CHAPTER 1
1. Seamless Connection to your ITSM
Why it's important
Successful IT teams are both proactive and reactive, so you need to mix your ability to deliver new initiatives seamlessly in with your service management duties by having a IT project management solution that works hand in hand with your ITSM solution.
Ideally, you want one solution for users to log into, see their work in one place, update activities, track time and facilitate executive reporting on the same dashboards.
By implementing a demand management solution with an inbuilt cost vs benefits scoring mechanism in your organization you enable your team to make smart decisions.
How you benefit
- Seamless connection from ITSM to project management keeps everyone on the same page
- Track time spent on incidents, requests and projects in one place
- Follow best practices by leveraging templates
- Avoid double entry of data and information
CHAPTER 2
2. Mixes agility with client delivery dates
Why it's important
To be successful, technology projects need to balance fixed delivery dates to meet your internal customer expectations, along with a level of agility so that your team can deliver customer value in the most efficient manner possible.
Water-Scrum-Fall projects combine the best of waterfall and agile projects together in a seamless client experience, your solution should support Water-Scrum-Fall as well as agile and waterfall project formats.
How you benefit
- A project methodology that works like your team does in the real world
- Manage delivery timelines with traditional task management, but maximize value by adding agile sprints directly into your overall plan
- Prioritize work in your sprints according to your projects goals and requirements
CHAPTER 3
3. Lets you find the person with the right skills
Why it's important
As your team grows in number it becomes increasingly harder to keep track of what skills your team has, who has upcoming PTO and what people are assigned to in the coming weeks.
Without knowing this information your resources may become double booked, putting your delivery timelines in jeopardy.
You are also hit by an inability to know when you can take on new projects, either reducing your utilization metrics or making false promises to your business on when you can deliver.
How you benefit
- Keep projects on schedule driving business satisfaction
- Use your team more efficiently, increasing your resource utilization rates
- Know when your team can take on more work, to keep the whole business growing
CHAPTER 4
4. Cross Project Dependencies
Why it's important
When you’re managing tens or hundreds of projects across a large organization, there are going to be interactions between different projects that need to be considered. For instance, you can’t start deploy a new email system until the network has been installed.
You need a solution that gives your users a clear visualization of how your many projects across your organization interact with each other and in what ways.
How you benefit
- Visualize parent, grandparent, child or grandchild projects in a single view to give you a 360 view of interactions
- See high-level information such as dates, health and completion information
- When needed, drill into the full details of parent projects, in seconds to see how your project could be impacted
CHAPTER 5
5. Risks, Issues & Change Requests
Why it's important
Great Project delivery involves managing the intangibles that come up along the way, two of the key ones being identifying and mitigating Risks, along with managing Issues that arise.
The third common item you need your IT Project Management solution to allow you to manage are Change Requests along with associated scope, cost and profitability impacts.
How you benefit
- Projects are about more than just tasks, so make sure you have a solution to manage the unknowns
- Use automation to engage the right people to solve issues and mitigate risks
- Report on potential problems across all your projects
CHAPTER 6
6. Always available KPI Reporting
Why it's important
Collecting data is one thing but presenting it to your management team in a manner that lets them make informed decisions to improve the business is another.
That’s why you need your IT Project Management solution to come with not just a set of out of the box reports, but is also customizable by your business users, so all the reports and dashboards that your executives need to make decisions to drive your business forward are always at hand.
You are also hit by an inability to know when you can take on new projects, either reducing your utilization metrics or making false promises to your business on when you can deliver.
How you benefit
- Report on all your KPIs in real time, 24 hours a day from any device
- Visual dashboards with drill down capabilities to the underlying details
- Configurable to your unique business needs
- Scheduled email updates of your key reports
CHAPTER 7
7. Online Training & Certifications
Why it's important
When you invest in a solution it’s typically the start of a multi-year relationship with the vendor and the solution. Over time, new releases will roll out and your team will change as people move roles and you bring on new hires.
So, you need a vendor with a strong online training solution to keep your staff up to date and onboard new employees. Look for a vendor with training broken out by roles, and one with a certification program, so you can measure your team’s training effort.
How you benefit
- Keeps your team informed of the benefits your business can get from updated versions of solutions
- Gets your new hires up to speed quickly on your key business solutions
- Certification programs let you find qualified staff with pre-existing competence in your onboarding solution
