We have found that a project portfolio management such PD-Trak can significant improving the planning and execution of product development projects and better assure adherence to an organization’s stage/phase-gate process. We have worked with a number of these types of systems in the past and found that PD-Trak is one of the most cost-effective and flexible tools out there for both large and small enterprises. PD-Trak provides both management functions to plan and monitor projects as well as project execution functions. Key functions of the system are:
Idea Management functions capture ideas for new products/improvements and related information and provides a simple evaluation system for a product manager or management team to use to evaluate which ideas to move forward with.
Portfolio planning and management functions provide a variety of ways to evaluate and rank projects and then test the feasibility of a proposed portfolio against resources and investment constraints.
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Product development processes can be defined – phases, tasks and deliverables within a phase, responsibilities and document templates. Multiple processes can be defined such as ones for a new product, a simplified version for product upgrades or product line extensions, and one for technology or platform development.
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Stage / phase-gate methodology is supported with defined requirements for each gate review, various performance measuresto evaluate projects, gate review packages, and automated distribution.
Project management capabilities for budgeting, scheduling and risk management are included. PD-Trak provides scheduling tools or is integrated with Microsoft Project®. These tools enable effective project planning and execution.
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Multi-project resource planning provides flexible options for planning project man-loading at a higher level or integrating detailed project plans with task level resource planning. The system provides flexible modeling of options and indicates when resources are available to start new projects for a Kanban approach.
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Resource and pipeline management tools monitor and manage the product pipeline – maximizing project throughput. These tools provide visibility on the project flow and enable the establishment of a release rhythm as suggested by the theory of constraints and lean product development practices.
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Performance measurement and dashboard tools are provided at the project and portfolio level.
PD-Trak can be installed on your company’s own IT systems or used in the cloud. DRM Associates is a PD-Trak agent.
For further informationor a demo, contact Kenneth Crow at DRM Associates
Phone +1 310-377-5569
Email: k.crow@npd-solutions.com
