A guide to smart project management for all departments


Today's universities are enterprises in the true business sense. Perhaps more than commercial organizations, the actions, plans, and management of universities come under the microscope of alumnae, donors, trustees, parents, activists, and the press. This scrutiny underscores the need for tools and methodologies that facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing and oversight among the various work groups and communities within universities.

Project and Portfolio Management software is one such tool. If projects are the currency of getting things done in today's enterprise, managing multiple projects involving groups of people and resources spanning the university grows in importance.


With their complexities, interdependencies, resource constraints, and time limits, projects are costlier, riskier, and more mission-critical than ever before. But, contrary to most peoples' perceptions, project planning is not the key to success. An estimated 80 percent of a project's life cycle is spent in execution, arguably the measure of a project's success or failure. Things rarely go wrong in the planning stages of a project; they go wrong while the work is being done. Project requirements may change unexpectedly-- budget cuts, zoning requirements changed, resources lost. The impact of changes must be quickly analyzed and communicated to project stakeholders. Decisions need to be made, change reports written, project plans updated and distributed. In most projects, it is not long before even the best plan is rendered obsolete by events on the ground.
Universities are beginning to address these challenges with project and portfolio management applications that enable departments within universities--such as planning, facilities, IT, and other cross-functional support organizations--to consolidate project planning, workflow, and collaboration across departments. Standardizing on PPM enables thes

e groups to consolidate tools, relieving dependence on expensive, proprietary project planning, CRM, and organizational tools. A number of universities are improving project success with PPM tools that help project managers move beyond the plan and focus on execution. A new breed of enterprise open source PPM application is also available today that integrates easily within existing IT systems and can be easily customized to suit the unique needs of diverse functional groups across university departments.