Efficiency is a critical ingredient for the success of your business. Specifically, your teams must communicate, create, and collaborate seamlessly to ensure the effective implementation of projects.

Providing access to a suite of productivity tools like Microsoft Dynamics allows your people to perform their tasks more efficiently, from anywhere, making your organization more agile and competitive.

A Quick Guide to Microsoft Dynamics 365

At a basic level, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a database that helps your business manage and organize its lead and customer data.

Dynamics provides your employees with a set of practical tools they need to increase productivity, enhance their client relationships, and secure more business, ultimately improving sales outcomes for projects.

The application’s business intelligence platform offers project managers and account executives more significant insights into available opportunities and team performance.

Because Microsoft Dynamics combines ERP and CRM capabilities, your organization can streamline its communication with employees and clients. Providing a set of seamlessly integrated and complementary tools, Dynamics is a valuable asset for the success of business projects.

What is Microsoft Dynamics?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a set of modular and interconnected Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps and services that enable and transform your business, project management, and collaboration activities.

Dynamics CRM offers you an automated, intelligent, and integrated sales and marketing solution that efficiently connects, prioritizes, and converts leads into paying customers through better customer engagement.

On the other hand, Microsoft Dynamics AX offers you an advanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) package, now part of the Finance and Operations apps.

The application combines powerful financial and project management capabilities that help you manage customer demands, stay compliant with industry regulations, and deliver projects on time and within budget.

Core Functions of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics applications adapt to both your overall business and specific departmental requirements. Each app works well independently, but you expose a lot more functionality when they work together.

You can start with a single app, such as Dynamics 365 Project Operations, to unify your project-based services, then expand as your project team members need.

Modular Operation and Seamless Integration

The suite is powered by Microsoft Azure, delivering a broad service ecosystem backed by a trusted software platform. Additionally, Dynamics has native integration with Microsoft 365, providing unified user and service management capability.

Accessibility and Administration

Dynamics 365 functions by enabling access to its browser-based applications from anywhere and on any device. Many mobile applications allow your team members to work on the move.

You can also use the included Microsoft Power Platform to create customized and automated user experiences around your processes and data.

What’s more, Dynamics comes with built-in administrator tools, so you can maintain control over application and service configurations to meet your security and business needs.

Planning Your Dynamics 365 Implementation

A successful rollout requires a strategic implementation plan. This plan should outline important stages, from data migration to user training.

Selecting the right implementation methodology is necessary to connect the technology with your business processes.

Microsoft’s Success by Design framework helps confirm that the architecture meets business goals. A phased rollout can also mitigate risks and smooth the transition for your teams.

5 Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics for Project-Based Businesses

Microsoft Dynamics ERP’s project management functionality gives you a robust set of tools and apps that you can use, regardless of industry or project type, to produce your product or achieve the results you want.

The ERP streamlines and simplifies project management by offering an end-to-end financial overview, deep integration with your supply chain processes, and project controls.

For example, project management in the manufacturing sector means streamlined supply chain management, while financial services can ensure regulatory compliance with robust security features.

All of these features mean that Dynamics offers the following benefits to your project-centric business:

1. Ease of use and deployment

You can choose to use Microsoft Dynamics in the cloud or within a hybrid cloud environment. Its design makes it incredibly simple to deploy and manage regardless of the operating environment, making it adaptable to your infrastructure and budget.

Real-world examples show that this flexibility allows companies to start with a cloud-based solution and move to a hybrid model as their needs evolve.

Dynamics is an excellent fit for businesses with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. The company’s employees can easily access Dynamics applications from any web browser, Outlook, or mobile device.

2. Full integration with Microsoft products

Dynamics offers easy, native integration with other Microsoft products, such as the Office 365 suite.

The app integrations allow company employees to transition from Dynamics to Power BI for their data analytics, SharePoint for project documentation, or Outlook for communication.

The easier you can make it for your employees to switch between the apps they need, the less time they will spend transferring data from one application to another or learning how to work with new platforms.

3. Project templates

Depending on your project type, choose the appropriate Dynamics 365 project template:

• Fixed-price
• Cost
• Time
• Material
• Investment
• Internal

 

Selecting the appropriate project template will help save time when setting roles and estimating completion time for a specific project.

4. Scalability

One of the most compelling reasons for project-centric businesses to use Dynamics is that it is easy to scale up or down depending on the project team’s size, workload, and the company budget. Like other Microsoft cloud solutions, Dynamics offers an easy-to-change subscription model.

5. Higher productivity

Project teams can access almost any type of data they need on Dynamics, which means they can work more efficiently.

As a result, they do not have to waste time searching for information from various disconnected sources.

Because they have all the relevant tools and insights at their fingertips, they can make better and more informed decisions, a fact supported by numerous customer case studies.

6 Ways Dynamics Helps Project Managers in Decision-Making

Microsoft Dynamics has everything managers need to handle their projects from start to finish. The suite makes it simple to optimize processes and helps project managers meet all their goals and targets. They can prioritize tasks or take the necessary action to resolve any issues and move forward.

Inbuilt business intelligence capabilities offer real-time insights into every project stage, giving managers the information they need to make business decisions. If you are a project manager, here are some of the ways that Dynamics helps you make the best decisions:

1. Setting up project quotations

You can set up your project quotations by isolating tasks and specifying the load capacity. What’s more, you can manage budgets, schedule tasks, and monitor project status to help anticipate and avoid potential delays.

The quotations you create could include basic contact information, possible taxes or surcharges, agreements and discounts, items and services, and special trade agreements that form the basis of your project contracts.

2. Gaining financial control and visibility

Project financial management is a central feature of Dynamics 365. The platform provides comprehensive tools for cost control, allowing managers to monitor budgets against actuals in real-time.

You can configure complex billing rules to automate invoicing cycles and confirm accurate cash flow. The system also simplifies revenue recognition. This helps you comply with accounting standards and gain a clear view of project profitability.

3. Managing project forecasts and budgets

To manage and control your project, you could use project forecasting to enter transactions into forecast forms for each of your transaction types.

On the other hand, you can prepare a budget for the project by having a single-entry form to capture the original budget details and any revisions.

4. Creating and managing breakdown structures

Depending on how accurate you want your tracking to be, you can describe the team’s work, the resources necessary to perform the job, and the completion timeframe.

Create your work breakdown structures (WBS) if your project has a low tolerance for deviation, for diligent work progress tracking.

5. Optimizing resource allocation

Dynamics helps you quickly identify the most qualified resources available to work on the project. You can also schedule your resources based on the specific project requirements or the skills and availability of team members for optimum deployment.

6. Evaluating project progress and financial health

Microsoft Dynamics provides a quick overview of external and internal projects’ operational and financial performance. You can compare the resources consumed against the revenue earned for your project in real-time.

The application’s cash flow monitoring feature lets you review forecasts alongside actual cash flows for completed or ongoing projects. All the information is centralized and accessible from every corner of your organization, so that costs stay up to date and you can quickly generate invoices.

Project statements offer a quick snapshot of the project’s progress through dashboard view. They give you all the task, project, and activity data you need to analyze progress and create reports.

How to Boost Long-Term User Adoption of Dynamics 365

A tool’s value depends on people using it correctly. High user adoption is important for maximizing your ROI on Dynamics 365.

A good change management strategy helps communicate benefits and manage the transition. Comprehensive employee training provides your team with the skills they need to be productive.

You can also run pilot tests with a small group of users to identify potential issues and gather feedback before a full-scale launch. This process improves the outcome of the final rollout.

Microsoft Dynamics – The Project Management Game Changer

For your project to succeed, you need to have access to the best tools and technology. Microsoft Dynamics allows you to collaborate in real-time to complete tasks within budget and on time.

Are you ready to experience hassle-free project management? Book your custom demo of BrightWork 365 PPM Software for the Microsoft 365 platform.

Adopting an advanced project and portfolio management tool such as BrightWork 365 is only the first step to project management success.

What you need next is to fully understand and leverage your PPM solution. A few good questions to ask after moving to a new PPM software are:

• Where do you start?
• Do you know your PPM solution well enough to train your team?
• Can you customize this tool to fit your work environment and requirements?
• What features of this tool can be your biggest strength?
• How would you like to evolve your PPM processes with this tool?

 

BrightWork 365 services can help you answer these questions and maximize their benefits. The services are provided to you in three stages: Start, Support, and Evolve.

Start Service

When you begin with BrightWork 365 as your project and portfolio management solution, you can choose the Start Service.

At BrightWork, we believe that a good start is more than half the work done. This is why our customer success team ensures that you start clear and strong with the BrightWork 365 solution.

3D Deployment Process

Our Start service uses a 3D Deployment Process (Design, Deliver, Deploy), which is a clear, transparent, and practical change management process focused on your needs.

Design

A designated BrightWork 365 Customer Success Partner works with your senior project management sponsors to capture your organization’s project management vision.

Together, you establish a formal project intake process for managing all incoming project requests. An approval workflow and a clear structure for project governance ensure new initiatives align with strategic goals.

We prioritize your requirements to determine which ones to include in Start (Iteration 1) and what should go in the Backlog (for later implementation), or what we like to call your Evolve Plan.

The BrightWork 365 Start Service includes designing templates to manage Projects, Programs, and Portfolios (to deliver on senior management level visibility).

Deliver

This step of deployment consists of configuring and customizing. Your BrightWork 365 Customer Success Partner collaborates with your team to build out the real projects for your team. This configuration can be done by your team or our solution development team.

At this stage, we encourage the key stakeholders to pause, review, and provide feedback. This ensures the project management process fits your current needs, establishing a standardized and consistent project framework across your organization.

By utilizing workflow automation, we help reduce manual effort and ensure adherence to company best practices.

Your BrightWork 365 Customer Success Partner will prioritize this stakeholder feedback with you to determine which items are to be adjusted immediately or added to the Backlog for the Evolve Plan.

Requests requiring deeper customization result in a separate managed solution installed on top of the BrightWork 365 managed solution.

Deploy

Successful PPM deployment depends on how well you understand the tool. This is why we encourage you to invest your energies in training.

Your BrightWork 365 Customer Success Partner will work with you to design a role-based training plan that suits your project management processes so your group can start using the solution as soon as possible.

Once you go live and start using BrightWork 365, your BrightWork 365 CSP will conduct feedback sessions to adjust the solution and update the Evolve Plan backlog. You will also check and formally declare all in-scope ‘Start’ deliverables achieved, and update your project management strategy to guide success.

Developing Your Project Management Strategy

Now, the step of creating or updating your project management strategy is extremely crucial. This isn’t about the technical requirements or resource allocation. This strategic thinking involves the assessment of:

• Value expected- business justification – what’s the value being delivered
• Value already delivered – initial capabilities and simplified request process in place and supported by the solution
• Next steps to expected value – review with the key stakeholders, design, and deliver in role-based training sessions

Your BrightWork 365 CSP will do a post-deployment check after a few months and will be available to you as needed in the interim. This will also help you mitigate any risks involved in the process.

Assistance Provided During the Start Service:

Typically, 36 hours of assistance over 3 to 9 weeks. Additional hours may be needed for customizations or extra project portfolio management templates. Support is provided at a pace that allows for work in between.

Support Service

You’re not on your own after the ‘Start’ phase of deployment is over. The BrightWork Support Service is there to answer your questions, resolve issues, and ensure smooth operation of your BrightWork 365 solution.

The team is skilled in BrightWork 365 and Microsoft 365 integration to maximize your project management capabilities.

Project Management Success Review

This is one of the critical components of your BrightWork 365 solution deployment, acting as a proactive risk management partnership.

Your assigned CSP will analyze and evaluate your progress, including a formal risk identification process for current initiatives and help develop contingency planning, especially for complex, interdependent projects.

The approach is divided into checking the following:

• Immediate Needs – Address basic how-to questions. You can bring any kind of doubts or issues you have about getting used to your brand-new project management tool.
• Current State – Analyze the current state of your projects and portfolios, and how you manage them with the help of BrightWork 365 in integration with Microsoft 365. Your CSP will help you increase your efficiencies with better resource management using the same resources.
• Desired State – Discuss your business goals for efficient portfolio, program, and project management. Identify resource constraints to inform your PPM implementation roadmap and Evolve Plan.

 

Assistance Provided During the Support Service:

You can log tickets through our online support portal .

The assigned team member will collaborate with you to define, scope, analyze, and assist in delivering a solution. This can include a direct call, email, chat, or an online resource.

Customers can also access product information, training resources, and more from the BrightWork 365 Knowledge Base at any time.

Evolve Service

The Evolve Service helps you continuously improve your BrightWork 365 implementation.

The common objectives that the Evolve service wants to meet for you are:

• Implementing the backlog from the Evolve Plan developed during your initial deployment, and integrating the additions and changes.
• Organizational Project Management Maturity

 

Reassess and Continue the 3-D (Design, Deliver, Deploy) Process

Your dedicated CSP will continue to work with your project teams and leaders to monitor progress, develop long-term resource allocation strategies, and capacity planning across your portfolio.

We recommend appointing a project champion from your organization who will be our point of contact. Together, you will continue to evaluate the performance of the solution and allow for alterations if the projects need so.

Assistance Provided During the Evolve Service

As part of your Evolve Service, you can pick from a number of services, as needed, including:

• Bi-weekly check-ins and project management coaching
• Microsoft PPM training for new and advanced users
• Continue work on your Project Management Strategy
• Help with 3D Deployment (Design, Deliver, Deploy) to deliver the next phases of your Evolve Plan.
• BrightWork 365 Solution Upgrade to leverage new BrightWork 365 features
• More reporting enhancements with Power BI Project Management Dashboards for real-time data insights and performance monitoring.
• Extra Process Automation with Microsoft Power Automate and BrightWork 365.
• Personal and Collaborative Leadership Training based on the Collaborative Project Management Handbook by BrightWork CEO Éamonn McGuinness

 

Any further backlog ideas that arise during the progress of your projects will be added to your custom Evolve plan. They will also be included in your Project Management Success Strategy document for use in subsequent iterations.

We’re Here to Help

Be assured, the BrightWork team is with you every step of the way on your project and portfolio management journey. Connect with BrightWork today to get started.

Customer needs are changing at a rapid pace, particularly in software development. The agile development lifecycle embraces constant change through an iterative technology design and development approach. 

Adaptability is critical, and Agile offers a framework that allows for quick pivots and customer-centric solutions. 

What is the Agile Software Development Life Cycle?

According to a comprehensive study on agile software development, this approach is efficient for modern software projects. 

The Agile lifecycle adds structure to a fluid and flexible method of delivering a working product. Breaking builds into smaller segments helps produce a better product faster.

This approach focuses on more than just speed. It ensures that quality and value are delivered at every stage, aligning the final product with user needs and market demands.

The 5 stages of the Agile System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) help to understand how this methodology can be applied effectively in your projects. Whether you’re experienced with Agile or new to the framework, this guide will help you navigate the process successfully.

 

 

5 Stages of the Agile Life Cycle

The Agile Life Cycle is a dynamic and flexible approach to software development designed to deliver high-quality software that meets customer needs. 

This cycle is divided into five critical stages, each with its unique focus and set of activities. 

1. Project Initiation

The first stage in the software development life cycle is the inception or envision phase. During this stage, an agile project charter is prepared to discuss the project vision and ROI justification during project initiation. 

Here, it’s essential to consider the role of DevOps in aligning with the project’s vision for a seamless development and deployment process. This phase focuses on high-level feasibility discussion and avoids diving into specific details. 

During this step, you should identify team members and determine the time and work resources required to complete the project. Evaluating resources is essential for determining the economic feasibility of project approval. Building effective agile board columns can help teams to increase their productivity.

2. Planning

This speculative phase is when the Agile lifecycle takes shape for the team. The team collaborates with the sponsor or product owner to define project goals clearly. They then build the backlog at the story level. You can read about agile sprint planning for a more detailed guide.

The importance of upskilling and cross-skilling for team members cannot be overstated here. Value Stream Management can also be incorporated into planning to make data-driven decisions and prioritizations. 

Components for Effective Agile Planning

Below are the key components of the Agile planning phase:

• Backlog Building: Discuss and create a backlog at the story level.
• Upskilling and Cross-Skilling: Emphasize the need for team members to acquire new skills or enhance existing ones.
• Value Stream Management: Incorporate data-driven decision-making into the planning process.
• User Stories: Define what the end-user wants from the product, including the type of user and the reason for the feature.
• Business Context: Consider the broader business opportunity and its impact on project viability.
• Risk Estimation: Evaluate and estimate potential risks involved in the project.
• Milestone Development: Create an initial release plan with critical milestones.
• Prioritization: Ensure the backlog items are prioritized based on business value and dependencies.

 

Planning is only complete when your backlog is complete, and you have prioritized the items based on business value and dependency. A review of Agile Methodologies Applied to the Development of Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Systems further highlights the significance of planning in Agile.

3. Development

The development phase begins once the planning phase is complete and requirements are clearly defined. The agile process thrives on delivering high-quality, functional products through incremental steps known as sprints or iterations. 

AI and machine learning are transforming this phase by automating repetitive tasks and offering data-driven insights for better decision-making. In the first sprint, developers create a minimal version of the product. 

This is just the starting point – the product will undergo multiple refinements and feature additions in subsequent sprints. AI algorithms help accelerate development by automating code reviews and suggesting optimal code structures.

Critical Strategies for Sprint Success

Teams can deliver in these sprints by:

• Ensuring seamless collaboration within the team and with stakeholders. Machine learning can analyze past interactions to suggest effective collaboration methods.
• Adhering to coding conventions and style guidelines. AI-powered tools automatically flag inconsistencies to maintain a high-quality standard.
• Sticking to the priorities set by stakeholders, who have the final say on the project’s scope, budget, and timeline. AI can assist in real-time budget tracking and project scope adjustments.
• Aiming to deliver a working product, even if limited in scope, at the end of each sprint. Machine learning algorithms can predict sprint success and guide timely adjustments.
• Remember that testing isn’t a one-off but an ongoing process. AI can automate repetitive test cases, allowing human testers to focus on more complex scenarios. 

 

Once the necessary sprints evolve the product into a fully functional solution, it is ready for production. Multiple rounds of testing typically occur during each sprint, although final testing is still crucial. 

Final Steps Before Production

• Quality assurance (QA) teams should conduct comprehensive final tests to identify lingering issues. AI can simulate various user behaviors to enhance testing. 
• Unlike earlier testing phases, involving a subset of end-users in this final testing stage is beneficial for gathering feedback.
• After testing, some rework is almost inevitable to fix any identified issues. Machine learning can predict potential bottlenecks, helping you account for this in the schedule.
• Before deploying into production, consider training end-users or support staff to use the new features effectively.

 

For further insights into how AI shapes Agile development, read scholarly articles on the impact of artificial intelligence in software engineering.

4. Production

Your product has now been deployed and is being used by final end-users. Scaled Agile and Scrum methodologies ensure efficient production and deployment. 

Here’s a comprehensive guide on agile methodologies for those interested in these practices. A handover with relevant training should take place between the production and support teams.

Additionally, continuous delivery practices must be implemented to facilitate quick updates and patches. This allows real-time customer feedback to be integrated, which enhances customer satisfaction.

5. Retirement

The retirement stage marks the end of the Agile lifecycle. At this point, the product is pulled from production and decommissioned, often called ‘sunsetting.’ Customers are notified and informed about migration to newer releases or alternative options.

Products are retired for several reasons. In most cases, it is because a newer release is being deployed, and (or) the older version is no longer supported. In this case, some final, minor software updates may be made to the new system.

It could also be retired because the product could be more cost-effective within the current business model and, therefore, phased out.

Transitioning from Traditional Methods to Agile

The waterfall method still holds a certain allure for some developers, primarily due to its predictability and well-defined costs. When you opt for the waterfall approach, you know what you’re getting and how much it will cost.

Transitioning from traditional methods often involves a shift in mindset across business units, from project managers to software development teams.

Adopting Agile Practices

Agile practices like Sprint Planning, User Stories, and Two-week Sprints are integral to the new development cycle. While challenges may arise, benefits such as faster time to market and higher customer satisfaction often justify the effort. 

Agile methodologies, such as Kanban project management, excel in adapting and evolving throughout the development process. This flexibility allows teams to address changing stakeholder needs, often resulting in a more refined end product – even if the outcome differs from the initial vision.

Agile isn’t a rigid framework. Instead, the system development lifecycle outlined above is a flexible guideline. Teams are encouraged to adapt these processes better to suit their projects’ specific needs and constraints.

Overcoming Transition Challenges

Switching from a waterfall to an Agile approach can be challenging. Organizations often struggle with total commitment to Agile, particularly when under tight time or financial constraints.

One of the critical issues that organizations face is the financial investment required for Agile adoption. This includes expenses for training and new software tools. 

However, the iterative approach and frequent delivery cycles typically result in a faster ROI, aligning with business goals. BrightWork simplifies this process, making it easier to adopt.

Importance of Stakeholder Feedback

In Agile projects, project stakeholder feedback is essential. Unlike traditional methods, where requirements are gathered upfront, Agile uses adaptive planning and incremental development, making stakeholder feedback a cornerstone of the development stage.

Building Cross-Functional Teams

Agile methods prioritize cross-functional collaboration. Project teams often consist of developers, designers, and business analysts. They work together in daily standups and Sprint Reviews to stay aligned.

For those transitioning from traditional methods to Agile, this Comparative Analysis offers valuable insights. Effective communication and collaboration are vital for a successful Agile transformation. 

Clearly defining both desired outcomes and feasible solutions during the initial planning stage (and refining them in each iteration) sets the stage for a smooth and effective Agile adoption.

Mastering Agile for Successful Development

Agile is a mindset that prioritizes customer collaboration and adaptability. If you’re looking for tools to facilitate this mindset, consider using agile boards to keep your team organized and on track.  

Whether you’re new to Agile or transitioning from traditional methods, this flexible framework enhances software development projects. Despite initial costs and challenges, Agile offers faster ROI and higher customer satisfaction.

Agile also enables teams to be more responsive to market changes and customer feedback, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. 

As you progress through the Agile System Development Life Cycle, remember that the journey is as important as the destination. Agile is about learning, adapting, and delivering – values essential for success.

Our customer success team gains a lot of insight from working closely with our customers. The first lesson we learned in 2022 is that the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards remote and hybrid work and it’s here to stay. This shift has made it evident that organizations adapt their project management to the new way of working. They need a holistic approach for successful project management.

 

 

Apart from these recent learnings, we already know that project management deployment cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. Different projects and different teams require different amounts of project management and it’s important to assess the specific needs of each project and team before determining the right approach. Some of your teams might want to jump-start with many projects in one go, while your other teams might want to start small with in-depth training.

This is where BrightWork customization comes in with a sufficient amount of project management adoption for your project portfolio management (PPM) needs.

Start-Evolve – BrightWork Project Portfolio Management Approach

Start-Evolve – the BrightWork approach to successful project management is based on two key practices, Start and Evolve.

Start means that organizations swiftly adopt a sufficient amount of project management to achieve immediate standardization of project management processes. Immediate standardization and visibility enable senior leadership to exercise control over the entire portfolio of projects. This helps you to establish a strong foundation of project management success sooner.

Evolve helps you take your project management processes to the next level. It allows you to gradually and continuously add and mature your project management workflows, processes, and practices at a pace your project teams need and can absorb. Evolve helps you achieve more predictable, timely, and successful outcomes for your entire portfolio of projects.

 

How does BrightWork apply Start-Evolve Approach to Project Management

The Brightwork Start-Evolve Approach is a core element in our:

• BrightWork 365 product design methodology
• Deployment process
• Bespoke professional services

Start-Evolve has inspired our product design methodology, with best-practice templates incorporated into our deployment process in addition to professional services tailored to suit your Project Portfolio Management needs in alignment with your organization’s strategic goals.

 

Project Management goals with Start-Evolve

Manage Project Requests with an automated process

In your BrightWork 365 Project Portfolio Management software overview, you have ‘Requests’. These request templates help you ensure that the right projects get started at the right time and with the right team. Your new project requests go through a 4-stage process of Draft, Review, Approve, and Create Project. Each process gives your team a ‘request form’ to fill in the project details. These forms can be customized based on the type of project. All valid requests to start a new project go through the Draft, Review, and Approve phases, and then eventually a project gets created if that’s the right and the desired outcome. BrightWork 365 has created this automated project request management process using Microsoft Power Automate.

Having a project request process flow allows you to have a thorough check before you choose to start a project. When you know what resources you need to start a project, and whether it is the right time to start it, you avoid challenging and failed projects. An automated project request management (PRM) flow with configurable templates gives you the right start needed for successful projects. You can evolve this process as and when your project goals change or your project management practices become more mature.

 

Get visibility and control of Project Portfolios with dashboards

Once you have selected the right projects to start, you move into the ‘Project’ area of your BrightWork 365 PPM tool. These projects categorize into different programs, which further roll up into portfolios. Can you keep an eye on the progress of different projects and programs across portfolios? Yes, you can. You can get an overview of the performance of your entire project portfolio with a few simple clicks. Dashboards enabled with Power BI and Microsoft Power Apps give you interactive visual aids to view and monitor the status of your entire project portfolio.

Items on a project like tasks, issues, risks, and budget are linked to a project, which can roll up to a program, and then into a portfolio giving you visibility all across. These dashboards give the senior managers visibility so that they can decide how to exert control and any changes to the projects. These dashboards can be evolved with time if your project management needs to change or scale.

 

Manage Projects and tasks with templates

Your business processes might require you to focus on a few large projects at a time or start several projects in a go. BrightWork 365 comes with three starter project templates to help you get started managing projects quickly. You can choose from the Project Standard, Product Update, and New Product Introduction.

You can find the following project tabs in your project view:

• Charter – a high-level metadata about the project, including the project title and stakeholder information
• Status and Status Reports – Set current project metrics and KPIs in Status and create and share reports in the Status Reports tab.
• Team – Automatically populates with the names of work item assignees, and the earliest start dates and latest finish dates across all the work assigned to them.
• Stages – Your project stages are automatically updated after being created in the Gantt tab (a Gantt task can be set to be a Stage-type task in Task Details).
• Gantt – Visually depicts dependency relationships between the tasks as well as task status with a bar graph.
• My Work – A list of all work of any type that is assigned to the logged-in user.
• Documents – To Create new Microsoft Office documents and upload existing documents and store these files in your organization’s SharePoint document library that is associated with BrightWork 365.
• Actions – Log project actions, decisions, and changes within larger tasks.
• Issues – Issues can be added to the project’s associated program or portfolio by clicking on the issue and choosing the relevant escalation location.
• Risks – Enter Risk information for those items identified as potential future issues, with probability, impact, status, and other relevant Risk details.
• Costs – Capture and track project budgets and actual costs at the project and individual item levels.
• Communication – Initiate and save project-related Emails and Appointments directly in the BrightWork 365 app and save these items as well as Phone Call details and Notes, within associated projects.
• Project Settings – Access project settings to update any project info. Only users with the BrightWork Project Manager, BrightWork PMO Manager, or BrightWork Program Manager security role can access the Project Settings tab.

All these project items are driven by project management templates integrated with the Microsoft environment and its apps or features. These templates are built into your BrightWork 365 software but are also highly customizable if your project portfolios need so. Start quickly with the built-in best practice templates in your project site, or customize them as your projects, programs, and processes evolve.

 

In summary, applying the Start-Evolve approach using BrightWork 365 business process flows, dashboards, and templates allows you to fully leverage your Microsoft 365 platform. Achieve project management success sooner with the right Start and gradual and necessary Evolve.

 

At BrightWork, our mission is to ensure you deliver successful project and portfolio management in your organization. To achieve that, we offer a free Project Management Success Review to every customer, every year.

But what is a Project Management Success Review and how does it benefit your projects? Let’s dive into the different parts of a Project Management Success Review and the output you receive at the end.

 

Schedule your Project Management Success Review

Project Management Success Review: An Overview

A Project Management Success Review is a 1-hour meeting with your Customer Success Partner at BrightWork. It goes through the three phases: Immediate Needs, Current State, and Desired State.

By the end of your health check, you and your Customer Success Partner (CSP) will have accomplished the following:

• Review your current BrightWork environment.
• Address any immediate needs and issues you may have.
• Assess your current project management processes and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Enable the set-up of new product features.
• Devise a plan for higher user adoption with easy transition.
• Figure how BrightWork can help deliver on your project management goals for the coming year.
• Create your customized Evolve Plan.
• Deliver a personalized slide deck with your Project Management Success Strategy.

 

Let’s take a closer look at each phase of your Project Management Success Review.

 

Immediate Needs

The first part of the Project Management Success Review is addressing any immediate needs that you may have. This can be any top-of-mind questions; any issues that should be fixed; any tips on using BrightWork, or any “how-to” training you might need.  

Addressing your immediate needs first allows your Success Review to start on the right path with your Customer Success Partner. 

Current State

Next, your CSP will do a walk-through of your current BrightWork environment and assess your current project management processes.  

From there, your CSP can determine any opportunities for improvement or enable new features you want to incorporate in your processes. This step allows you to improve your project management processes and advance your BrightWork deployment quickly. 

Desired State

Planning for the future is never easy. We can help by documenting your goals, priorities, and vision for your project management so you are ready for future rollout.  

From ways to increase user adoption to your customized Evolve Plan, we’ll work with you to advance your Project Portfolio Management (PPM) with BrightWork. 

Output: The Project Management Success Strategy

The output of your 1-hour Project Management Success Review is your customized Project Management Success Strategy with all the above steps documented for future reference. 

Print, email, and share with your remote teams, project stakeholders, and senior executives so they know the plan for project success! 

The strategy also includes a section for important contact information and a record of the next steps needed to ensure your plan starts on the path intended. 

What’s Next?

1. Schedule your Project Management Success Review
2. Get your Senior Executives, Stakeholders, and other key colleagues involved. 
3. Come prepared with your clear goals and visions to help us help you. 

 

It’s important we take this dedicated time-out for consultation and review our progress to your project management goals with BrightWork. Schedule yours today! 

Image Credit

 

It’s always good to turn to industry experts and their best practices when starting a new project. Each project can have its own demands, but some requirements and practices remain standard. Before we dive into some of the industry’s project management best practices, here’s a question – as project managers, what’s your approach to starting a new project?

 

Watch free webinar: BrightWork 365 PPM tool for Microsoft 365 to achieve PM best practices

A – Do you follow standardized project management practices?

B – Do you customize your project and portfolio management practices?

Even if you already know the answer, here’s a detailed PMI research that throws light on each of the above approaches. The research shows how project managers and PMOs need to have a fine balance between standardized PM processes and a contingency approach.

 

Some crucial factors to consider when deciding your approach to project management are –

• Your project management goals
• Your resources
• Your online environment/platform for managing projects
• Your project and portfolio management (PPM) tool

 

Some project management best practices that BrightWork 365 can accomplish for Microsoft 365.

 

Establish processes with the help of workflows and templates

Simple steps in a project can seem daunting if you don’t have a system in place. For example, initiating a new project can take loads of time and confusing streams of communication before you can find out – who started the project, how many team members will be on this project, who is the project sponsor, etc. With a project request management system in place, you along with your project teams, will know where and how to initiate the process.

Once, you have decided on what processes would be followed in a project, you can move on to standardizing them with the help of project management templates. PPM templates give your projects a clear structure and help you visualize the flow of your business processes. It is upto you to choose from the pre-built out-of-the-box project management templates or customize as per your project needs.

Clarify Risk Management

One of the industry’s recommended best practice for project management is – risk management. Risks are different from actual issues. They are unseen yet potential challenges that can arise through the course of the project. They can have at least a mild impact on the project, starting from the schedule to the quality of the outcome.

Risk assessment is not only integral to a project’s success, but also to avoiding wastage of your valuable business resources. It is important that your project teams understand why is it necessary to go through risk assessment.

As project managers, it is upto you to have at least some contingencies ready for your projects even if you can’t fully foresee them. This will empower you to mitigate some of the risks in time and keep the projects from derailing. It might take some explanation, meeting(s), and even training to finalize a risk management process for your different projects. You can define your risk management flows with the help of interactive templates. These templates allow your project teams to break silos and communicate about the potential risks with clarity.

Implement Base Lining

A project base line is a time-based standard that you set to measure performance – of either teams or overall projects. This helps you not only track the performance of your projects, but also make adjustments to increase efficiency. Once you have designed the workflow for a project, assembled resources, assigned tasks, and assessed risks, it is time that you set baselines for specific target values. Bring in all the stakeholders and agree to target dates to take the project to next levels and ultimately close. This is of course subject to any risks or issues that arise as projects proceed. Team members can raise issues if need be and this baseline can be adjusted when necessary. In any case, locking in a set target date motivates project teams to stay aligned to project goals and keep the tasks moving.

Create Content Templates

Creating a new workflow each time you start a new project can be taxing on your time and other resources. Another great way to standardize project workflows is setting a content template in place. Why let all the knowledge, experience, and information of your previous projects go to waste. Instead, replicate the project process flows with the help of content templates.

An advanced PPM tool can help you create templates that have the design and data saved from your previous projects. You can use the same design and update new project information where necessary. This makes the visualization of the stages of a new project much easier and effective.

Improve People Management

Managing people is one of the most important aspects of being a good project manager. Even more so, in the modern VUCA business world. The ways of working have evolved more rapidly in the last two years. If you are managing projects for any online business, chances are that you are engaging with at least hybrid teams, if not remote ones. Working with teams spread in different parts of the world across time zones has become an inevitable work aspect for project managers. This justifies the need for a capable tool that allows easy communication. A centralized system to be able to communicate with your remote project teams and store documents is a pre-requisite to successful project team collaboration.

Specific project channels that offer different means to communicate through emails, chats, messages, and calls help project teams to work together without gaps or friction. Logging tasks, notes, and other information regarding a specific project in one place is the most effective way to keep the project teams aligned.

 

BrightWork 365, an advanced project and portfolio management software, specifically suited to the Microsoft 365 environment is designed to help you adopt these PM best practices.

BrightWork 365 integrates with Microsoft offerings such as Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Apps, and Microsoft Teams to help you manage your projects and control portfolios with ease and clarity. It saves your time, effort, and resources with less or no-code technology that helps you design and standardize your business processes.