Learn about how the Microsoft Power Platform is being adapted for use in the project world in a connected project management platform.
In a previous blog we looked at the emergence of the Microsoft Power family; Power Apps, Flow (now Power Automate) and Power BI. These are being used together in Microsoft Project to provide increasing value for Project Managers. Where before the focus was point-in-time collection, collation, and reporting of information (which is instantly out of date), now we have a consistent and continuous day-to-day input of data and live dashboards that is displaying that information visually. This allows us to use our data effectively to make better decisions, seeing the big picture from all systems.
The emphasis has now shifted away from high ‘administrative time’ for users entering information and tracking that information over the life of the project. A major push from the PMO group has been to ensure that the project system is easy to use to facilitate high user adoption. When project managers, and all stakeholders, can use the solution efficiently the output generated is of much greater value. Executive groups are now starting to see better output from the PMO team, allowing a higher degree of certainty around project delivery.
As a technology company, we often focus on the tools and technology. However, we need to maintain the goal of building business value. Here, this value is delivered through higher efficiency for users, in order to minimise the time spent on administrative tasks. This then allows them to deliver more high value activities in the same amount of time. Project managers are able to take on more projects concurrently as the time requirements to run each starts to fall and the demands become less burdensome. This can result in a drop in quality and less project control, however with similar efficiency improvements in quality assurance – this is easily mitigated. The focus on minimising administrative overhead is helping organisations to deliver projects more successfully.
In this blog I will outline how the Microsoft Power Platform is being adapted for use in the project world in a connected project management platform. How these systems work together is illustrated in the image below.