It amazes me after being in the delivery of project solutions business for over 18 years how we complicate what we do by doing something "simpler". I guess I have to confess to you first of all I'm a recovering accountant. For those of you that know me know that although I understand accounting, have an accounting degree, I am often referred to as the worst accountant in the world. I don't think that is true, I'm pretty sure there are a couple of accountants that are worse than I am somewhere oversees, but otherwise I might have to admit all I care about is that the numbers are correct. If they got there through 1 huge summary entry with 47 thoughts going on, ultimately I only care about that it is correct.
Which leads me to simplicity and how it kills productivity. We all want to be productive and that is the key to project solutions, to make what you do operationally drive financial reporting and activity. However, we tend to kill productivity by using a "simpler" solution. The efficiency killer I'm ranting about today is Microsoft Excel. Don't get me wrong, I love this application and actually know many Excel users that love it so much it becomes their reporting system, data entry system, word processor and picking up their dry cleaning. How did we get so far away from application efficiency?
It is not just accountants, but everyone involved in project management helps perpetuate this problem. Here are some examples of how project employees utilize Excel:

• Report Writer (of course with manual re-key of data)
• Financial Statement creation (of course with manual re-key of data)
• Scheduling System (this is a crazy use of Excel that involves so much re-keying of data it is unbelievable)
• Resource Planning
• Task Assignments
• Project Status Reports
• Dashboards for Project Employees, Project Managers and Executives

Microsoft Dynamics SL, Project Server and SharePoint are great solutions for these Excel applications, so why don't we use them?
I'm convinced that simplicity of someone not having to think about process, discuss cultural challenges with other project resources and laziness are a big part of the Excel phenomenon. Amazingly it is an easy problem to fix. We have to think about how to make what we do operationally drive activity. Example, how is time captured on projects? Make sure that time updates costs, updates project schedules, updates projects for billing purposes and use SharePoint to provide role based reporting.
Sounds difficult? Amazingly, there are pre-configured solutions that allow us to do exactly this. I know because we deliver these solutions to Excel addicts every day. I don't want to beat any of you Microsoft Excel users up because I'm a recovering Excelaholic. I just want to offer you an easier way to see productivity gains within your organizations.
So next time you run into a problem with your system, take a step back, think about your processes and don't click the Excel button. I hope this helps you out.
By the way, sorry for some of the spelling and grammer in this blog, I struggled because evidently Excel doesn't have speeling and grammer checker :)


Kreg Decker
www.nvprojectsolutions.com

2010 the year of Project Management

As I get excited about 2010 and what it holds for our clients and prospects, I see this as the year of Project Management. We have barely started the 2010 calendar year and the number of calls we are receiving about the need for better project management is amazing. The calls typically reside around software with questions like, "Does your software do scheduling" or "What kind of Resource Planning capabilities do you have" or the biggest lately "Does your software do Earned Value Management". I believe there are many reasons for these inquiries suddenly popping up in 2010. I would love to believe that New Vision's commitment to preaching the value of Scheduling, Resource Planning, EVM and Issue and Risk Management is the reason, but I'm smart to realize that isn't it. There are a few reasons that this explosion in search/demand for project solutions has occurred. Here are the reasons that I see as why companies are finally needing to utilize these tools:


• The end of the T&M projects (now I know what you are saying "We still do a lot of Cost Plus and T&M projects"). I understand that, but I also understand that with these difficult times that when Business Development provides proposals or Statements of Work, the client is holding project organizations to those budgets. Yes, there are change orders, but the scoping of projects is becoming much more critical. More and more prospects and clients are telling us that they are not seeing T&M projects like they have in the past.

• Government Contracting has picked up dramatically with the Stimulus projects and many firms that had never needed to do Earned Value Management (much less even knew what it was), is now being called on to provide EVM on their projects. The misinformation and fear is amazing to clients that need to be able to report on Earned Value.

• Layoffs and cuts have driven many project organizations to need to manage resources more skillfully than ever before. There is not any fat left to cut since so many project organizations are running lean. Scheduling must be done to ensure goals are met and deadlines kept. The days of managing organizations without true resource planning are over.

• Fixed price overruns. Since T&M projects are being run as fixed price and clients are demanding justification for change orders, project plans are growing in popularity like never before. With the ability to tie schedules into Project Budgets and ERP solutions, the ability for organizations to track schedules while tracking costs gives great comparisons to budget versus work performance on projects.

• Competition has never been tighter in many project organizations industries. The need to estimate correctly is a key component to selling jobs. If you are still using gut-feel or old projects as estimates, you are probably not winning the number of projects that you have in the past. Owners/Clients know times are tough and they are squeezing everything they can out of projects. It is up to your organization to know exactly what it costs you to complete a project so you can adjust to market pressures accordingly.

• Microsoft Project 2010 - in all the years of working with Project Organizations, I have never seen so much anticipation and excitement over a product release. After reviewing and utilizing Project 2010 and Project Server I realize that this product is coming out at the perfect time. Users that have never dove into Project because it is too "complicated" will find that Microsoft has simplified the ability to create/modify plans so that many beginners scan begin to manage projects effectively.

As is always the case the new year brings many hopes, plans and challenges to most organizations. I'm looking forward to 2010 to see if it truly becomes the year of Project Management.