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these leaders who would use and support the tools that would provide essential
information and analyses in support of the projects.

Implementing Project Portfolio Management

I am convinced that Project Portfolio Management is the way to go. I am equally
convinced that the success of a Project Portfolio Management initiative is depen-
dent on how the organization develops and supports an environment for Project
Portfolio Management, rather than just on tool selection. However, once the de-
cision is made to implement Project Portfolio Management, and once the support
structure is in place, the team will want to find tools that adequately support their
new way of life. This tool set should include most of the following capabilities and
features, over and above traditional project management software functions:

• Electronic time sheets, supporting the collection of actual time spent on
project tasks and auxiliary work. These must allow the posting of time to all
projects in the system, and should support various means of remote entry.
These tools should also provide for management review and control of time
reporting. In some environments, the time entry tools must also support
progressing of the work, including revised estimate-to-complete data.

• Posting and retention of project data in an open, SQL-type database. This
database acts as a repository for the data produced by various PM tools, as
well as connectivity to other data of the enterprise.

• (For some applications) integration with corporate accounting systems. For
seamless integration, look for Projects modules provided by ERP vendors as
part of their financial packages, coupled with integration engines provided
by your project management software vendor. (See Section 10.)

• When projects and operations data is integrated it often becomes volumi-
nous. In order to interrogate the data and reduce it to meaningful infor-
mation, look for OLAP-based slice-and-dice analysis engines, or other
means of prearranging the data for rapid access. Also, for the slice-and-
dice capabilities, the enterprise project management software must have
robust project classification systems (coding) with support for hierarchi-
cal structures.

• Earned value computation to support schedule and cost variance analysis.
• Mid- and high-level resource loading and budgeting, with discrete spread-

ing capabilities, to allow analysis of proposed projects without requiring
planning at the detailed level.
• Risk assessment, including ranking of project risks, determination of risk
possibility, and impact of the risk event. Good risk management practice