TRY TO SPOT the projects in diagram A. Now, do the same in diagram B. If you had a harder time "seeing" the project and its boundaries in the earlier, while it was easy to spot them in the latter, then you have experienced the value of the Enterprise Project Management -- EPM.
In many organisations, precious resources are wasted on projects that either do not fulfill the strategy, or are redundant. It is hard to spot such wasteful projects without having the correct project management system at the enterprise level.
The difference between diagrams A and B is that the organisation in the latter uses the EPM system to ensure its projects are properly aligned with its strategy.
The highlight components that differentiate an EPM system are the "Project Office," EPM methodologies, and an enterprise wide-information system that aids in integrated management of organisational projects and resources.
The distinction between EPM and project management is the handling of organisational projects at the enterprise level, compared to the single project level.
For it to work effectively, EPM must be tied to organisational strategy and bottom line.
In an EPM environment, projects are organised into a portfolio that is managed collectively at the enterprise level. Project portfolio management, as others call it, allows executives to "see" the whole portfolio from a big picture perspective, leaving the details to the project managers. Also, executives can have a big picture view of how organisational resources are used towards achieving organisational goals.
Another advantage of the portfolio view allows handling of the projects across departments, which makes their management more effective towards realising strategic goals.
To setup an EPM system, special attention must be given to setting up of the three core elements of any system which are the people, processes, and tools.
The people element of the EPM involves the whole organisation at different levels. At the top, the system involves a "steering committee" tasked with determining the projects selection and prioritisation criteria based on the organisational strategy. Since organisational strategy is dynamic, also the projects that support these strategies will vary over time and take on different levels of priority.
For example, opening a new branch in a new geographic location might be a top priority during expansion years, while it might get a lower priority during efficiency improvement years.
Then, a strategic projects management entity, sometimes called a "Project Office," takes on the responsibility of devising and implementing a process for projects selection and prioritisation. The office can also be in charge of the organisational project management processes, which depict how projects are managed from initiation through closure.
Other functions of the office can include project management training, project managers' recruitment and assignment, and monitoring at the organisational level of key cross functional projects and of the enterprise resource pool.
Other human elements that support the EPM are the departmental managers, who are responsible for the provision of technical support to projects in their domain of expertise, and project managers who are responsible for managing their respective projects.
The EPM functions include projects selection, prioritisation, as well as management of the portfolio, programmes, and projects of the organisation. It also includes the enterprise resource pool management towards most efficient and effective utilisation.
The processes for the EPM include those needed to manage at the portfolio as well as project level.
For example, project selection and prioritisation can be done using weighted scoring models, which allow studying the pros and cons of each project from a strategic perspective and allows comparing the projects in order to prioritise them.
Selection and prioritisation can also be based on financial models that measure the financial benefits of each projects in comparison to the others.
Additional processes are also required to allow cross-projects reporting and procedures for communication of information and for escalation of issues.
As far as tools, there are literally hundreds of them on the market that help utilise technology towards the achievement of the EPM system objectives.
Among the more famous ones are Microsoft EPM and Primavera TeamPlay. They provide functions to support collaboration, performance analysis and reporting, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, as well as resource management.
Capable EPM tools should be implemented across departments, utilising a shared database to be used as a central repository for projects information. They should also allow easy access to up-to-date information on projects, at the right level of detail depending on the needs of the target audience for the report.
Some look at EPM as a tool, which is wrong; the tool is only one of three elements of EPM which include people and processes. Trying to implement EPM as merely a tool usually results in failure of the efforts.
EPM is a new look to the whole organisation and should be looked at more as an organisational development and maturity improvement effort.
By Ammar W. Mango
© Jordan Times 2006
