Micro Focus Project and Portfolio Management (PPM)

Budget approval process is lack of consistancy. PPM demand and portfolio management module shaving this out. Project control is weak and not in standard. PPM project resource and financial management module help filling the gap. The software architecture is improved to not required ORACLE database as prerequisite which help reduce the cost. OpenText allows postgresql the free one.

For organization that has budgeting process for medium to big project PPM is very suitable. For org that has to control projects resources and financial PPM is also suitable. However, the price is quite expensive from it is enterprize software from OpenText. So if org process is already well control no need to be forced, you can use opensource tool or even excel in share drive.

We use Micro Focus PPM for Project Management and the Change Management processes. It has been used mainly by our IT Department and request entry is open to all organizations. It addresses Project Management, Portfolio Management, Time Management, and Change Management processes of the IT Department.

For Project Management, Micro Focus PPM includes all most every feature you need. You can manage your projects using work plans, project health, resource assignments, actuals, and costs. Additionally, you can get required approvals with workflows like sponsor approval or CR approvals. However, at project costing we need to make customizations due to lack of several outsource costs on it.

In my organization, Micro Focus PPM is used by Project Managers, Business/Technical Analysts, Test Engineers and Developers. Starting with a proposal from Business unit, Project Managers (if it concerns more people and units) or Business/Technical Analysts (if it concerns a small unit or group) use this tool as a central management platform. All documentations and KPIs are managed over this tool. All resources are attached to projects and kept track of timesheets. All deployments (change management) are managed/directed by this tool.

Micro Focus PPM is well suited if Business and/or Technical Units do not require too many customizations (or complex requirements) on provided screens. Customizations result in messy screens and sometimes those screens may not be working properly as intended. Some users may assume that the screens are very flexible likewise in-house developed screens but most of the time this may fake the Customization Team during the implementation of new screens by resulting not-functioning screens

HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) is used by the entire organization in IT to manage projects from discovery to delivery. The entire project reports of all phases are generated from PPM. At the same time, time tracking also happens in PPM. This allows for budget tracking within the tool.

For a big complex enterprise, the tool serves the purpose very well for IT project management. I do not recommend it to be used in a creative agency for their workflow and project management. I think IT organizations are used to clumsy tools and somehow figure a way out so it can work.

HP Project and Portfolio (PPM) is being used to track all IT projects for the State of Oklahoma, all pre-construction projects for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, for the workflow of many internal processes for the Office Of Management and Enterprise Services (invoicing, purchasing, position tracking, change management and internal billing). The tool aids the department in defining business processes and automating them.