Mantra for leveraging Emerging Trends

Rahul GhodkeSr. Director Automation ServicesMicroland Ltd.

As projects are becoming more complex and project management more onerous, there has been an increased demand for more sophisticated and holistic project management solutions in the PM: 3.0 era (For Third Generation Project Managers). SMAC (Social Media, Mobile, Analytics & Cloud) has emerged as one of these solutions. SMAC makes available the right information at the right time so project managers can make the right decision the first time, and it empowers stakeholders both within and outside the enterprise through effective collaborations. Such tools are not without their own challenges, and their success is reliant on disciplined collation and organization of multiple levels of information.

While these SMAC trends have made a profound positive business impact for some organizations, not all organizations have been able to harness the value of their SMAC investments. The value of these investments depends on many factors, such as business model, operating model, type of business service/product, customer demographics, organization size, processes, applications, integrations, organization culture, and so on.

The Gen-Next Project Management will become more and more involved in social, mobile, analytics, and the cloud (SMAC), which will mean redefining and refining project templates, life cycles, approaches, and best practices. SMAC means the emergence of a new kind of project management altogether. This paper describes SMAC, its necessity and benefits and presents a practical discussion on the overall SMAC Framework and how to successfully drive its adoption across various project types and industries

Social media, mobile devices, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) have combined to create a technology ecosystem that supports disruptive and sustaining innovation. The ready availability of the SMAC ecosystem connects customers to new innovations and supports shopping on e-commerce sites and in brick-and-mortar stores. Importantly, the SMAC application has transcended retail and consumer marketing activities, and also has significant relevance in banking, healthcare, and other business functions.

Using the SMAC platform, project managers can develop new products and services by renting technology capability without owning the infrastructure, software, and support staff. Project management information systems (PMIS) can leverage the SMAC platform over a secure Internet connection to support collaboration between team members and enable transparency about a project's health. Social media, mobile devices, analytics, and cloud computing are the amalgamation of mature technologies for the 21st century. SMAC will mean redefining and refining project templates, life cycles, approaches, best practices and a whole new framework to delivery projects and programs in the era of disruptive technology innovation. It is inevitable that Gen-Next Project Managers’will need to levarage these tenchnolgy trends and focus on SMAC to deliver high quality projects.

Prevalence of social media, smart devices, instant connectivity have radically altered expectations of customers. Business growth in 2014 will largely be driven by the opportunity in technologies. Moreover, integration and confluence of these technologies will form the bedrock of future solutions. According to the Deloitte Global CIO survey, adoption of these technologies is seen as next highest priority by over 50 percent of global CIOs. Using SMAC technologies, project managers will be expected to deliver a smart, secure and connected experience. So what does the ‘smart, secure and connected experience’ entail? A smart project will be known for intelligent decisions powered by actionable advanced analytics.

The connected experience will emerge from unified communication, machine-to-machine ecosystem and a single view of customer(s). All this will not be possible without the underpinning of a secure infrastructure. Key elements of this secure infrastructure would be: governance and risk compliance, access management, security analytics and threat management. The end result will be true to customers’ expectations: real time, in-context and personalized experience across channels.

Social collaboration is expanding the way people interact with one another and businesses. Mobile devices have enhanced customer’s reach to information from various sources. Mobile applications will help businesses reach these customers and interact with them at personal level. These

applications can also collect information regarding what customers say about their products. SMAC technology will help companies to move into high-margin businesses due to its global reach, low overheads and high availability.

Digitization of business models and processes is key for Project Management in the new era. As society and national GDPs continue to migrate to the Internet economy, traditional business processes, business models and even entire industries are being disrupted as products and services become ever-more digitized. While many industries have already experienced this disruption, such as those in media and

entertainment whose primary product or service has become completely digitized (e.g. books, music, movies, maps), the next wave is now being felt as other industries see aspects of their physical value chain become ever-more technology-enabled and optimized. Newer projects are conceptulized for SMAC and delivered with SMAC! SMAC penetration is forcing organizations and project managers to embark on digital transformation

So what does SMAC mean for Projects Managers? Every day, we are surrounded by digital technology, such as social media, mobility, analytics, and cloud – otherwise known as SMAC. We rely on it to make our world, literally, “tick”! The industry analyst firm Gartner recently released its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends, illuminating how people, places, information and things will all be connected via the Internet relying on cloud, mobility and smart machines.

Increasingly project managers are using technology to connect with the project teams, vendors and stakeholders, as well as using it to consume resources & services. SMAC for projects mangers opens up a plethora of opportunities for faster and easier collaboration and communication, instant information sharing, greater insights into project health, a uniform and standard project management and control framework at a lower cost and more off project information is available anytime and anywhere.

Example: In the conventional approach, Telco buyers (principal) – Figure 4 and sellers (contractors) each have their own project management systems. Project information is transacted manually via complex paper documentation. Systems require significant user training and familiarization before they can be utilized effectively. The large amount of paperwork, specific software, hardware and network configuration result in high operation costs, high maintenance needs and lack of synchronicity between buyer and seller.

In the SMACéd approach, all the parties — buyer and sellers — are into one project cloud, where they are integrated into one system. Cloud computing allows project information to be accessed, anytime, anywhere instantly via desktop, laptop or mobile. Cloud-powered systems require only a web-capable device and Internet connection: no specific software installation, network setups or dedicated hardware are needed. This not only saves immediate costs on infrastructure, but also on paperwork, maintenance and floor space. Maintenance and update works can be carried across cloud-based systems can be with far shorter downtime than traditional systems. With SMAC, key information is automatically synchronized so that users are always up-to-date with the project progress through social feeds and assessed using the power of analtics. Information discrepancy between users and network is a thing of the past.

The key to successful project management in the SMAC eco-system is to create and manage a project management framework that embeds best practices of project management, cloud computing, social media, mobility and project analytics methodologies into how one manages projects, inside and outside the cloud. The impact of SMAC on project management will include a higher emphasis on security, parallel processing, scalability, and the ability to utilize infinite resources.

There are multiple things that Project Managers need to collect and share. First, there are project specs, changes, and status. Then there’s diagnosing and solving problems that come up during the life of the project. And, of course, there’s always a need to communicate milestones and accomplishments. For all of the above, the principles of SMAC can be extremely useful in managing the inflow, interpretation, and outflow of project information.

SMACéd Project Delivery Framework represents a dramatic shift toward having collaboration as the heart of project management. As a result, Projectplace focuses on:

Collaboration, communication & commitment Transparent information sharing Analytics, social media & cloud inspired tools Intuitive and easy to use features

The key elements to be considered while setting up projects on a SMAC based project management platform are summarized below -

People: Create a meaningful, on-going dialogue with colleagues, customers and partners to build and strengthen relationships and conduct day-to-day project activities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The collaboration platform should enable the following:

Manage Project Relationships More Effectively

Set up private workspaces for each of the partners, vendors and suppliers and use them to share updates and engage in discussions - all from one central location.

Improve Team Communication

Increase social team collaboration with discussion forums, blogs and comments. Keep the team updated on what you're working on, meet online, and collaborate on projects.

Increase Accountability

Task assignments and reminders reinforce team accountability and highlight individual team member contributions. Extended the platform reach to mobile devices for easy access

Build Customer Loyalty

Use customer extranets to easily share documents, projects and data in a single, secure location. Work transparently and build loyalty by creating an open, centralized communication system.

Projects: Quickly, easily and securely accomplish the project goals. Communicate and share important project deadlines, goals, documents and presentations with everyone involved.

Stay on Top of Project Deadlines

Assign tasks, manage approvals, schedule and conduct online meetings and manage milestones for the team to ensure no missed project deadlines.

Get Customers and Business Partners Involved

Invite customers, vendors and contractors into the project workspaces to increase communication efficiency.

Encourage Team Communication

Simplify project communication using online documents, comment threads and discussions.

Access Project Information from a Central Location

Store important project information securely online so the team can access vital project information after-hours and while traveling.

Track Progress

Track time spent on each task and milestone to ensure proper allocation of resources to projects' goals. Use analytics to access constrains & health of the project for status reporting.

Workflow Automation: Automate and streamline the existing business procedures, increase efficiency and productivity.

Assign and Prioritize Tasks

Recurring administrative tasks and reminders can be set up on a workflow that repeats the task daily, weekly or monthly. Each task can be set priority levels, due dates and update requests and should have the flexibility to assign as many team members to it as needed.

Automate Work Order Requests

A customer can submit a work order request, triggering an email notification to a contractor with appointment time and details.

Automate Internal and External Request Processes

Use of dynamic online databases and workflow capabilities to automate both internal and external request processes, such as vacation or information requests.

Streamline Document Approval Process

Once a document is created should be able to notify subscribers, which triggers a workflow that creates a task to edit the document by a due date.

Collaborative and Social Workplaces: Work together with project teams, customers and partners within secure or open (but controlled) online environments. Set up workspaces according to department, customer, vendor, project or product. Each workspace can include its own file system, projects, task lists, blog, forum, calendar and more.

Company and Department Intranets

Set up a custom-branded intranet for the team(s). Use the intranet to share internal information such as employee directories, company announcements, training manuals and HR forms. Each department within a company can also set up its own workspace to share team-specific information.

Client Extranets and Social Sites

Customer extranets provide a secure, easily accessible location to track projects and share and store project reports, files and communication.

Project Workspaces

Create workspaces for specific projects and use them to manage tasks, schedule meetings, share files and collaborate in real-time on documents. Invite contractors, vendors and other external members who are involved with the project into the workspace for easier collaboration.

Partner Portals

Connect with business partners outside the firewall in a secure, password-protected environment. Share marketing materials, product information, promotions, announcements and more. Control external members' permissions and parameters to make sure that this exchange of information is only being seen by the right people.

Documentations: Powerful document editing and collaboration features, enhanced with social features such as comment threads and notifications, make document collaboration easier. The SMAC collaboration platform should enable to following:

Create and Share Files

Create online documents, spreadsheets and reports inside the platform or upload or import data from Word or Excel.

Store Files Securely in the Cloud

Upload and store files in one central location with secure access to view, edit and download content anytime, anywhere.

Control Document Versions

Review past versions of documents to see what changes were made and who made them. Restore a previous version as needed.

Locate Files in Seconds

Find any document, file, web clipping or image in seconds with an integrated full text search tool.

Web Folders

Upload, modify and delete files wherever needed. Maintain a central project repository

While SMAC is shifting much of the computing from dedicated IT environments to a combination of both private and public clouds with extended mobility reach, the fundamental business functions (marketing, sales, design, delivery, implementation, support etc.) and associated processes (concept-to-offering, order-to cash, prospect-to-customer etc.) remain intact. Today, more than ever, the rigor of project management is needed to ensure these functions and processes deliver the expected results while taking full advantage of the benefits offered by the SMAC environments. So what does SMAC mean to project management and what will the rise of the new dominant players in cloud portend for the project management discipline?

At a minimum, SMAC will:

Usher in large complex projects, which in the past were not feasible due to limited compute, storage or network capacities within an organization

Enable the parsing of multiple transactions in a highly distributed environment made up of multiple providers, to be processed in tandem and subsequently aggregated

Provide real-time collaboration between globally dispersed teams Allow rapid staging, set-up and take-down of a variety of compute environments as needed to

test/validate an application Enable real-time project management software with a rich set of web-based tools. Provide rich analytics capability to access and predict project behavior and status Help in alleviating some of the pressures they have faced keeping pace of projects with the

escalating demands of corporate executives, strategic business units, and end-users.

Ease of information sharing between delivery team members, customer team members and executive management

Enable rapid dashboard info on portfolio of projects Facilitate more remote management & Meetings using web-based tools Enable collaborative tool for resource management & used for projects with unpredictable

scalability Lead to greater resource sharing, greater economies of scale, and greater levels of architectural

standardization and process optimization[1] Realize project savings through agility and speed of implementation. It enables projects to cut

back on capital spending and optimize operational expenses[4] Enable users of IT-related services to focus on what the services provide to them rather than how

the services are implemented or hosted[2] Leverage the virtually instant agility, flexibility and reach, to dynamically access anything or

anybody, and the virtually infinite diversity of available functionalities arising from composite applications and components allowed by cloud computing[3]

Provide higher value for creativity and innovation as it enables enterprises to focus on business objectives and, therefore, allocate more resources to solve business problems. It enables IT availability to broader masses of individuals, thus creating a pool of talent that has not existed before.

Despite these expected gains, it will require, the rigor and discipline of the time tested Project Management approach, methodology and perseverance, to fully realize these benefits. Like an air traffic control system, the project management discipline in the SMAC world will be tasked with the responsibility for overseeing, organizing, managing, and guiding a highly complex mixture of transactions that are processed concurrently in different parts of the cloud. Just as the safety of passengers and airplanes depends on the skills of controllers and pilots, the successful completion and delivery of the SMAC enabled projects will depend on the Project Managers, empowered with project management frameworks and proven methodologies, and combined with experience and discipline.

Communication & Ownership: SMAC is scary for many people since it puts all data into someone else’s data center in the cloud. The communication of the cloud based projects needs to be done at every level of organization and should have full executive support & buy in, otherwise the project will languish for weeks or months waiting for people to grab onto the concept.

Activities Logging: Organization should have a better way of getting and processing logs on the cloud and social media. This helps for satisfying the needs for compliance reporting and preventing unauthorized access to production systems.

Documentation: Organizations should not rely on the Vendors Documentation for SMAC based projects. Either they should take the approach of own documentation in such a way that everything should be followed to duplicate past processes in the accurate manner. SMAC systems should be documented as the organization internal project.

Access Control: Project Information on the SMAC platform when extended on mobile devices exposes risk of miss handling. A robust assess control framework and authentication is key for SMAC platforms

ROI: When organizations leverage SMAC there will be obvious measurable cost savings in the offering. Organization should manage the SMAC projects in such a manner that they should not overspend on platform management vs. actual project management.

User Management: Administration should provide the access to the tools or servers based on certain specific roles to the user. The tools that provide auditing and reporting needs to be used that helps in logging the user activities. Use of shared credentials should be avoided.

Even in a dedicated IT environment, the possibility of project failure is high. In the SMAC case, the risk grows exponentially. The parallel processing, easy social & mobile information reach, dependency on analytical framework and on-demand scalability that the cloud offers requires a robust project management discipline to guide through the dark as well as friendly clouds while execution. This will call for higher scrutiny on security and a much more technologically savvy project teams.

When embarking on SMAC initiatives, organizations have to consider their strengths and weaknesses with respect to their own culture, change management capabilities, and so on. It is a best practice to develop the strategy and architecture at the enterprise level and implement them in a phased manner. Organizations should build the strategic foundation while implementing quick-win and tactical initiatives and then leverage these investments

[1] “Economies of Scale Are the Key to Cloud Computing Benefits”, Gartner, June 2008

[2] “SMAC: Defining and Describing an Emerging Phenomenon”, Gartner, June 2012

[3] “Cloud-Computing Service Trends: Business Value Opportunities and Management Challenges, Part 2”, Gartner, February 2010

Dr. Rahul Ghodke, PMP® has fourteen years plus experience in large infrastructure and IT service transition, transformation and implementation projects in ITIL-based managed service environments. As a Sr. Director at Microland, he heads automation services and has vast experience in developing and managing SaaS based ITSM tooling solutions.

Rahul has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA- Information Management) from SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai, India and a Doctor of Communication Design (Information Systems) from School of Information Arts and Technologies, University of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Rahul is also a Certified Project Management Professional from Project Management Institute, USA and holds Expert, Masters & Foundation certifications in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) from ISEB, UK and EXIN, Netherlands.

Rahul is a frequent speaker at multiple international conferences on IT Service Management, Project/ Program Management and High Maturity Best Practices and has received multiple leadership awards. Rahul is a SMAC evangelist and believes and works towards building a true connected universe.

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