I CIO sono generalmente soggetti a troppe pressioni: troppi progetti, budget limitati, restrizione personale, tutto ciò mentre l’azienda si aspetta risultati e consegne rapide.

"I dirigenti delle imprese sono interessati nei risultati, non sono interessati al perchè alcune applicazioni incontrano problemi", dice Gregory Balestrero, presidente e amministratore delegato del Project Management Institute.

Il CIO è costretta a parlare di risultati e di obiettivi che i progetti e programmi  stanno cercando di ottenere." Quindi, se ad esempio un CIO deve fornire un aggiornamento su un’iniziativa ERP, deve essere in grado di parlare di benefici del progetto in termini di business.

Il CIO svolge anche un ruolo critico nella gestione dei processi associati alla gestione del progetto.
Al momento di stabilire le priorità dei progetti, il ruolo del CIO è quello di assicurarsi che il processo di priorità sia intrapreso e che vengano svolte tutte le azioni necessarie per la sua riuscita.

Al di là di aggiornare i dirigenti sull’andamento dei progetti, esprimendosi in termini di business comprensibili ad alto livello, i CIO devono anche essere abili tutor del loro Staff IT emergente, il quale dovrà poi essere in grado di svolgere le stesse mansioni.
Sarebbe molto produttivo invero, che il CIO istruisca il gruppo di project management o il PMO, sul come trattare con i clienti,  comunicare efficacemente e vedere le cose dal punto di vista delle altre persone.

Naturalmente, lo stile che ogni CIO utilizza per comunicare il livello dello stato di un progetto, varierà a seconda della natura delle relazioni.
In molti casi, dovrà essere il CIO a guidare la discussione ed intermediare con i piani alti, qualora il project management non riscuotesse la giusta considerazione dal lato Top management.

Analizziamo nel dettaglio la lista completa delle caratteristiche di AtTask (ultima release luglio 2009) suddivisa per 3 macroaree principali: Gestione (Manage), Collaborazione (Collaborate), Integrazione (integrate).

L’area Manage individua l’insieme di caratteristiche ideate per la gestione del progetto e l’ottimizzazione del portfolio progetti. L’area Collaborate raggruppa tutti gli strumenti per la collaborazione efficace ed efficiente delle risorse coinvolte. L’area Integrate elenca tutte le possibilità di integrazione tra AtTask e le altre tecnologie.

N.B.: I punti contrassegnati da (*) sono inclusi SOLO nella versione ENTERPRISE del software. (La versione PROFESSIONAL quindi NON includerà tali caratteristiche).

GESTIONE

Portfolio Management

• Business Case Assessment*
• Alignment Scorecards*
• Project Business Goals*
• Portfolio Demand Management*
• Portfolio Optimization/Prioritization*
• Portfolio Reports*
• Portfolio Views*
• Risk/Benefit Reports*
• Earned Value Reporting*
• Project Prioritization*
• Multiple Project Gantt
• Date Aggregation Across User-Defined Groups
• Earned Value Management
• Cost/Revenue Analysis
• Line Item Expenses By Project or Task

Program Management

• Multiple Project Gantt
• Program Reporting
• Multi-Project Management

Project management

• Drag & Drop Gantt Chart
• Critical Path Analysis
• Milestones
• Advanced Team Building
• Planned, Projected, Estimated Comparisons
• Template-Based Workflow
• Advanced Resource Scheduling
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Issue Management
• Bug Tracking
• Automatically Create Issues From POP Email
• MS Project Import/Export/Synchronization
• Resource Leveling

Demand Management

• Project Request Management
• Request Tracking
• Comprehensive Service Desk
• Manage Issue, Change Order and Bug Submissions
• Automatic Routing or Requests/Issues to another Project
• Custom Submission Forms
• Conversion of Issues/Requests to Projects or Tasks
• Variable Routing Based on Customizable Topic Selection
• Issue/Request Resolution via Other Issues, Requests, Tasks, or Projects
• Private and Public Helpdesk Queues

Resource Management

• Resource Pools
• Job Role Profiling for Users
• Resource Estimates
• Schedule Conflict Analysis
• User Utilization Searches and What-If Modeling
• Detailed Allocation Reports By Day, Week, Month
• Custom Security Management/Access Levels
• Advanced Security Framework
• Organization Charts
• Labor Cost Reports and Analysis
• User and Project Groups

Capacity Planning

• Capacity Planning*
• What-If Scenario Tools*
• Schedule Reconciliation*
• Best-Fit Capacity Planning*

Time Management

• Time Tracking
• Real-Time Hours by Task and Project
• Custom Resource Schedules
• Customizable Holiday Calendars
• Custom Hour Types and Reports
• Customizable Timesheets
• Personal and Shared Calendars
• Expense Entry via Timesheet

Process Improvement

• Planned vs. Actual Reports
• Process Improvement Worksheets, Tools and Reports
• Post-Mortem Reports
• Post-Mortem Review via Business Case

Auditing

• Audit Trails , Who, When, and What

COLLABORAZIONE

Task Management and Scheduling

• Unlimited Tasks and Subtasks
• Unlimited Subtask Depth
• Multiple Duration Options
• Fixed Data Support
• Automatic Tracking of Multiple Timelines:  Planned, Projected, and Estimated
• Task Prioritization
• Constraints :11 Types Including Basic and Advanced
• Cross Project Predecessors
• Dependencies: Multiple Types as Finish-Start, Start-Start,Finish-Finish, Start-Finish, and Scheduled Start
• Multiple Lag Time Options
• Advanced Dependency Lag Types: Business Days, Calendar Days, Percent of
• Predecessor, and Day of the Week
• Dependency Enforcement to Control Workflow
• Bulk and Worksheet Editing
• Global Tasks for Automatic Resource Leveling
• Approvals and Approval Workflows
• Multiple Assignments on Tasks
• Spreadsheet-like Editing and Easy Task Creation

 Reports and Dashboards

• Executive Level Reporting
• 50+ Standard Reports
• Built-in GUI Report Builder
• Custom Views and Profiles
• Customizable Report Colors and Styles
• Summary Views
• Customizable List Filters, Views, and Groupings
• Drill-down Capable Charts and Graphs
• Milestone Reporting
• Custom Dashboards and Portal Views
• Rollup Views or Helpdesk Issues/Requests
• Export Reports and Data to PDF, Excel, Tab-Delimited Files, or HTML
• Related Data Searches
• Saved Searches
• Mail Scheduled Reports

Real-Time Projections

• Project Trent Analysis
• Early Warning Alerts
• Cost and Schedule Budget Reminders

Document Management

• Attach Documents to Projects, Tasks, Issues, and Users Support for ANY File Type PDF, GIF, JPG, DOC,XLS,DWG, DXF, BMP, etc.
• Document Check-out/Check-in for Document Integrity
• Version Control
• Approvals on Document-related Tasks
• File and Directory Archiving
• Document Security
• Download Multiple Documents as a ZIP File
• Auto-expansion of Uploaded ZIP File

Status Updates

• Status Indicator Views
• Task Progress Status Indicators

Notifications

• Manual Email Notification of All Notes
• Automated Event-based Email Notifications
• Email Templates
• Custom Timed Email Notifications
• JMS Messaging

Notes and Discussions

• Threaded Notes Discussions on Projects, Tasks, Issues, and Documents
• Recording Email Discussion Notes via Email

INTEGRAZIONE

Software Development Kit (SDK)

• Full API Support : Soap, EJB, Flash Remoting
• 3rd Party Reporting Application Integration
• Java Docs
• Web Services SOAP API Support
• Event Handlers/Hooks

Turnkey Integrations

• Microsoft Outlook Integration
• Salesforce.com Integration

Partnered Integrations

• SAP
• Oracle Financial
• PeopleSoft
• Cognos
• Crystal Reports

Multiple Delivery

• On-Demand or On-Premise
• Mobile Device Support :iPhone, Blackberry, etc.
• WAP Integration

Universal Compatibility

• Browser Independence :IE, Firefox, Safari
• Database Independent :Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL
• Platform Independent :Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX, Solaris

Customization

• User-defined Dashboards
• User-defined Data Fields and Forms
• Calculated Custom Data Fields
• Custom Data Available for Searches and Reports
• User-defined Views
• Custom Data Integration
• Favorites
• User-defined External Pages

Language Neutral

• Use Locale Settings
• Multilingual Support :Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian and Spanish

Location Neutral

• 100% Web-based
• Multiple Time Zone Support
• Multiple Types and Format
• Variable Date Format

Technical

•  Utilizes Web 2.0 Technology
• Easy Click-through Install Process
• Next Generation Architecture
• Horizontally Scalable with Server Clustering
• Java EJB (J2EE) API Support
• Web Services SOAP API Support*
• Flash Data Remoting API Support*
• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
• Integration Hooks and Plugin Support for External
• Authentication :LDAP, Active Directory, NDS, etc.
• Import of User, Roles, and Companies from TSV/CSV
• Excel Import
• Single Sign-on Support
• Kick-starts/Data Import
• Object-level Security Control
• Financial Security