The new software features make project management easier in organizations.
Innovation is not absent in Strategic Management software. With a policy of always betting on innovation and tool customization to better serve users, the software now includes other functions in the system: Gantt and PERT Network. With these new ways of viewing and interpreting information, it is becoming increasingly easier to manage the organization's projects.
Fernando Quintans, Project Manager at GD Consult, was responsible for the implementation of strategic management software at SAE – Strategic Affairs Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. He says that the tool was a suggestion from the Ministry of Planning and, as the software is more focused on strategic planning and management action plans, some customizations had to be made to facilitate project management. But after that, it has worked very well at the Secretariat.
Guilherme Barbassa, director of Stratec, states that the changes were the same in software designed to assist in project management. “What we did was create PERT network software, establishing a relationship between activities. When you have a PERT network, you can create the critical path of the project, which consists of identifying the activities that, if delayed, will delay the project deadline. You have activities that can be delayed without delaying the deadline, but you also have the main activities for meeting the deadline,“ he explains. Furthermore, we included the Gantt chart, which turns the action plan into a visual chart for quick interpretation. “With the action plan, you have all the information, making it easier to interpret,” he says.
Quintans says that the Strategic Management software controls all strategic projects of the Presidency's Secretariat for Strategic Affairs. “All the methodology that SAE has for managing projects is in the tool, as well as all the project cost control, budget control, and indicator control,” he says. Furthermore, Quintans mentions that they have leveraged other functions, such as parameters for separating by area. “SAE is divided into several areas, with the executive secretary, the sustainable development area, the secretary of defense, among others... With the software, I can manage projects separated by area,” he reveals.
Quintans adds that he controls all indicators through software. According to him, the objective of SAE is the formulation of public policies throughout the country, and the indicators evaluate not only the formulation of policies, but also their approval by the presidency. “There are two indicators that show this well; one indicator controls effectiveness within SAE, and the other controls efficacy before the presidency,” he says.
Another one of the improvements in the software suggested by SAE was the application calendar, which allows you to see the dates and costs of each item on each project page. “Within a project that has other projects, and within that last one, I have others. There are three levels: the project grandfather, the father, and the child project design,“ he jokes. He explains that before he couldn't see the macro of the project costs in the main project (the grandfather), only the projects that follow in the hierarchy, but now he can see it more broadly.
Barbassa points out another innovation in the system. “In addition to the aforementioned innovations, the user will be able to choose whether they want to use the software in the action plan or project model. The action plan does not deal with the PERT network, so it prioritizes activities, it does not have a critical path, it is a simple way to monitor activities. Project management, on the other hand, is more complex; we are talking about plans for a larger scale, corporate plans, which cover various areas, many activities, and high budgets that require a more complete methodology for project management,“ he explains.
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