Since 1998 we have sold enterprise (and now SaaS) resource, portfolio, and project management software.  One of the most popular features has always been our weekly project and program status reporting tool where the project manager can set the Red/Yellow/Green health status of schedule, scope, resources, budget, and overall project.

What is scary (to me) is that many of our customers want to “over-ride” the Red, Yellow, Green indicators and take health status reporting away from the project managers.

I agree with setting some threshold guidelines around the dimensions of resources, scope, budget, and schedule.  I don't believe they should be cut and dry rules that automatically place the project status.  Let me explain. 

For example th ... Read More »

 

Let me begin with a disclaimer.  I live, eat, and breathe project management software.  Work wise, it is the reason for my existence (far as I can tell).  I quit my job as an Ernst & Young PMO consultant 10 years ago to start a project management software company with no income, little in savings, and our first child ha ... Read More »

You have come to the conclusion that improved project management, resource management, and metrics are key to reducing overhead costs and improving revenue.  

You have created a prioritized list of benefits you need from project management software and you have contacted the vendors you are interested in while avoiding the 5 things you should never say to a project management software salesperson.

< ... Read More »

These days many people are talking about Software as a Service (SaaS).  Software as a Service (SaaS) is the concept of instead of buying a server, buying server software, configuring said software, and keeping up with maintenance you simply pay a software service provider a monthly fee to deliver the benefit of the software over the Internet. 

The advantages of this approach are:

• No large capital outlay (servers, enterprise software)
• No resource management issues (training staff to install and support software)
• No footprint on existing hardware (no software to install on desktops and no storage issues)
• Pay as you go and only as you need (you only pay for the people using the software and there ... Read More »

Q:  When should a company use software as a service (per user/per month with hosted hardware and software)?

A:  Whenever possible.

True story.  Yesterday in St. Louis we had terrible storms and a tornado warning for downtown (very rare here).  I was in the middle of a demo and ended up huddled in an interior hallway with the CIO talking about this very subject while we waiting for whatever would happen.

It was hard for them (very old company) to make the transition to SaaS but he knows that they must.  He explained that resources were limited and no one considered it a career path to support someone else's software.  The support costs are very high as vendors have to travel on-site and the support is slow.  Then there i ... Read More »

 

Question:  What is consuming 30% of your time that isn't even being tracked in your project management software?

 

I know you are probably thinking this is related to planning.  People are always telling me how important project planning is ( and I don't disagree with them).  Many top organizations spend a reasonable amount of time studying workplans, building methodologies, and standardizing on planning templates.  Yet they report they are still regularly running over budget on their IT projects and can't figure out why? 

 

The issue is issue management. Read More »

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I was recently reading Phil Wainewright's excellent blog on SaaS Applications on demand where he wrote that SaaS vendors like VCSonline.com need to use scalable SaaS services and architecture themselves, or die.  

Well, I am here to attest that when it comes to infrastructure, we are eating our own dog food, and loving it!  As for Phil's second point of building SaaS software on SaaS software, we see that as a medium to longer term trend but the more immediate need is a hybrid deployment model between open source and on-demand.

I believe SaaS is going to see dramatic growth based on our many CIO contacts and the over 300% increase in SaaS customers we have seen in the last 6 months.  That said ... Read More »