Introducing GriffinPlan

GriffinPlan is intended to provide smart IT resource management and budgeting. This would be an integrated version of project portfolio management (PPM) and professional services automation (PSA) capabilities for internal IT departments at mid-sized companies. That is a lot of words that could mean many things, so let me explain. This is work that I have been doing with one company for some time and is informed by work that others are doing elsewhere.

Who is it for? We wanted one tool that could be used by PMO directors, project managers, engineering leads, business executives, and finance managers to coordinate the information around programs, portfolios, and projects and their budgets and expenses in an IT department.

What is it? A web-based multi-tenant software-as-a-service product designed to allow you to manage your resources and projects. We manage all the versions of your resource and budget plans, your forecasts, and your actuals. We support different permissions for different sets of users. We also support integrations with other systems that you already have working in your department. Across all your teams and portfolios.

How does it work? As is to be expected, a fair amount of setup is required to have the data available to work with. Initially, a set of programs, projects, resources, and teams need to be created or imported into GriffinPlan. A set of resource rates should be set. Budgets and financial tracking information should be configured.

Then the work of allocating resources to projects can be begin. This then sets you up for the analysis of that information. As those allocations change, your forecasts for expenses change. Actual costs can then be imported throughout the year and compared to the forecasts. While all of this could be done by you as PMO Director, the allocation of resources and forecasting could also be handled by project managers or engineering leads for their subsets of projects or resources.

A business executive could view a summary dashboard of projects vs budgets and end of year forecasted expenses. A finance manager could view the same dashboard or export the details for use in their own budgeting platform.

Why is this important? Effective resource management is important for a busy PMO to ensure that the department is as effective and efficient as possible. You have a limited budget available for the year and you want to deliver the greatest possible business outcomes and value for your business partners in the best possible way. You need to be able to show to your sponsors how projects and resources have moved and evolved over time so that you can get their engagement and their ongoing support of initiatives. Partnering with your engineering leads and your finance managers on a consistent and accurate set of information will lead to a greater understanding of the goals and deliverables of your department.

Are you interested?

While what is described exists to various degrees in an earlier version of GriffinPlan, it is being extracted out, made more durable and more generic. We would consider GriffinPlan currently to be an alpha version. If interested in what we are developing, want to see a demo, or give us feedback, contact us at hello@griffinplan.co