As understood in PfMP and PMP Course online - the necessity for a project portfolio management tool is often determined by the size of the organization, its customer base, the sorts of projects it undertakes, and the sizes of the projects it undertakes over time. In an ideal world, any PPM could serve the organization and meet all of the real-world requirements for a portfolio management tool in order to best align project executions with the organization's goals and missions – including changing goals and missions – for optimal project performance, prioritization, and delivery?
Let's explore the big
picture wish list — what a PPM should be – with that in mind. I've outlined
five of these concepts below, as well as why most PPM solutions fail to deliver
what a business truly requires from a PPM solution in order to be genuinely
effective,
1.
Ability to break down business strategies.
Any business plan must
be broken down into several portfolios and organizations for a solid PPM to
work. Most offerings fail horribly in terms of flexibility and
user-friendliness. These two notions should be at the forefront of every PPM
software design, but most fail to do so.
2.
Dynamic
Prioritization.
It's a standard
feature of most wish lists. Users should also be able to fund and staff
activities and actions based on strategic goals, budgets, and resources
available. As understood in PfMP and PMP Course
online - this feature should be included out of the box in order for
PPM to be what you want it to be, but it isn't.
3.
Not be tied down to
waterfall or Agile.
Without being bound
into either, the ideal PPM should allow you to plan work and schedule your
resources in a regular or agile mode. Ideally, a PPM solution should provide
the flexibility that your company will require throughout your whole project
portfolio.
4.
Provide a bird's-eye
view of the project's landscape from a high vantage point.
A fully functional PM
should be able to dynamically adjust execution and progress on several
dimensions, as well as identify potential gaps with the initial targets.
High-level views and wide-angle views of your projects at a glance allowing you to
make better decisions for the entire portfolio of projects you're working on at
any given time... and this is what a good PPM solution is all about.
Regrettably, this is still another major flaw in most top PPM solutions.
5.
Realignment with
changing organizational directions.
Returning to
flexibility, the PPM must be able to re-align... on a regular basis... with the
organization's changing direction and needs. It's how it handles these
adjustments with the expanding and changing portfolio swiftly and efficiently,
without requiring a lot of redesigns, reconfiguration, or re-work, that
indicates "will it actually work for your needs?" With 95 percent of
the PPM offerings on the table currently, the answer is "no" in the
vast majority of circumstances.
Want to learn more
about the same? Take on program
and project management courses online today!