A needs assessment is a crucial step to a successful P6 EPPM implementation. It will provide the basis for the entire system design, how it will operate, and who will use it.
Assessing needs can range from an evaluation of the corporate culture to analyzing hardware/software requirements to reviewing existing processes and developing new ones. Most of your information will come from interviewing key personnel. Meet with representatives from all areas of the company who participate in the project management process, from the owners to the individuals doing the actual work. Ask questions about the tasks they need to perform and the project information they need to know to do their jobs effectively.
Determine corporate culture
As mentioned, understanding the corporate culture plays an important role in any major implementation. You need to know ahead of time whether your company is ready, willing and capable for the change. Evaluate your company’s state of readiness for company-wide project management. For example:
- Does your organization have a clear understanding of project management?
- Are they familiar with computers and software?
- Are standard processes in place for managing projects?
If the answer to these questions is no, include a training program in your implementation plan. Depending on the degree of readiness, you might also need to address issues that involve preparing employees mentally for dealing with change.
Define hardware/software requirements (on-premises only)
Review the system requirements necessary to run P6 EPPM. Then, conduct interviews with your Information Technology (IT) personnel, or those responsible for maintaining network integrity and new hardware/software installations to inquire about the current technical environment. Include questions, such as:
- Do you have servers or hardware in place? If so, what kind?
- How are remote locations managed?
- Do you have separate servers for development and production?
- Are you running Oracle or SQL server on one or more servers? If so, which version?
- Are you running any other database software?
- Do you have a LAN and/or WAN in place?
- Do you have mobile user requirements?
Answers to these types of questions will help you determine your hardware specifications. Be sure to identify items such as database server requirements, application server requirements, LAN requirements, and PC requirements. This step should be performed early in the process, since you might need to order new equipment or upgrade existing software before installing P6 EPPM.
Define integration requirements
While examining hardware requirements, review any integration requirements.
- Will you be interfacing with other software systems, such as Gateway?
- Will custom integration to an existing financial system or asset management system be required?
- Do you have resources who are skilled to develop necessary interfaces or are consultants required?
If you are integrating P6 EPPM with third-party applications or legacy systems, you should identify interface points that provide continuous flow of data while minimizing data loss.
Define how data is structured
To manage projects successfully in P6 EPPM, you first need to set up data structures for your organization, projects, resources, and costs. You might also want to define special codes to help you organize and report on data more effectively. To structure data properly, review how you handle data currently along with how you want to handle it. For example:
- How do you group projects? How many levels of projects do you have?
- Are projects cross-departmental? Do they have multiple locations?
- What is your typical project scope, size, and cost?
- How many projects are you managing at one time?
- What is your organizational structure?
- How do you group resources? Are resources assigned to projects as groups or individuals? Are resources shared across projects?
- Do you track skills for each resource?
- Do you have a work breakdown structure already in place?
- Do you have a need for multiple calendars? Do resources need calendars?
- What types of reports do you use? How often are they produced?
When you answer these types of questions, you can define the necessary data structures, such as the project hierarchy, organizational breakdown structure, and the work breakdown structure.
Determine current procedures/processes
To define how data will flow in P6 EPPM, you need to understand how your business operates. Look at your current processes and procedures and modify them to suit your project management objectives. Making decisions early about process changes saves time and money. Answer the following types of questions when you analyze business processes.
- Do you have a project methodology in place? If so, is it working?
- What is the life cycle of a project?
- What are the determining factors in deciding if a project is go or no-go?
- How are decisions made regarding project selection and budgeting?
- Is your budgeting/planning process top-down or bottom-up oriented?
- How do you estimate and track costs?
- Do you have a Project Management Office or something similar?
- What time reporting mechanism do you use?
- How do you track and measure progress?
- How do project participants get work assignments?
- What is your process for communicating project information to others?
- What information do you require or expect from the project management process?
- Who controls security? What security is required for project information? Do you need to restrict data access on a group or individual basis?