PM3, our portfolio, programme and project management (PPM) tool, has been designed by programme managers for programme managers and was developed specifically to manage business change programmes. It does this by using:

• a business outcome-driven approach;
• holistic planning;
• 3 levels of planning;
• top-down view of programmes; and
• executive-style dashboards.

Business Outcome-Driven Approach
Many PPM tools use an activity-driven approach which often leads to the business goals being forgotten. PM3, and our outcome-driven approach, ensures that the business change programme is defined in terms of business outcomes that can be measured. Once the programme is delivered the tool can then track and ‘traffic light’ report the extent to which these promised outcomes have been achieved.

Holistic Planning
Many change programmes fail because the planning focuses on the ‘hard’ aspects of the programme, e.g. IT, construction, etc. However, for a business change programme to be successful it is often necessary to achieve real change, i.e. change in People, Systems and Organisation. It is important that these ‘softer’ workstreams are identified and managed as workstreams in their own right. PM3 does this and ensures that all the outcomes and workstreams that need to be delivered for the business change to be successful are being delivered.

3 Levels of Planning
PM3 plans at 3 different levels: project; programme and business change programme. PM3 gives a different ‘lens‘ on the information that is presented depending on whether the seniority of the viewer.

Top-Down View of Programmes
Most planning tools support a ‘bottom-up’ approach to task/activity planning and are can easily become mired in huge levels of detail which makes it hard for senior executives to understand what is happening with their business change programme.

PM3 has a unique promotion concept whereby key risks and issues and milestones can be promoted to either the programme level or the business change programme level. This enables different users to view information at different levels of detail which is relevant for their particular role. Typically, the project and programme information in PM3 becomes more summarised as you move from project through to programme and then to the business change programme level. For example, the risks marked with the pyramid icon below have been promoted up from the Project to the Programme level where they will be visible to the Programme Manager.

Executive-Style Dashboards
When you have potentially hundreds of projects in a large business change programme, it is important that reports are presented to senior management in a succinct and easy to understand way.

PM3 has a number of carefully designed dashboard reports that contain traffic lights indicating the status of aspects of the programme. PM3 carefully defines traffic lights which results in objective reporting. This is especially important across a large scale business change programme where project managers can make subjective (and often unduly optimistic) assessments of whether their project is red, amber or green. PM3 drives more consistent reporting across the business change programme to ensure the most timely interventions take place when any project or programme becomes ‘at risk’.