Powering Project Portfolio Management Into the Cloud
Project management in and of itself is a complex process. When an organization’s responsibilities include oversight for an entire portfolio, the process becomes even more sophisticated.
Why? Because the goals of project portfolio management (PPM) have to layer in scheduling, delivering, operations, and financial considerations, just for starters, while also keeping a focus on customer relationship management and external real-world factors.
Using a cloud-based interface adds additional degrees of complexity. Here are some factors for small- to mid-sized companies that may be tackling this management strategy for the first time.
Essential buyer’s guide for PPM
Getting the lowdown on the terminology and basic best practices used by other companies in your field is recommended. As one the top on-demand PPM solutions firms, Daptiv is a good place to start.
Their Essential Buyer’s Guide for PPM is a free download guide that will walk you through business justifications, assessments on your company’s maturity level, and industry trends and solutions for today’s digital age.
Setting priorities
You should decide on which initiatives are best aligned with the company’s mission statement and basic principles at the outset. According to InformationWeek contributor Frank J. DeLuca, “even with an engaged executive team, you will still need a PPM champion,” who should be an IT leader ideally, since a number of the initiatives will be technologically based.
To the cloud, my friend, to the cloud
Cloud-based project management has been inevitable for some time now. Cloud-oriented solutions are easier to manage because it’s there where a company can manage Big Data and take advantage of web-based scheduling tools that are no longer dependent on a single platform — and can also interface with evolving mobile environments.
Some of the tools PPM teams should consider are Microsoft’s Project Online with Office 365, ProjectManager.com, Write, Gantter, LiquidPlanner, and AtTask.
Accessing APIs in the cloud
Addressing API needs as they pertain to security, flexibility, scalability, performance, governance, and interoperability will indicate options for you that are currently available in the cloud. Andi Mann’s post, titled “Harness APIs to Deliver Competitive Applications in the ‘Cloud of Clouds,'” is a wee bit too detailed for the beginner, but it’s full of valuable information that pertains to APIs in the cloud.
According to Mann, if you do a formal analysis of your portfolio, you should be able to the cloud service that would be the best for your needs. It may not be one of the “usual suspects” such as Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Force.com, or Google App/Compute Engine.
As 2013 winds down and 2014 looms, it’s a perfect time to start something new. For small-to-mid-size firms, getting involved in PPM right away will point you in the right direction to become more competitive in the years to come.
If you don’t jump on board, you’ll see you’ve missed the boat as the blogosphere generates more analysis pertaining to the management of Big Data. Good luck, and happy sailing into those clouds.
