PPM Software Selection – The Smart Way
I’ve spoken to countless Program Managers, VPs, and Directors involved in selecting PPM software. The vast majority of them have some key drivers in mind, but not much in the way of requirements. They know they have to prioritize projects, manage resources and/or judge ROI more effectively. But beyond that — well, it gets pretty murky.
Then they go out and talk to vendors who “help them refine” requirements, which is a nice way of saying “steer them toward buying the vendor’s stuff.” The end result is a hodgepodge of what is really important and some vendor-driven jargon.
This situation causes us to go out and commission a vendor agnostic PPM software selection tool on Projects@Work. It works like this…
The tool gives you detailed information on over 130 different criteria that you can use to judge PPM software. These are things that may or may not be important to your organization, but are typically part of a very structured decision-making process. You run through the list, identify and prioritize the functions that you really need and the ones you don’t. Of course you can add to the list if you like, but its pretty comprehensive. Just going through this part of the process makes you a LOT more knowledgeable consumer.
Then you can go out and compare all of the products head to head — driving the decision by what you really need, versus what some vendor says you need. An added bonus – Imagine how much smarter you’ll look to the people you report to at the end of the process…
