Enterprise Project Management (EPM) streamlines the way businesses manage projects and accomplish work. EPM solution helps an organization to efficiently contour and automate their processes related to organizational functioning – resource management, budgeting, management reporting, forecasting and planning, etc.
However, to effectively implement EPM and ensure enterprise-wide adoption, a detailed understanding of an organization’s structure, its processes (simple or complex), project management maturity, and the key business drivers, is required. Infact, different departments or business groups in an organization can approach project management in different ways. Thus, it is important to identify the departments in which EPM is most needed, and the aspects of EPM which would deliver maximum impact.
Moreover, for successful project management, organizations need to have a clear roadmap of EPM implementation and adoption which is aligned to their business goals. Absence of this roadmap, can lead to improper EPM implementation and lack of will and motivation to put EPM to work.
How & where to start?
EPM assessment can be a starting point towards building an effective EPM roadmap. It is an approach to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the existing Project Management (PM) processes, and identify the near-term and long-term Project Management needs. It can help in effective and successful adoption of project management program in an organization.
This assessment aims at helping organizations to improve their project management processes and capabilities by providing them deep insights into maturity of their current (as-is) capabilities. It helps to identify the most valuable applications and use cases of EPM in the organization. Moreover, this assessment also defines the way to implement and adopt EPM, which can help the organization in the best possible manner, and also maximize the ROI.
How is the EPM assessment done?
The first step in EPM assessment is to gather information about the current project management practices in an organization, to understand the overall business processes, and create a baseline measurement of the current EPM capabilities. This information is then analysed to surface the best practices, and uncover the opportunities for improvement. The assessor looks at how the organization is performing various project management activities viz. work management, portfolio optimization, resource management, etc. And then, he identifies and uncovers those areas where EPM can be applied and will be most valuable for the organization.
What is the outcome of EPM assessment?
The outcome of EPM assessment is a report that contains key observations & findings; and improvement opportunities that are categorized by level of impact to the business (high/medium/low). This report also provides actionable recommendations for improvements – in the context of current findings and what the organization wants to achieve. These recommendations are at different levels – from project process automation and real-time monitoring, to quality process enablement, executive insight and strategic enablement activities.
Advaiya has a detailed assessment framework available, which is based on project management lifecycle. We leverage this framework to assess the current project management capabilities, processes, and practices in an organization. To know more about how EPM assessment can help your organization, write to us at – [email protected]. We will be happy to discuss about your EPM needs and current challenges that your organization faces.
Our article was originally published in InformationWeek. Source:Â http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/299100/epm-assessment
