“Can you help us install the EPM system and get it up and running in a few days?” is one of the most common requests EPM deployment firms get. And regardless of the size of the organization, the short answer, is unfortunately, “No.” The challenge isn’t technology; it’s a series of policy, process, procedure and practice questions that have the potential to create far-reaching organizational change. Let’s take a look at what an EPM deployment…
Project management is only one challenge in managing a project with multiple projects. Everything we do for one project, we must consider among many. Which projects should get priority, which projects should get resources first, which projects are prerequisites for other projects. How do executives determine the priorities among projects and what happens when they won’t?
You’d think that project management professionals within an organization would be the biggest asset in an enterprise project management deployment. Surprisingly, it’s not always so. Sometimes knowing how it used to work is a barrier to seeing the latest in methodology, technology and best practices.
I’ve been in a lot of corporate meetings lately discussing various aspects of delivering an “integrated” project management environment. Don’t get me wrong, a corporate-wide integrated system is a wonderful thing to desire. There’s no doubt that the idea of pushing a button on a screen and finding that every element of data across the company is tied to every other element in just such a way that the answers I desire are immediately available…
Are you baselining? I know, it sounds like some drug-related crime, doesn’t it? It’s actually one of the most fundamental aspects of modern project management and a stunning percentage of project managers don’t do it. So this month I thought I’d dedicate the column to the elusive art of baselining. So, what’s a baseline? First of all, what is a baseline? Everyone agrees it’s a snapshot of your project which is frozen now for use…
My friend Eric Uyttewaal, the author of numerous books on project management and the use of Microsoft Project has written a great article on how to interpret the results you see in your bar chart. “How Gantt Chart-Literate Are You?” is a good read. Enjoy.
When you look at Olympic athletes, you can see how dedication and doing the work required can produce remarkable results. The same is true for those who take on creating an enterprise project management environment. Those who hope that results will just arrive at their door mostly miss out on the remarkable achievement that is possible when you accept the work that has to be done. Here’s a short article on acknowledging the work required in creating a project management environment.
It’s one of the hottest topics in the project management industry today. We spend so much time thinking about how to do projects that we sometimes forget about whether we should do the projectds in the first place. Here’s a short article on Project Portfolio Management.
How does one define the first critical phase of an EPM deployment? What is the minimum deployment possible that will ensure a successful EPM implementation?. This article looks at the first EPM hurdle.
There are so many articles and books on Enterprise Project Management but one of the first and biggest challenges comes when you discover that not everyone means the same thing by EPM. Each vendor, consultant and expert is colored by their experience and background. Making sure that everyone on your team is singing from the same hymn book when you’re starting an EPM project can make all the difference to success or failure.