Sensei PPM Beacon™ Overview · Track portfolio performance with Key Performance Indicators ......

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Sensei PPM Beacon™

Overview

World-class, best practices

Project and Portfolio Management

delivered by Sensei on the Microsoft cloud

Sensei PPM Beacon™ Overview of 16

Sensei PPM Beacon™ Sensei PPM Beacon is built on our experience from delivering PPM solutions to hundreds of organizations over

the past decade and provides the technology and processes needed to be successful.

Sensei PPM Beacon™ is a fully configured, Best Practices PPM solution that is compliant with PMI®

industry standards and aligned with PPM recommendations from Gartner; supporting both traditional & agile

projects.

It comes with a World-Class Reporting platform with role-based reports and dashboards; and a data mart

for reporting on related data in your Line Of Business systems.

Project Managers and Team members get self-paced, On-Demand Training and your Application

Administrator gets trained in our Open Enrollment class.

Sensei provides continuous and Evolving Innovations through updates and new capabilities to keep your

PPM solution current with industry trends and take advantage of improvements from Microsoft.

The Automated Governance & Compliance reports monitor data quality and how well your organization is

adopting the PPM processes.

Embedded Process Guidance comes in the form of the procedure documents, the standard views in

Microsoft Project and PWA and also via e-learning.

Sensei’s Integrated Customer Care handles traditional problem tickets and also deploys new innovations

and monitors the services throughout.

Sensei PPM Beacon™ facilitates Trustworthy Data in your PPM solution so you can focus on variances and

exceptions and get the right projects done in a consistent manner.


Key Benefits Rapid Deployment Fully functioning PPM environment in weeks, rather than months.

Cost Effective PPM solution at a fraction of the cost for traditional “blank canvas” deployments.

Automated Reporting Instant visibility and insight into the portfolio of projects and resources.

Embedded Training E-learning, procedure documents and step-by-step views ensure success and adoption.

Scalable Supports small teams of all sizes and large enterprises.

Proven Processes Aligns your organization with Industry Standards and best practices.

Instant ROI Demonstrate the Microsoft PPM value proposition and get instant Return On

Investment.


Building Blocks of PPM™ The Building Blocks of PPM™ represent the common business objectives and process areas that are the

business drivers behind most deployments. Within these building blocks lie the processes, procedures, tools,

techniques, configuration options, and training that are the framework for Sensei’s recommended approach

to PPM.

The Beacon solution is fully aligned with these building blocks and has configuration, reporting and process

support for each of them. Sensei’s philosophy is that the focus should be on solving a business problem—not

on the technology—when deploying Microsoft Cloud.

Project Intake & Prioritization

Enable Executives to get an overview of incoming proposals

with work and cost estimates; and show all projects and their

relative priority in the portfolio.

Resource Capacity/Demand Management

View the true utilization of resources by role, team and

department and easily see which projects are requesting and

consuming resources.

Budgeting and Cost tracking

Get a portfolio-level view of cost performance against

budget and original baselines. Track spending by cost type

and monitor variances.

Project Planning and Collaboration

Monitor progress throughout the project lifecycle and

understand active risks and issues, action items, deliverables

and missed deadlines across the portfolio.

Project Status and Portfolio Reporting

Track portfolio performance with Key Performance Indicators

and facilitate easy access to detailed project status

information and SharePoint project site data.

PMO Governance

Track compliance to project management and scheduling

standards and ensure better data quality throughout the

Microsoft PPM environment.


Project Intake & Prioritization is all about managing the incoming demand through a standardized business case that captures the proposal

details as well as cost and resource needs. All initiatives are then funneled through a formal governance process and prioritized against

the overall portfolio. Organizations that do this well get better strategic alignment, and up front cost/benefit analysis and resource

evaluation.

Resource Capacity/Demand Management is closely related to the first building block. This is where we establish what our true capacity

is as an organization and then hold that up against the incoming demand and on-going changes on projects. Key benefits here are

‘realistic workloads’, ‘accurate forecasts’ and ‘timely delivery’.


In Budgeting and Cost Tracking, we capture the allocated funding and compare that to the bottom-up estimate. Then, throughout the

project, we track actuals and estimate the cost at completion. That way, any cost variance will be identified early so we have an opportunity

to take corrective action. Key benefits are ‘early warning’, real-time ‘cost variance’ and an ‘accurate forecast’.

Project Planning and Collaboration is all about capturing the true scope of the project through a detailed work breakdown structure as

well as any dependencies, deadlines, constraints, resources, effort estimates and the approved baseline, but it’s also collaborating on project

artifacts. By having the detailed schedule and the project artifacts in a single system, organizations are able to significantly improve

communication, manage scope better and provide a more accurate forecast.


Project Status and Portfolio Reporting is where the status from the individual projects roll up to provide executives with an overview of all

activity in the portfolio, which allows them to identify variances early and highlight exceptions so that they can take the necessary corrective

action.

PMO Governance is where an organization established the standards for PPM and tracks how well those standards are being followed.

This has a direct impact on data quality throughout. Key benefits here are ‘improved compliance’, better ‘quality of project delivery’ and

full visibility into the efficiency of the portfolio.


Sensei PPM Beacon™ Contents Sensei PPM Beacon is a robust solution that enables an organization to be up and running a Microsoft PPM

environment in less than 3 weeks!

Initial Setup

Best Practices PPM

Best Practices PPM Sensei’s Best Practices PPM Solution is a pre-configured Microsoft PPM

environment aligned with industry standards from Gartner and the Project

Management Institute. It includes a complete set of reports, governance

workflows and encompasses our best practices from hundreds of Microsoft PPM

deployments.

Business Drivers

A set of 4 predefined, yet customizable, strategic business objectives against

which projects are measured for selection and prioritization. These drivers are

also prioritized (weighted) so that organizations can get started quickly with

prioritizing their portfolios against these goals.

Key Performance Indicators A set of 4 pre-configured, customizable R/A/G Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Stoplight health indicators quickly show schedule, work, cost, and overall project

status. Project KPIs are determined by comparing the current status against the

baseline and are automatically calculated for you.

PWA Views and Security A set of 20 pre-configured, customizable web-based data views. The views are

accessible to users based on their specific security role within the platform and

allow for interaction with projects, resources, and assignments including:

• Active Project Summary by Departments, Project Phase, Project Type,

Sponsor, or Workflow Phase

• Active Resources by Department, RBS, Role, or Team

• Executive Project and Proposal Summary

• Approaching Milestones

• Upcoming or Slipping Tasks

• And more!

Enterprise Project Types (EPTs) A set of 6 pre-configured project types combining schedule templates, project

site templates, and governance workflows into an easy-to-launch package.

Governance Workflows A set of 2 pre-built, best practices, customizable governance workflows that can

be used to facilitate project intake and prioritization, and the communications

that correspond to various approval processes. Workflows automatically guide

and control how teams proceed through the life of a project.


Enterprise Resource Pool A pre-populated pool of named personnel and generic roles that can be

assigned to projects for resource workload forecasting and modeling. (Your

organization’s list of resources will be imported.)

SharePoint Project Site

Template

A pre-configured, yet customizable, template used to generate new project team

collaboration spaces for tracking issues, risks, action items, change requests,

decisions, documents, project status, and more.

Task Progress Tracking and

Timesheet Configuration

Pre-configured, customizable time-tracking forms and business rules which

enable project personnel to track project and non-project company time.

Schedule Templates A set of 7 pre-built, yet customizable, templates which enable Project Managers

to quickly and easily initiate project schedules for new projects.

Microsoft Project views A set of 15+ pre-configured, customizable Microsoft Project scheduling views

and filters to help Project Managers comply with industry best practices.

Procedures A set of 15+ pre-written, customizable supporting procedure documents

describing processes for managing projects from intake to closure. Procedures

include submitting a project proposal, time reporting, schedule development,

and more.

Enterprise Calendars Standard, 24x7 and Weekend Only Enterprise Calendars helps your organization

stay on top of resource capacity and demand management.

Cost Resources Cost Resources helps track expenses and budgets for hardware, software, travel,

training, and fees/permits.

Project Detail Pages Project Detail Pages include business case, project request, project status,

support project information, and project closure.

Walkthrough A complete, in-depth walk-through by a Sensei delivery expert of your newly-

deployed Microsoft PPM environment.

Agile PPM

Agile PPM Agile PPM extends the Microsoft PPM environment to support the collection and

management of Agile projects supporting Product Backlog Management, Epic

and Story development, Story Point estimating, and Burndown reports.

Agile Lifecycle and Process

Support

The Agile story lifecycle ensures that the stories are well managed and that the

Product Owner can adjust the Product Backlog to support evolving

requirements. Full process support is embedded into the Agile Template to

ensure that best practices are followed on your iterative projects


Agile Custom Fields Enterprise Custom Fields ensure that information needed to support iterative

development is available as part of the enterprise deployment. Agile fields such

as Release, Sprint, Story Type, Priority and Story Points have been added to

Microsoft PPM

Product Backlog and Story

Management

Views, filters, groups and tables have been created to allow you to manage the

Product Backlog and Stories using the iterative techniques which are critical to

Agile management.

Burndown Reports Burndown and Burnup reports allow you to view and review the project’s status

for the entire project or for the current sprint.

Process Support Custom toolbars in Microsoft Project allow the Product Owner to maintain the

Product Backlog ensuring that the stories are progressing through the life cycle

and that there stories ready for Sprint Planning.

Hybrid Projects Hybrid projects are a natural fit for Agile PPM, as the full functionality of Microsoft

Project is available for any aspects of the project that isn’t a fit for Agile

techniques, whether that is for release and implementation activities or a business

requirement that requires a more traditional delivery approach

TRAINING

Application Admin Open

Enrollment

This training course focuses on application administration for Project Online. The

class will show Application Administrators how to maintain the system using

Project Web App and be prepared for troubleshooting. The class is geared

towards business users that are familiar with the Project Online environment and

plan to maintain the system on an on-going basis.

Project Manager Best Practices

Book

This book from Sensei focuses on project management best practices with

Microsoft Project, and enables project managers to build solid schedules that

reflect the true scope of the project and continuously forecast status through

completion.


Annual Subscription

WORLD-CLASS REPORTING

Azure data mart with

automated data refresh

Sensei’s Reporting Hub provides an enterprise-level data warehouse for

Microsoft PPM that is hosted in Azure. The Reporting Hub synchronizes the data

from Project Online in real-time and also allows for reporting across Line of

Business systems.

Reports and Dashboards

(Excel Online/Power BI)

Excel Online. With over 30 automated reports and dashboards, the Sensei Report

Pack Collection provides turn-key best practices reporting for Microsoft PPM.

The reports focus on highlighting variances and exceptions in the portfolio to

enable executives to make better data-driven decisions. Reports are aligned with

the Building Blocks of PPM™:

• Project Intake & Prioritization

• Resource Capacity/Demand Management

• Budgeting and Cost Tracking

• Project Planning and Collaboration

• Project Status and Portfolio Reporting

• PMO Governance

Power BI. Sensei’s Power BI Content Pack provides a complete package that

enables you to get started quickly with Power BI for Project Online. The solution

includes a Q&A dashboard and role-based reports:

• My Portfolio – Provides a summary of status across the portfolio of

projects and resources

• My Programs – Provides a summary of all work and collaboration

activities within a program

• My Proposals – Provinces an overview of proposed initiatives and the

impact on the business

• My Projects – Provides an overview of work and collaboration activities

across owned projects

• My Project Details – Provides detailed information to better manage

activity on an individual project

• My Resources – Provides a summary of all resource work along with

their capacity and demand

These reports also work in native apps on mobile devices.


ON-DEMAND TRAINING

PPM eCoach™ for Project

Managers

An on-demand, e-learning solution for project managers to learn how to use

Project Online. The course provides video introductions to key concepts and

instructional walkthroughs in the various tools as well as work sessions and

quizzes. Beacon comes with 10 subscriptions per 100 users. PPM eCoach for

Project Managers is hosted in a Learning Management System (LMS) and

Professional Development Units (PDU’s) are automatically issued upon

completion of the course.

PPM eCoach™ for Team

Members

All users get unlimited access to an on-demand, e-learning solution for team

members to learn how to use Project Online to collaborate and track progress.

The course provides video introductions to key concepts and process

walkthroughs that define the role of the Team Member in a Proactive Project.

EVOLVING INNOVATIONS

Updates to configuration and

reports

Sensei continues to innovate and update the existing configuration and reports

as part of the Beacon subscription.

New apps and products As Sensei develops new Beacon apps and products, these will be made

available to your organization as part of the subscription.

APPS

Sensei Portfolio Advisor™ Performs a series of quality checks on schedules in the portfolio to ensure

compliance to industry standards and best practices. Compliance score can be

viewed by project manager and by department. Quality checks are based on

industry standards and best practices, including the Project Management

Institute’s Practice Standards for WBS and Scheduling; and Sensei’s Proactive

Scheduling principles.

Sensei Resource Heatmaps™ Provides enterprise level 'Resource Utilization and Availability Report' heatmap.

Provides project-level 'Resource Utilization' and 'Engagement Coverage'

heatmap reports.

Sensei Bulk Update™ Allows Applications Administrators to update and publish metadata for multiple

schedules at the same time. Schedules can be selected individually or through

the use of built-in filters. Data can be edited in a table format or have changes

applied to all selected projects.


INTEGRATED CUSTOMER CARE

Sensei PPM Help Desk for

Project Online

Unlimited problem ticket support for 2 of your administrators through Zen Desk.

A Problem Ticket is defined as a system error or malfunction that causes a failure

in functionality, such as a mistake being made by a person or a faulty process

that impedes the use of Microsoft Project and Project Online’s Project Web App

(PWA).

Monthly Tips ‘N’ Tricks sessions

exclusively for support clients

Access to monthly Tips ‘N’ Tricks sessions delivered by Sensei’s subject matter

experts. Your organization can propose topics to be covered in future sessions.

Quarterly Health & Governance

Checks

Sensei will perform quarterly health and governance checks on your Project Web

App instance. This includes technical checks on queue status, checked out items,

Active Directory synchronization status, server resource quota stats, page view

stats and client performance analysis as well as content checks on projects,

resources, timesheets and licensing.

Automated daily Excel report

refresh service

Sensei set up an automated daily Excel report refresh schedule to improve

performance and usability for all users.

Monitor and maintain Sensei

PPM Beacon™ services

Sensei continuously monitors and maintains the Beacon services throughout,

including the Reporting Hub azure data mart and apps deployed.


Sensei PPM Beacon™ Add-ons Out-of-the-box, Beacon™ is intended to meet 70%-90% of an organization’s core PPM requirements.

Working with your organization, Sensei can then build on this platform to “close the gap” with add-on

services and products.

ADD-ON SERVICES

Custom Configuration Although Beacon is designed to align with industry best practices, it’s unlikely

that any PPM solution will align perfectly with how your business, objectives, and

processes evolve over time. Sensei can help you to customize the components

of the PPM toolset to properly align with your business, both now and as your

organization evolves.

Custom Reporting Beacon includes many reports—based on industry best practices—that surface

important information in your portfolio. If your organization requires changes to

these reports or needs new ones created to align with your business, Sensei can

perform these customizations or teach you how to author them on your own.

Process Maturity Clearly defined processes and adherence to these is critical in any PPM

deployment. Sensei can work with you to define or modify processes that meet

the specific needs of your organization and align with industry standards.

Procedures/Documentation Beacon includes many documents describing suggested step-by-step

procedures for effectively utilizing the PPM toolset to manage projects. If your

organization requires changes to these documents or needs new ones to align

with your business, Sensei can work with you to make these updates and close

the gaps.

On-going Support To ensure that your PPM tool implementation continues to run smoothly after its

launch, Sensei recommends on-going support services to deal with new

requirements that emerge as your organization grows with the deployment.

Integrations Sensei’s team of experts can work with your organization to connect to Line Of

Business systems and bring data into or out of Project Online.

ADD-ON SOLUTIONS

Sensei Solutions

Partner Solutions

Both Sensei and our partners provide additional add-on solutions to solve

specific business needs related to Microsoft PPM. Please work with your account

executive to discover what options are available.


ADD-ON TRAINING

Additional/Customized

Training

Strongly recommended for Project Managers, Team Members, and Report

Authors, Sensei offers several training options to prepare professionals for proper

PPM tool usage and data capture, thus ensuring the highest quality of

information in the tool to support business decisions.

ADD-ON APPS

Sensei Apps

Partner Apps

Both Sensei and our partners provide additional add-on apps to solve specific

business needs related to Microsoft PPM. Please work with your account

executive to discover what options are available.


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if we need more e-learning or Open Enrollment seats than what is provided?

A: Additional seats can be purchased at a significant discount.

Q: What happens if we discontinue the subscription?

A: You keep your data and the core configuration (initial setup) in Project Online and all the annual

subscription services are discontinued.

Sensei PPM Beacon™ Overview · Track portfolio performance with Key Performance Indicators ......

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