by Tris Brown, President & CEO, LSA Global
What is the next step in Project Management? Once clients have seen the positive effect that sound project management practices and technologies can have on their businesses, they often ask how to raise results to the next level. We call this next step Enterprise Project Management (EPM).
What is Enterprise Project Management? Here’s what our Project Management expert recently had to say on the subject.
What is Enterprise Project Management?
Enterprise Project Management applies the principles of project management to an entire organization in order to more effectively allocate key resources among various projects critical to the organization as a whole. This approach includes three levels. (1) Project selection (or portfolio management), (2) Program management (coordinating assets and personnel among multiple projects) and (3) Classic project management.
To be able to take advantage of EPM, your organization needs to have four basic enabling components:
1. People: Individuals with the right skills and knowledge.
2. Process: A solid practice for portfolio, program, and project management.
3. Organization: A Project Management Office or individual responsible for overseeing EPM in your company.
4. Technology: Proven systems that enable the capture, exchange, and management of information that makes high-impact EPM possible.
In business, technology and business practices seem to frequently play leapfrog: technology responds to the demands of leading practitioners which allows other practitioners to catch up, which spurs thought leaders to innovate, which leads technology to evolve again. The good news for projects is that Technology for EPM has finally come into its own. 2007 marks the introduction of two technological advances that we think are significant.
For purposes of this paper, we are taking a look at the technology aspect of the EPM Model. The two advances are an on-demand project and portfolio platform and MS Project Server 2007.
1. On-Demand Project and Portfolio Platform
Robust on-demand project and portfolio management and collaboration technology platforms have been recently released into the marketplace. They typically deploy in a few days and have a tangible and immediate impact on the way an organization manages projects and portfolios. These systems enable clients to immediately and consistently manage projects using accepted best practices and web-based technology.
We’ve integrated these systems into our instructor-led Project Management Fundamentals workshop to allow for a more scaleable and “implementable” solution.
2. Microsoft Project Server 2007
Set to launch this fall, Microsoft Project Server 2007 is destined to do for EPM what MS Project did for project management - create a whole new generation of adopters. As government and industry leaders adopt Microsoft’s radically upgraded EPM solution, there will a tremendous demand for end-user-focused training. To meet this demand, we are releasing a role-based training kit.
Our goal is to supply all users of Microsoft Project and Project Server with a high-quality, high-impact Project Server 2007 EPM training resource.
If you would like to learn how LSA Global has used our project assessment and management expertise to successfully help organizations implement EPM and take project management to the next level, please contact us directly.
