The need to implement CA PPM inside an organization normally surges from wanting to replace an existing tool or shifting their project management methodology towards a tool such as CA PPM.
Implementation issues arise when they want to model the exact same formats, fields and workflows without keeping in mind the tool’s native functionality. Organizations also focus on carrying out an implementation that meets all the requirements and encompasses the entire project in a single phase.
All of this leads to project failure because:
- Not all functionalities are utilized, for example best practices aligned to PMI with the PMO accelerator.
- Implementation of functionalities which are not used.
- Makes the tool unintuitive for end users that leads to them not using it.
As an alternative, strategies can be presented so that these types of implementations tend not to fail:
Have an expert consultant team – An experienced team can advise the client on the decisions regarding the requirements that could and should be implemented according to the client’s needs.
Divide and Conquer – From my experience, this is a strategy that I find valuable and successful. It begins by implementing at different stages, so that end users can start to learn to use the tool and start giving it proper use, while carrying out best practices according to the PMI for effective project management.
Here is a previous client’s implementation business case, where a 15-month rollout was carried out in four stages:
- Implementing Foundations (resources/users/OBS).
- Implementing ideas/projects and data migration.
- Implementing the portfolios module, creating personalized objects and reports.
- Implementing the financial module and integrations.
For each stage, the following cycle is repeated:
Requirement Gathering > Design > Construction > Tests > and then the move to Production.
This cycle provides maturity for the client regarding CA PPM use, and it clearly establishes their needs that translates into requirements which are helpful for user adoption and to carry out a successful joint implementation.
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