Since 1998 we have sold enterprise (and now SaaS) resource, portfolio, and project management software.  One of the most popular features has always been our weekly project and program status reporting tool where the project manager can set the Red/Yellow/Green health status of schedule, scope, resources, budget, and overall project.

What is scary (to me) is that many of our customers want to “over-ride” the Red, Yellow, Green indicators and take health status reporting away from the project managers.

I agree with setting some threshold guidelines around the dimensions of resources, scope, budget, and schedule.  I don't believe they should be cut and dry rules that automatically place the project status.  Let me explain. 

For example they look at our issue logs for aging issues, the number of scope change requests, the deliverables & tasks for late starts, milestone slippage, and resource availabi ...

These days many people are talking about Software as a Service (SaaS).  Software as a Service (SaaS) is the concept of instead of buying a server, buying server software, configuring said software, and keeping up with maintenance you simply pay a software service provider a monthly fee to deliver the benefit of the software over the Internet. 

The advantages of this approach are:

• No large capital outlay (servers, enterprise software)
• No resource management issues (training staff to install and support software)
• No footprint on existing hardware (no software to install on desktops and no storage issues)
• Pay as you go and only as you need (you only pay for the people using the software and there are no internal scaling issues)

Unfortunately, many SaaS offerings have unacceptable underlying hosting problems.  They run on servers outside the datace ...

Q:  When should a company use software as a service (per user/per month with hosted hardware and software)?

A:  Whenever possible.

True story.  Yesterday in St. Louis we had terrible storms and a tornado warning for downtown (very rare here).  I was in the middle of a demo and ended up huddled in an interior hallway with the CIO talking about this very subject while we waiting for whatever would happen.

It was hard for them (very old company) to make the transition to SaaS but he knows that they must.  He explained that resources were limited and no one considered it a career path to support someone else's software.  The support costs are very high as vendors have to travel on-site and the support is slow.  Then there is the cost of the hardware, energy costs to run / cool the hardware, the operating system/db/supporting software, etc.

I explained to him that ...

With the economy struggling and companies tightening their belts we are starting to see more and more resumes of good project managers on the street.

Having been in the project management web-based SaaS software field for 10 years this seems like the 2nd time we have been through these challenging economic times.  The good news for our company is in down times our software sales actually increase as companies invest in systems to automate and replace people.  The sad part is knowing that is taking place and good people will be looking for work.

Well since we have no control over the Federal Reserve the one thing I can offer is a way to decipher the job postings they find so they know the "truth in advertising" behind some of these companies.

NOTE:  I literally lifted these off of the bathroom wall were many people post funny quotes and stories and am unable to attribute the original author.&n ...

I was asked recently in a networking event to talk about the hardest and the easiest challenges we faced starting VCSonline.com 10 years ago this summer.  The question caught me a little off guard and I starting thinking back to those early days (queue stereotypical harp music soap operas use!).

Back in 1998 I had a lot more hair up top and lot less wrinkles around my eyes.  What we lacked in startup funding, customers, and employees we more then made up in hope, desire, and pure potential.  There was no doubt we would set the world on fire.  It was a magical time of creative ingenuity.  The web-based software was an embarrassment by today's standards but back then anything data driven over the web that helped teams manage projects and report to management got 'ooos' and 'ahhhs'.

Fast forward 3 kids, 10 pounds, and 30,000 clients later to today.  Finally (thank you God) things are really tak ...

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a relatively new concept in software delivery and one poised to change project management delivery in the immediate future. Instead of buying a server, buying server software, configuring said software, and keeping up with maintenance you simply pay a software service provider a monthly fee to deliver the benefit of the software over the Internet.

The advantages of this approach are:

• No large capital outlay (servers, enterprise software)
  
• No resource management issues (training staff to install and support software)
  
• No footprint on existing hardware (no software to install on desktops and no storage issues)
  
• Pay as you go and only ...

I met with a Global 100 company CIO last week and I think his comments were right on track with what other CIOs I have met with in 2007. 

He said "I did the math and IT spent 1,000,000 hours on projects last year.  The #1 thing we can do is to improve project productivity and insure consistency in our delivery".

What your project management software isn't telling you - can kill you!

What's consuming 30% of your time that isn't even being tracked in your project management software?

I know you are probably thinking this is related to planning.  People are always telling me how important project planning is ( and I don't disagree with them).  Many top organizations spend a reasonable amount of time studying workplans, building methodologies, and standardizing on planning templates.  Yet they report they are still regularly running over budget on their IT projects and can't figure out why? 

The issue is issue management.

If every project in a company was fully u ...

You are so close to being able to provide your group a collaborative infrastructure for project management that you can almost taste it!

You have come to the conclusion that improved project management, resource management, and metrics are key to reducing overhead costs and improving revenue.  You have created a prioritized list of benefits you need from project management software and you have contacted the vendors you are interested in while avoiding the 5 things you should never say to a project management software salesperson.

So many people quit at this p ...