• The world of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) – this is where executives need to identify which are the applications that need to be developed to best support the business strategy




• Project Management or Enterprise Project Management (EPM) – this is the world of project managers and PMO’s thriving to manage efficiently the projects aimed at delivering the applications




• Application Life Cycle Management (ALM) – this is the world of the developers actually delivering the applications. The execution of the analysis, architecting, development and testing is governed by methods and implemented using tools encompassing the ALM world

The challenge stemming from the existence of these three worlds is one of synchronization.

In the world of Portfolio Management executives speak of ROI and strategic values. In the world of Project Management, project managers are interested in dollars, time and metrics. Developers are interested in frameworks, components and tools.

How do we bridge these three disparate worlds?

A lot of progress has been achieved in integrating project portfolio management and project management. More and more vendors provide great solutions in that space, and with Microsoft Project Portfolio Management 2010 coming soon, we expect to see a seamless process and tool to manage these two worlds.

However, little has been done in connecting the EPM/PPM world with the ALM one. More precisely, what is needed is:

1. Enable executives to align IT with business, thus
• Selecting projects that align with the firm’s strategy
• Control accountability and efficiency
• Create standard process across the entire project portfolio

2. Enable Project Managers to maximize productivity, thus

• Schedule resources to use resources efficiently
• Assign the right people to the right projects

3. And finally, enable developers to execute projects efficiently through:

• Improved quality without compromising on time, budget and scope
• Improved visibility and collaboration with all stakeholders

The solution, as always lies in connecting people, processes and tools.

However, the parties to this overall application identification and delivery process are working according to different methodologies, processes and tools. Bringing the parties together is essential in addressing the challenges described above.

ProjectParty™ from Orantech technologies Ltd. Is doing exactly that!

It connects the tools most widely used for project management and application life cycle management, namely Microsoft Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Visual Studio Team system, respectively. It does it in a seamless way, thus enabling each firm to design its own processes, regardless of tools constrains.

Each of the stakeholders remains in his/her comfort zone, while ProjectParty™ is responsible for the back stage data and process synchronization. ProjectParty™ bridges the gap between the various parties to the grand application lifecycle process, and by doing so it enables a much faster communication line with extremely rapid response time to changes initiated anywhere along the entire lifecycle!

The article was written by Tsico Heffetz – CEO at Orantech Management Systems Ltd.