Making Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 561

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A guide to Microsoft Project that focuses on developing a successful project management strategy across the organization to drive better decisions Making Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project goes far beyond the basics of managing projects with Microsoft Project and how to set up and use the software. This unique guide is an indispensable resource for anyone who operates within a Project Management Operation (PMO) or is affected by the adoption of project management within an organization. Its focus is to provide practical and transitional information for those who are charged with making decisions and supporting corporate and strategic objectives, and who face cost and resource constraints. Because more and more companies are aligning project management with their business strategies, the book not only provides guidance on using Microsoft Project and teaching project management skills, but also includes important information on measuring results and communicating with the executive branch. It also provides valuable guidance in using SharePoint Server for social networking and working within a team. Clearly written and presented, the book: * Covers work management using Microsoft Project at multiple levels within an organization * Focuses on using Microsoft Project 2010 to integrate and support overall organizational strategies * Includes hundreds of graphics, screen shots, and annotations that make it the most accessible and usable guide available on the subject Making Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project is a valuable reference for project managers at all levels, and it sets a new standard for training manuals used by businesses that teach courses on project management using Microsoft Project.

Leseprobe

Contents

Chapter 1: Business Intelligence: Knowledge of Key Success Ingredients for Project Server 2010

In This Chapter

Maximizing PPM Ingredients, Culture, and Technology for Business Success

What is the Project Management Lifecycle?

Information: What Fuels a PMO’s Success?

Stakeholders in a Project Management Environment

Technology Meets Strategy: Welcome to the Business User Network

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 2: Value Proposition by Role of Project Server 2010

In This Chapter

Clairvoyance with Project/Server 2010: Forecast Future Results

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 3: Meeting CFO Needs with Project/Server 2010

In This Chapter

How the CFO Gets the Attention of the PMO

What and Why is Work Management Critical to Organizational Success?

Synchronization of Strategic Objectives to Actual Effort

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

Reference

Chapter 4: The Business Shakes Hands with the Microsoft Project 2010 Platform

In This Chapter

Logical Architecture is More Natural for Business Users

Microsoft Project 2010 Platform is Highly Extensible

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 5: End Users’ Critical Success Factors: Using MS Project 2010

In This Chapter

Project Management in Small Business and the Enterprise

Initiating and Managing Projects Using the Microsoft Project Desktop Client

Being an Effective Enterprise Project Manager Using Microsoft Project Server

Fluent Project Management Using the Fluent UI: Introducing the Ribbon

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 6: Thinking Local, Going Social: Project Teams Can Thrive Using Microsoft Project Server 2010

In This Chapter

Project Management Looking Ahead

PPM Lifecycle

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

Chapter 7: Better Together: Microsoft Project 2010 Worksites Using SharePoint Server 2010

In This Chapter

Integration of Collaboration, Social Media, and Project-Related Information

SharePoint Server 2010 Offers Critical Business Capabilities

Being Social in a Project Environment

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

Chapter 8: Effective Transition of Strategy and Execution: Program Management Using Microsoft Project Server 2010

In This Chapter

Projects Are the “How,” Programs Are the “Why”

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 9: Intelligent Business Planning and Controlling Using Microsoft Project 2010

In This Chapter

Understanding Strategic Planning with Project Server

Creating and Managing Portfolio Lifecycle for Project Server

Understanding and Building Business Drivers

Using Project Server to Master Demand Management

Building Project Selection Criteria

What the Efficient Frontier is and How to Use It

Working with Constraints in Portfolio Planning

Creating and Running Multiple Scenarios for Portfolio Planning

Applying Strategic Analysis for Corporate to Departmental Needs

Committing New Work Portfolios and Measuring for ROI

Project Server Optimizing Governance for PMOs

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

References

Chapter 10: Intelligent Business Planning and Reporting Using Microsoft Project 2010

In This Chapter

What is Dynamic Reporting . . .

Creating Easy-to-Access Reporting in Project Server/SharePoint BI

Important Concepts Covered in This Chapter

Index

Cover image: © sureyya akin/iStockphoto

Cover design: Michael Rutkowski

Copyright © 2013 by Advisicon, Inc. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on request

ISBN: 978-1-118-09739-7; 978-1-118-33026-5 (ebk.); 978-1-118-33093-7 (ebk.);

978-1-118-33309-9 (ebk.); 978-1-118-48827-0 (ebk.); 978-1-118-48828-7 (ebk.)

978-1-118-48830-0 (ebk.)

CHAPTER 1

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: KNOWLEDGE OF KEY SUCCESS INGREDIENTS FOR PROJECT SERVER 2010

IN THIS CHAPTER

This chapter helps set the stage for the deep-dive and thought-provoking tour we will be taking in establishing a good enterprise project portfolio management (PPM) system.

We focus on the importance of leveraging key technology and methodology components to help create a successful foundation for meaningful reporting and maximization of PPM technologies.

We review different types of lifecycles and how to work toward alignment through business and project lifecycles to leverage the power of Project Server’s engine to reinforce best practices. We show how to work toward an end game of simple visuals and dashboards that enable business leaders, project managers, and even team members to participate in the success of their projects and what we refer to as “one version of the truth.”

What You Will Learn

Different key focus areas you need to address in establishing a strong PPM system

The importance of lifecycle, phases, and stages to simplify and automate management, grouping, and reporting

How to blend technology with methodology

Understand the difference between Project 2010 and Project Server 2010

How to scale Project Server 2010 from top down (portfolio planning) to bottom up (detailed and task planning) and how to leverage either or both

MAXIMIZING PPM INGREDIENTS, CULTURE, AND TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS

In the world of business, the drive to getting good business intelligence (BI) has focused predominantly on the tools used to expose and graphically represent that information. Face it; BI dashboards are cool (for the most part), and the end users want to see whiz-bang graphics, nifty graphs, and other stunning visuals.

While these tools to depict information are absolutely critical to enabling more effective data analysis, they are not what BI is all about. BI is about understanding data to help make your business more productive. The end goal of any BI strategy should be to enable better understanding of the data.

Three key elements facilitate better understanding of the data: technology, process and, most important, people. Technology always gets the front row in the discussion, but it is—in our opinion—the least important. It is relatively easy to deploy technology to support business intelligence; hundreds of vendors can help you do this. However, the process and people parts of the equation are much more complex and require systemic organizational realignment and investment.

BI is an enabler that must be deeply interwoven into core business processes. Similarly, the act of transforming data into intelligence must be executed by professionals who are competent in data analysis. Companies that embed BI techniques into their core business processes and develop competency within each business unit are able to exploit the power of business intelligence. The ones that pursue BI through a technology-driven approach get lots of cool graphs, but they don’t get information that allows them to make actionable decisions.

Process Side of the Equation

Companies that see BI as strategic to their success embed BI deeply into their core processes. Just take a look at Wal-Mart. BI is pervasive throughout every aspect of its supply chains, from inventory management, to pricing analysis, to store profitability. Information is centralized, real time, and powers the company’s core processes.

Wal-Mart would not be as successful as it is without intelligence as its backbone. There are other examples as well: Continental Airlines and customer loyalty, Dell and direct to customer, just to name two. Each of these companies has intertwined BI into its organization to drive actionable decisions. In the case of Continental, identifying its most loyal customer and determining how to provide them with special treatment continues to grow their continued support and expand their customer base through the use of the information analyzed. In the case of Dell, determining promotion and bundle targeting, this namely being use of information to maximize customer purchases based upon their needs for similar features or components to increase the revenue of each purchase. Companies that view BI as an effort driven by information technology (IT) will extract limited value from it.

BI can be embedded into every core process in an organization. Here are some examples:

Human resources (HR) intelligence

. This area involves deriving deep understanding of organizational structure by a number of attributes, including size, cost, level, performance, and so on. As a company needs to grow or shrink, the HR function can easily understand and make recommendations based on deep insights into the organizational structure.

Finance

. The finance organization can have deep insight into the firm’s financial statements by being able to trace from its balance sheet and income statement down to the lowest level of cost detail. Robust BI can also help with robust Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance and with understanding product cost structure.