Open Source Project Management – The Key to Project Success

As a company grows larger and becomes more diverse in its operations, it may begin to experience a variety of growing pains. Entrepreneurs often discover that separate departments or business units are working on similar projects which results in waste of resources and costs.

Within a large organization, two groups might find that they are working on projects that contradict or compete with each other. Even after these situations are figured out, it can take weeks or months to reorder and strategist the overall direction the company wants to proceed with.

Then what’s the solution? Enterprise Project Management or EPM.

What is EPM?

To understand what EPM is and why it’s important, it’s better to take a step back and consider the definition of project management.

Wikipedia says, “Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.”

However, a company involved in multiple projects, each focused on a unique goal with a specific deadline, needs a way to organize and direct those projects. That’s where Enterprise Project Management comes into play.

EPM refers to the way of managing projects on a company-wide scale. It involves implementing various strategies and processes focused on streamlining and improving the effectiveness of the company’s portfolio.

What Makes EPM Different?

Traditional project management tactics focus on seeing one specific project from beginning to end, with a defined & measurable objective.

EPM puts the focus on enterprise, prioritizing its business goals, and managing & grouping projects to ensure they meet those organizational objectives.

The end objective isn’t necessarily a successfully completed project rather implementing a vision of strategic value to the organization.

An enterprise project management approach involves grouping individual projects into programs and viewing the sum of projects & programs as a portfolio. Many companies use the term as ‘Enterprise Program Management‘ and ‘Project Portfolio Management‘. Regardless of how your company refers to it, enterprise project, program, or portfolio management can take your business to the next level.

What Makes EPM Successful?

Adopting EPM can help a company take a more strategic approach to its budget, resource allocation & utilization, and operations. Before choosing this approach, a company should ensure that it has the following key pieces in place;

1. Skilled Project Managers:

It’s essential that project managers can effectively convey the vision, implement ideas, resolve issues, and achieve goals as well as create reports and presentations, among other skills. The must-have skills for project managers include – communication, leadership, team management, collaboration, risk management, and quick decision making.

For more information about what makes a project manager qualified, check out this post.

2. Advanced Project Management Software:

No one person, or even a group of resources, can keep dozens of interrelated projects on track without strong technical support. Today’s best project management tools, like Orangescrum help managers, track the timeliness, budget, and resource needs of multiple projects at once.

3. Watch out for Scope Creep:

Scope creep- the uncontrolled extension of a project’s scope and requirements- is the worst enemy of a project manager. You can prevent scope creep by being familiar with the initial statement of work, and using it to identify any changes to what was decided upon at the beginning of the project.

When scope changes are necessary, follow a formal change order process. It ensures that your project budget and timeline are adjusted to cover the additional requirements.

4. Proper Resource Allocation & Utilization:

Successful project management depends on allocating team members to do their jobs effectively. But this can be difficult at an enterprise level as most employees are required to work on multiple projects at the same time. Being a project manager, you should monitor resource workloads effectively so that your team members are available when you need them.

What are the major challenges of EPM?

When your enterprise is managing complex, large-scale efforts made up of simultaneously running projects, you may face difficulties such as:

1. Demands Vs. Resource:

One of the most common challenges faced by organizations is the lack of resources who are able to manage a project portfolio. Along with that their availability is also vital. Basically, the company’s project managers are usually busy with the day-to-day needs of major projects. For which they don’t have enough time to devote to strategic considerations.

Lack of resources or sharing the same resources across multiple projects is challenging for project managers across organizations. Misallocation of resources in terms of manpower, tools, etc. to one project manager can lead to portfolio management challenges when he/she is managing multiple projects at the same time.

That’s why Resource management is vital. It helps the project management team in effective resource allocation to ensure successful project completion. On the other hand, most of the time senior executives don’t go in details of specific projects. Hence, the result comes to a hectic end where many resources are overloaded with tasks and some other resources stay owned by no one.

2. Too Many Projects to Target:

Hands up if you are managing multiple projects at once? Yes, I thought so!

One of the major challenges arises when there are a number of projects needed to be worked upon at the same time. Sometimes one project manager has to handle multiple projects at a time which can lead to Portfolio management challenges such as failure in project delivery, lack of focus, etc.

Managing one project is tricky. Managing multiple projects is so much harder than that. If that sounds familiar, here are some suggestions to help you better plan and manage your multiple projects at once.

• Create standardized and reusable project plan templates
• Keep your plan up to date
• Avoid micromanagement
• Prioritize your tasks
• Review your workload regularly
• Track your project progress
• Be flexible
• Stay organized
• Use an all-in-one project management tool

Though managing multiple projects do seem like an uphill task, but you can overcome it with these simple yet powerful tips 😉

3. Project and Portfolio Funding:

Effective portfolio management requires careful alignment of strategic goals, well-managed projects, and funding sources. Companies must ensure that sufficient finance is available for their important initiatives and they also need to identify those projects that are losing money or failing to deliver the expected output.

In order to get the expected ROI, an organization must have a clearly defined strategy. Once the strategy is in place, an organization is in a better position to determine how much should be invested in each project. Along with that, detailed financial reporting is important for identifying areas for improvement and measuring success.

For better financial management, you can go for Orangescrum’s FREE tutorial on ‘Budgeting & Cost Control’

Benefits of Enterprise Project Management

Despite the fact that roughly 25% of the gross domestic product of developed nations is spent on or through projects, PMI points out that there is often a lack of alignment among projects within an organization, resulting in duplication, wasted effort, missed opportunities, inconsistent decision making and other hurdles.

Organizations and project managers need to ensure all projects are strategically focused on their business objectives in order to be successful.

Villanova University explains “EPM can identify when projects conflict or duplicate efforts, and they can recognize underfunded projects that might present an opportunity for the organization.” Also, the university cites a potential 20% increase in profits for organizations that employ an EPM system.

Additional benefits of enterprise project management are:

• High-quality output
• Improved productivity
• Proactive resource management
• Reduced project risks
• Enhanced reliability of delivery

Potential Benefits of Adopting Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Software

5 Must Have Add-ons to Power up Your Orangescrum Community Version

Conclusion:

It may sound complicated, but enterprise project management software helps project managers take control of the most complex projects and programs. If you can leverage its benefits and capabilities, your projects are more likely to succeed.

Keep your company organized, optimize resource utilization and leverage consistent rise in productivity with the help of Orangescrum project and portfolio management software.

Key Takeaway:

• EPM is built for large-scale projects, but it is equally helpful for small projects as well.
• EPM allows project managers to view projects in detail.
• Business intelligence and advanced, customized dashboards are common components of EPM tools.
• EPM encourages clear communication between workers, project management professionals and executives.

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