Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Overview

In most organisations multiple projects co-exists with many other initiatives or programs. All have various priorities, some are strategic, some tactical and some should not be done at all.

Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is a process, system and mindset to facilitate transparency, management and governance support to projects at an organisational level.

In order to facilitate governance and to ensure the projects are aligned with the strategic intent of the enterprise, it has become essential to be able to manage, monitor, and assess the status of all projects. To achieve this enterprise wide view of projects a set of (preferably uniform) Enterprise Project Management processes, methods and applications is required.

Organisations that adopt a best practice approach to Enterprise Project Management set up a Project Management Office (PMO), adopt a Project Management Methodology or standard like PRINCE2 or PMBOK then select and implement a software system to support Enterprise Project Management. Once these processes and systems are in place, the organisation will create and track a portfolio of existing and future projects leveraging Project Portfolio Management techniques.

Implementing Enterprise Project Management systems needs to be considered in association with the organisation's Project Management Maturity, methodologies, processes and governance structures that are currently in place.

For more information take a look at the PM Partners site

10 Basic Principles of Project Management

The Basic Principles of Project Management

There are a number of significant principles which determine success in any project. These are simple and well known principles, however they are difficult to apply and are quite frequently ignored in practice.

1. Precise Business Needs

Successful projects are business driven. This represents the 'why' of the project, and it is important because it provides the basis for all decision making.

2. Defined Benefits

Projects are about translating the business need into the business benefit. In addition to the business need, the 'bottom line' benefits must also be well defined in terms of source, timing and quantity.

3. Explicit Plans

Effective planning, allows people to work together in a co-ordinated way in order to achieve the project objectives. Effective planning is dependent on being at an appropriate level of detail and being presented in an appropriate way.

4. Agreed Deliverables

Quite simply a 'deliverable' is an unambiguous way of defining responsibilities in terms of outputs rather than inputs. Each phase, area and task within the project plan should have a tangible deliverable associated with it, ie. something that one can see, touch, or otherwise validate.

5. Pro-Active Decision Making

Project work has little momentum of its own, unlike routine work. All parties involved are therefore required to take the initiative and actively look for ways of driving and improving the project outcome.

6. Single Point Responsibility

In business tasks are only completed successfully when people have unambiguous accountabilities. 'Single point responsibility' for results is of the very essence. The Project Manager is ultimately responsible for making the project happen.

7. Active Follow-Up

Plans have practical value only when they are used to help people do their daily work. They are similarly used as a means of identifying problems while there is still time to overcome them. Plans must therefore be used throughout the entire project in order to allocate tasks and monitor achievement.

8. Open Communications

Time must be invested in communication as it is the key to a successful project. By effectively communicating the project and issues everyone involved has the opportunity to take the initiative and contribute fully with ideas and decisions.

9. Good Teamwork

Teamwork in projects is absolutely critical but does not happen automatically. Project work involves people from different parts of the organisation, often with competing priorities and different perspectives, which can make teamwork all the more difficult to achieve. Teams must therefore be actively developed by the Project Manager.

10. Strong Leadership

Successful projects are usually led by an individual who is committed to the project objectives, and who has a completely clear view of where the project is going and how they intend to get there. The leadership qualities of the Project Manager are as important as their technical management skills.

Leading Education in Project Management Training & Certification Solutions

PM-Partners group is an established and accredited training organisation with all leading global accreditation bodies. Our team consists of experienced facilitators and Project Managers, so you can take advantage of the best and most practical education solution from people that deliver projects. Our objective is to develop capabilities and initiate behavioural change through:

	Interactive exercises & case studies that simulate real life scenarios as opposed to theoretical examples
	Practical solutions to everyday challenges
	Ongoing support – to assist effective learning transfer into the workplace
	Workshops that are developed and facilitated by talented, experienced professionals who are currently active within their areas of expertise, based on real-life situations.
	Learning content developed in a modularised format to enable speedy customisation to client specification.
	Extensive curriculum approved by leading global accreditation bodies

PM-Partners group are PMI Global Registered Education Providers, Approved CompTIA Project + Training Providers, a PRINCE2 course ATO, an MSP ATO, Registered AIPM Assessors, recognised as a Project Managed Organisation by the Australian Institute Of Project Management, endorsed course provider for the International Institute for Business Analysis, a Government Endorsed Supplier and a formal RTO Partner with ETAS Pty Ltd (RTO #1967), enabling AQTF qualification award to Certificate IV in Project Management.

Our comprehensive Education Services contain a portfolio of workshops from beginner to advanced, including the broadest range of Project Management Certification courses available.

PM-Partners group Overview

Successful projects require adaptable techniques combined with the right knowledge and understanding. PM-Partners group specialise in project & program management delivery, ba training and capability development solutions. From helping execute your projects with best practice techniques to building capabilities with professional certification and methodologies we work closely with you to help you deliver results.

Our talented team of experienced consultants, project managers and facilitators work with organisations throughout Australia, Asia and Europe. We manage hundreds of client engagements and projects in various industry sectors each year.

Focused and well-executed projects are paramount to meeting business goals. At PM-Partners group we understand the challenges facing today’s organisations and are on hand to help with practical and adaptable business orientated solutions. PM-Partners group provide:

	-	Management Of Client Projects
	-	The Broadest Range of Project & Program Management Education Solutions
	-	Business Analysis Education
	-	Consulting To Enhance Capabilities, Processes & Systems
	-	Methodologies, Program Management, Portfolio Management & PMO
	-	Project Management Contracting & Recruitment

We maintain and provide all leading global project management certifications to ensure we offer you the best solution through ba training and project management training.

For more information take a look at the home page for PM Partners

Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Overview

In most organisations multiple projects co-exists with many other initiatives or programs. All have various priorities, some are strategic, some tactical and some should not be done at all.

Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is a process, system and mindset to facilitate transparency, management and governance support to projects at an organisational level.

In order to facilitate governance and to ensure the projects are aligned with the strategic intent of the enterprise, it has become essential to be able to manage, monitor, and assess the status of all projects. To achieve this enterprise wide view of projects a set of (preferably uniform) Enterprise Project Management processes, methods and applications is required.

Organisations that adopt a best practice approach to Enterprise Project Management set up a Project Management Office (PMO), adopt a Project Management Methodology or standard like PRINCE2 or PMBOK then select and implement a software system to support Enterprise Project Management. Once these processes and systems are in place, the organisation will create and track a portfolio of existing and future projects leveraging Project Portfolio Management techniques.

Implementing Enterprise Project Management systems needs to be considered in association with the organisation's Project Management Maturity, methodologies, processes and governance structures that are currently in place.

PM-Partners group Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Services

More than ever before organisations require governance, transparency, and management of project returns. Enterprise Project Management (EPM) initiatives provide an opportunity to deliver the processes and systems required to achieve these returns. Implementation however, requires a knowledge and balance of business processes, project management processes, EPM system experience and culture in order to achieve success.

The PM-Partners group enterprise project management specialists have been working with Microsoft Project and EPM since its inception and can:

1. Work closely with you to gather requirements and define the best method of implementation and configuration for your organisation by obtaining a thorough understanding of your business opportunities and challenges
2. Assess your organizational readiness and level of process maturity prior to deployment
3. Help you prepare the organization for an EPM implementation
4. Install Microsoft Project Server or review your current installation
5. Work closely with you to install, configure or assess an existing MS Project Server implementation
6. Plan your implementation, pilot, and phased deployment
7. Create custom templates and standards to save time and simplify use
8. Train your project managers, team and administrators
9. Assess problems, document a plan of action and help improve a challenged implementation

Our consultants help clients achieve the following benefits with Microsoft EPM Solutions:

1. Standardisation and automation of the governance processes to ensure optimal results from projects
2. Capture all investments within a central repository enabling control of costs
3. Objectively prioritise business strategy and competing investments ensuring the 'high value' projects are completed first and irrelevant projects are rejected
4. Align the selected portfolios with the business strategy resulting in more effective strategy execution
5. Effectively manage resources to achieve the best ROI
6. Effective cross functional collaboration and coordination reducing overheads and contributing to staff morale
7. Measure and track portfolio performance to allow adjustments to ensure best returns
8. Get more from existing project investments
9. Tightly integrate with line of business applications hence reducing overlaps and associated costs
10. Quickly achieve an improved return on investment

For more information on project management methodology such as PMBOK head to the PM Partners home page

Managing Organisational change

Organisational change is a reality of the modern world, and that reality isn't likely to change anytime soon. If anything, organizations can expect to face the need for even more change in the future, at an ever faster pace. Organisations have to deal with new technology, and with upgrades for existing technology. They have to cope with reorganisations, process improvement initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions.

So, with all that change going on, how are organizations managing to cope? Not very well. The reality is that relatively few of the organisations that institute change-or are forced into it - realize the benefits they had hoped for, and, in fact, end up worse off than they were before.

That doesn't mean it's impossible to engage successfully in change. Many organisations do succeed. How? They succeed by integrating any technical solution that was part of the change mix with a thorough and proactive orchestration of the non-technical human aspects associated with the change.

In other words, the organisations that succeed at change do so by considering the people who are affected by, will have to live with, and are often crucial to effecting the change in question. Even better, not only does managing the human aspects of an organisational change initiative help ensure the successful implementation and use of the technical solution, it sets the groundwork for implementing future solutions.

The Best Practices in Change Management Report

This presents comprehensive findings from 288 companies on their experiences and lessons learned in change management. Report findings include:

1. The #1 contributor to project success is strong, visible and effective sponsorship.
2. The top obstacle to successful change is employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior managers.
3. Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO or their immediate supervisor (and these messages are not the same).
4. When asked what they would do differently next time, most teams would begin their change management activities earlier in their next project, instead of viewing it as an add-on or afterthought.
5. The top reasons for employee resistance are a lack of awareness about the change, comfort with the ways things are and fear of the unknown.
6. Middle managers resist change because of fear of losing control and overload of current tasks and responsibilities.

PM-Partners group Organisational Change Management Practice

PM-Partners group offer Education and Consultancy services in Organisational Change Management as well as project management.

Our education services provide a series of workshops for Organisational Change Management.

Our consultancy services are designed to help an organisation improve or establish Organisational Change Management Capabilities with advisory services, coaching and method development.