Project Assistants Develops Web-Based Solution for Improved Methodology Sharing and Collaboration
Project Assistants recently worked with a Professional Services client who had the unwieldy challenge of applying a methodology to 25+ solution offerings, involving 6,000+ engagements, 6+ languages, and thousands of delivery consultants dispersed over 54 countries and 4 continents. The client needed to improve its governance by building a better approach to develop, govern, and render their solution methods across the organization.
Our initial efforts to follow a traditional path for methodology development experienced significant challenges. It quickly became obvious that the typical methodology development approaches–Spreadsheets, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations–would not be practical. A much more effective solution for managing this amount of content was to develop a flexible, relational database solution that could collect, store, read, and render a methodology in the variety of formats that this type of information needs to be developed and distributed.
The final product, the Methodology Assembly and Distribution Tool (MADT), also decentralized the content development into the hands of subject matter experts. MADT provides a content development back-end that leverages integration with SharePoint-based content, such as methodology templates and sample deliverables.
In working with our customers, we’ve found there is a market need for a tool to grapple with monolithic methodologies. MADT’s benefits include:
- Reducing “one-off” projects: Enabling consistent project approach, terminology, and deliverables for team communication
- Gaining cross-organization project role clarity: Providing clear, consistent roles and definitions for Software Development and Implementation engagements
- Improving Project and Portfolio Governance: Providing one approved organization point for Project Management and Delivery Methods Guidance
- Reducing methodology maintenance time
- Ensuring use of industry and organization best practices: Including the many method “variations” organizations use, such as agile, small and medium projects, package implementation, and infrastructure.
This new web-based solution is now commercially available. For more information on the tool, click here.