Projects: The modern economy's assembly line

In an information-driven service economy, such as in the United States, projects are the foundations of business. That's the contention of Douglas Clark, CEO of Métier Ltd. in Arlington, Va.

He argues that in an era where ideas and innovation brought quickly to market are what define business success, project management is the equivalent of building and managing a manufacturing plant of days gone by.

"The project is the new assembly line," Clark says.

Yet, as has been well documented, most projects, particularly in IT, fail to meet goals and expectations. The reasons are manifold, but one of them, argues Clark, is that the dominant software in the market, Microsoft Project, is a fine scheduling tool, but that's about it.

He says a schedule does not reveal the process, "which is what delivers the project," with its interrelations and logic. For that you need a full-blown project portfolio management (PPM) application.

Not surprisingly, Clark claims Métier's Web-based WorkLenz subscription service is as complete a PPM offering as you can buy, er, rent.

He says WorkLenz, now in its 5.6 iteration, uses best practices as defined by the Project Management Institute. He points to methods for calculating a project's budgeting, risk management assessment and other elements as being derived from PMI's expertise.

Clark says Métier's algorithms are akin to "assistants" for project managers. For example, you can use the product's "duration estimator" to forecast how long a project will take based on the complex mix of resources available, including people's talents, assigned to a project.

Next year Métier intends to release an algorithm tentatively called "builder" that will create a new entire project based on past project data. And the company is developing advanced 3-D visualization features for reporting on project status.

Pricing for WorkLenz starts at $10 per user.