Demand Management [download pdf]

Demand management offers a unified view of all work in a central location. Its purpose is to quickly help organizations gain visibility into projects and operational activities; standardize and streamline data collection; enhance decision making; and subject initiatives to the appropriate governance controls throughout their life cycles.

Schedule Management [download pdf]

The schedule is the most representative element of a project, and the Gantt chart is its most recognizable visual representation. The schedule is the blueprint of the project—it represents the tasks and deliverables that need to be completed to deliver the project on time. In addition, the schedule provides project teams with a map for project execution and delivers a baseline for tracking progress and managing change.

Resource Management [download pdf]

In today's competitive and changing markets, organizations are looking to maximize return on investment (ROI) and drive efficiencies to sustain the business and support future growth. Resources are arguably an organization’s most valuable asset and potentially its biggest expense. Proper management and optimal use of resources is key for an organization to realize its business strategy. With intelligent resource management, an organization can develop and retain a world-class workforce.

Portfolio Selection and Analytics [download pdf]

In uncertain economic times, many executives are being asked to do more with less. Pressure to reduce or maintain budgets is driving sharper scrutiny of discretionary spending, and increases the importance of effectively identifying, selecting, and delivering project portfolios that best align with an organization’s business strategy and that maximize ROI. Best-practice portfolio selection techniques provide a handshake between value optimization—that is, alignment with business priorities and maximizing return on investment (ROI)—and resource utilization, or understanding resource capabilities and availability. Together, they help Project Management Offices (PMOs) recommend not only which projects to undertake, but to forecast when projects can be delivered.

Financial Management [download pdf]

Pressure to reduce or maintain budgets is driving sharper scrutiny of discretionary spending, and increases the importance of effectively identifying and delivering project portfolios that best align with an organization's business strategy and that maximize return on investment (ROI). This additional scrutiny reinforces the importance of adopting best-practice financial management processes to improve cost and benefit estimating, and effectively tracking cost performance to ensure that each project is delivered within budget and that the portfolio realizes the forecasted benefits. In addition, providing project accounting views can be a challenge when financial data is spread across multiple line-of-business (LOB) systems.

Time and Task Management [download pdf]

Today more than ever, organizations need accurate, up-to-date information to make informed business decisions. Many organizations use time reporting systems to capture work and nonworking time for payroll, invoicing, and other business purposes. Similarly, project managers need to efficiently capture and communicate status on project work to help gauge progress and to anticipate the effect on planned effort, cost, and timeframes. Although the type and source of information is similar, divergent uses and requirements make it difficult for organizations to have a centralized and common approach to time reporting and task management.

Team Collaboration [download pdf]

In traditional project management, focus has always been on project schedule, budget, work, scope, and the quality of deliverables. Team collaboration, however, is the backbone that supports and drives overall project success and execution effectiveness. Team collaboration has evolved over the past decade from informal techniques into a recognized discipline that helps organizations more effectively find and share information. In turn, tools that support collaboration have evolved from the early concept of a shared server to the sophistication of solutions like Microsoft¨ SharePoint¨ Server 2010.

Business Intelligence and Reporting [download pdf]

With an immense amount of data located in a variety of systems, one of the great challenges organizations face is how to collect, categorize, understand, and make decisions about project data. Conventional reporting offers tools and methods for collecting, aggregating, displaying, and communicating data. Business Intelligence (BI) takes that concept to the next level by providing visibility and helping organizations with decision support for proactive work management.

Administration, Scalability, and Extensibility [download pdf]

When vetting PPM solutions, evaluation committees will assess competing products from a business perspective, but also through an IT lens. PPM solutions must score well in both categories to be successful, by ensuring that a product’s functionality meets business requirements, and that it aligns with the organization’s IT requirements and enterprise architecture strategy.