Project proliferation is a way of life, regardless of size, scope or industry. Whether it's a pharmaceutical company, a software company or a school board, every organization has too many projects in the works. Now instead of being overwhelmed by work, we are overwhelmed by projects. Companies are turning to software to help organize lives and help manage project-based work.   

Companies have always had to deal with change. In the past, by and large, change was predictable. Nowadays, change has become not only more rapid, but also more complex and ubiquitous. The Internet, Web 2.0 and the whole cluster of technologies that depend upon and enhance  the Internet, brought about not just new products and services, but also new industries, new competitors, new ways to interact, and new business models.

Why is the Internet causing so much change? The e-mail is not that much different from a memo; an electronic invoice resembles its paper predecessor; and intranets look similar to the enterprise resource planning systems. The Economist compares the Internet to a chameleon:

"It is not simply a new distribution channel, or a new way to communicate. It is many other things: a market place, an information system, a tool for manufacturing goods and services. It makes a difference to a whole range of things that managers do every day, from locating a new supplier to coordinating a project to collecting and managing customer data. Each of these, in turn, affects corporate life in many different ways". (Source: Economist, November 2000)

In recent years project management has gained solid reputation. It is an area of expertise that is becoming increasingly crucial to the achievement of strategic objectives. Only 30 years ago, the initiation of projects within businesses was the exception rather than the rule. Now, however, project management is one of the fastest growing professional disciplines in North America. Membership in the PMI (Project Management Institute) has grown from 71 in 1969 to 5000 in 1984 to 95,000 in 2007.

The way we quantify, qualify, apportion and dispense work is often carried through the framework of projects. At every organizational level - from strategic action at the executive level to single-day routine maintenance - work is being managed with an effort to balance time, cost, performance and risk.

Wikipedia defines a project as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a product or service.'

Project proliferation is a way of life, regardless of size, scope or industry. Whether it's a pharmaceutical company, a software company or a school board, every organization has too many projects in the works. Now instead of being overwhelmed by work, we are overwhelmed by projects. Companies are turning to software to help organize lives and help manage project-based work.

For an enterprise to be successful with DPM it must:

1. Choose the right project (portfolio management)
2. Run projects successfully (Capture success factors, monitor the progression of the project without additional overhead, communicate the development of the project to team members and other stakeholders)
3. Promote development of human resources through project (continuous learning, knowledge management etc.)

Project Portfolio Management

The only way to tame project proliferation is to determine which projects should be done, which projects can be done, and which projects should be delayed or stopped, this is often called Project Portfolio Management and resides in the Project Management Office (PMO). These project opportunity decisions must be made at the portfolio level, not the individual project level.

Effective portfolio management means knowing the relative value and risk associated with every project that has been proposed or is under way. It means knowing how resources are deployed across projects and how many project resources are available for new projects. It means making tough decisions about which projects will be done and when, if at all - based on a shared understanding of each project's potential for adding value to an organization

Recognize the power of a portfolio of projects that is aligned with an organization's strategy. Project portfolio management is different than management of a single portfolio and more than a summary Gant chart of many projects

As the project is being implemented, the team needs to know answers to such questions as: What is expected? How are we doing against those expectations? Management needs to know: How is the project progressing against objectives, schedule, and budget?  With today's Web 2.0 tools this is even easier to do using SaaS (software as a service)-based tools.

Resource Management

Executives struggle with resource management issues on two levels: the aggregate level of resources that will enable the company to achieve its goals and allocating resources for competing initiatives such as specific programs.

What many organizations lack is a comprehensive toolset that allows them to consolidate and compare across projects as well as the ability to simulate alternative scenarios. With such an operational infrastructure in place, companies can move to the next phase... linking resource consumption to deliverables to gauge productivity of the resources.

Managers also need to track the extent to which their strategic objectives are being met and to clearly define and make visible bottlenecks and obstacles that prevent them from attaining their (project) goals.  Project managers need to manage resources much more actively to deal with: dependencies, degree of predictability; degree of management discretion in allocating resources; attitude towards management's measurement of productivity; facilitate development of an accurate profile of a resource; the need to find in-house experts to better utilize resident knowledge, much of which is not formally documented; create a standardized profile format to utilize resources both inside the enterprise and also in the value network those you work with outside the enterprise on an ongoing basis).

One of the assumptions in resource management software modules is that people update their profiles. So a project manager, when looking for a new team, has access to the latest information. But given people are people, resource updating does not often happen on a regular basis. 

One way to deal with this expertise issue is to have software that not only enables you to profile and find expertise, but also learns, so that the experts are not continually bothered by the same novice questions. In addition, such tools need to update the resource automatically, as people often forget, and then the profiles are useless if they are not up-to-date.  Another option is to make the software smarter. One way experts can transfer some of their knowledge is by using templates. Tools like Clarizen take this one step further and allow you to store all your project notes, files and discussions within a template so that the next one to use the template will benefit from what you learned in your project.

Personal Networks to Social Networks

Tracking down this expertise and getting it applied to your project is often a frustrating experience. However there are some new tools in the Project Manager’s arsenal. Some of the larger vendors have not only encouraged a social network within the enterprise, but they have also supported extensive profiles, which can be tagged (with keywords or terms) and then help you find these elusive experts.  In addition some companies have been able to link “work products” to the profile and also enable these documents and objects to be part of your search.

These new Web 2.0 tools, when coupled with traditional project management functions, not only can help the professional project manager be more effective, but can also help those who are not professionals to be more effective  with their project goals. However, the Enterprise is doing a dance with these Web 2.0 tools and has not yet adopted them in mass, apart from a few specific areas. These tools do not tie project management to the desktop (as in the past) but allow anyone with a browser and the right password to access project information and be effective.

This is not to say that SaaS project management tools are not secure. Many tools not only have password access, but group and role access. This means that if you are not part of the group, you will not even see the project listed, and what you can see is limited by your role in the project. Objects in the project space can even be encrypted, offering an additional level of security. 

Project managers have evolved with the tools, and today often support teams that are geographically distributed. In addition, project managers are often only assigned to larger projects, leaving the smaller projects to be run by non-professionals. Fortunately, not only is the software getting smarter but also much easier to use, taking less time to get up to speed for any member of the project team.  I don't see the role of project manager going away, but as the software gets better it allows smaller organizations, that may lack project professionals, be more effective in reaching their project goals.