A Way of Working
Probably the most obvious, and talked about change, after the release of Oracle Primavera P6 R8.0 was the shift of administration from the desktop client to the web application. This shift was further emphasized in Primavera P6 R8.1 when the Web Access application was given the name of “Primavera P6 EPPM” and with the desktop client was called the “Primavera P6 Optional Client”. Oracle is trying its best to move as much as possible to the web and leave the Primavera P6 Optional Client to focus on the needs of the more hard-core project planner.
Unfortunately this change has caused a huge amount of dissatisfaction among users who either don’t want to or can’t run the Primavera P6 web application. Only the enterprise class Oracle WebLogic and IBM WebSphere application servers are supported for these newer versions. These products are usually way beyond the capability of standalone Primavera P6 users. If not due to the power of their PCs, then the knowledge to install and run an Application Server puts them out of reach.
Enterprise System, Standalone Behavior
On the one hand it seems such a pity that so many users have been disenfranchised, but then again it is called Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) for a reason. As long ago as the last century when TeamPlay and P3e first hit the streets, it was an enterprise system aimed at many people working on projects in the same database. I remember being in the old Primavera Hammersmith offices, the one with the big fish tank, and being told how Primavera was moving to the web as fast as it could and focusing on people working together.
Ten years later, I imagine that as soon as the web technology is available in Primavera P6, Oracle will say good night to the P6 Optional Client and move on. Over the years, it is always challenging to move planners from a standalone product where they are in charge of everything to an enterprise deployment where they lose some of that power. The technology is always to blame, but I believe the real issue is more than that.
By way of illustration, one of our global clients with operations in Australia, India, UK, North America and other countries in between has found itself with many Primavera P6 implementations. They have at least three Primavera P6 related initiatives to support different central processes and a number of departmental and standalone copies of P6. Not all the Primavera P6 implementations are the same version and on top of all that, the IT department uses Microsoft Project Server.
One of their biggest problems is the clashes that occur when activities from two or more projects want to do something with the same piece of kit, department or location at the same time. Something has to give, and the priority isn’t always given to the most strategically important activity. Having all the work in a single database looks like the right answer, but that’s just a small part of the solution.
Changing Behavior
One of the central processes aims to solve this problem by introducing a way of working that encourages people to focus on the most important work and fit the rest around it. It identifies those activities across many projects and follows the work from a strategic plan, stretching many years, to one looking at scheduling the work in the next week.
Having set up a Primavera P6 EPPM installation, they embrace other processes and encourage a community of practitioners. Whereas other initiatives in the company have focused on either the process or technology first, this one begins with people. It puts people before process and process before technology.
This approach has proven to be quite successful, with 9 countries embracing this particular way of working. It tends to shine a light on issues with other processes and gets people from different departments to work together. This is the process where Ten Six is engaged.
The approach is to start with the essential component of any enterprise, namely the people. The process is implemented in each country through an adaptive change program that compares current behaviour with desired behaviour. The underlying reasons for existing behavior are hypothesized and interventions to bring about desired change are considered and chosen.
The aim is to institutionalize a way of working that will ensure that activities that implement strategic objectives are given priority over others. It would be easy to just give everyone a Primavera P6 login to the same database and claim that enterprise is now working as one, but that is unlikely to be true. It is more likely that one would have moved the standalone data from a PC into a shared Primavera P6 system, but left the standalone way of working in tact. Implementing an enterprise system is often far more about changing human behavior and developing processes than it is about the
technology.
At Ten Six we believe it takes more than technology to achieve high-performing project and portfolio management eco-systems. It often starts with changing behavior and building communities to get people pulling in the right direction before they are ready to receive new or improved technology.