CIO, PMO, have you already presented this kind of file in a meeting?
Managing a portfolio and project management on Excel is a bit like if your CFO presented you with his spreadsheet for monitoring cash flow! It is his tool, not yours - and even less the one that will involve the stakeholders in a transversal transformation by nature.
It's limited, uncommunicative, not transparent, not comprehensive. This does not make it possible to share the status of projects and to project ourselves collectively on a roadmap.
Our conviction: the modern project portfolio serves to highlight your business and convince! Because yes: the concept of IT marketing matters.
However, many organizations still rely on this outdated management software to manage their roadmaps, ability to do, goals, resources, monitoring, budgets, tasks and management activities. Yes, you have the right to start with management tools such as Excel, for yourself, then export to a Project Portfolio Management that is more attractive for others!
Find out here The reasons to modernize your Portfolio Management, and the keys to do so.
In short, Excel is not a good project management tool, let alone a Portfolio Management tool! So what is the alternative for more effective strategic planning?
Portfolio management software offers users, internal customers, a suite of tools and processes designed to help businesses and organizations effectively manage their roadmaps.
Here is a selection, necessarily subjective, of four key benefits of using PPM software for the management of your project portfolio.
PPM software provides centralized information management, providing a comprehensive view of project portfolios. No more downloading the latest version of the file via Sharepoint or waiting for the next committee! All project data is stored in a single location, making it easy to access and analyze.
PPM software is designed to promote cooperation. Team members can share information, collaborate on tasks, and communicate effectively. This leads to better decision-making capacity and faster project completion.
PPM software offers real-time reports, providing accurate and up-to-date project monitoring information. Of Reportings can be generated instantly, providing information on the performance and status of the project between the various committees. Data that is accessible, co-editable.
PPM software automates the entry of data present in your IS and SaaS, thus reducing the risk of user-related errors, and saving time. Project data is automatically updated, eliminating the need for manual entry.
💬 “I don't have to copy and paste Excel to PowerPoint anymore! ”
🥳 It's the heartfelt cry of a CIO heard during a demo of our product.
From our point of view, one of the essential aspects of project management is portfolio management, which is too often overlooked, because it involves a your company's critical resource: its top management ! We focus too much on horizontal silos to “crack” by often forgetting the blind spot: vertical silos! The famous legacy of organizational and functional structures.
This diagram shows the eight potential macro activities of a global PPM tool that integrates a large number of functionalities.
This being, If a Modern PPM tool is for every person, for the whole company, however, he does not do everything - beware of overpromises !
Beyond the feature contest and From the fantasy of the “one size fits all” tool to do everything, at AirSaaS, we advocate simplicity, efficiency and rapid adoption by each user - not just the project manager.
This is why we offer integrations with the best business tools in their categories (best of breed), those used by your various departments involved in transformation.
Without listing all of them, here are some of these flagship software that you can connect to with AirSaaS:
N.B.: some are already being integrated, others are in the process of being integrated.
Theoretical reminder: project governance is a set of processes, structures, and decisions that govern how projects are managed and controlled within an organization. It allows a coherent and coordinated management approach for the management of projects, programs or portfolios of several projects, ensuring that the strategic goals of your company are effectively achieved.
Beyond one Definition “in the style of Project Management Institute”, you must remember the following keywords: coherence, coordination and efficiency. And create a framework for addressing several projects simultaneously without compromising your health. !
We think that, like a project manager, our Codir and Comex need to focus; not on project management but on the core of their prerogatives, on governance roles: strategy, forecasting and risk analysis, budget, scope of projects, decision, vision, vision, investment, resource management, communication... Enough to occupy a person, a team, resources and software, indeed!
Example of distribution of uses between AirSaaS synchronized with Asana
Where Excel and PowerPoint software focused on giving a static view of a file in an isolated management software, a modern PPM platform will allow governance to play its steering role within a program and project ecosystem at the level of a company.
Like GPS, which helps with management, a tool designed to facilitate governance will be your “safeguard” to prevent excessive bad practices in companies.
Simply showing what is in progress in several projects will make it easier efficient allocation of resources. Indeed, Portfolio Management helps to allocate team resources in an optimal way to obtain the best possible results. It allows resources to be better planned and allocated to the most critical projects or programs for the business.
Portfolio management also makes it possible to: prioritize projects or programs based on their value for the company. Like the dynamic cross-sorting functionalities in Excel, the different views enabled by an “ad hoc” tool will make it possible to choose the most relevant projects according to their status, their news, changes in milestones, the management of resources in teams, their contribution to the company's strategy and their potential return on investment.
In short, management, not tasks, but allowing a team to really base itself on priorities.
The abuse of Excel has sometimes succeeded in the challenge of making the very meaning of the work of CIO, PMO and PM managers disappear.
Therefore, in contrast to the “lover-killer” that the spreadsheet may have been, adopting a tool designed for the needs of project portfolio management will facilitate the dissemination of a culture of sharing -vs- reporting within companies.
That's the whole point of adoption which is raised here. If managers find benefits, project teams will more easily report operational information, needs and requirements in the field to enable Codir and Comex to have a coherent, consolidated vision.
In project management, maintaining a regular communication situation with stakeholders; this is not sending or presenting them with a table of tasks to do!
For more than one reason effective communication is essential in business for the success of any transformation program or transversal project. It is important to maintain regular communication with all stakeholders involved in the program or project to ensure that they are informed of the level of progress against goals, results, and progress. Communication should be transparent and effective to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts as much as possible. Platform support can really help teams.
Monitoring and evaluation: Portfolio management allows everyone to monitor the performance of projects or programs and to evaluate them in terms of results, costs and benefits. This monitoring makes it possible to identify deviations from the objectives set and to take corrective measures if necessary.
In conclusion of this article on modern Portfolio Management, we can say it clearly: Excel is a “siloed” and obsolete tool for managing activities and tasks around the project portfolio.. This tool has just celebrated its 45th anniversary!
For the next decade, the choice is yours. In the age of ChatGPT4, Multicloud, SaaS, the new must-have has not been Excel for a long time - but some organizations continue to pilot their portfolio and project management with it.
Your portfolio should be “understood”: iNo need to keep your Excel license!
As a CIO, CIO, or PMO, you understand the importance of an effective project management team. You also know that project lifecycle management is not a single, static task, but a combination of multiple practices, each requiring attention to detail and the human dynamics behind the tools. In an organization, Without humans, everything is in vain !
If management software such as Excel allows access to these procedures, PPM software will be your best option for steering and managing multiple projects at the portfolio level, offering a team centralized management of the transformation program, resources, information, goals, automated input, real-time reporting, and real-time reporting, and facilitation of cooperation -vs- traditional project management task control.
