Author: bea4x

HP PPM and MS Project – Synergy Potential with Challenges
The upgrade from Mercury ITG 6.0 to HP PPM 7.0 entailed a much improved project management module. Project Management has been separated from the actual PPM workbench and is now available as a “zero client” over the web. The new Project Management Cockpit centrally integrates all project activities from modules like Portfolio Management and Resource Management. At a glance, the most important milestones, project status, project risks, scope changes, resource availability and issues show up. Project health or project controlling indicators like Schedule Performance Index (SPI) or Cost Performance Index (CPI) can be automatically calculated and graphically represented.

Integration with Microsoft Project – both a blessing and a curse
The bi-directional integration with MS Project is by far the most important step forward. This integration makes a lot of sense. HP PPM 7.0 promises similar functionality like MS Project for the management of project plans. This target is not really met by the current version though. On one side, important functions are missing, and despite very valuable cockpit views, navigating through project plans is too laborious. In addition, replacing Microsoft Project with HP PPM Project Management is difficult since MS Project, is successfully established in many places as the quasi standard to support project management. Enhancing Microsoft Project with HP PPM Project Management still corresponds to a real market need since users often see deficiencies in MS Project’s handling of resources and interdependencies in multi-project management.

Conceptual Design – the Key to Success
In order to optimally support project management, the proper design of the interaction between the use of HP PPM and MS Project is required for all available integration. It is of highest priority to define which function to perform in which tool and to what level activities such as phases, milestones, task groups or even tasks are planned where. With its strength in pulling together project data and in presenting management information, HP PPM lacks support for building and changing project plans. The reverse is true for MS Project. The right questions that need to be asked early on are the following:
- Which system should have the lead?
- Where are risks entered and maintained?
- Where will resources be managed?
- Where is progress tracked?
- Which level of granularity tasks exchanged?
- Which milestones are shown in the cockpit?
- On which levels are resources allocated (for project phases, milestones, task groups or even tasks)?
- On which of the above levels are work hours booked?
- Where is the baseline of the project plan maintained?
- Where are templates created and maintained?
The same is valid for the actual project data.

Once the integrated solution is designed, this combined system needs to be correctly customized; it is here where the devil lies in the details. When the exact impact of a setting is unknown, data exchange can easily adulterate reporting, and the integration of the tools produces chaos.

Conclusion
Many of HP PPM 7.0’s new Project Management features make sense and can produce great value for the customer. HP PPM’s strength for project management lies primarily in an aggregated management view and in the integration with other modules like Portfolio Management, Resource Management or Time Management, where MS Project is already the established operational project management tool in most of the companies. For this reason, a bi-directional integration corresponds to a market need and promises important benefits. But the building of such a combined project management solution is not trivial. An integrated use needs its own proper conceptual design and good experience for its implementation. Design and implementation need clear decisions on what functions are to be performed in which tool and on which granularity level activities (e.g. phases, milestones, task groups or tasks) are defined where. The impact of each setting and the interaction between the tools needs to be understood in detail. If these challenges are overcome, doors open for program and project management to profit from promising synergies of the combined Portfolio AND Project management solution.
January 18, 2008
SAP Process Testing – Gaps to be Closed

Theory says that in order for effective business process testing to be done, testing requirements should already be deduced in the requirement’s phase of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). But do SAP users consistently test all the processes that are impacted by changes? Despite obvious consequences, this is hardly ever done.

Process models are not up-to-date
Many SAP users do not take the effort to document their business processes in order to derive quality measures and test definitions. But even when this is done, the focus of the projects is on developing a running system, and the process documentation is not maintained during the projects and are not up-to-date.

When changes are handed over to IT operations, the routine of consistently testing all of the processes to see what is impacted by a change is extremely difficult and time-consuming. Because the link between change and processes is not currently documented, the only choice would be a complete test of all business processes. Hence, if at all, processes are only partially tested. Process testing gets marked as completed just because of the lack of prerequisites for such quality measures. Consequences are fatal. Working systems using the same programs or customizations, suddenly behave differently. Components of homogeneous, but even more so for heterogeneous SAP systems, report errors or stop working.

It is just too laborious, too complex, and is not system supported to completely document systems from the technical objects up to the process level. After some time it becomes nearly impossible to understand why a process has changed or is implemented in a specific way. Developers in new projects, as well as maintenance programmers, are priority driven by their immediate project goals. Long-term system goals for maintainability of the overall application lifecycle are secondary at best.

Business Process Lifecycle Management
Understanding over time why and how processes have changed in a specific way is too hard. In SAP development methodology, a typical SAP Business Blueprint and SAP process model do not care whether individual processes that need delivered or already exist should be changed or be newly developed. Because it is not distinguished in such a way, it is not possible at this point in time to derive which processes were impacted from a change. Because of this, properly defining what the testing requirements should be becomes impossible. The prerequisites for a complete test will be missing later.

This is not only true for new development. The same drawback exists with support and maintenance programming and disciplines in IT Service Management(ITSM). There is no reference of changes to process objects in their lifecycle.

Projects need to maintain a sustainable lifecycle management for processes. At any time, it is comprehensible which version of a process was caused by which development project or service request, including what objects were impacted in which way. Consequences for later stage process testing in this way are identified early on so testing can be planned properly.

The ideal SAP system initializes business processes with the first project. Every new project or service request, roll-ins, roll-outs, enhancements, or bug fix impacting the business process, generates a new version of it, with proper test requirements that are included and comprehensible.

Conclusion
In order to not let SAP process testing just be a pretense, it is a must that process documentation is maintained throughout all phases of the development cycle by new projects as well as maintenance activities. It needs to be part of the IT organization’s application lifecycle discipline. It is only in this way that the impact of projects on business processes can be understood and business process test requirements can be defined and used for proper SAP testing.

January 16, 2008
Global Swiss Start-ups Stand Shoulder To Shoulder – Press Release

Collanos Software and beteo, two Swiss global start-ups, close ranks to share resources, expertise and partnerships. Collanos Software CEO Peter Helfenstein in addition takes on the COO position of beteo. Hence both Collanos and beteo can profit from the experiences and structures of both companies. Despite the intensive cooperation and the shared resources, beteo and Collanos will remain clearly distinctive companies.

Dieter Steiger, founder and CEO of beteo as well as Advisory Board Member of Collanos, claims that “Collanos Software is an exemplary Swiss global start-up. With the help of our management team and Peter Helfenstein as our new COO, we’ll position beteo similarly well on the international market. Of course, I’m thrilled at the prospect”.

The joint forces allow both companies to acquire a certain critical size faster and more easily. Marketing and alliance functions can be created in an earlier phase for both Europe and the U.S. Together, these two firms represent a far more interesting service and software partner for large American and European IT-companies such as HP, SAP, Apple or Sun Microsystems. It also makes them more attractive as a potential client for the near and offshore development partners in Ukraine and India. beteo and Collanos shoulder to shoulder can make joint and better use of their expertise in PR, web presence, product management and investments in infrastructure and back office.

“We are fully aware that reduced working hours of Peter Helfenstein may be a risk for both companies. However, we believe that the synergies and lower costs obtained, will fully justify this partnership”, says Franco Dal Molin, founder, president and CTO of Collanos. “beteo is an ambitious, fast growing and profitable company with unique expertise and potential. Being able to benefit from this is a privilege and a great opportunity for our team. Even though the targeted customer segments are different, both companies have to tackle basically the same tasks. Now, we can do so in a joint effort”.

Even with the intensive cooperation and the sharing of resources, beteo and Collanos will remain distinctly separate companies. Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software and new COO of beteo, asserts that “despite a very close collaboration, the two global Swiss start-ups want to act autonomously to a large extent. Both are developing independently according to their own strategy. Yet, thanks to the new partner, they will do so more efficiently and effectively. We are open to alliances with additional Swiss start-ups that share global ambitions with us”.

About Collanos Software

Collanos is a global start-up that focuses on the collaboration needs of teams who demand a secure, cross-platform, server-less solution, on- and off-line. By leveraging open-source technologies, open standards, the familiarity of existing tools, and a global development model, Collanos delivers a friendly, all inclusive team-based solution that combines the benefits of classic client/server, web, and peer-to-peer architectures.

Collanos was founded in November 2003 and has offices in San Francisco and Zurich, Switzerland.

About beteo

beteo is a visionary Switzerland based global software and consulting start-up. Its application lifecycle management solutions and services focus on keeping Enterprise software system environments flexibly and efficiently adaptable to the changing business needs of the future.

It was founded in February 2007 as a spin-off of a leading Swiss IT Governance service company and is based in Sarnen, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany. Among its clients are well-known companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

December 13, 2007
beteo Miniguides – Project Collaboration

Thanks for this comprehensive list and clarity on the PPM, PM, P&PM;PM terminology.
How do companies such as Clarizen fit in this categorization of yours? We consider ourselves more in line with being a Project Collaboration solution by focusing on team adoption and sharing via email integration and built in collaboration tools.
Shall we introduce a new category ‘PCM’ – Project Collaboration Management?

Through a comment from Clarizen’s Gil Heiman we came up with the idea of creating a beteo Miniguide with Project Collaboration tools. Every reader is invited to contribute to the quality and completeness of the list through comments or feedback.

December 11, 2007
beteo Miniguides – P&PM Market Survey
Today’s PPM market is changing. The term PPM as a software category is used by Project Portfolio Management (PPM) as well as Project Management (PM) software vendors. For the sake of clarity there should be a comprehensive category including both subcategories: Project & Portfolio Management (P&PM).

For this reason we analyze the P&PM market in detail and qualify the vendors corresponding to their functional range as comprehensive P&PM, pure PPM or PM vendors. We raised an inventory and built beteo miniguides with available solutions for the categories:
Every reader is invited to contribute to the quality and completeness of the list through comments or feedback. We will update these beteo miniguides regularly.
November 29, 2007

Project Portfolio Management – Miniguide

In the articles “PPM – Gartner Causes Confusion” and “Project Portfolio – Hype and More” we covered the issue of the nonspecific use of the term PPM.

Today the PPM market is changing. On one hand software companies are being acquired (HP / Mercury Interactive / Kintana, Oracle / Peoplesoft, Primavera / Prosight, Serena / Pacific Edge). On the other hand the term PPM as a software category is used Project Portfolio Management (PPM) as well as Project Management (PM) software vendors. For the sake of clarity there should be a comprehensive category including both subcategories: Project & Portfolio Management (P&PM).

In addition suppliers of Project Management tools are providing additional PPM functionality whereas PPM vendors are forced to support Project Management in their solutions. Demian Entrekin, PPM blogger on PPM Today and ITtoolbox, says that this centralization, normalization and standardization of project data and processes are inevitable. He compares the actual stage the PPM market is in today with the one the CRM market was in 10 years ago.

For this reason we want to analyze the P&PM market in detail and qualify the vendors corresponding to their functional range as comprehensive P&PM respectively as PPM or PM vendors. We raised an inventory and built a miniguide with available PPM solutions on the market. Every reader is invite to contribute to the quality and completeness of the list through comments. We will update the list regularly.

The miniguide is arranged alphabetically by product names. In the course of time the list should become a ratable miniguide that will be divided into P&PM, PPM and PM applications.

Product	Vendor	Moduls
Artemis 7	Artemis International Solutions	Idea & Initiative Management, Product Portfolio Management, Project Management, Program Management, Process Management, Financial Management, Resource Management, Document Management
AtTask	AtTask	Project Tracking, Process Improvement, Project & Capacity Planning, Portfolio Management
Clarity	Computer Associates	Demand Manager, Project Portfolio Manager, Project Manager, Resource Manager, IT Portfolio Manager, IT Finance Manager, Process Manager
Compuware IT Governance	Compuware	Demand Management, Project Portfolio Management, Application Portfolio Management
Daptiv PPM	Daptiv	Project Portfolio Management
Enterprise Project Management (EPM)	Microsoft	Project Management
Enterprise Project Portfolio Management	Oracle / PeopleSoft	Project Portfolio Management
HP Project Portfolio Management Center PPM (ex. Mercury ITG)	HP Software	Demand Management, Project Management, Program Management, Portfolio Mangement, Financial Managment, Time Management, Ressource Management, Deployment, Workflow, Document Management
Innotas	Innotas	Request Management, Project Management, Program Management, Resource Management, Time Management, Financial Management, Portfolio Mangement
OPX2	Le Bihan Consulting	Projektportfolio-Management, Risk Management, Resource Allocation, Cost, Time
PLANTA Projektportfoliomanagement (PPPM)	Planta	Projektmanagement-System, Projektportfoliomanagement, Request Management, Professional Services Automation
PlanView Enterprise	Planview	Enterprise Portfolio Management, Project Portfolio Management, Service Portfolio Management, Business Process Manager
Portfolio Manager	GenSight	Portfolio Manager
Primavera P6	Primavera	Project Management, Resource Management, Portfolio Management, Planing & Scheduling Management, Cost Management, Time Sheets, Collaboration & Content Management, Reportung & Analystics, Architecture
Project & Portfolio Management	Borland	Demand Management, Portfolio Management, Project Management, Resource Management
Project Portfolio Management	Augeo Software	Project Portfolio Management
Project Portfolio Management	ITM Software	Project Management, Program Management, Portfolio Management, Financial Management
Project Portfolio Management Software	Atlantic Global	Project Management, Program Management, Portfolio Management, Timesheet Management, Resource Utilization, Financial Management, Risk Management
Project.net	Project.net	Project Portfolio Management
Projectplace	Projectplace	Projectportfolio
PSNext	Sciforma	Project Management, Portfolio Management, Resource Management
Rational Portfolio Management	IBM	Project Management, Portfolio Management, Resource Management, Risk Management, Time & Expense Management
Serena Mariner	Serena	Project Management, Portfolio Management
Suite Cardinis	Cardinis	Project Portfolio Management
ValueDriver4	ValueCurve	Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
WorkLen z	Metier	Project Portfolio Management, Investment Business Cases, Resource Management, Time Keeping
xRPM	SAP	Portfolio Management, Resource Management, Program Management, Skills Management

November 22, 2007

SAP Search Guide

Searching the right information in the SAP information jungle can be quite time consuming. This guide is intended to help to SAP professionals to quickly find answers to typical questions on the internet. For each proposed search starting point prerequisites as well as an estimate for the time needed to find the solution are listed.This list for sure does not claim to be complete, so it does not reflect information needs specific to versions of SAP.

	Problem	Source, Categorie	Requi- rements	Search start	Procedure / Comment
General / Naming	What does SAP stands for?	Wikipedia	–	SAP AG SAP ERP	About the company and its products
	What is SAP talking about?	Terms, Definitions	– –	German English
	What stands this abbreviation for?	Acronyms, Abbreviations	–	SAP Designguild	The most important.
	Was this product renamed?	Naming	–	n/a	Will be my next Blog!
Education	Does SAP offer a course on this topic?	Education	S-User*	SAP Education Catalog
	When and where the next TechEd is planed?	TechEd	–	SAP Events	Apply > participate > Overview on future products and solutions
	Does SAP has CBTs (Computer based Trainings)?	eLearning	–	SDN eLearning	Select product in the catalog.
	Can i find a book on this topic?	SAP Press usw.	–	SAPPress Amazon
Releases	When will the next version released?	Product Availability Matrix	S-User*	PAM	Select product
	On what product do I have to count on in next time?	Special PAM Tabelle	S-User*	PAM Tabelle	Sort for Availability
	Timeline for ServicePacks?	Servicepack Stack Schedule	S-User*	SP Schedule	Use Link on products for details.
	What’s the difference between two SAP ERP Releases?	ERP Solution Browser	–	Solutionbrowser	Source-, Targetrelease and Solution area.
	Is my product still supported?	Special PAM Tabelle	S-User*	PAM Tabelle
KBase / Solutions	How to install a SAP product?	Installation documentation	S-User*	Installation Guides	Read the hole document incl. links on SAP Notes!
	How to configure a SAP product?	SAP Help	–	SAP Help	Select product (version) > Search > (follow the postinstallation configuration)
	Where to find the solution to a technical problem?		– S-User* – –	SDN SAP Notes SAPFANS SDN Wiki	According to experience: SDN > SAP Notes > Google > SAPFANS > SAPTechies Important: Check for notes to optimice your search!
	Who can answer a technical question?	Depose a problem	S-User, License SDN-User	OSS SDN	Slowly but surely. Faster but without guaranty for success
	Who can deliver a SAP solution?	SAP partners Search	–	Switzerland
	If all else fails!	ultimo ratio			079 447 xx xx Website
Design	How to design a SAP applications?	UI Design Resources	–	SAP Designguild
Design	Where do I get original SAP icons?	SAP Icon Library	–	SAP Designguild

* To access http://service.sap.com/ a SAP S-User is needed. Alternative a C- or I-User works of course too.
** SDN user needed. Free subscription possible on http://sdn.sap.com/. Alternative the logon works with the S-User*.
*** For product support you need an SLA with SAP.

November 22, 2007

PPM – Alibi Without Impact Analysis
Project Portfolio and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) are well established terms used in many industries and heavily by software vendors. Accordingly, there are some standards and a number of software solutions that support the planning and controlling of ideas, initiatives and projects. But do these approaches and tools really meet the actual needs of organizations?

Reasons for New Projects
There are different reasons to initiate a project. Maybe an existing application requires enhancements, a new product has to be launched, processes need to be optimized, current infrastructure has to replaced or an organizational change is necessary. Despite all these different reasons projects have a lot in common and realizing such projects most often involves IT and its systems.

Portfolio Prioritization Process
Because of the limited resources of a company and even more of of it’s IT organization usually a portfolio prioritization process is in place. The idea’s or project’s importance and feasibility are weighted. Among others that could be through it’s
- strategic alignment,
- costs,
- quantitative benefits,
- qualitative benefits
- risks,
- resources needed,
- organizational impact.
During the entire prioritization process often complex processes, analysis, mathematical methods and risk matrices are implemented and specialists are involved. Frequently the results of these weightings are summarized in a business case. Using a funnel with several prioritization steps helps to reduce the amount of planned and executed projects to make sure that the organization’s resources are used in an effective and efficient way. At this point the question comes up if the defined criteria really can be weighted precisely enough. Is the necessary data available or is the organization starting a blind flight into a foggy data sky?

Impact of Projects
During the prioritization process the impact on the different departments and the expected resource needs are estimated. Usually, the IT organization and its limited and for this reason highly critical resources, e.g. experienced CRM developers or SAP specialists, build a bottle neck. But what is exactly the basis for such estimations of future efforts?

Weighting becomes an issue
How do IT organizations plan their resources, asses their risks, identify interdependencies and forecast their future efforts? The best process is useless if the relevant data is not available. Unprecise or wrong estimates during the prioritization result in overtime orders, scope reduction and reduced testing during the project execution. In many cases projects for this reason have to be canceled, or roll-outs lead to failure and breakdowns are predictable.

Critical resources – the crux of the matter
Limited resources, often highly specialized employees with key know how and experience, cannot start working on new initiatives. They are blocked by work on delayed projects. Additionally, they very often have to support operations after official project closing. These efforts were not considered during planning. And here the vicious circle starts. The organization reacts lethargically and inflexibly on new requests and therefore cannot satisfy the (market) demands in time.

Impact Analysis – Critical Success Factor for Project Planning
How can this problem be solved? Precise Impact Analysis is the key advantage of the IT organization and of the overall portfolio prioritization process. Tool-based Impact Analysis needs to be integrated into the processes and the data management of IT. Its data needs are supported through a Comprehensive CMBD (Configuration Management Database), which is embedded in the lifecycle of all applications (Application Lifecycle Management, ALM), That enables IT to point out impacted organizational (business units, roles, security, etc.), technical (programs, transactions, change requests, etc.) and descriptive (documentations, concepts, test cases, etc.) objects and their interdependencies.

IT management gets a tool to early estimate new initiatives more detailed, assess risks and actions more precisely, can point out interdependencies and assign resources effective and efficient. The organization reacts more effectively and creates lasting solutions resulting in advantages for future projects. Through the information loop the information content gets better and better and the estimations become meaningful.

Appropriate processes, specified weighting criteria and defined responsibilities as well as authorities build the basis for a successful project portfolio prioritization process. Through continuous improvement the process maturity can be increased.

However, to enable the IT organization to make precise and significant estimations, necessary tools for keeping of data and so-called Impact Analysis have to available. Those build one module of an ERP4IT that supports IT management and enables it to contribute to the company’s vision and strategy in a more optimal way. And that should already start at the early planning stage on basis of useful information. Otherwise the prioritization does not really make that much sense.
November 16, 2007
PPM – Gartner Causes Confusion
Stimulated by HP’s limiting use of “Portfolio Management” in the new name of its powerful IT Governance solution HP PPM, we already covered the often misinterpreted and ambiguous use of the term “Project Portfolio” in earlier blogs.

Confusion around PPM
Similar vagueness as for “Portfolio Management” can be observed for “Project Portfolio Management”. Software vendors trying to ride the trend waves do their best to reinforce such vagueness. Market players do not hesitate to call their solutions “Project & Portfolio Management”, abbreviated as PPM. Now even Gartner in its most recent study uses PPM to categorize Project & Portfolio Management, bundling two disciplines, PPM (Project Portfolio Management) and PM (Project Management).

Obviously, Project Management tools with low Portfolio functionality such as prioritisation or project funding are suddenly called PPM.
Every simple project management solution qualifies itself nowadays PPM. Project Portfolio Management is to important to be diluted like that. It is clearly defined:

“Portfolio management is the centralized management of one or more portfolios, which
includes identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing, and controlling projects, programs,
and other related work, to achieve specific strategic business objectives” (Project Management Institute, The Standard for Portfolio Management, 2006, S. 5).

Contrary to Garntner’s use Project Portfolio Management does not cover the implementation aspects of projects and programs. As a discipline it covers activities like:
- Assessment and evaluation of project ideas and requests
- Support for business case and feasibility studies
- Analysis of dependencies between planned and ongoing projects
- Prioritization of project requests
- Approval or rejection of project requests
- Grouping of projects in portfolio structures
- Controlling of current projects and programs
- Superordinate risk, quality, time, resource and cost management
- Evaluation of project portfolio regarding it’s alignment with strategic business goals
- Collection of empirical project data
- Definition of guidelines for new projects
Project Portfolio Management’s is the managment discipline of business management with the goal to implement the right projects at the right point in time with the right resources in the right organizational environment. It is key to distinguish this business critical discipline from project management.

In all other beteo blogs like “Project Portfolio – Hype and More” or “PPM – Alibi Without Impact Analysis” we use PPM in above sense. Maybe one day Gartner will start to call it’s category P&PM: not as sexy but less ambigous.
November 16, 2007
Project Portfolio – Hype and More

After the acquisition of Mercury HP has changed the product name of Mercury ITG to HP Project Portfolio Management Center, HP PPM. Dieter Steiger criticized this new naming already in his blog “Lifecycle Management – HP BTO makes it happen!”.

Unfortunately, by changing the name of their Software Suite to HP Project and Portfolio Management Center (HP PPM), HP have removed the reference to the true strength of their product from its name. Therefore, the name situates the product only in reference to one Gartner IT quadrant : Project & Portfolio Management (PPM), while the former name Mercury IT Governance (Mercury ITG) reflected very well how strong the product is.

So the question to raise is in how far HP PPM eventually supports the project portfolio.

What is a project portfolio?
The term portfolio is nowadays heavily used in many different industries and for different disciplines. Talking about portfolio is simply trendy, so it is used too often. Like that there are many types of portfolios: equity and stock portfolios, real estate portfolios product portfolios, customer portfolios and for sure project portfolios. For this reason it is important to clearly define the term project portfolio. Although there are many different interpretations there is one clear definition.

The set of all initiatives and projects
The project portfolio of an organization is the set of all its planned initiatives, active projects and programs. At the latest with the approval of a project or program it enters the project portfolio. After its official end it is retired from it. The project like that maps the overall project lifecycle of all different types of projects. This overall view allows for an optimized planning of all upcoming initiatives and projects.

Structured by criteria
A project portfolio is structured by multiple criteria. Budget, duration, subject area, owning department are examples of criteria often found. Key for categorization are often indicators like the project’s contribution to business goals, project’s estimated risk, project resources, financial measures (net present value, return on investment, cost reduction) or more qualitative measures like risk reduction, legal compliance needs or opening of a new business opportunity.

“Defined, a portfolio is a collection of projects and/or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate the effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives. The components of a portfolio are quantifiable; that is, they can be measured, ranked, and
prioritized” (Project Management Institute, The Standard for Portfolio Management , 2006, p. 4).

Clear structures and meaningful database
A project portfolio is qualified by its structure and database and it delivers decision criteria and instruments for project controlling. It is not compulsory that components of a portfolio are related. What they have always in common is a higher level strategy, prioritization and the contribution to the overall goal. Through the portfolio view it is possible at any time to understand why an initiative has been planned and executed.

HP PPM through its modules for Project Portfolio and Demand Management meets all these requirements and criteria, despite the fact that it offers a lot more functionality.

November 15, 2007