How to Use What-if Scenario Planning to Tackle the 3 Biggest Project Management Challenges
The ugly reality…
When it comes to resource management, the sad truth is that almost half of project management leaders say that a lack of resources is one of the top three biggest challenges they face. In the same study, the other two biggest challenges are apparently one in four professionals saying that they don’t have the right resources and almost one in three saying that they have unrealistic deadlines.
With evolving economic conditions always shifting, and customer expectations rising, how can organizations keep up with the demand? Project portfolio management solutions that are out there try to help teams reach those demands. There is a high chance that your organization uses a variety of tools to manage their project portfolios. However, another study reports that a significant majority of project management professionals also report to use multiple tools to manage their projects.
Not only do decision makers have to meet evolving requirements to meet goals, and face those top challenges that were listed above, but they also have to manage the tools that are meant to help them manage the data.
Shouldn’t there be a solution that can anticipate how to reach goals regarding those issues listed above about resource management? Shouldn’t those tools consolidate the tools teams use so less time is spent managing tools and more time is spent on leveraging the data analysis done by one modern tool or solution?
The good news…
The good news is that there are solutions that exist out there that consolidate all your portfolio and project data, makes it easily and visually digestible to make decisions quickly, and gives you built-in what if scenario resource planning.
The project management institute says that, “scenario planning recognizes that there are several possible futures and that it is prudent to anticipate each of these from a “what if” perspective.” When looking for a project portfolio management solution, select a solution that offers this type of functionality right into the same space where you do your planning without impacting your original planning data.
To demonstrate what that looks like, here is an example from Proggio of how you can use what if scenario planning in a PPM solution
What to look for…
A solution that has everything in one place
We have cell phones that work as mini computers and that can call any phone number. We have cars that not only take us safely from place to place, but also have GPSs, and sound systems that play our favorite music. We have televisions that let us stream any kind of content from events happening on the other side of the world, do our favorite music video from 10 years ago.
So if we have a high standard for the consolidated features that technology offers in our everyday lives, why would we settle for less when it comes to the tools we use to manage our projects.? And like was said above, why are we constantly shifting through multiple tools to manage a single project or for that matter, all of our projects that may be in the same project portfolio?
Choose a tool that allows you to leverage the power of what if scenario resource planning. And not only that, use a tool that has that built in feature set with visual first project and portfolio planning data management. That means not only can you plan in one place, but you can also scenario plan in one place.
A solution that enables quick and intuitive decision making
That means that not only is your tool helping you plan for various scenarios, but it is also enabling you to see with clarity what the results of those scenarios would be. And when you can see what those results will be, it becomes easier to see what changes need to happen to help your plans meet your goals.
Some other features you should look for should also offer intuitive data viewing options. Like for example, in proggio, resource planning and what if scenario planning offer split screen functionality so you can see how your scenario planning would impact different parts of your portfolio. Also, because there are many different scenarios that can happen, you can save these views to go back to and review for further analysis and decision making.
The confidence that comes from what if scenario planning
Rather than just hoping that things will work out, confidently make decisions with clarity because your what if scenario planning has been taken into account. Stop scrolling through outdated charts and tools that don’t create a cohesive data picture. Start using modern solutions that put decision makers in the driver seats to get your teams to where they need to go.
1 https://explodingtopics.com/blog/project-management-stats
2 https://www.paymoapp.com/blog/two-or-more-tools-for-managing-projects/
3 https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/scenario-planning-project-management-6858
