Microsoft launched Project for the web in October of 2019, unveiling "Project Re-imagined". At the same time, they announced that all future investments in project management tools would focus on maturing Project for the web and creating a compelling offering using the Power platform. This move brings Project Management into the core of Microsoft's technology vision, enabling direct access in Microsoft Teams and providing organizations with a flexibility Project Online could never offer.  

OnePlan worked closely with the Microsoft Engineering and Product Marketing teams to create the new Project Accelerator for Project for the web. The Accelerator provides immediate value to address the needs of many organizations and the building blocks to satisfy more detailed requirements. This flexibility and versatility is the real promise of the Microsoft vision and the Power Platform. 

Breaking the solution into its components, the Accelerator provides compelling functionality in the following areas: 

Demand Management

The addition of demand management enables PMs to begin oversight at the intake of projects or requests. Doing so enhances the reporting and information available to properly analyze such requests and promotes better detail management and prioritization of projects. Doing this efficiently also makes it easier to move projects or tasks to the next phase in its lifecycle.

Program Management

The program management capabilities provide for better oversight of various collections of projects that are grouped by a defining characteristic. Properly managed programs are crucial to effective execution due to overarching initiatives growing more complex. It is common to have many interconnected projects that tie into a single program.

Project Management

Building off of everything you expect from Project for the web, including project and task management, the Accelerator does away with the individual nature of these projects and adds the management of risks, issues, and change requests. The Accelerator also fosters easier and more precise status reports, providing better governance and showcasing KPIs. This further enhances the flexibility that an organization has to proceed with projects, providing more time for adjustments.

Portfolio Insights/ Risk management

The portfolio insights provided by Power BI and the customization of report packs create the ultimate directional tool for projects and big picture management. Quickly and accurately identifying issues to create visibility around risks bolsters an organization’s knowledge to adjust projects and processes for the optimal outcome. Improved insights enhanced by the Dataverse information repository take purely reactive management out of the equation and open up enhanced decision-making to the past, present, and future of possibilities. 

OnePlan developed additional advanced capabilities to extend the new Project for the web Accelerator into a full-featured Adaptive Project Portfolio Management solution that exceeds the functionality of Project Online. This complete solution meets all 9 of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities for Project Portfolio Management Requirements.

Solution Overview

Our solution leverages OnePlan along with additional Power Apps to extend the Project for the web Accelerator. The additional capabilities are described below:

Integration with the Work Tools of Today

The OnePlan Adaptive PPM solution supports using both Project for the Web and Project Professional as end-user scheduling tools. It also supports using Planner, SharePoint lists, Azure DevOps, and JIRA, providing seamless access to the work management tools of choice across an organization. Gone are the days of insisting that all projects must use a complex professional tool. The goal: provide PMs with the option to work with the tools they need to do the job right. 

Portfolio Prioritization and Analysis

OnePlan supports the creation of Portfolios with owners, budgets, objectives, and benefit targets. Portfolio Analysis can be done using conventional stack ranking based on prioritization scoring, and scenarios can be created that consider budget and resource constraints. Additionally, the solution includes boards to perform program increment planning and prioritization in support of Lean Portfolio Management and Agile planning methodologies. 

Full Scaled Agile Support

OnePlan includes the ability to create sprints, program increments, epics and allows you to define the relationships between them. It also enables resourcing based on sprints, stable teams, and cross-functional teams.  

Furthermore, the solution does not require an organization to adopt a single methodology. The trend is to use a variety of methodologies and delivery models in the enterprise. OnePlan supports this dynamic environment, providing consolidation, portfolio planning, and reporting on top of the various PMOs and their chosen delivery models.  The OnePlan solution is Scaled Agile Framework certified and can keep up with cutting edge Agile organizations and those beginning their Agile journey.

Resource and Financial Management

The OnePlan Solution includes rich capacity-based resource planning regardless of the tool being used to manage the project. This enables organizations to understand resource commitments across all projects and initiatives and track resource actuals and changing forecasts. 

Likewise, the Financial Plan module provides the ability to capture time-phased financial information against a cost breakdown structure and cost types. The module supports the capture of budgets, forecasts, actuals, and benefits. Integration with other systems can provide seamless bi-directional information, further enhancing the value of these capabilities.

My Work and Timesheet Capabilities 

The OnePlan solution includes functionality to consolidate tasks and other to-dos (issues and risks) into a single view for statusing. This enables resources to status tasks and update Project Managers on progress regardless of the scheduling tool used to plan and manage their project.

• The solution also includes a timesheet module to capture actuals across the same array of work management tools as well as other administrative tasks and non-project time.

Understanding the Road Ahead

For OnePlan and our customers, the accelerator has already played an important role in successful implementations of Project Portfolio Management solutions on the Power Platform. These customers are addressing complex business requirements, connecting to critical business systems, supporting multiple user communities each with their own needs and end-user tools and bringing all this information together to make better, more timely portfolio decisions.  

Organizations are moving to what Gartner calls Adaptive Project Management. This means the PMO needs to be able to provide the following: 

• Support both Agile and Waterfall delivery models
• Support multiple user communities with differing needs and levels of maturity
• Support different end-user work management tools 
• Robust analysis of resource requirements, time to value realization and project status  
• Link strategy to execution 
• Shift priorities and investment in response to changes in the business  

Our OnePlan solution enabled in Power Apps or Microsoft Teams provides a complete Adaptive Project Management solution to meet these needs.  

Ready to help you Transition Now

To those of you currently using Project Server or Project Online, we are invested in helping you find your path forward on the Microsoft platform while leveraging your existing investments in Microsoft Project. Microsoft’s new vision offers exciting new approaches and capabilities to support your PMO. Our complete Adaptive Project Management solution provides all the capabilities of Project Server/Online while also enabling the use of Planner, Project for the web, Microsoft Project Desktop, Azure DevOps and other project delivery tools in use in your organization. We are here to show you how and help you plan your transition. 

We have developed a migration planning workshop to help our clients plan their transition. This workshop looks at the various migration options, current Microsoft licensing investments, required capabilities, integration requirements and other considerations and results in a high-level roadmap and budget.    

For new clients seeking a Project Portfolio Management solution, Project for the web and the Power Platform with OnePlan offers a compelling option that will evolve and grow with your organization. We are eager to show you how you can address your needs with a modern interface, dynamic tools and rich integration with other business systems. 

The future of Project Portfolio Management on the Microsoft Power Platform is exciting and we are committed to its success. 

Register for an on-demand or live webinar to learn more.

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