Post Project Support

vPMO - Project Continuum

Introduction to the Project Continuum (PC )

Often when a project is released into production it ends up being "thrown over the fence" to the support staff. This can lead to the support staff having out-of-date system specifications, not understanding the details of what went into system design, and in some cases not having the tools necessary to support the system. The Project Continuum was designed to solve these problems.

By using the Project Continuum tool for system support organizations can:

• Foster clearer lines of support communication
• Become more efficient at accurately identifying and documenting support artifacts
• Coordinate support task ownership
• Gain a real-time and accurate view of support metrics

These capabilities provide delivery organization with the information needed to provide efficient post project support.

vPMO Component: Project Continuum (PC)

• PC Home - The Project Continuum home page acts as the system's support home page. It has a trouble call summary, a scheduled down time summary, an Inbox showing all items assigned to the current user, and a What's New queue of entries that have most recently been created or modified.
• System Community - Contains a Contacts section, System Glossary, Discussion Forum, and Bulletin Board. This section provides efficient channels for support team communication.
• System Documentation - This section is used to record the most recent system artifacts. Typically these can include database design documents, external system specifications, and business process descriptions.
• System Support - This section contains Scheduled Down Time, Trouble Calls, and Disaster Recovery Plan services.

vPMO Common Features

• Social Collaboration - Share critical information and create a socially enabled enterprise with vPMO's social feed. Think of it as a private collaboration space for your enterprise.
• Revision Management - Allows the user to see all previous versions of all project data including author, modification date/time, attachments, and all other artifact data. 
• Full Text Indexing - All data stored in the vPMO is full text indexed. Looking for information or a specific document, but don't remember where you saw it? No problem, just do a search!
• Inline Feedback - The vPMO allows users to give "In-Line" feedback, for virtually any information, allowing for a real-time collaboration regarding project specifics.
• ID Nesting - For artifacts that have a reference ID, the IDs can be stored in a hierarchical format. This can be useful in situations where there is a series of related artifacts.

System Integration

File Storage

While vPMO has its own integrated, revision managed, full text indexed file management system, there will be times when you organization wants to use a third party file storage system. Don't worry, we have you covered. vPMO can be configured to work seamlessly with both Google Docs and Dropbox.

• Dropbox - Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.
• Google Drive - Google Drive is Google's file sharing service. It enables you to easily access all your files on any device.

Data Publishing and Consumption

Data can be imported and/or extracted from vPMO using the following data interchange methods:

• Integrated Project Reporting - Integrated project reports are paramount to understanding how your PMO is performing.  Our reports get you the data you need.
• XML API - vPMO has a robust XML based API for exchanging data with external systems. This API can be utilized to import or export data from vPMO.
• MS-Excel - For quick, ad hoc analysis, vPMO can export data directly to MS-Excel.
• MS-Word - vPMO can produce exports in MS-Office format for publishing to external parties.
• MS-Project - vPMO has a bi-directional MS-Project synchronization capability.

The screen shots can give you a better idea of the kind of problems this tool can help you solve. There are efficiencies to be gained in your organization, and we are here to help you realize them!

Contact us to begin the conversation of how we can help you improve your project delivery capabilities.