03.Unveiling the PMIS Chronicles: 6 Vital Lessons for Project Managers

Discover the essential insights tailored for project managers, organizations, and businesses navigating Project Management Information Systems in this episode of Project Management Masterclass. Join Brittany Wilkins as she shares 6 crucial lessons drawn from her extensive experience in implementing and overseeing project management software. Understanding the purpose behind adopting a tool is paramount; resist the allure of flashy sales pitches and demos that distract from productivity goals. Avoid forcing a tool to fit where it doesn't belong; instead, optimize your workflow to leverage the tool's capabilities effectively. Develop a solid plan for implementation and long-term sustainability to ensure the tool enhances productivity rather than becoming a hindrance. Tune in for invaluable advice on harnessing the power of project management tools to drive success.

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Transcript

 Welcome back to another episode of [Project Management Masterclass]! Today, we're diving into the world of Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) and uncovering some invaluable lessons learned. But first, let's set the stage.

So, what exactly is a PMIS? A project management information system is a digital platform or software tool designed to help project managers plan, execute, and manage projects efficiently. It typically includes features like scheduling, resource allocation, budgeting, document management, collaboration tools, and reporting capabilities. PMISs streamline project workflows and facilitate communication among team members, stakeholders, and clients. It can be a project managers and organizations greatest asset to effectively execute projects or what I personally learned from experience it can be detrimental impacting  project managers and organizations efficiency and productivity. Here all the lessons why…

Lesson 1: Know Your Why

  It all starts with understanding your purpose. As we embark on our PMIS journey, we must first ask ourselves: What problem are we trying to solve? But remember, a PMIS is not a magic wand that can fix everything. Without a solid foundation in project management fundamentals, its benefits may remain elusive.  One way to go about this  to think about the problems needs from a role based/and or function perspective creating those user stories

For example when it comes to Project, program, or portfolio management

An Executive may say -We don't have good visibility into our project portfolio. 

PMO-How do get the organization to standardized and build visibility.

Resource manager/People leader-We don’t have proper insight into resource availability and utilization

Project Manager-Gathering data to generate reports is time consuming and how do we ensure the projects we select and execute deliver business value

Team member-updating and communicating task status needs to be done multiple systems. 

Now those problems have come to the forefront time must be spent to further break down what root causes contributing why information needs to be done in multiple systems or why there is not good visibility of the project across the organization is too due to culture have a more silo organization where there are no forums that give people within the organization an awareness.

  Lesson 2: Beware of Shiny Object Syndrome

Lead in story: In today's market there is no shortage of project management information systems. As a project manager it's exciting to have a tool at one's disposal to make our jobs easier. 

 Ah, the allure of the shiny new toy! Just like when we're dazzled by a flashy car, it's easy to get swept up in the bells and whistles of a PMIS. But appearances can be deceiving. We must resist the temptation to prioritize style over substance and instead focus on whether the system truly meets our business needs. In many organizations time tracking is important for financial metrics in tracking the overall RD& E spend. One of the organizations I was a part of had decided to spin off from its parent company. A homegrown time tracking tool was utilized to track project costs across all the departments. Due to the spin off a new system had to be sourced. When one of the PMIS vendors demo the software sold the organization on a highly configurable application not just for time tracking for managing projects and portfolio, planning and delivering the right projects. For my organization I was assigned to help lead the transition and implementation to this system. Looking beyond the shiny features revealed a multitude of problems like system performance, roles and permissions setting, and it's like of customization capabilities that really met the needs of what our organization wanted to achieve.

Which leads me to lesson 3 team evaluation

Lesson 3: Team Evaluation

 When it comes to choosing a PMIS, involving the end-users is paramount. After all, they're the ones who will be navigating its intricacies day in and day out. By assembling a team of early adopters and ensuring they understand both the tool and the business processes it supports, we pave the way for a smoother implementation. Leadership play as role in being the key decisions makers  on approving the investment of the tool. In evaluation of a tool due diligence should be done by a team of individuals closets to the processes and operations. 

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Now back to show…


Lesson 4: Work Smarter Not Harder

  Efficiency is the name of the game. A PMIS should be our trusted ally, not a burdensome chore. In evaluating tools you'll discover many of them have dynamic applications such as resource capacity planner, documents, annual plan spend, budget, milestones, risk and issues log. As we migrated into the system and begin to set up project workspaces. Within the project workspaces were profile fields project leads where required to update critical information like budget. We also had an annual plan spend that also contained the same financial data. The was that if I updated financial data in one dynamic application, I had to go update again in another application within the same system. With an organization that has over 100 projects that is a lot of time and manual effort but also introduces human error in accurately capturing data in multiple applications. This was one of the issues that the vendor could not solve as it was not configurable feature. You see why it's important to vet the system and defining what problems you need to solve prior to making a huge investment. This was something the engineering organization among other things consistently groaned about. The inefficiency of the tool and placing an even greater burden on project managers. Guess who had to support in supporting the organization in updating the same data in multiple places. Helping the organization manage this tool become my 2nd full time job on top of what they originally hired me to do. 

 Which leads me to lesson number 5 

Lesson 5: System Administration

  Who's steering the ship? Whether it's managed in-house or outsourced to a third party, proper system administration is key to maintaining the integrity of  data and ensuring accurate reporting. Investing in expert support upfront can save us time, effort, and headaches down the road. Many organizations are very lean doing more with less resources, but to effectively sustain and manage a PMIS a team of dedicated SME's is required. Even if you outsource this to a third party they still will need proper training. Without it they are really a middle man addressing the needs but cannot really solve the problems, but instead just feeding and submitting tickets on behalf of the organization to the vendors support desk. 

 Lesson 6: Single Source of Truth

If your organization regards PMIS as a single source of truth then the integrity of the data is a critical components of financial reporting. In pulling reports I was seeing inconsistencies in the data. One report showed one number and you go to pull a different report it shows a different number. How can that be if that data is coming from the same system. Goes back to my previous lesson pay the experts first to ensure the tool gets off the ground to a good start. The PMIS tool was advertised to us as this all-inclusive portfolio management system no projects have to be managed outside of it. For our master planning process we had to work outside the tool because it did not have the capability for us to do it how it was done in excel. Goes back to lesson number three does this fit into our processes. 

Wrapping up, a PMIS should be more than just a tool. It should be a trusted partner in our project management journey, helping us overcome challenges, achieve our goals, and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of modern business.

I hope you were able to take something away from Six invaluable lessons learned from the world of Project Management Information Systems.  Thank  you for tuning into today's show.  Until then, stay organized, stay efficient, and keep reaching for those project milestones!