Organizations often use both Agile and traditional project portfolio management solutions to manage projects in their project portfolio. Often Agile projects are managed in one system while traditional projects are managed in another. This makes for difficulty when trying to make informed decisions. An integrated solution would provide the organization a consolidated look at all their data. Allowing for informed decisions.
Below are 5 benefits of consolidating data.
- Make The Right Decisions - Project portfolio management is a complex task. Companies that have a single-solution often find portfolio decision making to be difficult. Cost analysis, resource capacity planning, and staging start dates in ppm solutions is infinitely more complicated when your data is disconnected, jeopardizing project portfolio investments. By the time you manually consolidate the data it may already be outdated! An integrated solution will help simplify and streamline this complex process, and do it using real-time and accurate data. You need the right data to make informed decisions.
- Visibility – The ability to see all work across the entire organization is often a key requirement for an organization implementing Microsoft Project Online. All projects grouped by phase, or program, showing various key metrics and KPIs is a staple in any PMO diet. A Power BI set of dashboards is always a nice addition for selecting the optimal portfolio. An integrated solution will make this happen.
- The One Size Fits All Solution Doesn't Exist – Teams each often have their own unique needs. Development team members have a need to be agile, nimble and flexible. On the other hand, a project management office (PMO) is typically very process-oriented. While a PMO often finds Microsoft PPM to be a good fit for their project management needs development teams often look to something like Jira. The ideal solution is one that incorporates both a system for the PMO and one for the Development team in which the data integrates seamlessly via a hub of data mart and provides a single, unified project management solution.
- Resource Management – I often hear from customers that describe situations where project managers assign resource to projects only to find out later a resource was already assigned to another project. Resource Management is the number one pain-point we hear from customers. Managing resources in multiple, disconnected systems is often the culprit in over-allocating resources. An integrated solution provides real-time resource availability information, allowing project managers to make informed decisions about which resources to assign to project work.
- Efficient and Productive Teams – Forcing every team in an organization to use the same process is not conducive to productive teams. Letting each team work as they to best leads to higher productivity and efficiency. What allows teams to work this way is providing them the right tool for the job. Efficiently executing the work of the project while collaborating with the organization is a key component of teamwork and productivity. An Integrated solution helps connect teams, and connected teams are productive teams.
Related Links
The Microsoft Project Portfolio Management Solution (PPM)
Agile and Traditional Project Management – Better Together
Microsoft Project Online Training – Achieving Effective Resource Management
Adoption Recommendations for a Project Portfolio Management System
Using Microsoft Teams, Flow, Ideation and Project Online for Project Intake
The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Project Portfolio Management
Microsoft Project Online Consulting
