Project Management Professional

Take these three steps to define specific tool requirements:

1.      Define key stakeholders for tools. Different project management tools are significant to different stakeholders. For example, if the PMO is planning to integrate all tools into a project management information system at a later date, then the PMO team members tasked with that work are stakeholders in the design of every tool. Or, if a tool is specifically used for financial control of capital projects valued over US $500,000, then managers of those projects and members of the financial staff responsible for overseeing those funds are stakeholders for that tool. Identify stakeholders for tools in the specific tool requirements table of the Tools Execution Plan. It may be appropriate to identify toolsets and their stakeholders. A toolset is a group of tools that have a related purpose.

2.      Define compliance requirements. Various tools may be required to be compliant to specific regulations or standards. For example, financial tools may fall under GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles). Also, if the organization has any existing governance rules or requirements that are either industry-specific or required within the organization, these should be listed, as well. Often, these will govern the routing of tools to stakeholders for approval.

3.      Define other requirements. If the PMO, project manager or any other internal organization has put forth requirements that should apply to a toolset or a single tool, they should be documented as well. These can be identified by reviewing the work notes of the PMO documents to date, paying particular attention to problem and issue identification, goal setting, and brainstorming sessions. It may also be appropriate to review key stakeholder interviews and meet with key stakeholders. When these requirements are added to the specific tool requirements table, the documentation of tool requirements is complete.

Here is a sample list of general and specific tool requirements:

Once all the requirements for tools are defined, the PMO team can evaluate tools using a gap analysis that shows the gaps between the current state of each tool and the requirements. This is the work of the next two sections.