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The Value of PPM
This document provides resources and ideas for companies who know they need toolsto help them organize their work and whomay be struggling to justify the cost of a fullPPM solution.
Getting Your Stuff Together
I often have the opportunity to talk to businessleaders about the need to organize the activitiesof their workforce. Many of these groups areoutgrowing spreadsheets or home-grownapplications and are turning toward centralizingthe management of their work.Often someone in theorganization gets fed upwith the spreadsheets, thelack of communication, andthe missed deadlines; andrallies everyone around theconcept of using a centralizedonline task list to cut through the confusion.The benets of this include greater visibility intowhat’s happening at any given time, and theability for the front-line to know what they needto be doing.This is a great rst step for an organization.It will increase efciency in the workforce andmanagement’s interactions with it by:• Reducing the frequency and length of statusmeetings• Reducing the need for management to‘call around’ to get information about taskprogressIf the average employee’s salary is $50,000/year,saving only 1 hour/week will result in a $1,275direct benet to the organization.
Shouldn’t I Start Simple?
Departments and companies just getting intotask and project management software will betempted to purchase a simple solution for tworeasons. First, when a company is new to projectmanagement software the complexities can bedaunting. A powerful solution can seem like ‘toomuch’ functionality and can be overwhelming.Second, simplistic solutions cost less. We’veall heard the phrase, “You get what you payfor”, and that sounds good in this case becausewhen you start simple you don’t want much.I periodically hear people say, “All I want is asimple online task list for my people.”Simple solutions should at least provide thefollowing functionality:• A central location for planning and managingmultiple projects• The ability for users to update task status• Notications to project managers andworkers when tasks are complete• The ability to share notes and documents ontasks and projects• Visibility across multiple projectsWhile easy to use,
@task is not the cheapest
 or most simplistic solution you can nd. Thismight make your decision difcult becauseyou’ve got to get purchase approval and yournancial controller will probably ask you if thisis the cheapest solution on the market for whatyou need to do. If your vision is limited to thatonline task list, your answer is going to be ‘no’.
This document will help you understand whathappens beyond the basics in PPM.
 
A centralized tasklist alone can savethe organization$1,275 per person
6 Proven Tools for Project Success
 
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Just Beyond The Basics –Scheduling & Early Warning
Let’s suppose you start with the online task list(e.g. ‘the basics’). In a few months everyonewill be patting you on the back for putting it up,but, true to the adage of the camel’s nose in thetent, you will soon nd thatthe online task list was just thebeginning.
Now that peoplecan see what’s going on, theywill start asking hard questions.
For example, once tasks are online andorganized into projects, people will want todo real scheduling. There are two areas toscheduling: Time and Resource Schedulingand Workow Scheduling.‘
Time and Resource Scheduling
’ deals with howtime is allocated to the people doing the work.You will want to have one or more calendarsdened for your company so that you canmanage schedules. For example, what happensto a project if a group wants to work four-10hrshifts vs. ve-8hr shifts? What happens if a userwants to enter a week of vacation in the spring?The system should allow youto calculate around thesechanges. If you are limitedto manually typing dates ontasks, you’ll be making upfor the cost-savings you gotthrough sweat equity.Another element of Time and ResourceScheduling is making sure you have theresources to do the work you want to get done.If you have people working on multiple projectsthroughout the organization, you need to knowwhat their overall availability is and how projectswill be affected by assigning different people.Along those lines, you also need to know if thepeople you want to assign tasks to have the skillsto do that work.Important ‘Time and Resource Scheduling’functionality includes:• Support for multiple work calendars• Support for user vacations and time off • Visibility into user’s workload• Support for role proles (e.g. designer,programmer, etc.)‘
Workow Scheduling
’ deals with how processesare dened and enforced. A simple exampleis that task B cannot be started before taskA is done. This is called a task dependency.Task B depends on Task A. Typical workowsuse several types of dependencies. The mostimportant reason for dependencies; a reasonthat very few solutions address is for projections.Is it important for you to
know that a project isrunning late BEFORE its too late to do anythingabout it
? If so, you need projections! @tasklooks at the progress that has been made andestimates a completion time based on what’sbeen done combined with the schedule of theperson assigned to do it. The new projectedcompletion time automatically affects theprojected start time of dependents all throughthe entire project. In this fashion, a two monthlong project can automatically warn its projectmanager as early as day two of potentialproblems created by slow progress.Another important aspect of WorkowScheduling is the ability to approve workthat’s been done before the rest of the workcan continue. Approval processes are criticalwhen management needs to be involved in aproject’s completion.Tools and features related to workowscheduling include:• Support for multiple task dependencies andtask scheduling constraints• Support for projected dates• Ability to compare planned, projected andactual dates in a timeline• Support for approval processes
 
Time and resourcescheduling ismaking sure youhave the resourcesyou needAn online task list is just the beginning
 
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This is good functionality, buthow do you justify the extracost? Ask yourself:
Whatpercentage of your projectsare late
? What percentage of those would get done on timeif you had the ability to tie people’s schedulingand automated projections together?
What arelate projects costing you
? This can be hard tomeasure. Sometimes a few days can mean agreat deal to the bottom line of an organization.
Managing Change
We accept the idea that projects never go 100%according to plan. Needs change midstream.Unforeseen issues arise. Organizationsoften attempt to use one solution for projectmanagement and a different solution for trackingissues. This can get unwieldy, especially if theissues affect a task’s completion or should reallybe part of an approval workow.@task provides integrated request tracking onprojects so that day to day issues that arisecan be a seamless part of a project’s statusand completion.Some of the features that are critical to asuccessful issue tracking effort are:• Integrated issue tracking and projectmanagement• The ability for issues to participate in projectworkows (e.g. projects and tasks cannot becompleted while current issues exist)• Support for custom forms on issue entryforms• The ability to route issues to the correctpeople and projects
Well Beyond the Basics –Continuous Improvement
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.We’ve all heard that expression. How does itrelate to your project management initiative?Organizations often have repetitive processes,or at least general common structures to theirprojects. Over time, many similar projectswill be completed in yourorganization. As you look back,you may be asking questionslike: What areas of thoseprojects tended to be overbudget? What areas of thoseprojects tended to be late? Are there trends inthose projects that will help us identify areaswhere we can cut out waste?The answer to these questions lies in processimprovement functionality. @task provides toolsfor managers to compare similar projects andtasks and to look at trends for cost, schedule,slack time, down time, etc. This can be a hugevalue to organizations. For example, @taskrecently helped a manufacturing company trimits new product development time from 55 weeksto 49 weeks using these tools.Features required for solid process improvementanalysis include:• The ability to track planned vs actual dates,hours of work, and costs• The ability to create work templates fromwhich similar projects and standardizedprocesses are created• The ability to compare similar tasks orprojects and to identify averages and outliers
Advanced Topics – MaximizingYour Resources
Any company can keep people busy, winningcompanies keep people busy doing the rightthings
. One of the most important values asolution like @task brings to your organizationis in project selection. Howdo you know the projects youare working on are the bestones you could be doing?
Maximizing the positiveimpact limited resources haveon your organization
requiresinformed project selection.
You can’t managewhat you can’tmeasureHow do you knowthe projects youare working on arethe best ones youcould be doing?
 
Sometimes a fewdays can mean agreat deal to thebottom line
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