Aura Pasonen

 Research questions:  Why, where, and how are project, project portfolio, and resource management tools used?  What kind of a project, project portfolio, and resource management tool would support its users in their work?  Study was conducted for a medium-sized software company with several offices in all continents

 Objective: Define requirements for a tool that would support the project managers, project owners and resource owners in their work  Problems to Solve  No visibility between projects and units  Every unit does its projects in its own way  Lack of tools means a lot of manual work  The requirements are later used in selecting a tool

 Chosen research methods: mainly personal interviews, questionnaires if needed  48 personal interviews, 2 questionnaires  Out of the interview results, use cases were written and final requirements derived  Validation points with expert users:  Scope of the research  Interview questions  Final requirements

 Interviewees: project managers, resource owners, project owners and other interest parties of all units and offices of the company  All interviews were recorded  Main topics:  Background and opinions of the interviewee  Nature of projects, project planning and statistics  Reporting  Forecasting, need for information on past projects

 Several problems were discovered  Lack of visibility between projects  Lack of connection between projects and resources  No proper tools  Variable state of project management – no common guidelines  Different units and offices have very different kinds of projects  Agile and traditional methodologies are both used

 Valuable discussion on the practices of project management in the company  Generic tools (e.g. Excel) are widely used  Automation of work and integration with other tools are needed  Easy access to the tool from everywhere and by everyone is crucial  Almost all interviewees welcomed a new tool

 Out of the interview transcripts, use cases were created for the basic scenarios Closing a project SummaryProject Manager closes a project in the tool. ActorsProject Manager PreconditionsUser is logged on the system. A project is previously created in the tool. User is the Project Manager of the project. StepsUser selects the project User closes the open project items User creates Final Report User saves the project GoalsProject is closed, but remains recorded in the tool for future reference and statistic reporting Variations- LinksCreating Project Final Report

 The use cases were turned into a requirements list  High level requirements: what can be done with the tool  Low level requirements: what are the attributes of the high level requirements  High and low level requirements have a parent – child relationship  The requirements were the prioritised and validated with expert users

 Why, where, and how are project, project portfolio, and resource management tools used?  Project Managers use project management tools in all stages of project lifecycle  Project owners need a quick overview of their projects in a tool and access to detailed information and reporting  Resource owners need to keep track of their subordinates’ tasks  Generic tools are widely used  Tools are used everywhere: office, home, travelling...

 What kind of a project, project portfolio, and resource management tool would support its users in their work?  Easily configurable overviews of the projects  All project information stored to a single place  Resources linked to projects  Easy, automated creation of the often generated, basic reports  High visibility between projects, units and individuals

 Thank you!