Blue Ant 10.3 Effective Support for the PMO

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1 Courtesy of The specialist platform for project management Pragmatic and easy to use Blue Ant 10.3 Effective Support for the PMO by Dr. Mey Mark Meyer proventis GmbH Figure 1: The project dashboard provides information on the most important project data. Which displays appear in the dashboard can be configured by the user. Blue Ant multi-project management software has been on the market since Originally launched with a focus on the planning and management of service projects, the program has in recent years developed more and more into a tool for the PMO. The software scores well here, with features such as s tatus reports, multi-project dashboards and its many re source planning options. Reference customers such as the Regional Finance Office of Lower Saxony, the Städtischen Werke Magdeburg (municipal utilities company) and Terex Material Handling & Port Solutions GmbH highlight its suitability for this application. In addition to project planning and control, Blue Ant also creates quotes and assists with project billing. The software can also represent various other project management processes, for example, holiday or business trip request management, including sub sequent invoicing to the customer. This spectrum of functions mainly accommodates project service providers. Porsche Informatik GmbH, Intershop Communications AG and Roland Legal Expenses Insurance are examples of Blue Ant reference customers in this area. Founded in Berlin in 2001, proventis GmbH is a software and consulting company which currently employs 35 staff working on professional project management solutions. Its core competence is the continued development of the webbased multi-project management software, Blue Ant, with its main focus on resource and cost planning, and multiproject management. Alongside the implementation of Blue Ant, proventis and its partners advise customers on the development of project management tools and methods. Blue Ant is used by around 400 companies. According to its manufacturer, projects with up to 1,000 processes are easily managed by Blue Ant. The number of users in the largest currently active application is about 900.

2 Agile or classic easy to use Blue Ant has a modular structure, with the project management functions at the centre and the other modules grouped around it. Clicking the»projects«section in the navigation bar on the left of the browser reveals the planning and control functions. In the»project profile«, you can find all the basic project data and the dashboard provides the most important information such as the current project status, the current cost information and the development of the percent complete (Fig. 1). The user can freely configure the dashboard display simply by arranging the individual information windows with the mouse, and hiding or opening new windows on the screen. Free planning for agile projects Figure 2: The structure and deadlines of project activities can be arranged with the mouse in agile planning mode. Operating the software is pleasingly straightforward. The typical standard features of the project planning are accessible intuitively. The clear, task-related structure of the naviga tion bar and the understated design also add to the ease of use. As of version 10.3, the classic bar chart (Gantt) has become even more interactive. Right clicking on a bar allows processes and dependencies to be edited and resources added. Activity dates can also be easily shifted with the mouse. Scheduling with the mouse should be performed with care however, as for each change Blue Ant recalculates all dates and resource requirements for the project. Agile projects benefit significantly from the inter active capabilities of the project schedule. If a project is planned using the agile rather than classic method, Blue Ant does not rely on Scrum, but uses its own agile methodology. This differs from the traditional approach primarily by virtue of the fact that there are no dependencies between the project activities. The project structure on the first level reflects the pro cessing status (for example,»open«,»in progress«,»in testing«and»completed«). The individual work packages are then arranged in this structure with the mouse - you could say, they become subtasks. The implementation date is scheduled by moving the task bar horizontally and then assigning one or more planning periods (Fig. 2). Tabular planning is also possible. Within the planning period, the team can decide who implements which work packages and then simply assign the necessary work effort to a specific person. Resource reservation at project level, as described in the»overview of the PMO«section, is useful here. Employees can initially be assigned to a project with a given capacity, without having to specify which tasks they are working on. 2

3 Figure 3: Tasks can be assigned to milestones and summarized in checklists. This allows you to create ongoing project protocols, for example. Agile planning in Blue Ant does not provide the option which, for example, specialized software with task boards offers, and is therefore mainly suitable for planning user stories whose subtasks are then processed in an agile tool like JIRA. As a pragmatic solution, positioned between network plan project scheduling and pure task management, it is very interesting for projects of manageable scope. From minutes of meetings to gate tests: checklists Task management in Blue Ant is used to manage minor tasks that do belong in the project plan itself. Tasks such as deadlines or open points from a project meeting can be assigned to both individual project activities and checklists by Blue Ant. This dual assignment can be useful in all sorts of ways in the project (Fig. 3). If you assign milestones to tasks, for example, Blue Ant can show directly in the project plan how many tasks are connected to milestones and which of them have already been completed. If you integrate these tasks into project templates, simple gate checklists are possible. If the project does not run one hundred percent on schedule, and a further task arises from a regular project meeting, this is quickly assigned to the relevant milestone. If at the same time you create a checklist that contains all other tasks from the meeting, you will get an additional open-point list that can be referred to in subsequent meetings. The bigger picture: comprehensive project support Blue Ant presents itself as all-round solution for project-oriented companies and organizations. Where projects play a central role, employees often expect one centralized solution covering almost everything connected with those projects. Blue Ant provides a number of useful additional features that simplify the management and overview of the project landscape. Travel costs from request to invoicing Surprisingly, travel expenses are still not included in the otherwise quite comprehensive ICB IPMA catalogue. Nevertheless, it is useful to display them in project management software, particularly when no corresponding software is available in small and mediumsized organizations, and travel is often project-related and may be billed to clients. For some time now it has been possible for project staff to record travel expenses in addition to project effort in Blue Ant. Travel cost requests were added as of version They speed up travel expenses billing provided they remain within the approved request. Travel bookings can also be conveniently carried out by third parties with the travel expense requests function. The would-be business traveller enters the key data and the assistant can then make the necessary 3

4 bookings and record the costs directly. Upon completion of the trip only expenses paid out by the employee need to be added. If and how the trip will be billed to a project customer can also be specified. It is possible to bill both actual costs and fixed allowances for entire trips or individual aspects, such as accommodation costs. Project status reports In addition to the operational features, which facilitate the project participants work and support the adjoining billing processes, Blue Ant has in recent years developed more and more into software that supports the standardization of project management - a typical task of the Project Management brief comment on the deadline situation and the most recent developments in the project (Fig. 4). The report is then submitted with a mouse click. As requirements differ from company to company, the information the status report should contain is configurable in Blue Ant. The software archives the data automatically, so that the development of the values over the duration of the project can be tracked. If desired, the program will automatically create additional evaluations as PDFs when the report is submitted, and save them for later access. Overdue status reports are visible to the PMO at all times, so the reports can be requested again (with a little pressure if necessary). If this does not Figure 4: Status reports automatically compile figures from the current project. These can be supplemented with notes. Office (PMO). Blue Ant thereby helps to keep an eye on the entire project portfolio. Status reports provide the PMO with an excellent way of obtaining information comparable across projects, which was not simply collected on one date from the database, but is a conscious statement from the project management. The reporting interval for status reports is preset in Blue Ant per project or project type. When it is time for the report, Blue Ant automatically fills in the report form with all the known facts and figures. Project management adds its own assessment, for example, a total traffic light or a help, Blue Ant can also create the reports automatically after a waiting period, but without the additional comments from project management. Tailwind for standards in multi-project management There are many features in Blue Ant which make it easier to introduce and establish standards in a company. This includes key data as well as status reports and checklists. Some key data comes as standard in the software, other data can be defined by the PMO. The data model from Blue Ant can be adapted so that project proposals, status reports and other project standards can 4

5 be implemented appropriately. Even without special knowledge of databases, PMO staff can create new data fields, for example, for additional entries in the project status report or a special classification of projects. The data fields can be designed depending on the project status or type. In this way, the project proposal for a small internal project can look different to a proposal for an extensive customer project. Overview in the PMO Project Management Offices do not usually set out to track or influence project planning in detail. For rough multi-project planning, all projects are displayed in an overview (Fig. 5). carried out by the project planners, resources can also be reserved in general for a specific period. For example, it is possible to plan a resource in the project for two months at ten days per month. From the point of view of multi-project PMOs and department heads this planning accuracy is often sufficient. The project planners receive the resource reservation as a work budget, so to speak, and can make the detailed planning in accordance with their own requirements, as long as they remain within the reservation granted to them. Resource requests from the project to the relevant team leaders are also possible, as is the replacement of project resources by the PMO, for example, in the course of consultation meetings with the participating project managers and executives. Figure 5: If the PMO changes project dates, project heads can decide how to take account of these new requirements in the specific project planning. From here, PMO staff can reschedule projects which have not yet begun or extend ongoing projects. The new dates are then used as defaults for the project planners, who should adjust the detailed project planning to the new default values. So, alternative scenarios for the portfolio can be enacted without automatic shifts unduly simplifying the planning. Ultimately, more detailed planning is required if a project is to be rescheduled or suspended. Blue Ant takes a similar path in resource management. In addition to the usual scheduling of resources to project activities which is System requirements Being web-based, Blue Ant runs on all operating systems with a current version of a popular browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. The software is available as a cloud solution, but can also be installed on the company s server. In this case, an Apache Tomcat server and database are required. Possible databases are Microsoft SQL Version 2005, Oracle Version 9, PostgreSQL 9.2 and MAXDB. Blue Ant can compare the user s authentication data with a central LDAP server, which makes single sign-on possible: so users also legitimize 5

6 Excerpt from the Software Review 15/2014 themselves for access to Blue Ant with the log in when starting the computer. Interfaces to other systems can be implemented via web services. It is also possible to open web services automatically when certain status changes occur. In this way, for example, a web-based customer management application (CRM) can be kept up to date by Blue Ant transmitting the current projects with their respective project phase to the system. Corresponding interface adapters can be adjusted with the support of the manufacturer. License conditions Blue Ant is available in three editions:»standard«,»enterprise«and»cloud«. The Enterprise edition primarily offers better support of interfaces to existing enterprise software than the Standard edition. The Cloud Edition entry model of Blue Ant costs from 1,990 (plus VAT) per annum; proventis operates the required hardware and software and provides the customer with a login. This model is suitable for up to about 50 users, for occasional projects or the detailed testing of the software in pilot projects. The Cloud Edition can easily be converted into the purchase version at any time, with the last twelve months rental offset against the purchase cost. If you want to buy and run the software on your own server, you can choose between the Standard and Enterprise editions. The license cost is about (plus VAT) per user. (Effective: June 2014). The license model distinguishes between named user and concurrent user licenses. While the named user license provides personalized access for a specific user, any user can work with the concurrent license. The number of concurrent user licenses purchased determines how many users are allowed to work simultaneously. Summary With complete project management from quote preparation to project implementation to billing, Blue Ant is aimed at businesses that carry out projects on behalf of customers or as an internal service. To this end, the program provides considerable support, which in cludes peripheral processes such as the billing and onward charging of travel expenses. In such project environments, Blue Ant serves as a central all-round package for project management, which aligns project data with other systems such as financial accounting. Blue Ant provides many useful functions for multi-project coordination and is therefore a highly recommended tool for PMOs. Project status reports help to clearly summarize the most important project information. Thanks to the resource reservation at project level, it is possible to keep the big picture of company-wide resource planning in view without having to immerse yourself in the details of each project. Useful functions such as checklists and the easy-to-use and clearly structured user interface contribute to everyday acceptance. A quick start is possible with the Cloud version. When demand in creases, you can later switch to using a local installation. proventis GmbH Neue Gruenstrasse D Berlin Tel.: +49 (0) Fax: +49 (0) kontakt@proventis.net 6