Project Portfolio Management

The PMO is under constant pressure. From maintaining standards for project management practices to planning and delivering projects – the PMO needs to be in constant sync with strategy and business outcomes. This PMO blog category provides numerous recommendations from experts to encourage top down and bottom up planning, improve processes, promote stakeholder satisfaction, and ultimately eliminate silos to advance the PMO function. Get expert advice on the pros and cons of adopting a continuous planning model. Experts will also share real-world advice on choosing your next Project Portfolio Management tool and how to #BeThatPMO your business needs.

Five Resolutions for the Modern Project Manager

Now that the holidays are in the rear view mirror, January is over, and the Superbowl is in the air, it’s time for project management professionals to buckle down and focus. Many of you have already missed your resolutions or are off to a bad start (guilty as charged here), but it isn’t too late...

Cloud-based vs. Cloud-hosted: What’s the Difference?

There are some common misconceptions about the distinction between cloud-based and cloud-hosted applications, particularly when it comes to PPM software. Many people confuse these two terms or use them synonymously – which is inaccurate. When thinking about the business impact of an application and the long term effects of going with one model over the other,...

Top 3 C-Level Reports

Reports are a great way to evaluate data based on the information that matters to your organization. The great thing about reports, and dashboards in particular, is that they facilitate communication between project managers and executives in an easy to understand manner. The other part we love about dashboards is they are not easy to...

Less Meetings, More Doing

In a lot of companies, project managers and resource managers sit down every week in an annoying productive meeting to discuss what resources are needed in various projects, and get an agreement on resource assignments. This is usually done based on information collected in spreadsheets that project managers and resource managers make and share. Of...

Project Portfolio Management Predictions for 2016

Each year we review and reflect on some of the industry specific Project Portfolio Management trends of the past year and consider trends for the coming year that might have an impact on the business. Here are our six project portfolio management predictions heading into 2016: If you’re not managing your applications, they’re managing you....

When Gantt Charts Fail: Use Flag Charts to Show Upcoming Events – Enrich Consulting

You’re probably familiar with Gantt charts, which show project tasks, their duration, and their completion dates. For a specific project, project managers and executives use Gantt charts to quickly review upcoming activities. When reviewing a portfolio of projects, project managers sometimes continue to use Gantt charts, adding upcoming tasks for all projects to a single...

The Top Six Reports for IT PMOs

The IT PMO’s work is a Catch-22. Praised one day for doing an exemplary job of guiding projects to completion on time and on budget, only to realize that this metric is no longer enough and then suffer from a lack of perceived value. Reports for IT PMOs are a given, but what should those reports...

3 Tips to Successful PMO Leadership

Recently, I had a lunch with a newly-appointed Project Management Office (PMO) leader for a major retailer here in SF. He was just hired to reinstate the PMO, processes and tools for his organization. He shared his approach to this exciting new challenge and from past experience expressed what he thinks works vs. what doesn’t....

Don’t Let the Grinch Steal Your Project Portfolio

We have all heard the story about How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Every organization has a “Grinch” of their own, most specifically a project portfolio management (PPM) Grinch. The Grinch is the naysayer, the one who is always skeptical about portfolio management benefits, the one who cannot open their eyes beyond the initial costs and...

‘Twas the Night Before the Board Meeting

‘Twas the night before the board meeting, and all was not well I was nowhere near prepared, but, OH what the hell! I’ll fudge it, I’ll lie, and I’ll make it all up. All I’ll need is strong coffee, uh-huh, yup yup! But wait just a minute, let’s think this through, They need to approve...