adminvendors from as far as the UK, India, South Africa and Botswana are invading Zimbabwean companies daily offering their expertise.
Organisations can benefit considerably from improving the processes used to select and manage projects, but “caveat emptor”, let the buyer beware.
“Much of the current advice on project management is incomplete, inexact, or flat-out wrong for the immature Zimbabwe project management environment,” said a project management professional, Henry Mkhwananzi, who is attached to Econet Wireless.
Available software provides good data management and reporting capabilities, but most current programmes lack sound algorithms for identifying optimal project portfolios.
Making the wrong project recommendations is worse than making no recommendations at all.
The weak link for tools is the decision model used to value and compare projects.
PMIZ has carried out research on the various best practice project management software tools that are used globally that may be part of consideration by local project managers.
Today we identify these available tools, describe their characteristics and criteria for evaluating them.
Before purchasing a tool, potential buyers are advised to familiarise themselves with established theories for valuing projects and to reject tools that cannot be properly tailored to correctly apply these theories to their situations.
Armed with understanding, organisations can avoid being “burnt” by unsuitable project management solutions.
Available Tools
Because the market for tools for project portfolio management is evolving and growing rapidly, it is impossible to maintain a complete and up-to-date list of tools and capabilities.
As indicated, there are more than 50 options to choose from. Don’t assume that the products are similar.
Some have been around for many years and show their age. Some are “beta versions” and may not be fully debugged nor have all advertised features.
Price tags vary considerably. The more expensive products don’t always offer more capability.
Inexpensive products are low cost for good reason. Be sure to explore options before making a purchase.
Use the list and information presented here as starting points for making inquiries and collecting information.
The “Focus” column may help initial screening, but the tools differ in so many dimensions that it is impossible to fairly summarise their distinguishing characteristics in just a few words.
Product updates are announced almost weekly, and software capabilities can change significantly as new versions are introduced.
Also, competition is fierce, and some vendors are experiencing cash flow problems.
Larger companies are acquiring others. In short, if you are a prospective buyer, do your homework.
Be sure to understand the underlying architecture of the tool. This includes not just software, hardware, and integration issues, but also knowing how the tool does what it does and how much flexibility really exists.
“Work around” usually mean large hidden costs. Simplicity may seem like a plus, but organisations quickly outgrow tools that can’t accommodate improvements in understanding and capability to do project portfolio management.
Be sceptical. A large fraction of the companies describe themselves in marketing materials as the “leading provider” of project management software.
As one vendor told me: “We would never tell a prospective customer that someone else has a better tool for their application.”
Each organisation has its own needs, and it is not easy to translate product specifications into an understanding of how well a given product will serve those needs.
Importantly, it is virtually impossible to determine from websites and marketing materials how the tools value or prioritise projects.
Many packages advertised as supporting portfolio management actually have very little functionality for evaluating or prioritising project portfolios.
Before purchasing a product, consider obtaining help from knowledgeable and independent advisors such as PMIZ.
We may help you to avoid costly mistakes by suggesting evaluation questions and providing objective reviews of candidate tools.
Tool Categories
In terms of market share, software vendors provide the most tools. Vendor tools tend to focus more on multi-project management than on portfolio analysis and optimisation.
This means that the tools are primarily intended to support decisions about how projects are managed, rather than decisions about what projects to conduct.
Suppliers include Business Engine, Computer Associates, Pacific Edge, Primavera and Planview, as well as giants Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP.
Vendor tools tend be strong in project execution and workflow support. For example, they frequently provide automated alerts and warnings that flag projects that are over-spending or behind schedule.
Many are intended to support collaborative team efforts in which different individuals are authorised to provide, view, or change various data or make different project related decisions.
Although these types of tools may not provide portfolio optimisation, as indicated above, however, most offer some level of project evaluation and ranking based on user defined criteria.
Many tools for multi-project management are, in essence, “super-sized” versions of traditional project management tools.
In some cases, in fact, the tools derive from the vendor’s earlier offerings.
Whereas the original tools were designed to provide support or planning and control of individual projects, the portfolio versions support multiple projects and multiple users.
Sometimes this is achieved by simply allowing users to access the traditional, single-project products by providing a client/server environment that consolidates individual projects and adds multi-user access, cross-project resource loading, and cross-project roll-up and reporting.
Consulting companies are another major source of tools. Tools from consultants focus more on analysis and optimisation rather than life cycle project management.
For example, consultants offer Excel-based tools that in some cases provide sophisticated simulation and optimisation capabilities lacking from the vendor products.
Tools from consulting companies are generally industry-specific applications, for example, products from Spectrum ITS, Afrosoft and West Chase Consultants just to name a few locally based consultants.
Some software vendors likewise provide tools with project simulation and portfolio analysis capabilities.
Beware of False Claims
Unfortunately, as competition has heightened, tool providers have tended to put more effort into improving their marketing claims than into improving the way that their tools prioritise projects.
If you visit the websites of the major providers claim that their tools are based on “unique” approaches that address risks, uncertainty, project inter-dependencies, timing, and virtually every other consideration that can be imagined.
So, how can an organisation interested in project prioritisation ensure that it obtains a tool that makes sound project recommendations?
Evaluating tools using the right criteria is the first step.
Understanding decision models and how they work is the next step. Check out more tips next Tuesday.
- Peter Banda is the Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe (PMIZ). Send your views and comments via email; [email protected] or [email protected], www.pmiz.org.zw
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