BEYOND TECHNICAL SPECS: WHAT MATTERS MOST WHEN EVALUATING PPM SOFTWARE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP WHITE PAPER

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1 BEYOND TECHNICAL SPECS: WHAT MATTERS MOST WHEN EVALUATING PPM SOFTWARE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP WHITE PAPER

2 Introduction It is an ugly secret that many implementations of project and portfolio management (PPM) software are never fully deployed. Some remain relegated to glorified, and extremely expensive, time sheet systems. Others fail altogether. While overzealous software sales reps share some of the responsibility, prospective buyers can take steps to prevent a similar fate for their deployments by looking beyond mere technical specifications when evaluating PPM software. It is easy to fall in love with a product demo or the check marks on a requirements list without fully considering the other dimensions of the vendor offering that contribute to success. When evaluating PPM solutions, prospective buyers should make sure they understand the answers and more importantly, the ramifications of the answers to the following questions: What is the total cost of ownership? How quickly can it be deployed? How difficult is it to support and maintain? Is it easy to use? Can it support a phased deployment approach? Will it support your future needs? Does it empower all key user segments? What is the total cost of ownership? Cost, of course, is a primary factor in projecting the ROI of PPM software. But it is not just the cost of the software and licenses that matters. Many vendors structure their models to make the bulk of their money and profits from consulting, services, and customizations that can make the true cost of the application several times the price of the software itself. Costs to acquire new hardware and network requirements must also be factored in, along with the costs for implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance and support. It s easy to see how quickly the expenses add up, and how failure to properly understand them can lead to a deployment that never achieves the desired return. How quickly can it be deployed? Time is another critical component of ROI, because time is money. In a strictly economic sense, how quickly an application can be turned on determines how quickly an organization begins to realize value and recoup its investment. But PowerSteering Software

3 beyond this, a lengthy deployment can greatly increase the change management challenge of making PPM successful. Dealing with a long, complex software installation can quickly derail organizational momentum and ground a fledgling PPM program before it ever takes flight. How difficult is it to support and maintain? Software support and maintenance contributes to cost, obviously. But more important is the time and effort required from your team. The organization is paying for a PPM tool so it can more effectively utilize its people and resources, not allocate them to keeping yet another software application up and running. In evaluating PPM vendors, make sure to understand exactly what will be required of the organization to administer and maintain the system. Is it easy to use? While functional requirements often drive software evaluations, it is the software s ease of use that will drive user adoption and ultimate value. If the application is complicated and unintuitive, organizational resistance will be high and the system risks winding up as neglected shelf ware. Be sure to understand the extent to which a feature vs. complexity tradeoff exists, especially in deployments where some users will be more technical and sophisticated than others. Dig under the covers to answer questions such as: Is the user interface role based? Can users easily configure what information they see and how it is displayed? Can features be turned on for some users and turned off for others, without involving IT? At the organizational level, can advanced functionality be turned on later? Can it support a phased deployment approach? One of the biggest contributors to PPM deployment failure is that many software solutions essentially mandate a boil the ocean approach. An expensive, lengthy deployment that suddenly exposes a large user population to a host of complex features represents nothing more than a very large gamble. Unneeded functionality will make the software unnecessarily complex for users, and forcing sophisticated processes upon an organization before it is ready is a clear recipe for disaster. Risk is greatly mitigated with a PPM tool that allows the organization to utilize a crawl, walk, run approach, initially focusing on only the highest value capabilities and perhaps a limited user population. Some vendors are either unable or unwilling to scale down their offerings to accommodate such a phased implementation. PowerSteering Software

4 Will it support your future needs? Unfortunately, many of the applications capable of meeting the needs of small or phased deployments lack the robustness those same organizations will later require as their PPM practices evolve. This is particularly true of many of the SaaS (or on demand) PPM vendors, which may have limited functionality or prove unable to support a large number of users. With other vendors, scaling up can prove prohibitively expensive, requiring extensive consulting services and the purchase of additional modules. It is therefore important during the software evaluation process to consider both the current and future needs of the organization, in terms of product capabilities required and the number of users. Does it empower all key user segments? Conclusion Not all PPM solutions are created equal. Some have strong functionality in project management, but weaker capabilities for managing high level portfolio management. With others, the exact opposite is true. Additionally, some applications are designed around the needs of a specific user or function such as managing IT or New Product Development and translate poorly to other areas of the enterprise. Yet the software selection process is often overseen by only a subset of the key user segments. For instance, IT might lead the evaluation of PPM software that will also be used by a corporate PMO. Or a head of portfolio management may select a tool that will be forced upon countless project managers across the company. In such cases, it is crucial that the software s suitability to all key stakeholder groups be considered to ensure the enterprise realizes maximum value. Understanding functional requirements and system architecture will always play an important part in any software selection. But by doing the extra homework to properly answer the preceding questions, organizations can greatly increase the odds that PPM software will improve the success of their project and portfolio management practice, rather than bog it down. Failure to grasp this may seal an organization s place atop the ever growing graveyard of failed PPM software deployments. PowerSteering Software

5 ABOUT POWERSTEERING SOFTWARE PowerSteering Software is the leader in business-driven project & portfolio management (PPM) solutions for managing IT Governance, New Product Development, Performance Improvement, and other Business PMO initiatives. Its easy-to-use software provides executives at BayCare, Johnson Controls, Merck, PolyOne, Shaw Industries, UK National Health Service, US Department of Defense, and over 140 other customers with executive visibility, strategy alignment, and team productivity to drive strategy and accelerate results across the organization. PowerSteering was rated Strong Positive in the "MarketScope for Project and Portfolio Management Applications" published by Gartner Inc