PPM Perspectives

SaaS vs. Hosted vs. On-Premise

Everybody is jumping on the SaaS bandwagon these days, often claiming to be SaaS when they are not. I think it's important for buyers to be able to make informed decisions, so I want to shed some light on what the differences are in software delivery models and why you should care. What are the vendor behavior and investment patterns that go with each model?

Don't keep the cats out of the sandbox

My son Marco wants to build a computer for his senior project in high-school. I tried to imagine him using a project management tool and with the fresh perspective of being outside a "work" environment, I realized how little it would help him. Let's face it: at best PM tools are sterile tracking mechanisms - a pristine sandbox in the back yard in which not even kids are allowed to play. So I asked myself: what would my ideal project management application look like? I concluded it's a very well used sandbox in which it's OK to find the occasional surprise from your cat. Let's follow Marco in his project...

Measuring Change

I've been engaged in a discussion with a PPM consultant about how to measure change in the IT portfolio.  The question goes something like this: "How do we assess the amount of change that certain initiatives will create?"  A follow up question could be "What is the quantitative assessment of change?" and then "What are the qualitative measures of change?"