| IStarPMIS, LLC is dedicated to bringing you the very
best in project management through it's flagship product I*PMIS and project
management consulting services. I*PMIS is a Project
Management Information System
that was conceived, designed and written by a certified Project Management
Professional with over 30 years of experience in the information systems
industry. Review the benefits and features of using I*PMIS at our
home page. I*PMIS is available as a stand alone website for your
company or as a no charge complimentary product for projects managed by
IStarPMIS, LLC. I*PMIS is also available through the partnership
program to affiliated consulting firms.
One might ask, why do I need a Project Management Information System?
The answer is simple, to improve on your decision making processes through the timely collection, storage, communication and feedback
of quality project information (business intelligence) thereby improving on the
success rates of your projects as measured by key performance indicators. When I*PMIS, pronounced I Star P M I S or I P M I S for short was
first being developed, the pilot project was to simply put together an
interactive Status Report, Timesheet and Expense Reporting System that could
be submitted using web technology. This
might sound anachronistic to some people, but you would be surprised at how
many consulting firms that the author had done W-2 consulting for that still
had
their consultants submit their Timesheets, Status Reports and Expense
Reports via fax. At the
time of the authors certification on Microsoft Project, there was not a
simple automated web enabled solution to capture actual hours via Timesheets
or Status Reports and have them entered into Microsoft Project. This
was the state of the art that motivated the author to write I*PMIS.
The following system requirements were defined.
The system had to be web enabled,
In other words, the average Jane or John should
be able to sign on anywhere there is a PC and a web connection.
This means that the project members can all be in the same office,
different office, same building, any building or anywhere in the United
States as long as there is an internet connection and a PC, the system would
be robust enough to capture, communicate and disseminate accurate, timely
project knowledge to all team members. The system had to
integrate the Timesheet, Status
Reports and Expense Reports into the Project Management Information System so that when
the Status Reports were reviewed and approved, the project statistics would
be immediately captured and updated. The Status Report and Timesheets had to be integrated so
that when the Status Report was completed the information was available to
the Timesheet process and would not have to be manually added up from the
Status Report and re entered into the Timesheets, a pet peeve of the authors. The
Task Definition, Task Assignment, Status Reporting and
Scheduling had to be an integrated process so that when information was
entered into one it was available to all of the other processes.
The Scheduling had to be interactive so that when the dynamics of the
project task definitions changed, the Scheduler could reschedule and
reassign tasks online in real time and you would be able to see the impact on
the schedule, all you would have to do is to press run.
Additionally, the Scheduler had to be able to accommodate multiple
projects and multiple project members, after all who works on just one
project? An interface would be built to make use of Microsoft Project's
charting and CPM,
Critical Path Method capabilities. Key
components would be the
Earned Value Management Statistics and Dashboard screens, Burn Down
and Earned Value charts that would
automatically do all of the number crunching to accurately depict the
progress or lack thereof of the project(s). Finally,
multiple online dialogs would be built to support and simplify the
management of project information associated with the completion of the 47
project management processes defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI)®
in it's
internationally recognized standard, A
Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK
®
Guide) -- Fifth Edition. If
there are ever any guidance questions about how things should be done, the
author generally followed the Project Managements Institute's guidelines.
Of course on line sign on and individual dialog security would be part of
the system. Added along the way was the capability to
group projects into programs or portfolios and have the Scheduler schedule
entire programs.
All of
the requirements defined above have been satisfied and are an integral part
of the Project Management Information System known as I*PMIS. You do not
need to use an ad hoc system put together on a share drive when you have
I*PMIS and IStarPMIS, LLC available to support you and your projects.
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