There's no shortage of new features in the Strategic Management software. With a policy of always investing in innovation and customization of the tool to better serve users, the software now has another functionality in its system: Gantt Chart and PERT Network. With these new ways of visualizing and interpreting information, project management in the organization becomes easier and easier.
Fernando Quintans, project manager at GD Consult, was responsible for implementing the Strategic Management software at SAE – the Presidency of the Republic's Secretariat of Strategic Affairs. He explains that the tool was recommended by the Ministry of Planning and that, since the software is primarily geared towards strategic planning and action plan management, some customizations had to be made to facilitate project management. However, after that, it has been working very well at the Secretariat.
Guilherme Barbassa, director of Stratec, states that the software changes were indeed designed to aid project management. “What we did was create a PERT network in the software, establishing relationships between activities. When you have the PERT network, it's possible to create the project's critical path, which is the identification of which activities, if delayed, will delay the project's final deadline. Some activities can be delayed without delaying the final deadline. But there are essential activities for meeting the final deadline,” he explains. Additionally, the Gantt Chart was included, which turns the action plan into a visually interpretable graph. “With the action plan, you have all the information, making it easier to interpret,” he says.
Quintans states that the Strategic Management software controls all strategic projects of the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic. “All the methodology that the SAE needs to manage the projects is in the tool, as well as all project cost control, budgetary control, and indicators,” he says. Furthermore, Quintans mentions that they have been leveraging other functionalities, such as parameters to separate by area. “The SAE is divided into several areas; there is the executive secretariat, the sustainable development area, the defense secretariat, among others... With the software, I can manage projects separately 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 for the entire 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 another controls effectiveness before the presidency,” he states.
Another software improvement, suggested by SAE, was the implementation of the schedule that allows for viewing the dates and costs of each item at the main project level. “Within a project I have other projects, and within those, I have even more. There are three levels: grandparent project, parent project, and child project,” he jokes. He explains that before he couldn’t see the costs in the macro project, in the main (grandparent) project, only in the projects that followed in the hierarchy, but now he can visualize it more comprehensively.
Barbassa shows another new feature in the system. “In addition to the previously mentioned new features, the user will be able to choose whether to use the software in an action plan or project model. The action plan does not include the PERT network, so there is no activity precedence, no critical path; it's a simpler way to track activities. Project management, on the other hand, is more complex; we're talking about plans of a larger scope, corporate plans, which encompass several areas, many activities, high budgets, and require a more complete project management methodology,” he clarifies.
