In the next installment of my “5 Reasons Why…” series, I will be taking a look at BrightWork, a SharePoint solution for project and portfolio management.
Flexibility is very important to me when I evaluate a project management solution. What I really like about BrightWork is that their “Start, Evolve” approach to project management makes it easy for organizations to get started quickly with project management, delivering immediate visibility and control, with the flexibility to mature their project management practices as the needs of a project or team change.
Here are my five reasons you should definitely check out BrightWork:
Best-Practice Project Management Templates
BrightWork realizes that when deploying a project management solution, there are two things need to consider:
Visibility and Control Across Portfolios
For senior executives, BrightWork provides visibility across the entire portfolio of projects – including project statuses, resource allocation, and new project requests.
BrightWork allows for any number project sites to roll up to portfolio dashboards that provide a summary of all the projects across the organization, with the ability to easily drill down into individual project sites for more information. These dashboards can also track the resource allocation across projects, ensuring that resources are not being over- or underutilized and that critical projects are being properly resourced.
Since the last time I reviewed BrightWork, they have added the Project Request Manager template. The new template helps manage demand for new projects and ensure that approved projects are aligned with the strategic goals of the organization.
Simple and Intuitive Project Management
Selecting from the range of project management templates, it is easy for project managers to kick-off a project the right way. Each template is set up to mimic project management processes, so they guide project managers through the stages of initiation, planning, managing and closing a project.
One of my favorite features in BrightWork is the Project Status Report, which allows project managers to capture a project snapshot at a given point in time. Since most of the data is already captured in the project site in the form of KPIs and metrics, all the project manager needs to do is add some commentary about what is happening on the project. These status reports can be created in minutes and are immediately available in real-time for stakeholders.
Streamlined Project Collaboration
BrightWork also enables seamless collaboration for the entire project team. With BrightWork, each project gets its own collaborative site where all the project information is housed. Team members always know where to go to for project updates and to find their responsibilities.
Built into all templates are personalizable “My Work” Reports, which give team members a summary of their upcoming workload. Using the simple work management system, team members easily update the progress of their work or flag any of their work items as an issue that require attention.
Also, the fact that BrightWork is built on SharePoint means that it leverages all the collaborative features of the platform, like document management, social capabilities, newsfeeds, SharePoint Search, and everything else.
Continuous Improvement of Project Management Practices
Finally, BrightWork is designed to help your organization continuously improve its project management practices. As I mentioned above, you start quickly by selecting one of the out-of-the-box templates with the right amount of project management. Then using the simple configuration options, you can organize any site to match your own processes. Individual users can even configure reports for their own personal preferences and working style.
Not only is it easy to configure the templates, the Template Design Sync supports the “Start, Evolve” approach encouraged by BrightWork by allowing you to capture enhancements to a template and roll those changes out to active project sites.
Try it for Yourself!
If you would like to try BrightWork for yourself, I highly encourage you to start a Free 30-Day Trial where you can try out the entire BrightWork solution with a team of up to 5 people.
Flexibility is very important to me when I evaluate a project management solution. What I really like about BrightWork is that their “Start, Evolve” approach to project management makes it easy for organizations to get started quickly with project management, delivering immediate visibility and control, with the flexibility to mature their project management practices as the needs of a project or team change.
Here are my five reasons you should definitely check out BrightWork:
- Best-practice project management templates
- Visibility and control across portfolios
- Simple and intuitive project management
- Streamlined project collaboration
- Continuous improvement of project management practices
Best-Practice Project Management Templates
BrightWork realizes that when deploying a project management solution, there are two things need to consider:
- The amount of project management that the project needs to be successful
- The amount of project management that the team is capable of absorbing.
Visibility and Control Across Portfolios
For senior executives, BrightWork provides visibility across the entire portfolio of projects – including project statuses, resource allocation, and new project requests.
BrightWork allows for any number project sites to roll up to portfolio dashboards that provide a summary of all the projects across the organization, with the ability to easily drill down into individual project sites for more information. These dashboards can also track the resource allocation across projects, ensuring that resources are not being over- or underutilized and that critical projects are being properly resourced.
Since the last time I reviewed BrightWork, they have added the Project Request Manager template. The new template helps manage demand for new projects and ensure that approved projects are aligned with the strategic goals of the organization.
Simple and Intuitive Project Management
Selecting from the range of project management templates, it is easy for project managers to kick-off a project the right way. Each template is set up to mimic project management processes, so they guide project managers through the stages of initiation, planning, managing and closing a project.
One of my favorite features in BrightWork is the Project Status Report, which allows project managers to capture a project snapshot at a given point in time. Since most of the data is already captured in the project site in the form of KPIs and metrics, all the project manager needs to do is add some commentary about what is happening on the project. These status reports can be created in minutes and are immediately available in real-time for stakeholders.
Streamlined Project Collaboration
BrightWork also enables seamless collaboration for the entire project team. With BrightWork, each project gets its own collaborative site where all the project information is housed. Team members always know where to go to for project updates and to find their responsibilities.
Built into all templates are personalizable “My Work” Reports, which give team members a summary of their upcoming workload. Using the simple work management system, team members easily update the progress of their work or flag any of their work items as an issue that require attention.
Also, the fact that BrightWork is built on SharePoint means that it leverages all the collaborative features of the platform, like document management, social capabilities, newsfeeds, SharePoint Search, and everything else.
Continuous Improvement of Project Management Practices
Finally, BrightWork is designed to help your organization continuously improve its project management practices. As I mentioned above, you start quickly by selecting one of the out-of-the-box templates with the right amount of project management. Then using the simple configuration options, you can organize any site to match your own processes. Individual users can even configure reports for their own personal preferences and working style.
Not only is it easy to configure the templates, the Template Design Sync supports the “Start, Evolve” approach encouraged by BrightWork by allowing you to capture enhancements to a template and roll those changes out to active project sites.
Try it for Yourself!
If you would like to try BrightWork for yourself, I highly encourage you to start a Free 30-Day Trial where you can try out the entire BrightWork solution with a team of up to 5 people.
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