Sen. Coburn questions 100 stimulus projects

WASHINGTON (AP) — Repairs for rural bridges, an under-highway safe crossing for turtles and efforts to protect the sage grouse population are among 100 projects a Republican senator pointed to Monday as questionable federal stimulus spending.

The list by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., includes projects others would identify as ideal for creating jobs and benefiting generations of Americans: skateboard parks, streetscapes, upgrades of park facilities, bike trails and parking garages.

Coburn’s list is partially a collection of news stories that questioned local projects to be funded under President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program. The White House has promoted the program by selecting favorable newspaper stories.

One of the most fiscally conservative senators, Coburn cited the repair of 37 rural bridges in Wisconsin that average little more than 500 vehicles apiece each day — with one carrying no more than 10 cars a day. The projects jumped over larger, urban repairs because they were “shovel ready.”

Local officials had a different perspective. Coburn, for instance, criticized $840,000 to repair a bridge in Portage County, Wis., that carries 260 vehicles a day largely to a backwater saloon and a country club.

Bill Weronke, the county highway commissioner, said the bridge has “lived its life expectancy” and is dangerous. “It’s a pretty crucial bridge in Portage County,” he said. He added it soon will be a shortcut to a state highway.

Coburn also criticized a $3.4 million Florida Department of Transportation project for an “eco-passage” — an underground wildlife road crossing for turtles and other wildlife in Lake Jackson, Fla., along U.S. 27.

“Why did the turtle cross the road? To get to the other side of a stimulus project,” the Coburn report says.

Josh Boan, the Florida Transportation Department’s natural resources manager, said a large number of turtles and other wildlife are killed in the area. In addition to protecting wildlife, he said the project is needed for safety: turtles hit by vehicles can become flying projectiles.

The project north of Tallahassee is to begin in September.

An administration spokesman said the stimulus program already is a great success.

Ed DeSeve, senior adviser to the president for Recovery Act implementation, said, “We have approved more than 20,000 Recovery Act projects to get Americas economy moving again.

“With 20,000 projects approved, there are bound to be some mistakes. When we find them, we have been transparent about it, and worked on a bipartisan basis to shut them down immediately. Sen. Coburn’s report, however, is filled with inaccuracies, including criticisms of projects that have already been stopped, projects that never were approved, and some projects that are working quite well.”

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Performing a Market Analysis for your Software Project Solution – Part 1

I recently completed a lengthy vendor market analysis for what will turn out to be a very large enterprise-wide software implementation.  In fact, it will end up being the largest of it’s kind in its specific industry.  So let’s look at this.  Your company needs a project handled and it’s going to require that an outside company has a hand in it and it’s important that you get the best because it’s going to be long and it’s going to be costly. 

Whether it’s a software application that is going to be implemented on this project or it’s finding the 3^rd party company to actually perform the implementation or do some significant work on it, it’s important to analyze the available options and make the right choice.  Let’s examine at least one possible process to get that done.

Phase 1 – Document the Requirements

It’s critical that you and your organization have detailed knowledge of your requirements and business processes going into a market analysis like this.  Everything I’ve written up to this point in my other articles assumes that we are delivery and they are the customer.  For this article…for a market analysis…the tables are turned.  We are the customer and they are the vendor.  You’re still the Project Manager running the show, but now you’re the customer and the vendor or vendors have to show they can meet what you need.

Therefore, you need to know what your requirements are, what your ‘as-is’ business processes are and what you want your ‘to-be’ business processes…um…well, to be.  If you don’t know that, then you’re not ready for this and you’re certainly not ready to move on to Phase 2.

Phase 2 – Identify the Potential Sources

Initially, you and your team – or just you depending on the size of the undertaking – need to identify who the main players are.  Know which vendors you need to initially consider for this undertaking.  Make the field too small and you won’t get a good cross-section of the offerings and capabilities.  Make the field too large and you will spend too much time and money just narrowing the group down to the size it should have been in the first place.

Phase 3 – Beginning the Dog and Pony Show

Let’s assume you start with 8-10 vendors who are offering a software package or implementation that, at least on paper, comes close to what you visualize your end solution to be.  In your gut you know that 3-4 of them probably won’t cut it, but they’re worth a closer look.  Include those 3-4 ‘on-the-bubble’ vendors and l them play themselves out of consideration because one could surprise you and offer a reasonable solution at the best price.

To start things off, contact each of the vendors via email with the following information:

• An introduction of yourself including your contact information
• A summary of your project or software need
• An invitation to participate in the market analysis
• A proposed date/time for a one-on-one kickoff call

Next

In Part 2, well look at slimming the field so that a more detailed analysis can be performed on the leading candidates.  This will allow you or your team to focus on the vendors that can actually do the job right and allow for the detailed efforts to be spent on finding that best solution.

Project And Portfolio Management Applications Get SaaS-y

Historically, project and portfolio management applications have been used by big companies to bring order to their IT management and software development processes. But in these days of tight budgets and increased need to control IT spending, SMBs could use some of those same capabilities.And they are getting them, with the growing number of PPM applications being offered today on a Software-as-a-Service basis, making them easier to scale to a midsize company’s needs and budget.

“We’ve seen a tremendous uptake in the on-demand business,” said Jose Mora, senior director of product marketing at CA, which unveiled an “Essentials” version of its CA Clarity PPM On-Demand application in April that’s easier to implement and is particularly suitable for midsize companies. CA is among a growing number of PPM software developers offering customers a greater range of hosted/on-demand PPM options.

Sales of CA’s on-demand PPM applications have been growing by a factor of three with sales to both new customers and customers switching from on-premise software, Mora said. But SaaS still accounts for only about 15 percent to 20 percent of the company’s PPM sales.

PPM company Planview, Austin, Texas, began offering a SaaS version of its portfolio management application in December, and that offering, combined with a hosted version of the vendor’s software, also accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of the company’s sales, said Patrick Tickle, executive vice president of products. Compuware also provides a hosted version of its Changepoint PPM software.

All of this comes as the recession has had a mixed impact on demand for PPM applications, according to some of the leading PPM software vendors. Some companies have frozen or even slashed IT spending this year and that includes purchases of PPM software. But for others, the downturn has brought home the need for tools such as PPM to help get their IT operations under control and reduce costs.

Read the full story here.

US$50 Million Expansion Project for Stevens Hospitals

As reported by Earth Times

FOLSOM, Calif. – (Business Wire) Meridian Systems, the Plan-Build-Operate (PBO) technology solutions leader for project-based organizations, announced today that Stevens Hospital of Edmonds, Washington, has selected ProjectTalk^® to standardize its construction management processes. ProjectTalk, Meridian’s online project management and collaboration solution based on Prolog^® software, provides robust functionality in a Software as a Service (SaaS) environment. Stevens Hospital worked directly with P7 Integration, a Meridian Systems Value Added Reseller (VAR), to implement ProjectTalk to manage the upcoming US$50 million expansion project.

Stevens Hospital typically has more than a dozen projects in process at any given time with approximately 10 percent dedicated to new construction. The current expansion project will add a new, two-story Emergency Room (ER) building with 32 ER beds, 30 acute care beds as well as underground parking, totaling 75,000 square feet.

As a public healthcare organization serving Edmonds, Washington and its surrounding communities, Stevens Hospital worked with P7 Integration’s professional services to implement ProjectTalk. The online project management solution is designed to manage complex capital projects more effectively, improve construction project accountability and provide the visibility needed for an expansion project of this size. P7 Integration sells the Prolog suite of applications and provides implementation, training and consulting services.

“The hospital’s goals for the implementation included standardizing on one centralized location for all project data, increased project team collaboration, ability to access current project data at any time and status updates for key personnel,” said Stefan Rehnfeldt, Stevens Hospital’s construction manager. “ProjectTalk is a crucial system for effectively managing vast amounts of information to keep the project on track. In addition, we are using ProjectTalk to successfully manage schedule tasks, project budgets, and document control.”

Read the full story here…

June Survey: Project Management and the PMO

I’m hoping that our readership is large enough that I can get some meaningful feedback on surveys at this point.  I’ll test it with what I hope is just the beginning of monthly or periodic surveys about key areas of project management and practice.

For June, I’d like to ask readers for input concerning PMOs in the organizations they are working in.  It will be interesting to compare with other surveys and hopefully form some new understandings about where PMOs are in their maturity and what background our readers are coming from. 

• Does your organization have what you would call a centralized Project Management Office (PMO)?  Obviously if this is ‘no’ then some, but not all of the following questions won’t apply to you…but please proceed and answer what you can.
• Maturity – how long has your PMO been in existence?  If unknown, ask or take an educated guess.
• Is there a centralized review of all proposed projects by an executive council?  I’m interested here in finding out who’s reviewing the project portfolio.  Is there a prioritization process?
• Do you have established and documented processes for your PMO’s Project Management Methodology?  This is basically a maturity question.  Does your organization have a mature, documented Project Management process for the PMs to follow when running projects?
• Do you have established templates for status reports, project documents, etc.?  This is another maturity-type question.  Is everyone following the same templates and documents?
• How many Project Managers are there in your company’s PMO?  This, of course, is a straight number.  Again, if you’re uncertain, make an educated guess…this is far from scientific.
• What is the management arrangement in your PMO?  Is it one PMO Director, two or more co-managers, etc.?
• Is your PMO independent or does it report up through any IT or Software Development Management structure?  Here I’m trying to understand if the PMO is acting independently without constraints of IT or software development.  Is your PMO Director reporting to a CEO or VP or is he/she reporting to an IT Director or VP of Software Development.   In my opinion, that’s a conflict of interest, but we’ll see what’s working.
• Who makes project resource assignments?  Who assigns the PMs, developers, Business Analysts, and other technical and project resources?  Is it one individual, a council made up of the respective managers of these resources, or some other process like a dartboard.
• In what country are you located?  Trying to get a demographic question in here.
• What organization’s primary industry?  Another demographic…
• How many employees in your organization?  More demographics…this time size.

This is new to me…I’m really just interested in knowing more about how the PMOs out there operate and where the readers are coming from.  I’ll try to get more scientific with the questions next time around.  Please send your responses to me at brad@bradegeland.com.  I would also welcome any additional thoughts you have on your company’s PMO and PMOs in general. 

Depending on how fast responses come in, I’d like to post feedback on your responses by around June 22^nd.  Thanks again in advance for your help…let me know if you have any questions.