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284 SEARCH FOR AUTOMATED, INTEGRATED EPM

If this is the dream, what is the reality? Are we chasing after rainbows? Or is
practical EPM just around the corner? Just how far have we come toward realiz-
ing this elusive goal and where is our search taking us?

Early Observations

During the past 40 years, I have been through the entire spectrum of computer
environments for project management: punched cards on a mainframe, and sev-
eral minicomputer and timesharing computer configurations. All of this was en-
dured with trepidation, as I could only be a computer user—the control of the
system was by others (on the other side of a formidable barrier). After a 20-year
nightmare of overnight runs, massive core dumps, and 2-week turnaround times,
the personal computer burst onto the scene, and with it, the promise of user-
friendly, user controlled, and fast processing. And this promise was delivered. But
did it deliver what we really needed?

Perhaps not. What we did was to optimize the desktop environment, but not
the enterprise environment. Individual desktop machines, even when networked,
do not satisfy the corporate need. As a result, those people charged with provid-
ing an enterprise solution had shied away from desktop systems. They were too
hard to administer. The data ended up all over the place. The individual applica-
tions were isolated (as well as much of the data).

Could we have our cake and eat it, too? Could the maze of desktop computers
be incorporated into a full-featured, integrated system? Could the CIO move away
from expensive and cumbersome legacy systems without giving up the control, se-
curity, and connectivity that is required? About five years ago, I saw a move in this
direction but did not see any strong, commercially available solutions. From my
own observations, and feedback from others, even the best single application pack-
age did not come close to meeting the enterprise user’s specifications. Even the
numerous add-ons and consolidators were falling short of meeting the needs.

The Enterprise PM Environment

One of the key elements of the EPM environment is the vast extension of the
user universe. The users are in greater number, they are very diversified in inter-
est, and they are geographically separated. These factors have enormous impact
on the EPM solution.

Consider the different roles that are involved in EPM. These may include: the
CEO or executive level, the Resource Manager or Functional/Line Manager, the
CFO or Accounting/Finance, the CIO or Corporate Information Systems func-
tion, Project Managers, Project Office or Project Administrators, and the simple