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New features in primavera P6 professional portfolio management version 15.1


Primavera_P6_ProPrimavera p6 has always promised its customers to deliver the best. Solutions that is tangible to the problem as well delivering the value to your business. Primavera P6 has introduced latest features for its customers. This version enhances the skills to bring out the best from your project.

Key features include:

  • Usability
  • Import and export baselines of projects  in XML format
  • Enterprise features when connected to an EPPM database
  • Separate module excess for P6 professional and visualizer
  • UN/ CEFACT improvements
  • Unifier integration
  • Visualizer
  • Import and export visualizer layouts

New usability feature include:

  1. Import and export baselines of projects in XML format
  2. Enterprise features when connected to an EPPM database
  3. Separate module excess for P6 professional and visualizer

Import and export baseline of project in XML format:

The ability to include baselines when importing or exporting a project in primavera XML format has been added to the new version 1.1. Previously you needed to restore a baseline to a project in order to import or export it. In P6 professional 15.1 baseline information is included in the XML file.

A new field, exists, is included in the baselines to import dialogue box. The purpose is to notify you if an imported baseline already exists in the project being updated.

To access this feature:

On the file menu, click import or export.

Enterprise features when connected to an EPPM database:

Several features have been re enabled in P6 professional version 15.1 when connected to an EPPM database. In previous versions, these features were disabled with the expectation that they would be administered in the p6 application.

The following features have been re enabled in P6 professional when connected to an EPPM database

  • EPS
  • OBS
  • PROJECT CODES
  • ACTIVITY STEP TEMPLATES
  • COST ACCOUNTS
  • FUNDING RESOURCES

These features continue to be available for P6 professional instances that are connected to professional databases or installed in standalone mode.

Separate module access for P6 professional and visualizer:

A new module, visualizer, has been added to the module access section of the user access page in this new version 15.1. The difference is that in previous versions, access to visualizer was included with the P6 professional module access. This new features enables project managers to allow separate access to both the applications. This is useful if for example , a user tasked with creating Gantt chart or time scaled logic diagram reports in visualizer might not require  access to P6 professional. Conversely some users may be given p6 professional access but not the privilege to work in visualizer.

To access this feature:

Open p6 professional or visualizer. Access will vary depending upon the module privileges granted in p6 web.

UN/CEFACT IMPROVEMENTS:

This new version of p6 provides additional support for UN/CEFACT XML format 6, which defines and contains integrated master schedule (IMS) data. The existing UN/CEFACT XML support has been enhanced to support all the fields in the D09b version of the XML schema.

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Organizational Performance Management

Performance management design concept. Typographic poster. Performance management concepts for web banner and printed materials.
Performance management design concept. Typographic poster. Performance management concepts for web banner and printed materials.

A very crucial question that need to be pondered over is how does organizational performance management fit in. when talking about small startups, OPM main seem quite a big deal. But what if the organization is somewhere in between. On one hand you no more do all the logistics yourself on the other hand, there is still time when you will be cutting checks for a large number of employees.

For understanding how organizational performance management fit in, you first need to understand that OPM is a good thing. Relating strategy with implementation, making a strong link between strategies, how it is planned and then implemented in order to deliver on portfolio grounds. Also realize how important its value is.

Thing to keep in mind is OPM at scale is even better. If you don’t scale OPM to where your organization is OPM may seem quite complex to you, even in try of attempting it. If you think OPM is a good thing don’t waste a single moment trying it. It has been witnessed that the organizations that doesn’t seem to care enough about OPM, witness a downfall in their businesses. At times teams get frustrated and at times the progress get halted. And the same answers are given by the leadership- work harder.

Performance management is a lot more than the appraisals given at the end of the year. It’s about translating goals into outcomes, or results that are effective and has a huge progressive impact on the organization. It includes individual employees, teams, processes and the organization as a whole.

Effective PM will help you in nurturing individual performance, foster ongoing employees hence increasing overall organizational effectiveness.

OPM and strategic planning is closely related, here we will discuss how strategic planning has influenced private and public sector organizations. Indeed strategic planning is a crucial step in the management of any organization, regardless of at what level they reside. Public agencies have a greater challenge in evaluating their results. Whereas, private organizations have clear goals and results as the outcomes are closely related to the financial goals. Rapidly changing and increasing demands for programs, products and services and greater demands for accountability are the adequate reasons the public sector organizations have tend to opt strategic planning which leads to good organizational performance management as well as good results in overall progressive growth of the organization.Organizational PM helps in improving different levels.

How OPM can help?

  1. Assessment of your existing performance appraisal system.
  2. Development of performance plans in accordance with organization’s missions and goals.
  3. Writing elements and standards that involve measure of performance.
  4. Pay for performance systems
  5. Reward systems linked to your performance appraisal systems.

OPM mainly involves identifying the gaps in performance against the objectives of business, further recognizing where the gaps lie and deploying the improvements to close the gaps. Some of the key features are

Establish objectives, analyze process performance data, identify and implement improvement, implementation of improvements

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How to Determine the Value of Value?

valueThe question is project management, that has been asked frequently and quite readily is how the things both tangible and intangible can be determined, the cost and effectiveness. What is its value exactly? Value is a concept that varies from organization to organization and encompasses the total sum of all profits, gains and losses.

When the value which can be seen and determined is easy but what about the intangible ones. The clear ones can get you return, and you can easily get where the return is? The intangible elements the project can generate.

Businesses primarily consists of things are tangible, but things which are intangible can have great impact on businesses changing the way they operate, how employees are managed, how products are designed and sold. Intangibles can be classified as benefits or assets (resources). The benefits classified as intangible consists of subjective approaches and views about a company that can’t be expressed in terms of money.

The challenge is finding and tracing these valued intangibles. Keeping in mind, most of the value will be created in the minds of the investors or stakeholders.

Project management is considered as a central process in businesses used to oversee and control specific activities. The results of project management from that of the project as a whole cannot be differentiated and if they can, this might be a difficult thing to do. It definitely takes time and money to manage a project. The benefits include, both in terms of tangible and intangible.

One of the very basic tangible benefits that adds value to the business or project is budget management.

It is a major benefit that includes budgetary savings. Project managers are responsible for controlling budgets, making decisions how the resources need to be allocated, in order to get the best return.

Second major tangible benefit is meeting deadlines, which majorly includes managing your time. The completion of project requires two main things, completing it in budget and in time, meeting the deadline is very crucial to success of the project which ultimately adds value to the business and in return stakeholders get a sense of reliability over the project management team.

The intangible benefits can be managing risk and team work.

Discussing the prior, risk management is important as well as a difficult task to do. The reason being its difficult quantifying as compared to cost savings. The only thing project managers can do is evaluate the factors that can cause harm to the project and plan a strategy to avoid it to the best of their knowledge.

It might contains some tangible benefits too like placing a financial metrics for placing a tangible value on risk. The intangible benefit is taking the risk when it’s best to take it, the appropriate move to make. The sign of a skilled project manager is he can lead the team to its objectives but remain flexible to react to changing risk factors.

Another intangible benefit is team work, one of the key factors that affects project management is its allocation of human resources. The right person for the right job and their ability to work in coordination to achieve a common goal.

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What are some common ways to align portfolio management with strategy?

portfolioIn most organizations, the successful implementation of initiatives that are strategic in nature is very crucial. But a number of them neglects the importance of aligning portfolio management with strategy. According to a recent survey only 10 percent pay heed to aligning portfolio management with strategy.

Leadership, direction and guidance. Monitoring and reporting of key performance. ALIGNMNET TO STRATEGY and empowering teams to make day to day decisions is very crucial.

The most talked about and critical factors to align portfolio management with strategy are as follows.

3 C’s:

The important three c’s mainly culture, change management and communication. These three c’s are very crucial to company’s success. The triple threat of portfolio management is having these components work in harmony with the company’s strategy.

Culture can be understood as the habits which are embodied by an organization. It may also refer to personality. Culture can be described as something that may refer to something unseen that can be felt when walking around in an organization. According a survey, it has been cited that approx. 95% of the employs never pay attention to what’s the strategy, they just focus on the tasks individually, not the strategy or planning or the overall growth.

Although culture may be difficult to describe, it can be understood as instead of just letting our cultures evolve randomly we should focus on making and building cultures inside our organizations. And that can happen by socializing that culture through communication and change movement.

Governance:

When you want to practice good portfolio management with remarkably aligned strategy these core governance functions should always be kept in mind.

  1. Oversight
  2. Control
  3. Decision making
  4. Integrating
  5. Value
  6. Risk management
  7. PPPM maturity.
  8. Organizational structure.

 

 

Agility:

A broader umbrella for organizations culture and processes that are quick and adaptable.Quick here suggests how nimble they are in terms of speed of reacting. Whereas adaptable refers to being flexible or versatile. To take best advantages of internal of external changes one should it’s crucial to make a versatile and flexible organizations. The cause of strategical change is portfolio management.

How you align portfolio management with strategy?

This question is a challenge for project managers now a days. While building an organization to enable strategic initiative an organization should be defined by verticals of end to end processes.

Portfolio management is all aboutmaking decisions and then carrying out appropriate actions for its cause. Portfolio managers need to develop their business skills, most importantly the understanding the mechanisms and processes associated with governance and strategy planning.

Some of the key features are

Exploring the factors that influence strategy, mainly the culture of organization, capability of the organization and what does stakeholders expect from the firm.

Secondly, the strategic management or planning of the organization. Their choices at corporate level, decisions and how the actions are carried out to formulate those decisions into successful happenings

In the end, the process of portfolio execution is presented.

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What are some common ways to align portfolio management with strategy?

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