Capability Maturity Assessment is one of the tools consistently leveraged by Enterprise Project and Portfolio Manage-ment (EPM) practitioners in the creation of adoption roadmaps for organizations that are creating momentum for change with the objective of improving internal governance. Historically, the problem has been addressed in parallel at the Project, Program, or Portfolio levels, and in many cases the solutions devised have been independent of one anoth-er, potentially missing on integration aspects that could greatly improve overall results. In the past couple of years, new methodologies that attempt to encompass all three disciplines have been developed, including OPM3 from the PMI.
Understanding Customer Voice of Project Portfolio Management SoftwarePeachy Essay
Abstract—Project Portfolio Management (PPM) has gained
success in many projects due to its large number of features that covers effective scheduling, risk management, collaboration, and third-party software integrations to mention a few. A broad range of PPM software is available; however, it is essential to select the PPM with minimum usage issues over time. While many companies use surveys and market research to get users feedback, the PPM product software reviews carry the voice of users; the positive and negative sentiments of the PPM software reviews. This paper collected 4,775 reviews of ten PPM software from Capttera.com. Our approach has these phases- text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, summarization, and categorizations. The software reviews are filtered and cleaned, then negative sentiments of user reviews are summarized into a set of factors that identify issues of adopted PPM software. We report the most important issues of PPM software which were related to missing technological features and lack of training.
Results using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model showed
that the top ten common issues are related to software complexity and lack of required features.
The project was done on Efficacy of Project Management... Research was conducted back in 2014 and was carried out by one of the Academic writer at www.assignmentstudio.net who is also a full time tutor and work for www.tutoringlounge.com.au.
Writer profile can be visited at http://tutoringlounge.com.au/erika-reynolds/
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Describe the five project management process groups, the typical level of activity for each, and the interactions among them
http://sif.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://fst.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://www.uin-suska.ac.id/
Understanding Customer Voice of Project Portfolio Management SoftwarePeachy Essay
Abstract—Project Portfolio Management (PPM) has gained
success in many projects due to its large number of features that covers effective scheduling, risk management, collaboration, and third-party software integrations to mention a few. A broad range of PPM software is available; however, it is essential to select the PPM with minimum usage issues over time. While many companies use surveys and market research to get users feedback, the PPM product software reviews carry the voice of users; the positive and negative sentiments of the PPM software reviews. This paper collected 4,775 reviews of ten PPM software from Capttera.com. Our approach has these phases- text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, summarization, and categorizations. The software reviews are filtered and cleaned, then negative sentiments of user reviews are summarized into a set of factors that identify issues of adopted PPM software. We report the most important issues of PPM software which were related to missing technological features and lack of training.
Results using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model showed
that the top ten common issues are related to software complexity and lack of required features.
The project was done on Efficacy of Project Management... Research was conducted back in 2014 and was carried out by one of the Academic writer at www.assignmentstudio.net who is also a full time tutor and work for www.tutoringlounge.com.au.
Writer profile can be visited at http://tutoringlounge.com.au/erika-reynolds/
For similar projects you can visit our site and place an order...
www.assignmentstudio.net
or email at
contact@assignmentstudio.net
Describe the five project management process groups, the typical level of activity for each, and the interactions among them
http://sif.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://fst.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://www.uin-suska.ac.id/
Describe the systems view of project management and how it applies to information technology (IT) projects
http://sif.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://fst.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://www.uin-suska.ac.id/
Role of Functional Organization in Large Engineering and Construction ProgramsBob Prieto
Large corporate organizations typically employ some form of matrix organization to ensure a consistent approach in key areas across the organization. The nature and extent of this matrix or functional organization will be driven by:
•common approaches to human resources
•consistent application of legal approvals and reviews of significant actions
•common financial functions related to accounting, cash management, insurance and claims & suits
•common managerial, technical and support functions which accrue benefits from a consistent and coordinated approach
Within a project setting, required resources generally reside at the project level and corporate functional activities extend into the project environment only to the extent required to protect the parent organization, consistent with client requirements and practices.
The situation in large programs, however, is different and a functional organization more akin to the corporate functional organization is often created within the program team. This program level functional organization acts much in the same way as the corporate functional organization but its role and emphasis evolves throughout the programs life.
A typical program management organization will include a functional organization that will provide people, management processes, program-level project control tools, and systems. The program management team will thereby bring enhanced management, quality control, efficiency, and coordination to the entire program.
The endeavor of the report is in the direction of scrutinizing the effectiveness of project management in expressions of managerial structures, technological proficiency, and management skill along with the features of an effectual venture manager.
Before exploring the main content of the report let us consider the general concepts of the key words of relative topic or respective report.
Efficacy simply coded, is the core skill, aptitude or the capacity on the way to bring into being a required or projected outcome. The extent in the direction of which a touch is victorious in generating a looked-for outcome is effectiveness
UCISA Toolkit - Establishing a PMO in an HE Environment Mark Ritchie
This toolkit provide guidance for higher education institutions,. and any other organisations, considering establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) function. It includes advice on designing your PMO and on implementation as well as providing a set of example artefacts.
This guide was published by the UCISA Project and Change Management Group in October 2015. This guide forms part of a set of UCISA Project and Change Management publications including the Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit and the guide to Effective Risk Management for IT and Business Change Projects.
Nicholas Carr’s, Does IT Matter? asks the question – “isn’t it enough for IT to enable companies to operate more efficiently or deliver better services, to reduce costs or heighten customer satisfaction?” [1, p. 7]. This question is the infrastructure question. Carr suggests the investments in IT have “gone to waste” after the collapse of the Internet Bubble. While much has been wasted to what were probably poor business choices, IT investment as a strategic initiative still has merit. This merit needs to be connected to the financial performance of the business. The measurement and valuation of these investments must take place in the same way other investment decisions are made. Carr’s thesis is IT has become a commodity service and not the basis of a differentiated strategic advantage. As the costs of IT go down, its power increases the capabilities of IT outstrip the company’s needs. Again this is an infrastructure view of IT. Like the railroads and electric utilities, if is only a “utility” it will have difficulty describing its differentiated advantage.
Computer information project planning is one of the most important activities in the modern software
development process. Without an objective and realistic plan of software project, the development of
software process cannot be managed effectively. This research will identify general measures for the
specific goals and its specific practices of Project Planning Process Area in Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI). CMMI is developed in USA by Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Carnegie
Mellon University. CMMI is a framework for assessment and improvement of computer information
systems. The procedure we used to determine the measures is to apply the Goal Questions Metrics (GQM)
approach to the three specific goals and its fourteen specific practices of Project Planning Process Area in
CMMI.
Top-performing organizations increasingly recognize that effective program and project management is essential to today’s complex operational environments. This ISG white paper examines common issues around project management, and discusses steps that organizations can take to design and implement an effective Program/Project Management Office (PMO) to address these issues and ensure consistent oversight of critical operational projects.
Stewarding Data : Why Financial Services Firms Need a Chief Data OfficierCapgemini
The C-suite could soon start to feel a little crowded, with Chief Digital Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Risk Officers
and Chief Data Officers joining the more established functional leaders. To avoid C-suite proliferation, companies need to
decide whether to elevate a new functional role to “chief” based on the strategic importance of the issue for the organization and its sector. For example, in many organizations, marketing will be so essential to performance that few would deny the need for a CMO. In financial services, data has become so mission-critical that the role of Chief Data Officer is simply essential.
IT Financial Management Series - Part 3: Drive Financial Transparency Across ...UMT
This webinar is the third part of the IT financial management series. In this webinar, Charlie Curcio, IT CFO shares his experience in driving financial transparency across the infrastructure portfolio. On average, infrastructure represents more than half of the total IT spend and presents the biggest challenge in terms of financial transparency. In this webcast you will learn how IIPA techniques can help:
* Breakdown the infrastructure portfolio by key IT Services
* Understand the Cost of Ownership of each Service
* Derive unit rates for each Service
* Connect Applications and Services
* Develop a Bill of IT to chargeback IT spend
The quest to define IT’s relationship with the business has gained new momentum over the last few years, primarily due to a more difficult economic climate driving the need for transparency in spending decisions. The momentum is manifested in a fundamental awareness, developed since the technology hype of the late 90’s, that IT organizations must be integrated more closely with the businesses they support. Management teams in many organizations are focused on defining a better Business-Technology partnership, which is shining the spotlight on a new discipline -- Project Portfolio Management (PPM).
Measure What Matters - New Perspectives on Portfolio SelectionUMT
Stock market investors articulate their goals explicitly or implicitly by following the philosophy and methodology of a market expert that fits their investment objectives and appetite for risk. For example, for value and income stocks they may rely on the research conducted by Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel¹ or read up on market pros like War-ren Buffet. Much like the stock market investor, companies investing in change face similar challenges when considering where to allocate budget and resources to meet financial and strategic objectives.
IT Financial Management Series - Part 2: Drive financial transparency across ...UMT
This webinar is the second part of the IT financial management series. In this webinar, Charlie Curcio, IT CFO shares his experience in driving financial transparency across the application portfolio.
Describe the systems view of project management and how it applies to information technology (IT) projects
http://sif.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://fst.uin-suska.ac.id/
http://www.uin-suska.ac.id/
Role of Functional Organization in Large Engineering and Construction ProgramsBob Prieto
Large corporate organizations typically employ some form of matrix organization to ensure a consistent approach in key areas across the organization. The nature and extent of this matrix or functional organization will be driven by:
•common approaches to human resources
•consistent application of legal approvals and reviews of significant actions
•common financial functions related to accounting, cash management, insurance and claims & suits
•common managerial, technical and support functions which accrue benefits from a consistent and coordinated approach
Within a project setting, required resources generally reside at the project level and corporate functional activities extend into the project environment only to the extent required to protect the parent organization, consistent with client requirements and practices.
The situation in large programs, however, is different and a functional organization more akin to the corporate functional organization is often created within the program team. This program level functional organization acts much in the same way as the corporate functional organization but its role and emphasis evolves throughout the programs life.
A typical program management organization will include a functional organization that will provide people, management processes, program-level project control tools, and systems. The program management team will thereby bring enhanced management, quality control, efficiency, and coordination to the entire program.
The endeavor of the report is in the direction of scrutinizing the effectiveness of project management in expressions of managerial structures, technological proficiency, and management skill along with the features of an effectual venture manager.
Before exploring the main content of the report let us consider the general concepts of the key words of relative topic or respective report.
Efficacy simply coded, is the core skill, aptitude or the capacity on the way to bring into being a required or projected outcome. The extent in the direction of which a touch is victorious in generating a looked-for outcome is effectiveness
UCISA Toolkit - Establishing a PMO in an HE Environment Mark Ritchie
This toolkit provide guidance for higher education institutions,. and any other organisations, considering establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) function. It includes advice on designing your PMO and on implementation as well as providing a set of example artefacts.
This guide was published by the UCISA Project and Change Management Group in October 2015. This guide forms part of a set of UCISA Project and Change Management publications including the Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit and the guide to Effective Risk Management for IT and Business Change Projects.
Nicholas Carr’s, Does IT Matter? asks the question – “isn’t it enough for IT to enable companies to operate more efficiently or deliver better services, to reduce costs or heighten customer satisfaction?” [1, p. 7]. This question is the infrastructure question. Carr suggests the investments in IT have “gone to waste” after the collapse of the Internet Bubble. While much has been wasted to what were probably poor business choices, IT investment as a strategic initiative still has merit. This merit needs to be connected to the financial performance of the business. The measurement and valuation of these investments must take place in the same way other investment decisions are made. Carr’s thesis is IT has become a commodity service and not the basis of a differentiated strategic advantage. As the costs of IT go down, its power increases the capabilities of IT outstrip the company’s needs. Again this is an infrastructure view of IT. Like the railroads and electric utilities, if is only a “utility” it will have difficulty describing its differentiated advantage.
Computer information project planning is one of the most important activities in the modern software
development process. Without an objective and realistic plan of software project, the development of
software process cannot be managed effectively. This research will identify general measures for the
specific goals and its specific practices of Project Planning Process Area in Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI). CMMI is developed in USA by Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Carnegie
Mellon University. CMMI is a framework for assessment and improvement of computer information
systems. The procedure we used to determine the measures is to apply the Goal Questions Metrics (GQM)
approach to the three specific goals and its fourteen specific practices of Project Planning Process Area in
CMMI.
Top-performing organizations increasingly recognize that effective program and project management is essential to today’s complex operational environments. This ISG white paper examines common issues around project management, and discusses steps that organizations can take to design and implement an effective Program/Project Management Office (PMO) to address these issues and ensure consistent oversight of critical operational projects.
Stewarding Data : Why Financial Services Firms Need a Chief Data OfficierCapgemini
The C-suite could soon start to feel a little crowded, with Chief Digital Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Risk Officers
and Chief Data Officers joining the more established functional leaders. To avoid C-suite proliferation, companies need to
decide whether to elevate a new functional role to “chief” based on the strategic importance of the issue for the organization and its sector. For example, in many organizations, marketing will be so essential to performance that few would deny the need for a CMO. In financial services, data has become so mission-critical that the role of Chief Data Officer is simply essential.
IT Financial Management Series - Part 3: Drive Financial Transparency Across ...UMT
This webinar is the third part of the IT financial management series. In this webinar, Charlie Curcio, IT CFO shares his experience in driving financial transparency across the infrastructure portfolio. On average, infrastructure represents more than half of the total IT spend and presents the biggest challenge in terms of financial transparency. In this webcast you will learn how IIPA techniques can help:
* Breakdown the infrastructure portfolio by key IT Services
* Understand the Cost of Ownership of each Service
* Derive unit rates for each Service
* Connect Applications and Services
* Develop a Bill of IT to chargeback IT spend
The quest to define IT’s relationship with the business has gained new momentum over the last few years, primarily due to a more difficult economic climate driving the need for transparency in spending decisions. The momentum is manifested in a fundamental awareness, developed since the technology hype of the late 90’s, that IT organizations must be integrated more closely with the businesses they support. Management teams in many organizations are focused on defining a better Business-Technology partnership, which is shining the spotlight on a new discipline -- Project Portfolio Management (PPM).
Measure What Matters - New Perspectives on Portfolio SelectionUMT
Stock market investors articulate their goals explicitly or implicitly by following the philosophy and methodology of a market expert that fits their investment objectives and appetite for risk. For example, for value and income stocks they may rely on the research conducted by Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel¹ or read up on market pros like War-ren Buffet. Much like the stock market investor, companies investing in change face similar challenges when considering where to allocate budget and resources to meet financial and strategic objectives.
IT Financial Management Series - Part 2: Drive financial transparency across ...UMT
This webinar is the second part of the IT financial management series. In this webinar, Charlie Curcio, IT CFO shares his experience in driving financial transparency across the application portfolio.
Optimizing Organizational Performance by Managing Project BenefitsUMT
Too many organizations today still measure the success of a project based only on the traditional project management standards of delivering On Time, On Budget and On Scope. While these criteria are valid measures of successful project management, they are less suitable when assessing a project’s true success: its contribution to the overall organization's performance. Indeed, the ulti-mate success of a project – whether cost savings, revenue increases or customer satisfaction improvements – may not be known until years after it has been successfully delivered.
Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management: Managing the RevolutionUMT
Most large organizations routinely need to balance the need for centralized control and local autonomy. Different lines of business may have unique objectives, and it’s often difficult to envision implementing standardized processes. Dispersed companies tend to slowly gravitate away from homogenous practices and this leads to fragmented policies and the use of disparate systems. In more extreme circumstances, merger and acquisition activity may attempt to quickly assimilate entirely distinct organizations. However, implementing the Comprehensive EPM methodologies and frameworks in a systematic manner will yield predictable results that include savings, improved transparency and better alignment with company strategies.
UMT Federal Webinar Series Part 4: Communicating Investment StatusUMT
Develop a clearer picture of your investments by using data on commodity IT investments, duplicated efforts that could be consolidated, and misaligned functionality to ultimately maximize the return on investment. Review how an efficient communication model, along with the use of the IT Dashboard and PortfolioStat, can help to maximize the value of your IT investments.
IT Financial Management Series - Part 1: Defining a Model to Effectively Run ...UMT
"This is the first part of the IT financial management series. In this webinar, Charlie Curcio, IT CFO shares his experience in defining what it means to Run the Business of IT.
On average companies spend 5% of the total operating budget on IT, increasing pressure on executives to reduce costs, communicate value and align IT investments with business priorities to drive a competitive advantage.
Today, many high performing IT organizations are adopting Integrated IT Portfolio Analysis (IIPA) best practices to effectively Run the Business of IT. Developing a holistic data model and financial framework is key to driving transparency across disparate IT domains and providing accurate and reliable metrics to enhance decision making."
Project and Portfolio Management in a Federated Governance ModelUMT
This paper describes an approach for managing budgets of complex organizations using a methodology and tools that enable prioritization and optimization of projects and programs at the corporate and division levels.
Corporate Chief Information Officers (CCIO) of large organizations often oversee technology investment programs across multiple global business and functional units. They depend on complex layers of reporting relationships (technology, operations and business managers responsible for projects and financials day-to-day within a business, geographic or product area). In the case described below business unit CIO’s (BCIO’s) are the CCIO‘s representatives within each line of business; they make the complex task of technology management possible.
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Contatto Email:worldwibebbom@gmail.com o bbomitalia.info@gmail.com
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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Portfolio Management ImplementationsUMT
Originally published in 2003, this white paper on portfolio management has stood the test of time and is still relevant in all 7 best practice areas. Although the 7 best practices remain the same, the field of portfolio management has evolved substantially. To follow are some key questions that have been answered in the last few years:
Where should I start: Process or Tools?
For IT portfolios, what is more important: APM or PPM?
Which is the right level to start: Project or Portfolio?
Has portfolio management become more widely accepted as a practice in the last three years?
Are there financial benefits to implementing portfolio management?
Technology project executions rank high on CFOs’ most worrisome risks and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) projects are among them. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of strategic ERP projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, are delayed, and exceed budgets by a long shot. While most companies avoid catastrophic ERP failures, only a few wring out the most value. For top management, failing to deliver a strategic priority is rarely an option. Given a mature ERP solutions market place and mostly competent ERP installers, why do organizations frequently stumble?
Analysis of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) with Technical aspectszillesubhan
In the past few years, the information
technology has emerged as a key driving force for
growth of business organizations. The trend of
implementing the latest tools and technologies has
reached to maximum extent. The majority of business
organizations has adopted new and innovative tools
to manage their business tasks effectively. In this
scenario, an enterprise resource planning (ERP)
system is a huge information system that
organizations implement to manage their business
tasks. This is a huge information system which links
almost all the business departments and functional
areas. This report presents a detailed analysis of an
enterprise resource planning system. The
implementation of an enterprise resource planning
system requires taking into consideration various
critical factors, which are essential to be considered
in order to make this implementation fruitful. This
report presents a detailed discussion on the
advantages provided by ERPs to business
organizations. The basic purpose of this report is to
analyze critical success factors involved in the
implementation of ERPs. This report also presents
recommendations with every factor that an
organization can follow to make best use of these
systems.
Cosmetic shop management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
Buying new cosmetic products is difficult. It can even be scary for those who have sensitive skin and are prone to skin trouble. The information needed to alleviate this problem is on the back of each product, but it's thought to interpret those ingredient lists unless you have a background in chemistry.
Instead of buying and hoping for the best, we can use data science to help us predict which products may be good fits for us. It includes various function programs to do the above mentioned tasks.
Data file handling has been effectively used in the program.
The automated cosmetic shop management system should deal with the automation of general workflow and administration process of the shop. The main processes of the system focus on customer's request where the system is able to search the most appropriate products and deliver it to the customers. It should help the employees to quickly identify the list of cosmetic product that have reached the minimum quantity and also keep a track of expired date for each cosmetic product. It should help the employees to find the rack number in which the product is placed.It is also Faster and more efficient way.
PPT contain the study of the business process management of IT industry , It mainly deals with the customer and billing system . To avoid the time of serving the customer
How to Increase the Value of the PMMMs as a Business-oriented FrameworkYasmin AbdelAziz
An organization’s effectiveness partly depends
on the success of its projects. With this in mind, many
efforts have been spent in recent decades to enhance the
project management culture, but results are still highly
unsatisfactory. Project Management Maturity Models
(PMMMs) are seen by both the academic and the
industrial communities as a solid instrument to achieve
this goal. The point at issue is that surveys and researches
show PMMMs must be better linked to business and
financial performance. The aim of this paper is to explore
the scope for improvement to evolve PMMMs as
business-oriented frameworks.
ER Publication,
IJETR, IJMCTR,
Journals,
International Journals,
High Impact Journals,
Monthly Journal,
Good quality Journals,
Research,
Research Papers,
Research Article,
Free Journals, Open access Journals,
erpublication.org,
Engineering Journal,
Science Journals,
Engineering Research Publication
Best International Journals, High Impact Journals,
International Journal of Engineering & Technical Research
ISSN : 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P)
www.erpublication.org
Similar to Proven Paradigm for Creating Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management Adoption Roadmaps That Work (20)
Tricks of the Transformation Trade: Disruptive Disintermediation, Agility Age...UMT
A vast majority of U.S multinational firms – 93% in fact, according to a recent survey – are at some stage
of undergoing or preparing for business transformation initiatives. This is being driven by an unprecedented
confluence of changes in customer behavior, disruptive technology and domestic competition, among other
key triggers. It’s constantly “transform or wither” in today’s volatile global business, and
agility is the executive imperative of the day, albeit an elusive one. An organization’s long term success or failure
depends on its capacity to consistently identify opportunities and risks and renew itself faster than rivals do.
Business leaders need to be more efficient and effective at updating and implementing strategies than ever
before. If wielded correctly, an important weapon in their agility war chest is a new style of enterprise program
management office (PMO) that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Portfolio Agility– From Elusive Imperative to Practical Reality: Seven Dimens...UMT
More efficient and effective setting and implementing of strategy can be potentially achieved by leveraging a new style of PMO that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Agility is the elusive executive imperative of the day; long term success or failure depends on an organization’s skill at identifying and capturing opportunities faster than rivals do in this volatile and global business environment.
Bridging the gap between strategy and execution and facilitating better decisions and their deployment requires a non-ad-hoc, comprehensive roadmap to laying an enterprise-wide web of information sharing and structural change that is adopted at all levels of the company.
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360: PPM + Financial Intelligence = Greater ROIUMT
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360 gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
Dianne Wyllie, Brocade: Transforming the Annual Planning ProcessUMT
Dianne Wyllie, Brocade gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
Carl Souchereau, SNC Lavalin T&D: Both Sides of the FenceUMT
Carl Souchereau, Lavalin T&D gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
Baird Miller, DOL: IT Portfolio Management in State GovernmentUMT
Baird Miller, DOL gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
Transalta: How a Power Company Saved Time and Reduced Capital Expenses Throug...UMT
TransAlta Corporation, a Canadian power generation and wholesaling company, needed to better “compare apples to apples” when selecting its portfolio of capital projects across fuel types and investment streams.
Agile businesses stay competitive by quickly realigning IT investment, capital projects, and R&D pipeline portfolios to a constantly shifting environment. Learn about the importance of accelerating knowledge and experience (the kind Captain Sully used to land on the Hudson) in making the right portfolio decisions at the right time. Sy Aslan, a 30-year veteran of consulting management and PPM, discusses:
• Balancing the goals of effectiveness versus efficiency
• The roles of strategy, governance and knowledge in decision making
• Accelerating knowledge and experience with models that enhance and simplify analytics and judgment
learn how UMT 360’s powerful Integrated Portfolio Management techniques can help you establish a financial management framework to gain transparency and improve investment decisions across your project, program and asset portfolios.
Microsoft recently announced the release of Microsoft Project 2013, the latest Project and Portfolio Management solution from Microsoft. This webinar covers the four stages of the UMT Project Portfolio Management Governance Lifecycle: Create, Select, Plan, and Manage.
Pharma Research Labs IT: Taking Hold of Resource Capacity and Demand Across P...UMT
The technology application support group of a major pharmaceutical’s R&D division is responsible for the solution de-velopment, release and support activities required to maintain existing applications and platforms. The work is per-formed by both employees and outsourced contractors located at four different sites and regions. The 150 IT staff works both on new development and support activities at any given time.
The Vice President IT in a $20B global pharmaceutical company sought to transform the organization from a reactive, order-taking organization to a strategic business partner. The company’s use of IT was lagging behind industry standards. Gaining a broad view of all existing and planned efforts was virtually impossible. Decision-making and governance of projects was decentralized and only focused on “bottom up” execution. It was also clear that IT investment levels needed to increase to support business growth. The selection of these investments became a strategic issue for the business division leaders within R&D, manufacturing, and sales. Once initiated, a critical need for consistent management of investments emerged.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
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Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
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Assuring Contact Center Experiences for Your Customers With ThousandEyes
Proven Paradigm for Creating Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management Adoption Roadmaps That Work
1. Proven Paradigm for Creating Enterprise
Project and Portfolio Management Adoption
Roadmaps That Work!
A systemic approach to uncovering EPM maturity gaps
A UMT White Paper
Gil Makleff, Founding Partner and CEO
and
Mauro Angelino, Vice President
2. <2>
Capability Maturity Assessment is one of the tools consistently leveraged by Enterprise Project and Portfolio Manage-
ment (EPM) practitioners in the creation of adoption roadmaps for organizations that are creating momentum for
change with the objective of improving internal governance. Historically, the problem has been addressed in parallel at
the Project, Program, or Portfolio levels, and in many cases the solutions devised have been independent of one anoth-
er, potentially missing on integration aspects that could greatly improve overall results. In the past couple of years, new
methodologies that attempt to encompass all three disciplines have been developed, including OPM3 from the PMI.
These integrated EPM methodologies have very logical frameworks, but they are also voluminous and typically difficult
to put in practice in the field.
In order to optimize their IT portfolio investments, organizations must move along the EPM maturity curve through the
creation of momentum for change, and the adoption of key value-added processes, technology, and governance princi-
ples. The practical problem of methodologies like OPM 3 lies in how complex it can be to derive a tailored implementa-
tion plan from such extensive sets of questions. Once an organization starts down the path of responding to vast ques-
tionnaires without an initial focus, it is easy to get lost in details, because some methodologies require responses to
over five hundred questions.
A framework recently developed by UMT helps to more efficiently reveal key EPM maturity gaps in an organization,
simplifying the creation of adoption roadmaps that tackle critical issues. Under this model, questions are organized and
answered in a two-tiered approach. A first tier of fifty three questions is used as a diagnostic tool that evaluates EPM
maturity from multiple angles, providing a much needed high-level focus. The second tier of questions, which can be
based on OPM3 from the PMI, kicks in only after practitioners have decided on the issues that should be tackled next,
gathering detailed organization information needed to create an implementable action plan. This process can be re-
peated multiple times, introducing an iterative approach that keeps implementations in check and always geared to-
wards maximum value.
In order to understand this approach, it is important to review the four dimensions of the model:
1. Three core EPM disciplines: Portfolio Management, Program Management, and Project Management. These disci-
plines require close integration, but maturity among them can differ substantially in an organization. For example,
it is not surprising to find fairly robust and repeatable project delivery methods, but with poor alignment between
project selection and business objectives, which reflects a more pronounced gap in Portfolio Management ma-
turity.
2. Four key EPM gates, ‘Create → Select → Plan → Manage,’ which encompass the end-to-end lifecycle of Enterprise
Project Management.
Create: Business goals description; business case creation; appropriate workflows.
Select: Alignment with strategy; project selection and portfolio optimization.
Plan: Project, resource, cost, and portfolio level planning.
Manage: Ongoing project tracking and reporting; portfolio realignment.
3. Three key business operational dimensions to consider for each EPM gate:
Process: What are the steps, controls, approvals?
Organization: Who is accountable and responsible for each of the process steps and technology decisions?
Technology: What analytical enablers, collaboration tools, productivity platforms, or system-driven rules are
utilized to support the Process and Organization definitions?
4. A five-point scale equivalent to the one proposed by the PMI that is used to measure organizational capability
maturity for the Process, Organization, and Technology operational dimensions:
Initial: Major maturity gaps in division and enterprise definitions.
Repeatable: Basic definitions in isolated ‘pockets’ across the organization.
3. <3>
Defined: Established definitions at the division level.
Managed: Established definitions at the division and enterprise levels.
Optimized: Established definitions at the division and enterprise levels with recognizable efforts for continuous
improvement.
The UMT Maturity Assessment Framework
The framework divides the tier one diagnostic questions into thirty six cells across Process, Organization, and Technolo-
gy dimensions within Project, Program, and Portfolio. The matrix below is the initial assessment matrix used to identify
areas of focus that may require improvement for increased EPM maturity.
The outcome of this diagnostic is a high-level ‘heat map’ that exposes the areas of strength and weakness in the organi-
zation. With the ability to zero in on the EPM maturity problem from multiple dimensions, and by focusing on the chal-
Create Select Plan Manage
Process Is a business case
required for each
project?
Is there a defined
project approval
process?
Is there a minimal
set of information
required to submit
a project approval?
Is there a process for
re-scoping projects
once their budget has
been reduced? When
these span multiple
org. units
Is there a process for
re-planning projects
based on a modified
resource availability
timeline?
Is there a process for
tracking actual vs.
planned cost and
resource utilization?
Organization Are there
approvers and
contributors
defined for each
step of the project
approval process?
Is the project
manager capable of
re-scoping the
project and analyzing
the impact?
Who re-scopes the
project when it spans
multiple
organizational units?
Is the project
manager responsible
for re-planning the
project and analyzing
the impact on the
milestones?
Is there a defined
communication line
between the
accounting unit
(tracking the actual
project expenses)
and the project
manager
(responsible for
tracking the planned
expenses)
Technology Is there a business
case (project
proposal)
template?
Is there a version
control capability to
track changes to the
business cases?
Is there a
consistently-used
project management
tool?
Is the project
management tool
used to track the
progress of the
projects?
Create Select Plan Manage
Process Do you define
business cases for
entire programs?
Is there a rollup of
project level
indicators (i.e., cost
resource, benefits)
to the program
level?
Is there a process for
re-scoping programs
once their budget has
been reduced?
Is there a process for
re-planning the
program timeline and
analyzing inter-
project dependencies
in case project
timelines have been
changed?
Is there a process for
gathering project
level issues and
identifying common
issues across the
program?
Project
Program
4. <4>
lenges that are most critical, practitioners can develop implementable EPM adoption roadmaps that are always aligned
with the specific requirements of the organization. This model is being used in its automated form by UMT to shorten
the time needed for gap definition stages, and to assist clients with development of implementation roadmaps.
Case study: Financial Services Leader
The case study centers on a Financial Services Line of Business (LOB) –a division of one of the top bank holding compa-
nies in the United States– that specializes in providing cash management solutions to domestic and international cli-
ents. Initial awareness on the need for increasing the organization’s EPM maturity was influenced by external sources.
The LOB’s Executive Committee recognized that the business environment was becoming increasingly complex as a re-
sult of two main driving forces: Mergers in the Financial Services marketplace that led to IT and Operations consolida-
tions, and continued widespread transitioning of cash transactions from traditional paper to electronic form. As the
Create Select Plan Manage
Process Is a business case
required for each
project?
Is there a defined
project approval
process?
Is there a minimal
set of information
required to submit
a project approval?
Is there a process for
re-scoping projects
once their budget has
been reduced? When
these span multiple
org. units
Is there a process for
re-planning projects
based on a modified
resource availability
timeline?
Is there a process for
tracking actual vs.
planned cost and
resource utilization?
Organization Are there
approvers and
contributors
defined for each
step of the project
approval process?
Is the project
manager capable of
re-scoping the
project and analyzing
the impact?
Who re-scopes the
project when it spans
multiple
organizational units?
Is the project
manager responsible
for re-planning the
project and analyzing
the impact on the
milestones?
Is there a defined
communication line
between the
accounting unit
(tracking the actual
project expenses)
and the project
manager
(responsible for
tracking the planned
expenses)
Technology Is there a business
case (project
proposal)
template?
Is there a version
control capability to
track changes to the
business cases?
Is there a
consistently-used
project management
tool?
Is the project
management tool
used to track the
progress of the
projects?
Create Select Plan Manage
Process Do you define
business cases for
entire programs?
Is there a rollup of
project level
indicators (i.e., cost
resource, benefits)
to the program
level?
Is there a process for
re-scoping programs
once their budget has
been reduced?
Is there a process for
re-planning the
program timeline and
analyzing inter-
project dependencies
in case project
timelines have been
changed?
Is there a process for
gathering project
level issues and
identifying common
issues across the
program?
Project
Program
5. <5>
vast majority of investments for the LOB were in the form of combined IT and Business projects, and more and more
complex merger related projects, the Executive Committee decided that their existing ad-hoc approach to project se-
lection, execution, and tracking was no longer adequate to provide them with the ability to make on-time managerial
decisions. Specifically, the key drawbacks identified were:
Inability to review and assess all incoming project proposals adequately, as the number and complexity of re-
quests continued to increase.
Disjoint and inconsistent approach to investment and funding allocation decisions.
Tendency to put merger-related activities atop the priority list regardless of business value.
Weak ability to evaluate projects in different funding buckets such as: Discretionary, mandate, and corporate initi-
atives.
Inconsistent and incomplete managerial reporting with widely varying formats.
Other important weaknesses in the areas of Plan and Manage.
In order to tackle these challenges, the Executive Committee decided to launch an effort to improve the organization’s
maturity in the Enterprise Project and Portfolio management space. Their rationale was that a better framework would
provide more consistent and efficient decision making capabilities, which would in turn lead to improved business re-
sults. The first step in their mind was the establishment of a Program Management Office (PMO) for the LOB, and the
effort started with a relatively modest set of success criteria for measuring increased EPM maturity that included:
Implementation of metrics to evaluate the degree of alignment between project proposals and business goals.
Ability to leverage PMO recommendations for capital allocation.
On-time delivery of critical managerial reporting related to decision making.
The detailed account in the case study that follows is structured according to the diagram below. In State Zero and be-
fore the PMO was formally organized, an initial Capability Maturity Assessment was taken by the implementation’s
Core Working Team, leading to the scope of work included in Phase One. The same pattern repeated for each of the
States. After each Phase of work was completed, the Capability Maturity Assessment was updated, and findings were
utilized to determine the activities of the subsequent phase.
State Zero: ‘Before PMO’
Before the PMO was introduced there was a sub optimal, ad hoc approach to funding projects. Ideas were typically
generated by business side executives or mid level managers focused in product areas under their control, and they
were approved or rejected individually at the Executive Committee level, and assigned to Project Managers for execu-
tion before seeing the entire portfolio. The scoping of business cases was performed by Business personnel working
with representatives from the IT and Operations worlds. The processes that these project creation teams followed for
project scoping and definition were weak, and the resulting proposals were often heavily influenced by the ‘vision’ of
the Executive who was backing the idea. Major issues would typically surface late in project execution, when the Execu-
tive Committee, hearing about substantial implementation problems from mid level managers, would request status
reports at a stage where much of the damage had already been done, and remediation was much more difficult.
State Zero:
‘Before PMO’
State One:
‘Emerging PMO’
State Two:
‘Evolving PMO’
State Three:
‘Mature PMO’
Phase One Phase Two Phase Three
6. <6>
Equally important problems were also evident in the area of project selection. The general lack of structure in which
projects were approved never allowed the Executive Committee to understand the ‘big picture’ of all proposals, or to
assess a relative evaluation of these ideas prior to making funding decisions. Yearly budgets were arbitrarily sectioned
by the Executive Committee in different categories of spend, and when funds in one category ‘ran out’, investments in
that area were simply stopped. On many occasions, projects that were not presented at the right time or that did not
have exceptional political backing were dismissed or severely delayed regardless of their contribution to business ob-
jectives for the planning period.
Many of the topics identified through Capability Maturity Assessment spanned multiple areas, leading to widespread
scores of ‘Initial’ maturity. This analysis led the PMO team to identify specific issues related to the gap areas that were
perceived as most important for creating positive momentum for change. There was a clear understanding that driving
maturity was an iterative process, and that short-term wins were critical to enable longer term, more radical changes
to the end-to-end process. This translated into a phased deployment focused on specific improvements that was later
to be tied under the umbrella of a comprehensive and streamlined governance framework. The following key maturity
assessment topics were identified in the gap analysis. Addressing these topics in a priority order was the focus of the
first and all subsequent phases.
Diagnostic summary and maturity levels assessment for ‘Before PMO:’
7. <7>
1. Reporting and Analytics:
Poor managerial information.
Weak Enterprise Project and Portfolio analytics, and scenario development capabilities.
Difficulty in obtaining and grasping metrics for a project portfolio of increased size and complexity.
2. Alignment KPI’s:
Lack of sound and systematic alignment between overall business strategy and projects receiving funding.
3. Structure, Ownership, and Accountability:
Lack of clear ownership and accountability in early phases of project submission.
Lack of clearly defined steps and actions for different types of projects in the organization.
4. Early detection of issues:
Weak ongoing tracking of selected projects causing late issue identification.
5. Prioritization:
Difficulty in prioritizing initiatives, with a clear tendency to put merger-related activities atop the priority list.
Problems attempting to understand and give differential treatment to specific types of projects.
6. Transparency across silos:
New project requests only influenced by specific silo business area needs.
7. EPM software platform:
Lack of a centralized online repository for Portfolio and Project data entry and analysis.
Phase One
In the beginning, the newly appointed PMO team decided to apply the reengineering principle of starting process im-
provement at the source, focusing on project initiation as the first aspect to be targeted. There was a strong perception
that organization maturity could only advance if the creation of project proposals and allocation of funds were per-
formed in a much more systematic way. The first initiative was to introduce a set of changes expected to increase
control and visibility over the LOB’s project requests. The drive to focus on standardization of processes surrounding
project inception was identified as the one that would yield the most momentum in the short term for a number of
reasons:
Planning season was approaching, and robust standards for business case creation would coincide with the Exec-
utive Committee’s needs.
It would be easier to encourage participation from stakeholders because the process was known to be both criti-
cal and deficient in its current state.
As process definitions were still on an infant stage, the Core Working Team decided for an initial first step in the
right direction, avoiding the temptation of throwing unfocused Technology dollars at the problem.
Additionally, this decision was also expected to address some of the issues identified in the first gap analysis, including
ownership and accountability, fitting the level of effort to a project’s potential return, and setting an initial basis for fu-
ture standardization of reporting.
Key Maturity Assessment Topics:
8. <8>
Phase One Actions and Results
The two fundamental changes implemented during this stage were:
1. A formal four-step workflow was defined for all project requests, with a go / no-go decision – still on a project-by-
project basis– performed at the end of each lifecycle step.
2. The ‘Project Manager’ responsibilities were divided into two separate roles. Team leaders who managed projects
during execution retained the traditional title ‘Project Manager’, but an equivalent role was introduced to accom-
pany proposals from inception and through the launch of project execution, leading to a ‘Project Portfolio Man-
ager’ position within the PMO. As a result, early cross-functional work among Business, IT, and Operations was
formalized and made more fluid, leading to higher quality business cases being turned to the Executive Com-
mittee for approval.
Despite the initial success and buy-in, the PMO team understood that the task had just started, and that many more
changes were required before the Executive Committee and the LOB would truly benefit from the structural chang-
es. Cross-functional coordination improved and teams were able to provide better estimates for project proposals, but
the PMO’s initiative achieved little progress in other key areas like managerial information or strategic alignment. Many
of the gaps previously uncovered by the Capability Maturity Assessment had not yet been properly addressed. Only a
more comprehensive solution was going to allow the PMO to create momentum for change. The work completed in
this phase was a first positive step, but progress would soon be deemed insufficient if more actions were not taken to
provide additional transparency and support for the process. The PMO recognized this threat and immediately initiated
another review of the Capability Maturity Assessment framework in order to focus on resolving additional gaps.
1. Reporting and Analytics:
Better project analytics were made available by early Cross-Functional Teams, but problems persisted at the LOB
level because of the lack of a common data platform.
2. Alignment KPI’s:
No progress made in terms of systematically aligning business strategy and selected projects.
3. Structure, Ownership, and Accountability:
Initial progress as a result of the launch of new process definitions.
4. Early detection of issues:
Better forecasting reduced the number of implementation issues, but the organization’s ability to identify them
quickly as they surfaced did not improve.
5. Prioritization:
The increased cross-functional work and more organized project workflow allowed for better identification of
‘bad’ ideas, but no progress was achieved around presenting a ‘big picture’ to the Executive Committee.
6. Transparency across silos:
Decisions were still made on a project-by-project basis and largely within silos.
7. EPM software platform:
Very limited progress made around leveraging a centralized data repository for analysis and reporting.
Idea
Generation
Business
Justification
Conceptual
Design
Project
Execution
Key Maturity Assessment Topics:
9. <9>
Diagnostic summary and maturity levels assessment for ‘Emerging PMO:’
Phase Two
After completing the workflow integration and introducing processes with initial Portfolio and Project Manager respon-
sibilities, the PMO decided to move forward with a pilot effort centered on the phased implementation of best practic-
es in IT Portfolio Management selection. The scope of work centered on developing the initial processes for selec-
tion of project proposals. The process could be ‘plugged in’ as part of the imminent yearly budgeting cycle for the LOB,
allowing the Executive Committee to ‘test the waters’ with a methodology that was supportive of management’s trans-
parency needs. This focus enabled the PMO to communicate with the entire LOB on the scope for the phase, allowing it
to start extending its influence, and also beginning to deliver more impactful results stemming from the efforts that all
stakeholders were undertaking.
Phase Two Actions and Results
The three fundamental changes implemented during this stage were:
1. Define and prioritize Business Drivers. A Core Working Team of multiple constituencies under the direct supervi-
sion of the Executive Committee was tasked with creating a set of actionable and measurable Business Drivers
that would become the framework of reference for the selection of projects across the LOB.
<9>
10. <10>
2. Gather data for project proposals and evaluate impact on Business Drivers. KPIs and impact measure brackets
were objectively defined for each Business Driver, eliminating ambiguity around how to assess the contribution of
project proposals to the overall business strategy. Cross functional teams gathered this critical data for all pro-
jects and maintained it in a centralized database.
3. Provide project selection recommendations. Through a series of presentations to the Executive Committee that
introduced topics such as sensitivity and efficient frontier analyses, the Core Working Team demonstrated the
type of capital allocation decision-making that IT Portfolio Management capabilities enable.
The new processes developed by the Core Working Team during this pilot phase became the cornerstone of the budg-
eting cycle effort. Maturity increased swiftly to a level in which the PMO processes became more valuable, beginning to
tie all components into a cohesive whole. Specifically, the pilot was highly successful because of a number of very no-
ticeable improvements:
The Executive Committee was finally able to get the ‘big picture’ view of all projects in the pipeline
They PMO was able to provide immediate answers to critical questions as the Executive Committee explored deci-
sions and evaluated what-if scenarios
The Executive Committee was able to review the funding allocation to each strategic objective relative to the orig-
inal importance of the objective. Were they actually spending according to the importance they dictated?
Executive Committee sessions that helped prioritize business drivers turned into very informative facilitated con-
versations that allowed participants to understand perceptions of the organization strategy from different func-
tional perspectives
As the best structured budgeting cycle in recent memory came to an end, the Executive Committee felt the new pro-
cesses could provide them with a framework to support their decision making needs across all areas of the LOB. They
were impressed enough to commit to a full rollout of the EPM Portfolio Management framework, and to incorporate
the practices as part of the ‘business-as-usual’ operations of the LOB. Once again, Capability Maturity Assessment was
instrumental for the PMO in the process of identifying areas of maximum value for drafting the next phase of work.
1. Reporting and Analytics:
• Greatly improved project portfolio analytics, what-if, and sensitivity analysis capabilities.
2. Alignment KPI’s:
• One-time effort in aligning the portfolio selection with the LOB’s strategic goals.
3. Structure, Ownership, and Accountability:
• Swiftly improved visibility and accountability as a result of much better information backing the decisions.
4. Early detection of issues:
• As maturity gains were still not incorporated as part of ‘business-as-usual’ activities, there was still a lot of value to
realize in this area.
5. Prioritization:
• Systematic use of an EPM solution for scenario analysis, and funding allocation decision making.
6. Transparency across silos:
• Ability to leverage a single framework to prioritize initiatives across the entire LOB, eliminating cross-functional
team silos.
7. EPM software platform:
• Ability to leverage a unique project data repository, although not opened yet to the entire user base of the organ-
ization.
Key Maturity Assessment Topics:
11. <11>
Phase Three
As the Executive Committee experienced the potential of IT Portfolio Management capabilities, it instructed the PMO
to bring continuity to this new approach. Although the solution had been satisfactorily ‘plugged in’ to the budgeting
process, there was still plenty of room for driving increased maturity. In particular, the Executive Committee indicated
the following needs:
Incorporate the IT Portfolio Management practices into the ‘rhythm of the business,’ so that the generation of
proposals under this framework would turn into a continuous process at least partially independent of budgeting
cycles.
Given the high number of projects requests that they faced per quarter, the new capabilities should assist to per-
form a quarterly recalibration of the portfolio that would take into account both new and in-flight project pro-
posals.
Continue the progression towards online and on-demand reports. Up to this point, the software solution sup-
porting IT Portfolio Management was still being managed by the PMO team, and in order to allow for online re-
porting, the platform had to be rolled out and adopted by hundreds of users.
Diagnostic summary and maturity levels assessment for ‘Evolving PMO:’
12. <12>
In response to the Executive Committee’s requests, the PMO’s focus was to set the basis for a periodic and system-
atic utilization of IT Portfolio Management methodologies. The level of effort for the one-time analysis supporting the
planning cycle had been high, and the next key challenge was to smoothly incorporate the capabilities developed
during that effort into the regular day-to-day operations of the LOB.
Phase Three Actions and Results
The three fundamental changes implemented during this stage were:
1. Configure the EPM framework technology solution and rolling it out to the LOB’s entire user base. In a series of
configuration working sessions, the Core Working Team focused on fully assembling the solution according to the
specific needs of the LOB. Attributes for project definition and tracking were discussed and defined, users with
different levels of access specified, and role-based training was provided to all users.
2. Launch project portfolio quarterly calibration. A new Selection step was added to the existing project workflow,
in which all initiative requests submitted during the previous ninety days competed for funding among them-
selves and against all projects already in design and execution stages.
3. Provide key process definitions. Based on prevailing IT Portfolio Management best practices, the Core Working
Team established and documented processes, frequency of events, and roles, increasing the LOB’s knowledge
base and allowing it to become self-sufficient.
The results of this phase were fundamental to maintaining momentum and ensuring widespread adoption at all levels:
The software platform was successfully rolled out to several hundred users, who were provided role-based train-
ing according to their specific functions
Quarterly calibrations became the standard framework of reference for the Executive Committee to evaluate
and approve projects. Any idea introduced as an investment proposal was forced to sit for forty five days on aver-
age, and was evaluated on a quarterly basis against ideas from other groups. And in the case of truly exceptional
proposals that needed immediate consideration, what-if scenarios on the current portfolio were still used to sup-
port the decision making.
The periodic prioritization of drivers became a sought after forum in which executives were able to discuss the
organization strategy in terms of the project investments, allowing everybody to voice their perspectives and to
reach decisions based on facts rather than emotions
The quarterly recalibration became a governance tool that greatly increased collaboration at the Executive Com-
mittee level, and the insight provided by the framework created the basis for moving forward on the overall organiza-
tion maturity in other areas of EPM.
1. Reporting and Analytics:
• Continued use of advanced project portfolio analytics, with increased availability of historical data from previous
periods.
2. Alignment KPI’s:
• Portfolio selection aligned with strategic goals, plus the ability to revisit this framework periodically, either before
each planning period or when triggered by specific business events (e.g. acquisitions).
Idea
Generation
Business
Justification
Project
Execution
Conceptual
Design
Selection
Key Maturity Assessment Topics:
13. <13>
3. Structure, Ownership, and Accountability:
• Steady progress as the new processes continued to sink in after several quarterly iterations.
4. Early detection of issues:
• Greatly increased ability for the Executive Committee to identify implementation problems and introduce correc-
tive actions.
5. Prioritization:
• Calibrating the portfolio using a combination of Actuals & Forecast financials allowed to adjust the number of se-
lected projects every quarter based on budgetary constraints, also taking into account observed under or over-
spending effects.
6. Transparency across silos:
• Full online visibility of all LOB initiatives, ranging from ideas in early inception to projects in post implementation
and benefits realization.
7. EPM software platform:
Centralized data repository used by an extended user base for data gathering and querying.
Diagnostic summary and maturity levels assessment for ‘Mature PMO:’
14. Conclusion
Capability Maturity Assessment is a valuable tool in the definition of phased roadmaps towards EPM success, and a
tiered approach simplifies the process of turning the analysis into practical results, allowing for quick hits and long
term results. Within UMT’s automated model, questions in tier one provide a high level framework of reference that
helps to define the problem, and questions in tier two collect the detailed information needed to define exactly what
needs to be done next. Iterations that leverage this approach in multiple phases provide focus to the EPM implemen-
tation, keeping it always geared towards areas of maximum value. In the case study described, the LOB fully em-
braced the IT Portfolio Management methodologies defined by the Core Working Team and UMT, and the LOB’s
PMO was soon asked to deploy these practices into a higher and broader spectrum of the organization. Excellent re-
sults were achieved by pinpointing areas of maximum value at each step of the EPM maturity curve, and developing
implementation phases that always tackle the key issues at hand.
The case study reviewed does not describe the complete process of introducing end-to-end EPM maturity in organi-
zations. Instead, it is a real life account of a process that was extremely valuable to one organization in particular.
Initially at low level of EPM maturity, the organization leveraged Capability Maturity Assessment to pragmatically
select areas of improvement and adopt best practices that led to immediate business results. Over time, their pro-
cess continued to improve across all areas in the maturity assessment, and they are currently in a continuous im-
provement state, as they continue to rely on quarterly portfolio calibrations and ongoing tracking of activities. The
tools utilized to support the methodology are the Microsoft® Enterprise Project Management Solution, which in-
cludes the Microsoft® Project Portfolio Server, Microsoft® Project Server, Microsoft® Project Professional, and Mi-
crosoft® Windows SharePoint Services.
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