeamPlay was chosen because it has tools for analyzing the entire portfolio. TeamPlay replaces Microsoft Project, Excel, and everything else when it comes to coordinating the work of information services, product development, and project marketing.