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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/programme/0,3800004583,39129335,00.htm

Software no 'magic bullet' for programme management
It can't right a sinking ship...

By Sylvia Carr

Published: Wednesday 06 April 2005

Software plays an important role in effective programme management but even more essential is an organisation's ability to first create clear business goals for the given programme, according to industry experts.

Panellists speaking today at silicon.com's breakfast briefing, Orchestrating the 360-degree business, agreed that applications can help handle the vast amounts of information - such as financial data, timelines and objectives - involved in managing multiple projects across various departments within an organisation.

Yet the tool alone is not enough - it needs a skilled and well-trained individual to make it effective.

Jim Robinson, head of programme delivery at Virgin Mobile, said: "I'm quite a big fan of tools for this kind of thing. I've used a number in the past - and with some success... But I think the key thing for me is they're only as good as the information you put in them. Without the process underneath, it won't work. It's a case of 'rubbish in, rubbish out'."

Phil Young, head of IT operations at Amtrak Express Parcels, added: "Whatever software you get, make sure people can use it."

In other words, no software can save a programme that is already doomed. Mark Raskino, vice president at Gartner Research, said: "The risk is - and we've seen a lot of this in the market by the way - is the magic bullet scenario," where businesses believe a tool alone can solve all their problems.

Currently programme management software, though becoming more advanced and performing more functions each year, still has a long way to go in matching face-to-face collaboration.

Mark Outhwaite, director of technology for the NHS Modernisation Agency, said: "There is nothing more powerful than a group of people standing around a room with marker pens saying 'yes, that's yours, that's yours'... Six people sitting at their screens in not a team."

Raskino sees hope for software tools as display technologies such as projectors and large panels advance and come down in price. "I think we're going to see some breakthroughs in visualisations," he said.

He also believes the most effective tools tend to be the ones developed for specific purposes and embedded in an organisation's processes, as opposed the one-size-fits-all options.

Before software can play its part, though, organisations must agree on their greater business objectives for a particular programme.

"Culturally you've got to decide, you've got to have some core business disciplines and they've got to be in place before you can use [software tools]," the NHS' Outhwaite said. "If you do that, they are incredible useful and powerful in particularly helping the board take an effective view of where you are and track what's happening."

For Amtrak's Young it's a cut-and-dry matter. "I wouldn't take a programme that hasn't got clear goals and clearly defined objectives because you can't deliver," he said.

But because in reality upper management do not always provide this clarity, the panellists agreed programme managers must possess a resourcefulness and strength of character to get things done even in the face of ambiguity.

In the end though the panel concurred software is useful in analysing data, Young stressed it's important for programme managers not to get too caught up in number-crunching. "Just keep it simple, back to basics," he said. "If you overcomplicate the information gathering exercise for everyone else that will have an impact on programme delivery as well."