2024-02-01
6 min reading time

Management system for project managers - experiences from the field 

Why a Management System for Project Managers?

Why a Management System for Project Managers?

In project-driven activities such as construction, project management is a core competence and the right tool support for the project manager is an important issue. Among the company's various applications, tools that support work such as calculation, resource planning, time/activity planning, are an important system support. Often there are a number of defined processes in the company's management system that describe how a construction project should be delivered according to the company's methodology. The delivery process, also called the production process, is often described using different phases and toll gates.  

As the business grows and the number of projects increases, so does the complexity of managing and controlling the business. The need for administration, defined processes and process compliance increases. As a natural consequence, the requirements for the support systems that help project managers and responsible managers to control projects and project portfolios also increase. A need then arises for, what we call, a dedicated Management system for project managers. From previously finding functional support from existing tools, the need for a more dedicated function or tool is growing. An LP does not replace the project manager's existing tools dedicated to calculation / resource / time planning, but LP is a complementary system support with a focus on control of delivery execution and administrative support for project managers.  

Often the situation for project managers is that the functionality requested in the Management system for project managers do not have an explicit workspace but project managers solve the need with existing applications in the system portfolio, e.g. in document management systems, intranets, project tools. Individual solutions quickly lead to different ways of working between users and departments in the organisation. 

The business benefits that are often associated with an investment in a Management system for project managers are as follows 

  • A unified tool that supports project managers and enables standardised working methods and collective management of individual projects as well as the company's project portfolio. 
  • A system support that simplifies administration for project managers and avoids the feeling of jumping between many applications, resulting in operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. 
  • Improved process compliance, with the right system support, results in increased delivery quality and customer satisfaction. 
  • Improved governance with more qualitative decision support reduces business risk in the project portfolio. 

Depending on what problems or challenges the company has to deal with, depending on which business benefits are prioritised, it usually guides the dialogue regarding the requested functionality.   

So what functionality do we associate with the Project Management System?

So what functionality do we associate with the Project Management System?

Examples of use cases that we meet with our customers who are looking for improved system support are e.g: 

  • "Project managers should easily see which activities are remaining to finalise phase XX." 
  • "Project managers should easily see who has most recently updated and approved key activities (e.g. Business Risk Assessment)." 
  • "The responsible manager should be able to quickly see the overall status of a collection of projects and where they are according to the delivery process."  
  • " Project managers should be able to easily create the documents expected according to the delivery methodology, with simple keystrokes documents should be created with dynamic content"  

What is telling about the situation is that existing system support has clear shortcomings in being able to support the use cases highlighted. Based on the needs and wishes that we meet, we can see that the underlying functional requirements of a Management system for Project manager can be summarised as follows:  

The system functionality required is something that usually a tool like Sharepoint can support in some form, which is why many companies have used it to build their organisation. Management system for Project manager. A decision facilitated by the fact that document storage is often managed in Sharepoint. 

Market and system solution for LFP

Market and system solution for LFP

It is difficult to find standardised cloud services on the market that have a focus on what we call the Management system for Project managerThe suppliers we find with the required functionality come from two directions; either they are system suppliers of solutions for management systems and information management or they are suppliers of project management tools where process control and document management are also included. An alternative choice to choosing a ready-made system is to build your own. Management system for Project manager. Some organisations then choose a strategy and system solution based on the development tools and system support that already exist in the organisation for management systems and document management, such as Sharepoint and the Office 365 platform.  

Regardless of the choice of system supplier, the chosen system and subsequent implementation project will require configuration and development where the system needs to be shaped according to the company's existing delivery process, organisation and desired way of working. It is our experience that there are no turnkey or industry-specific solutions for what we call Management system for Project manager.  

Implementation of the Management System for Project Managers

Implementation of the Management System for Project Managers

An organisation launching a new Management system for Project manager need to plan for and organise the change management work that a new system requires. With the help of successful change management, we ensure a successful reception and high utilisation of the system. 

Success factors to succeed here are 

  • A project team that works in an agile manner, where a production release of simple functionality (MVP) is prioritised to allow for incremental further development based on ongoing feedback from users. Preferably addressing a smaller focus group that lays the foundation for a larger, more complete, launch. 
  • A targeted communication that prioritises the key users of the solution i.e. the project managers. Repeat the message often and ensure it is communicated in simple terms "what's in it for me"?  
  • Of course - a new system requires its own training effort. Provide easily accessible support and training and plan for a targeted training programme at launch. 

It is worth noting that Management system for Project manager is a support system whose utilisation requires an effort from users (project managers) that is usually not mandatory. In other words, the use of the system is not guaranteed and therefore the pay-off of the investment is not guaranteed.  

Those responsible for the system need to plan so that the change management work is something that starts in an implementation project but continues in normal line operations. Our experience for success in the longer term is that: 

  • Establish a recurring routine in overall activity reporting based on data retrieved from the system.  
  • Measure the utilisation rate among users and obtain continuous feedback from users (project manager). 
  • Deliver continuous improvements with the help of an established support/management function.  

Rededge Consulting

Rededge Consulting

Is Management system for project managers something that interests you, we are happy to get in touch with you. We have been working on the issue for a long time and also made an analysis of the situation in 2022 which we are happy to share (The project manager's future management systemAt Rededge Consulting, we have a long experience of working in the borderland between business and IT - not least in project-driven core business.  

We are change managers, system transformation project managers, solution architects, process mappers and much more.

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