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The exceptionally well-attended "IT Demand Management" conference confirmed one thing: the fast-growing interest in a new demand management approach. Campana & Schott believes that demand management will soon establish itself as a leading discipline.

      Removing complexity (the spaghetti effect)      Strengthened functional departments      Special effect Industry 4.0

1. Removing complexity (the spaghetti effect)

Many conference participants spoke of "spaghetti environments". They were referring to the intertwined organizational interfaces between the functional departments and IT. This creates a lot of extra work and usually leads to wasted resources. But participants mainly discussed increasingly complex technical interfaces and dependencies a) between existing IT applications and b) on-going IT projects. Intertwined like a bowl of spaghetti.

What are some concrete approaches for getting a handle on spaghetti complexity?

The change of today is the run of tomorrow: before starting or - or even better - approving a new project, take some time to think about how the product result will affect the complexity of your system environment. For smaller projects: make the projects as small as possible; this also reduces complexity and increases your company's ability to respond. Shorter planning cycles: the project portfolio is reviewed three to four times a year, and adjusted. Ideally, the project and planning duration are the same. For example: new priorities are set every three months, and at least a large portion of the projects also runs for approximately three months - this further improves your ability to respond to new circumstances. Efficiency is one factor, but not the only one: Cost savings are one thing, but more and more companies view business cases at a more holistic level - what is the impact, what is the concrete added value of the project or new application for the core business or directly for the customer?

2. Strengthened functional departments

Another point on which the numerous discussions at the conference agreed: Functional departments are in effect creating their own IT organizations. But it does not have to be this way. When IT regains its agility and is quickly able to respond to changing requirements, it becomes a strong partner to the business. This works if IT truly represents the functional department and finally supports the division with its concerns. This becomes possible when demand management and project portfolio management become one in IT. Then one can truly say: "From shadow IT to a centrally balanced IT project portfolio". That is confirmed by the experience of our MDAX customer SMA Solar.

3. Special effect Industry 4.0

Finally, many companies are also experiencing a trend in which the collaboration between functional departments and IT takes on an entirely new significance. Demands by customers to move the provider's products into the "Internet of Things", and the rapid shift towards Industry 4.0 means that functional departments must provide a vision in terms of the internet. Particularly production and supply chains are digitally transformed. Companies must undertake enormous development efforts in very short time periods, so as not to be left behind, or to become the leader of the pack. IT demand management plays a key role in this context.�� At the same time, we will see entirely new approaches and tools to ensure the rapid success of the digital transformation:

Project management and project activities between IT and the functional departments will take on a much more collaborative character. New (collaborative) tools will establish themselves for this purpose. Communities, as a joint and dynamic but rather loose and theme-oriented form of collaboration, play a central role in this context.

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Worldwide networking, fast and flexible availability and integration of all employees - Cloud changes the game. Sometimes things move very fast. Campana & Schott believes that the tipping point has been reached: within just a few months, the attitude - not to mention corporate reality - with regard to Cloud-based solutions has changed drastically. Skepticism and downright rejection were the order of the day until just recently. In the meantime, we have noticed that Cloud-based components, rather than the planned on-premise solutions, are being implemented even in on-going projects.

A current example from the automotive area: Our customer had actually decided against a Public Cloud-based solution. But then one event completely changed the risk-reward ratio.

What happened? The acquisition of a company led to the search for a comprehensive collaboration platform for the post-merger phase. Teams from both organizations, which were spread around the globe, had to exchange information about collaboration, projects, process adjustments and associated savings. The originally envisioned on-premise solution would have led to months of preparation and waiting times for hundreds of users.

In the end, the customer, still quite skeptical in the beginning, took our suggestion of a Public Cloud-based solution based on SharePoint Online, Office 365 and Azure. But the largest impact did not come from the rapid and flexible availability of the system within just a few days. The real benefit was in the direct integration of the entire management level up to the level of the Management Board. This highly-relevant target group now experienced the Cloud as a tangible concept.

The nicest surprise for us: management has already submitted numerous ideas and requests for Cloud-based solutions for the time when the two companies have become one... Cloud changes the game.

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Recently I was part of a 15-member team that represented Campana & Schott at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference in Chicago. The future is digital - and Microsoft can meet this demand.

Every evening, the team met to discuss the day's events over a glass of beer. A very clear picture emerges once all of the individual impressions are put together: the digital transformation has reached Microsoft. And the surprising part - at the center of this transformation is the organization and human collaboration at Microsoft. How is that expressed? While earlier conferences used to be dominated by single large release or product introductions, this conference brought a series of smaller surprises. And that is not a coincidence or lack of innovation, but rather the new normal.

Most far-reaching change in 20 years

We believe that Microsoft is changing into an increasingly agile company. Even pivoting - hence the willingness to drastically alter business models based on changing customer requirements - is no longer a foreign concept for Microsoft. It has resulted in a company that values internal competition. Different teams and product groups compete to find the best solution for a particular problem. And the customer will decide.

And internal competition is not the end of it. Just recently, Microsoft purchased a Berlin start-up company when it acquired the Wunderlist app. Why? Microsoft has been trying to bring work management solutions to the market for some time, at the lower level of project management so to speak. In our opinion, with this purchase Microsoft has extended its range and added a new player from the outside to save valuable time for its internal development activities. The primary focus may be on a new solution. But on closer look, it also becomes clear that Microsoft has gained innovations, employees and the work style of Generation Y, and injected it into its own company. This will certainly have an effect on the company's own work style ...

What new trends did we see?

But in the end, Microsoft is about software solutions. In this context, we have identified the following trends in terms of social collaboration:

The Cloud forms the innovation motor - Microsoft is increasingly moving towards a model whereby new functionalities are initially made available through the Cloud only, and only become available on premise at a later date, and not always at same scope - such as the new Microsoft Project 2016 But Microsoft also realizes that hybrid solutions will make up the lion share of implementation projects in the near future. And even though Salesforce.com has rejected Microsoft's first takeover offer, it was likely not the last word on this subject ... Infopedia provides a new option for internal knowledge management There is an interesting variant for creating internal links between employees: Delve and the so-called People Page (as alternative to MySite in SharePoint) The Office 365 Groups are beginning to show another very promising option for social collaboration. Choices must be made: SharePoint, Yammer, Office 365 Groups or Outlook + Skype - which solution is the right one for a particular need? 'External Sharing' as a combination of SharePoint and OneDrive can be a good model for collaboration that spans across organizations.

And finally a comment that pertains to our own activities: we believe that in light of the aforementioned developments, the understanding of consulting must also change. Of course there will always be a need for selected consulting and introduction projects. What is new is that companies will also acquire consulting advice as an on-going service. The age of the Cloud requires that services are provided to customers on a continuous and on-going basis: What new functions make sense for the customer? What new solutions should the customer be evaluating or implementing? I am looking forward to that change.

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Agile project portfolio management: Not a buzzword, but an integral part of large companies. The "IT Project Portfolio Management" conference was held in Berlin at the end of June. Rarely has there been a time when I took away such a clear message after the end of the two days. To be sure, there were more than 20 presentations and workshops that discussed a variety of experiences and projects. But each presentation and discussions brought forth the same important insight: Companies and their project portfolios must become more agile.

Agile project management at the company level

Agile processes for managing individual projects have become a fixture in project management. For most large companies, it is simply a question of volume: at some, only 10 - 15% of projects are organized using agile processes, while many others already manage more than 50% of their projects in this way. Of strategic relevance however is the question of what agile project portfolio management can look like at the company level. The following design options can be considered from CS' point of view:

No full planning of budgets and resources (especially with regard to the now immi-nent annual budgets) Smaller but more frequent adjustments to portfolios Transfer of "Design-to-Budget" approach to project portfolio management: fewer details for project specifications, instead budgets are allocated to specific themes, initiatives or "products" (the latter also, and especially, in the IT area) At the forefront are the respective benefits, i.e. which budgets are allocated to the various target benefits? This can be done using business cases, which are then used as a basis for prioritizing the budgets �� A consideration of dependencies not (just) in the projects but rather more considera-tion of the dependencies between the projects: how are these dependencies included in prioritization and decision-making preparations? More focus on communication and information exchange between projects

Agile companies need the right employees

Surprisingly, virtually all presentations ended up emphasizing the same point: additional employee skills will be required in the not so distant future. They include new innovation- and project-relevant qualifications, such as "Data Scientists" who derive business models and business contacts from big data information inventories. But most of all, agile companies need employees that have been socialized in a highly-responsive environment. It is one reason why large companies including Daimler and Microsoft invest in start-ups, namely to "inject" their employees into their own workforce. Without these external 'disturbances', the company's own corporate culture would not be able to respond as quickly to new meta skills such as radical customer focus or the permanent and constructive scrutiny of business models. The example "internal crowd-funding" illustrates the combination of both worlds: a certain portion of the e.g. IT budget is virtually distributed among the employees. They can assign their own budgets to projects of their choice, and thus generate the portfolio that is most promising from their own point of view. Very valuable information.

Agile is the new normal

It is not just projects that are agile. In the future, the focus will be on making project portfolio management more agile at the company level, and in turn empower those employees in the company who will implement the agile transformation.

PS: Does this have you thinking about what might be in store for your own PPM? Benefit from the largest free PM benchmarking process undertaken by the Technical Universities Berlin and Darmstadt; there is still time to register for the 7th MPM study at www.multiprojectmanagement.org.

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CEO Dr. Eric Schott about key factors of successful social collaboration projects. We recently attended a Social Collaboration Workshop with the IT managers of a global market leader from the automotive industry. One of the senior IT managers surprised me with this statement: "We have already been doing social collaboration for 10 years". Really? Well no. The company had simply equated social collaboration with a new form of document filing system. To achieve real change - and hence improvement - I would like to address the five popular myths regarding social collaboration:

1. Social collaboration is just a substitute for shared directories. Not so. Social collaboration is much more than the shared ability to work on documents. New forms of communication and collaboration, ad-hoc video conferencing and enterprise social networks, the search-based provision of relevant contents and personal connections through expert profiles are just some of the elements, which go far beyond the "alternative to a shared directory". Practice has shown: When such collaboration is implemented and introduced correctly, our customers profit from a new level of collaboration.

2. Social collaboration is just a question of technology. No, even if technologies play an important role (see above), and if tool selection ("Which Social Collaboration platform should we buy?") is often the more tangible decision: additional productivity is only created through new forms of collaboration, through practiced and intensified connections between staff and their knowledge. In short, through the comprehensive transformation of the company.

3. Social collaboration happens by itself. No, transformation requires an enormous amount of effort and a continuous change process. The process of change management towards a collaborative organisation is an on-going management task.

4. Social collaboration does not cost anything. No, organisational change is complex and expensive. In addition to investments in new technologies, it requires a lot of time and energy on the part of those involved, particularly management. Similarly, regular course adjustments or corrections of de-velopments that have gone wrong are not free but necessary. Our experience shows: The result by far outweighs the work involved.

5. We do not need social collaboration. Wrong again. There is no alternative to social collaboration. To stay competitive, companies cannot afford to forego investments into changing forms of collaboration in the long term - at the company itself or with regard to the changing collaboration between companies. Massive developments in the area of digitisation, along with an increased demand for experts ("shortage of skilled labour") will only increase the pressure to change.

And last but not least, the good news: Once these five myths have been moved out of the way, there is nothing stopping a company from bringing about successful change. By the way, that was also recognised by the aforementioned automotive company. After the workshop, the managers adopted the following objectives:

Improve collaboration with and between the functional divisions. Reduce expenses through the use of technology and standardisation. Achieve more needs-appropriate results with a more intensive knowledge exchange process.

An attractive vision for social collaboration!

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Dr. Eric Schott draws conclusions from numerous integration projects. Companies without such change projects can also profit from this. If you are about to start or are already in the middle of an integration project, use this opportunity for disruption! Undertake a comprehensive revaluation of all existing processes. It will be a long time until it will again be so easy to implement radical changes. If you are not (yet) affected by an integration project or merger, you should nevertheless take this opportunity to consider some "What if..." scenarios. Take a look at which of the more dramatic changes can be implemented even without a merger. Play through the disruptive moment of such projects - it is worth it! Campana & Schott has assisted with integration projects triggered by the merger of two companies for many years. Such post-merger integration projects are a considerable challenge, even for companies that have adopted a very project-oriented approach and that offer considerable competence at the respective management level. Why? For one, these are normally one-time projects, plus they tend to have a considerable change effect - also on the company's "normal business". Therefore it is worth looking at such projects, even if one is not affected by an integration project at the moment - which is probably true for the majority of readers ...

In summary: Integration projects lead to changes that are often thought to be impossible beforehand. A look at the 25 last projects CS was involved in (usually with a focus on IT integration) shows the type of competences and skills that are established as a result of these projects:

One special feature of these projects is the speed at which they are implemented. Usually they are triggered by external regulatory or organisational requirements. But the fact that changes can be made in such a short time period sends an important signal to the entire company. Old and existing systems are subjected to a radical review, such as current IT applications, for example. The reorganisation process is generally dominated by business aspects (something that generally happens on its own) - that is, the reorganisation and prioritisation of IT applications is strictly governed by the priorities and plans of the divisions or departments. In that case, the IT-Business alignment happens quite by itself. The costs for new or consolidated applications (or a new IT infrastructure, such as Cloud-based systems) are systematically compared to the expected benefit. Of course that is not new. But in the case of IT integration projects, this process is much quicker, more systematic and more radical, using the maxim "Benefits first". The project tasks that are carried out in line with a merger often lead to a welcome rotation: Employees leave their habitual environments and often display new and hitherto unknown skills and abilities. This is the time when many "hidden champions" are discovered. And on the whole, this generates a previously unknown level of transparency regarding the skills of the employees. And finally: a large project such as the integration of a company can only be organised and implemented as a program. From the viewpoint of CS, skills related to program management increase drastically during integration projects.

Based on this experience, the following approaches have proven themselves:

 "Best of Breed"

Many of the absorbing companies plan for a "Take-over approach", which means that the company that is absorbed will receive the exactly same IT. Interestingly, over time the companies usually change over to a "Best of Breed" approach, which aims to combine the best of both IT worlds. Therefore it is best to take the second route from the beginning!

No transition solutions

Do not plan for transition solutions when it comes to IT, as these are generally not worth the time or effort. Invest in a new long-term solution from the start.

"Greenfield approach"

Instead, why not use this opportunity for a "Greenfield approach" - rarely are the opportunities for introducing fundamental changes and innovations in IT better than in the context of a merger.

Cloud-based solutions

The introduction of Cloud-based solutions in particular is a strategic option in these cas-es. And even just the partial use of the Cloud can already lead to considerable benefits. e.g. when the two merging companies communicate on-line using Skype for Business, or when the new comprehensive address book (Active Directory) is added to the Cloud.

"Benefits first"

We have installed separate benefit tracking systems at several of our customers - by using a Cloud-based solution, all participants (from both companies, and from all locations) can now track the results that have already been implemented. It allows managers up to the level of the Management Board to see in real time which synergy effects or savings have already been realised, and where.

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Dr. Eric Schott explains the relevance of communities and shows which success potentials lie in their use. Social collaboration is not free. The provision of technological and organizational support for communities does involve certain costs. But if such communities are clearly aligned to the customer and the business model, social collaboration leads to business impact almost by itself. The crucial question for the implementation of technological or organizational solutions for social collaboration is as follows: What are the (business) relevant application scenarios (use cases)?

The "Mitarbeiterportale 2015" (Employee Portals 2015) conference, which just ended, highlighted a surprisingly clear trend: almost all of the experts and consultants in attendance agreed that the promotion of and support for communities create a key value for the companies. Discussions during the conference also revealed another aspect: many companies are already planning very concrete implementation projects. Communities already exist at about half of the companies, but most of them do not have the ability to draw on technological or organizationally advanced solutions. The other half of the companies are still in the initial stage, with the intention of creating communities.

 What are communities?

Communities refer to rather loose groups of employees and experts who work on the same issues or objectives, but often come from very different company divisions and locations. The more traditional forms are homogeneous communities, for example communities through which human resource developers from different countries can exchange information, or marketing staff from different company divisions communicate with each other. In this respect, heterogeneous communities consisting of members performing very different roles and from many different departments offer even more (innovation) potential.

Success examples of communities

Imagine that development engineers, controllers, product managers, sales staff and production experts meet up on a platform and use it to share, supplement or flesh out their ideas on a new drive technology (as is the case at one of our automotive customers). This rather unstructured and informal environment significantly shortened the time required to turn technical ideas into market-ready and profitable product components.

Another example: at a large logistics customer, CS is managing the implementation of the digital transformation, the most important strategic initiative in the company. In that case, employees face a particular challenge when it comes to collaboration due to the amount of complexity, degree of innovation and considerable time pressures. In addition to agile program management, which was defined by CS, the company is now relying on a new form of collaboration - a special community for the program. The objective of the community is to ensure that the analysis of new customer data, new technological opportunities, new billing models etc. can be spread more quickly and processed across multiple departments. This community adds an internal platform for the collaborative development of new ideas / a collaborative extension of the business model to existing project structures.

Implementation model for communities

Social collaboration combines technological solutions with organizational solutions in such a way that human collaboration in companies is significantly improved. This only works with targeted preparation. In that context, support for communities involves the following concrete steps:

Who are the persons, experts and target groups in the wider sense? Who must be included and connected?

What are today's needs and communication What must be strengthened and expanded? What is added? What technological components can be used for that purpose? Can existing solutions be used as social networks, or are Cloud-based solutions a better option? Which software components are used for the start-up phase, and what will be added later on? Here too we recommend a strictly iterative approach: For example, the process can be started with initial expert profiles (profile pages). Once these are accepted, a rating and discussion forum for new ideas can be added. An activity stream etc. can be set up once a certain volume has been reached with regard to the relevant issues. Who can be designated as Community Manager? This person, who has overall responsibility, is required to keep the exchange flowing and actively integrate (new) members. Does the exchange of information really work? There are several instruments available for measuring use - for example, good combinations are the anonymous analysis of the number and scope of active members and the activity stream, supplemented with regular user surveys.

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Dr. Eric Schott describes how projects can serve as a laboratory for new forms of cooperation. In the end, it is the project managers who develop, apply and discard these approaches if the desired result is not achieved. The new forms of collaboration in projects, which are initiated by the project managers, often make an important - and underestimated - contribution to the company's growth. When project managers make successful use of the existing innovation potential, they can become the heroes of the every-day change process. Projects are supposed to lead to new things. Project objectives are generally focused on improvements, changes, innovation. But there is one factor that is frequently underestimated or overlooked: The organization of a single project also offers many opportunities for changes and developments. The manner in which we make projects offers its own innovation potential.

Desire for standards - few changes in the implementation of projects

Why does this even have to be mentioned? At present, most companies are still working on standardizing their project management. And it makes sense: The standardization of PM processes makes it possible to avoid many unnecessary expenses. Standards are very important when it comes to controlling, reporting or even risk management. Recently, there has also been a focus on project-related benefit assessment, as a requirement for good portfolio prioritization: What a project costs, where it is, and what it brings - these factors have to be defined across the board. Projects must always remain integral parts of a portfolio.

Unfortunately this also leads to a situation in which very little in the way of variation and experimenting takes place when projects are implemented. Agile methods are one example in this regard. Agile PM was the last big change in project management. But methods such as SCRUM and others are themselves having a standardizing effect. But it is project management in particular that must be varied and continuously developed as part of an agile process.

Projects as test laboratories

Today, most companies are facing enormous adjustment and realignment tasks, which can only be solved with intensive and innovative collaboration. Projects are the ideal form for piloting new forms of collaboration within a limited scope. Where can this be done? From Campana & Schott's point of view, the following starting points could be tried, varied or piloted in an individual project:

Planning techniques Forms of communication For example, doing away with e-mails to communicate in the team, instead using a social collaboration environment. Stakeholders Early integration of partners, customers or employees from other projects into the local team. Organization On a trial basis, organize individual projects like a start-up.  . Project objective Specifying the project objective as a "Minimum Viable Product" - what is the fundamental core of the project that must be delivered? (radical requirement engineering, doing away with the typical increase in requirements ...)

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Dr. Eric Schott summarizes the results of the current multi-project management study and called success factors for companies. Mit diesen Auswertungen und den dahinterliegenden quantitativen Analysen liegt eine fundierte Grundlage vor, mit Unternehmen ��ber die Weiterentwicklung ihres Projektmanagements zu sprechen. Das Ziel der Reise kommt also nicht mehr aus der Kristallkugel, sondern aus fundierten Ansatzpunkten. Campana & Schott unterst��tzt Unternehmen auf dieser Reise und definiert mit einer unternehmensspezifischen Roadmap, wie das Ziel dann auch tats��chlich erreicht wird. The German Multi-Project Management Conference (MPM) in Berlin recently came to an end. The event focused on the results of the latest MPM study (conducted by the Technical Universities of Berlin and Darmstadt - www.multiprojectmanagement.org).

In this context, the study��s recommendations for decision-makers are of particular practical relevance. Starting with empirical evaluations and analyses of the data from more than 250 study participants, the study determined what companies successful in project management (top performers) are doing particularly well, as well as the key success factors for good project management at the company level. The situation can be summarized as follows:

Top performers have established a clearly defined MPM process that is also accepted by the stakeholders in real life. The main project decisions (selection and approval of new projects) are made along the lines of a binding process. The role of the PMO is well established both in the line organization and at the top management level, and is in a position to exert sufficient influence. IT solutions make a verifiable and significant contribution to successful MPM, particularly if the software supports the activities along the MPM process and features a superior user-friendly interface. Top performers are also very successful at managing projects because the corporate strategy is clearer and more binding than at other companies. In addition, the strategy is better communicated into the company and projects, and is subsequently tracked on a consistent basis (implementation monitoring).  Both vertical integration (from company management to the individual departments) and horizontal integration (e.g. the connection and coordination between the departments) work very well at these companies. Top performers are usually also innovation leaders. Particularly in times of significant market turbulences, they rely on strategic budgets, which has proven to be very effective. On the other hand, these companies also subject their strategy to more scrutiny. That is, they monitor their portfolio more frequently and at a more fundamental level than the other survey participants. An added factor: top management is also accustomed to responding more quickly to changing conditions when the market shifts. In the case of the top performers, upper management has considerable know-how about the complex project environment at its company. That is: Project portfolio management must also be a management competence at the higher management level!

These assessments and the underlying quantitative analyses provide a sound basis for speaking to companies about the further development of their project management activities. Hence the destination of the journey is no longer divined from a crystal ball, but on the basis of sound starting points. Campana & Schott supports companies on this journey, and uses a company-specific road map to define how the objective will actually be achieved.

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Dr. Eric Schott describes, how project management can reduce the gap between the digital claim and real implementation capacity. Conversion, further development or realignment of existing processes: new digitization technologies make "digital transformation" a core competence.

2016 is the year in which the ��digital transformation�� will lead to concrete projects. This view is also shared by market researchers and analysts. From a recent study: ��Digitalization moves from an innovative trend to a core competency.�� And that is a view that is also shared by Campana & Schott.

In any case, all affected companies will have to complete a large number of projects to implement the digital transformation, with the objective of converting, enhancing or fundamentally revising their processes with hitherto unknown capabilities, which are fuelled by the massive use of new digitisation technologies. But even if IT is the engine of digital transformation, the navigation nevertheless comes from the business divisions that are close to the customer. And in the end it is these divisions that drive the digital transformation.

But at the beginning of 2016, a visible discrepancy still exists between digital requirements and the actual ability to implement. The main question in this regard: which concrete projects are required, and how must they be planned and managed? Campana & Schott has been managing such projects for some time. Usually, these projects require top management to play a strong role - hence there is no lack of visibility or budgets. But the most critical success factor is the right project management. What are some of the concrete features that we have noticed in past projects, and what are our concrete recommendations?

Project management does not have to be comprehensive. A focus on the key project management deliverables (scope, schedule, project status, risks, benefit planning) is sufficient. At the core of project planning is the definition of so-called waves or release sequences, starting with the question: What do we want to deliver at what point in time? The cycles between the waves must be kept short (1-3 months). The contents of the waves are defined in agile planning processes and are synchronised through milestones. The planning of the agile implementation steps, together with the ability to manage dependencies (between several digital transformation projects) and an analysis of alternative scenarios recommend the use of project management tools such as Microsoft Project. It is overseen by scope management, which ensures that changes to the scope (what results is the project supposed to deliver in which phase?) can be identified early on, managed accordingly and depicted in the project planning process. Changes to the business case or business model play a key role in changes to scope. Speed and the delivery of results are always at the forefront - fast results count, while iterations and extensions come later on. Another factor that must be considered for project planning purposes: when and how does the customer become involved? Fixed dates for the first tests, customer presentations, feedback loops form the framework in this context. Vendors and external partners (software suppliers, consulting partners, other service providers) are integrated into project planning. If required, sub-plans of vendors are automatically integrated into overall planning. Planning must also include the early integration of the post-go-live process (what happens after the end of the project?). At that point, the date for the planned set-up and transfer to the new organisational structures, along with the design of the ��operation in the new line��, should be clarified. Governance and management of the program is performed in a business-oriented style and no longer organisation-focused: Management activities are determined by the units or persons that in the end are responsible for the planned benefits (whereby benefits refer to increased revenues, higher customer retention, brand loyalty etc.). If project planning is outsourced to an external partner, it is very important to adhere to a division of labour between management and delivery: Overall project planning and management activities should never be performed by the vendor or software manufacturer, but rather by a neutral and independent third party.

And what is the essential part of all these experiences? Notwithstanding the dynamic growth of the digital transformation - consistent project planning and management are the key to success.

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"No more spaghetti please" - it is time for a new IT demand management approach

Partly cloudy, or: all of a sudden, the Cloud appeared

The digital transformation reaches the heart of Microsoft

What agile project portfolio management looks like

Five common myths about social collaboration

A totally normal disruption: Post-merger IT projects

Looking for use cases? Communities!

The courage to do things differently

Multi-project management - Recommendations for decision-makers

The moment of truth: How important is project management to the digital transformation?