Manager Toolkit: HPE Project Portfolio Management Center
Today, organizations working in the field of project management have to solve problems associated not only with timelines, costs and resources, but also with the visualization and integration of data within the corporate portfolio of solutions. Given these daily tasks, it is often difficult for managers to determine which projects or types of production activities need to be given special attention, calculate the remaining budget, understand how efficiently the resources are involved and how to plan the work to keep up with demand.
Issue
The main objective is to provide a high-tech solution at the corporate level, which should ensure the unification, integrity and integration of the processes of development, implementation, replication and maintenance of information systems. This is due to the fact that from the point of view of portfolio / program management of projects (releases), one scheduling is not enough. A life-cycle automation system is needed that will allow to identify / “fix” and reuse the following basic entities:
• The life cycle of various types of projects, including major milestones and artifacts (document templates);
• Key parameters of the “health” of the project / program / portfolio with the ability to automatically calculate;
• Life cycles of problem management (a separate life cycle for each type) arising in the project, with the possibility of automatic escalation along a specific management vertical;
• The life cycle of managing the change of the project framework with the possibility of automatic escalation along a specific management vertical;
• Real-time consolidated reporting on the status of the portfolio / program / project, available to users taking into account roles and security policies (role access).
All the tasks listed above are solved at the level of specialized information systems of the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) class.
HPE Project Portfolio Management Center System Functionality
HPE Project Portfolio Management (HPE PPM) software is a platform for automating key processes for managing project portfolios, programs, and individual projects in large organizations under tight time, resource, and financial constraints.
The concept of the portfolio management process is presented in the diagram below:
The portfolio management system is designed to solve the following tasks:
• Automate the organization’s portfolio management process: collect project initiatives, rank them, align with the organization’s business goals, coordinate business cases, align the portfolio with the affordable budget and resources, taking into account current project and operational activities;
• Automation of the project management process of the organization: the formation of portfolios, programs, projects; project resource management; monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) in the process of implementing projects / programs; formation and delivery of management reporting on the project activities of the organization in real time.
• Automation of the resource management process: creation and maintenance of resource pools; maintaining resource qualification guides; Individual resource calendars support for the process of allocating resources for projects; subsystem of the accounting of working hours (both design and operational activities).
The HPE PPM system is modular and supports the implementation of portfolio management processes in the organization both top-down and bottom-up. It also supports the implementation of individual functions - management of programs / projects, resources; design proposals, etc., followed by the expansion of the functionality and coverage of related functions and processes.
The main feature of the NRE PPM solution is the ability to flexibly configure system objects for their full compliance with the tasks. Each NRE PPM facility has its own attributes, workflow, and life cycle (LC). Thanks to these capabilities, a clear organization of the work process and interaction of all participants is achieved, as well as the introduction and control of any performance / efficiency parameters within this process.
HPE PPM software allows you to solve the following tasks:
• Visually analyze and prioritize strategic and operational requirements and requests, form projects and tasks on their basis with the allocation of resources, calculation of time costs and determining the degree of their impact on the implementation of the organization’s strategy;
• Provide managers with a single “entry point” and “coordinate system” for making decisions regarding projects and needs, allowing them to be analyzed and ranked in terms of their impact on the strategic activities of the organization;
• Provide top-down planning and data collection for detailed elaboration of plans and monitoring progress on all required bottom-up indicators;
• Quickly adapt to changes and ensure compliance of business processes and company projects with strategic and operational goals;
• Effectively distribute the load on the organization’s employees, which, in turn, allows you to pay maximum attention to the most priority tasks, as well as clearly understand the current load of resources and plan future needs;
• Visually monitor the status of projects in real time, including important “supporting” processes, such as:
o change
management o manage the project scope
o manage risks
o manage orders
o and others.
HPE PPM Solution Brief
Technically, the HPE PPM solution is a software “BPM engine” that allows you to flexibly configure work processes for managing project initiatives / projects / programs / portfolios, as well as content management and approval mechanisms. For the convenience of using the solution, users are provided with a customizable portal with visualizations of aggregated data using modern technologies and a flexible interface that displays all the necessary information in accordance with the role model of the organization.
Conceptually, the NRE PPM automates the project methodology and allows you to embed milestones in the life cycle of projects / programs / portfolios at the strategic management level. At a lower level of planning and management of individual work in the project, the Microsoft Project solution can be used. NRE provides a fully integrated full-time data synchronization module between NRE PPM and Microsoft Project. The synchronization module supports three possible scenarios of data transfer:
• NRE PPM acts as a master system for maintaining the project plan, and Microsoft Project is used as an auxiliary solution;
• Microsoft Project acts as a master system, and NRE PPM is used as an auxiliary solution in terms of maintaining project plans, but as a master system for monitoring the KPI of projects / programs / portfolios;
• Equal scenario.
This approach allows you to flexibly combine strategic planning and management based on HPE PPM and tactical project management based on Microsoft Project, while there is no need for other auxiliary tools.
The developed technological mechanisms of the HPE PPM allow you to create workflows in the BPM standard that provide a clear framework and control of the project movement in phases, starting from the description phase of the template solution (requirements management), and up to readiness for circulation and direct replication. Each stage of the life cycle (key milestones) is assigned criteria that determine a satisfactory / unsatisfactory state - the fulfillment of certain tasks / procedures, the availability of documents and approvals. These criteria are controlled by the system, and their satisfaction / dissatisfaction affects key performance indicators / "health" (KPI) of the project / program / portfolio as a whole.
NRE PPM allows you to configure flexible relationships between different entities, such as tasks, assignments, projects, etc. A convenient mechanism for configuring these relationships allows you to create complex interaction scenarios at the project-task, task-task, task-project, project-program levels. etc. All of these possibilities maximally cover the organization’s needs in managing project activities.
The solution also automates workflows for the following critical aspects of project management:
• Change management;
• Project scope management;
• Management of risks;
• Management of assignments;
• etc.
For each of these entities, the approval / escalation / decision procedure is determined, and it can be supported by the time constraints of being at each step. It is possible to categorize requests by types and to link individual workflows for specific types of requests. A flexible role model is supported that can satisfy organizations of the highest degree of complexity and distribution.
A key feature of the HPE PPM is the built-in coordination mechanism, which is able to implement logic of any level of complexity. In this case, if it becomes necessary to initiate the coordination process in an external system, the HPE PPM provides such an opportunity.
The solution architecture contains ready-made mechanisms for integration with the document management system (Documentum), which allows you to use external document management processes in conjunction with project activities and automatically control the status of documents involved in the project life cycle.
Additional integration capabilities that HPE PPM has are integration with the ITSM class solution (HPE Service Manager) and the ALM class product (HPE Quality Center).
• The ITSM class solution is a platform for the automation of key IT processes and, in conjunction with the HPE PPM, allows you to build a mechanism for interaction and data transfer for such a key process as change management (changes in infrastructure, improvements to CIS, implementation of new software in the process of project implementation).
• The ALM class solution is a software development life cycle automation platform and, in conjunction with the HPE PPM, allows you to build a holistic process for implementing changes and managing releases in software products.
It is also possible to integrate with accounting systems and human resources accounting (SAP), with specialized software lifecycle management systems (SAP Solution Manager) and other business and IT systems using standard web services mechanisms.
In terms of reporting, HPE PPM has built-in capabilities to visualize key control parameters for all roles involved in project activities:
• TOP management of the company;
• Management of business blocks;
• Management of the project office;
• Project managers;
• Ordinary performers.
Reporting is implemented using control panels, which display statistical data in graphical form (diagrams, “traffic lights”, “speedometers”, etc.). Control panels can be easily configured by users themselves from the set of available templates. The role model and the security model are fully supported in the reporting, and the user gets access exclusively to the data that is available to him depending on the role played.
HPE PPM Specifications The HPE PPM
solution is built on a three-tier architecture and has an advanced web client as a user interface.
Integrations with any external systems that support web services technology are possible. There is a proven practice of integration with SAP, Microsoft Project Server, Documentum.
NRE PPM is well established in the largest geographically distributed organizations with a total number of employees of up to several hundred thousand people. There are implementations in which the number of daily concurrent connections exceeds 5,000 users.
The development of the system within the organization implies both sequential vertical scaling within the IT department in terms of the scope of portfolio management and resource management processes, and horizontal scaling in terms of the scope of the portfolio management processes of both IT and non-IT projects and programs within the organization.
Licensing of the HPE PPM system has recently undergone significant changes in the direction of simplification. To date, we can say that in terms of cost of ownership, it has moved to the class of mid-budget systems, possessing, nevertheless, the most complete and developed functionality.
Issue
The main objective is to provide a high-tech solution at the corporate level, which should ensure the unification, integrity and integration of the processes of development, implementation, replication and maintenance of information systems. This is due to the fact that from the point of view of portfolio / program management of projects (releases), one scheduling is not enough. A life-cycle automation system is needed that will allow to identify / “fix” and reuse the following basic entities:
• The life cycle of various types of projects, including major milestones and artifacts (document templates);
• Key parameters of the “health” of the project / program / portfolio with the ability to automatically calculate;
• Life cycles of problem management (a separate life cycle for each type) arising in the project, with the possibility of automatic escalation along a specific management vertical;
• The life cycle of managing the change of the project framework with the possibility of automatic escalation along a specific management vertical;
• Real-time consolidated reporting on the status of the portfolio / program / project, available to users taking into account roles and security policies (role access).
All the tasks listed above are solved at the level of specialized information systems of the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) class.
HPE Project Portfolio Management Center System Functionality
HPE Project Portfolio Management (HPE PPM) software is a platform for automating key processes for managing project portfolios, programs, and individual projects in large organizations under tight time, resource, and financial constraints.
The concept of the portfolio management process is presented in the diagram below:
The portfolio management system is designed to solve the following tasks:
• Automate the organization’s portfolio management process: collect project initiatives, rank them, align with the organization’s business goals, coordinate business cases, align the portfolio with the affordable budget and resources, taking into account current project and operational activities;
• Automation of the project management process of the organization: the formation of portfolios, programs, projects; project resource management; monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) in the process of implementing projects / programs; formation and delivery of management reporting on the project activities of the organization in real time.
• Automation of the resource management process: creation and maintenance of resource pools; maintaining resource qualification guides; Individual resource calendars support for the process of allocating resources for projects; subsystem of the accounting of working hours (both design and operational activities).
The HPE PPM system is modular and supports the implementation of portfolio management processes in the organization both top-down and bottom-up. It also supports the implementation of individual functions - management of programs / projects, resources; design proposals, etc., followed by the expansion of the functionality and coverage of related functions and processes.
The main feature of the NRE PPM solution is the ability to flexibly configure system objects for their full compliance with the tasks. Each NRE PPM facility has its own attributes, workflow, and life cycle (LC). Thanks to these capabilities, a clear organization of the work process and interaction of all participants is achieved, as well as the introduction and control of any performance / efficiency parameters within this process.
HPE PPM software allows you to solve the following tasks:
• Visually analyze and prioritize strategic and operational requirements and requests, form projects and tasks on their basis with the allocation of resources, calculation of time costs and determining the degree of their impact on the implementation of the organization’s strategy;
• Provide managers with a single “entry point” and “coordinate system” for making decisions regarding projects and needs, allowing them to be analyzed and ranked in terms of their impact on the strategic activities of the organization;
• Provide top-down planning and data collection for detailed elaboration of plans and monitoring progress on all required bottom-up indicators;
• Quickly adapt to changes and ensure compliance of business processes and company projects with strategic and operational goals;
• Effectively distribute the load on the organization’s employees, which, in turn, allows you to pay maximum attention to the most priority tasks, as well as clearly understand the current load of resources and plan future needs;
• Visually monitor the status of projects in real time, including important “supporting” processes, such as:
o change
management o manage the project scope
o manage risks
o manage orders
o and others.
HPE PPM Solution Brief
Technically, the HPE PPM solution is a software “BPM engine” that allows you to flexibly configure work processes for managing project initiatives / projects / programs / portfolios, as well as content management and approval mechanisms. For the convenience of using the solution, users are provided with a customizable portal with visualizations of aggregated data using modern technologies and a flexible interface that displays all the necessary information in accordance with the role model of the organization.
Conceptually, the NRE PPM automates the project methodology and allows you to embed milestones in the life cycle of projects / programs / portfolios at the strategic management level. At a lower level of planning and management of individual work in the project, the Microsoft Project solution can be used. NRE provides a fully integrated full-time data synchronization module between NRE PPM and Microsoft Project. The synchronization module supports three possible scenarios of data transfer:
• NRE PPM acts as a master system for maintaining the project plan, and Microsoft Project is used as an auxiliary solution;
• Microsoft Project acts as a master system, and NRE PPM is used as an auxiliary solution in terms of maintaining project plans, but as a master system for monitoring the KPI of projects / programs / portfolios;
• Equal scenario.
This approach allows you to flexibly combine strategic planning and management based on HPE PPM and tactical project management based on Microsoft Project, while there is no need for other auxiliary tools.
The developed technological mechanisms of the HPE PPM allow you to create workflows in the BPM standard that provide a clear framework and control of the project movement in phases, starting from the description phase of the template solution (requirements management), and up to readiness for circulation and direct replication. Each stage of the life cycle (key milestones) is assigned criteria that determine a satisfactory / unsatisfactory state - the fulfillment of certain tasks / procedures, the availability of documents and approvals. These criteria are controlled by the system, and their satisfaction / dissatisfaction affects key performance indicators / "health" (KPI) of the project / program / portfolio as a whole.
NRE PPM allows you to configure flexible relationships between different entities, such as tasks, assignments, projects, etc. A convenient mechanism for configuring these relationships allows you to create complex interaction scenarios at the project-task, task-task, task-project, project-program levels. etc. All of these possibilities maximally cover the organization’s needs in managing project activities.
The solution also automates workflows for the following critical aspects of project management:
• Change management;
• Project scope management;
• Management of risks;
• Management of assignments;
• etc.
For each of these entities, the approval / escalation / decision procedure is determined, and it can be supported by the time constraints of being at each step. It is possible to categorize requests by types and to link individual workflows for specific types of requests. A flexible role model is supported that can satisfy organizations of the highest degree of complexity and distribution.
A key feature of the HPE PPM is the built-in coordination mechanism, which is able to implement logic of any level of complexity. In this case, if it becomes necessary to initiate the coordination process in an external system, the HPE PPM provides such an opportunity.
The solution architecture contains ready-made mechanisms for integration with the document management system (Documentum), which allows you to use external document management processes in conjunction with project activities and automatically control the status of documents involved in the project life cycle.
Additional integration capabilities that HPE PPM has are integration with the ITSM class solution (HPE Service Manager) and the ALM class product (HPE Quality Center).
• The ITSM class solution is a platform for the automation of key IT processes and, in conjunction with the HPE PPM, allows you to build a mechanism for interaction and data transfer for such a key process as change management (changes in infrastructure, improvements to CIS, implementation of new software in the process of project implementation).
• The ALM class solution is a software development life cycle automation platform and, in conjunction with the HPE PPM, allows you to build a holistic process for implementing changes and managing releases in software products.
It is also possible to integrate with accounting systems and human resources accounting (SAP), with specialized software lifecycle management systems (SAP Solution Manager) and other business and IT systems using standard web services mechanisms.
In terms of reporting, HPE PPM has built-in capabilities to visualize key control parameters for all roles involved in project activities:
• TOP management of the company;
• Management of business blocks;
• Management of the project office;
• Project managers;
• Ordinary performers.
Reporting is implemented using control panels, which display statistical data in graphical form (diagrams, “traffic lights”, “speedometers”, etc.). Control panels can be easily configured by users themselves from the set of available templates. The role model and the security model are fully supported in the reporting, and the user gets access exclusively to the data that is available to him depending on the role played.
HPE PPM Specifications The HPE PPM
solution is built on a three-tier architecture and has an advanced web client as a user interface.
Integrations with any external systems that support web services technology are possible. There is a proven practice of integration with SAP, Microsoft Project Server, Documentum.
NRE PPM is well established in the largest geographically distributed organizations with a total number of employees of up to several hundred thousand people. There are implementations in which the number of daily concurrent connections exceeds 5,000 users.
The development of the system within the organization implies both sequential vertical scaling within the IT department in terms of the scope of portfolio management and resource management processes, and horizontal scaling in terms of the scope of the portfolio management processes of both IT and non-IT projects and programs within the organization.
Licensing of the HPE PPM system has recently undergone significant changes in the direction of simplification. To date, we can say that in terms of cost of ownership, it has moved to the class of mid-budget systems, possessing, nevertheless, the most complete and developed functionality.