Stan­dar­di­zed, Over­ar­ching Pro­ject Organization

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz has intro­du­ced the PLANTA pro­ject manage­ment soft­ware to impro­ve its pro­ject orga­niza­ti­on. Stan­dar­di­zed pro­ces­ses and modern tech­no­lo­gy opti­mi­ze the plan­ning and manage­ment of pro­jects, allo­wing resour­ces to be mana­ged more effi­ci­ent­ly and stra­te­gic objec­ti­ves to be achie­ved more effectively.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz, one of the lea­ding eli­te uni­ver­si­ties in Ger­ma­ny, has suc­cessful­ly intro­du­ced the PLANTA pro­ject manage­ment soft­ware to opti­mi­ze its inter­nal pro­ject and port­fo­lio manage­ment pro­ces­ses. The Karls­ru­he-based soft­ware manu­fac­tu­rer is now pro­vi­ding a prac­ti­cal insight into the initi­al situa­ti­on, the objec­ti­ves and the solu­ti­on approa­ches of this project.

Pri­or to the intro­duc­tion of this soft­ware, the university’s cen­tral sci­ence sup­port faci­li­ties work­ed in a decen­tra­li­zed man­ner and used dif­fe­rent approa­ches and tools to mana­ge their pro­jects. The­re was no stan­dar­di­zed pro­cess for the plan­ning, con­trol­ling or moni­to­ring of pro­jects, which led to inef­fi­ci­ent pro­ces­ses. This resul­ted in insuf­fi­ci­ent con­trol over the university’s enti­re pro­ject port­fo­lio, which in turn led to resour­ce con­flicts, over­loa­ding of pro­ject mana­gers, delays and a lack of trans­fer to line­ar pro­ces­ses. The uni­ver­si­ty also faced chal­lenges when it came to trans­pa­rent report­ing and the assess­ment of the suc­cess of imple­men­ted projects.

Objec­ti­ves of the Imple­men­ta­ti­on of PLANTA

With the intro­duc­tion of PLANTA, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz wan­ted to achie­ve stra­tegy-com­pli­ant and prio­ri­ti­zed plan­ning and manage­ment of pro­jects. A data-based pre­sen­ta­ti­on of the pro­ject port­fo­lio should ensu­re that all pro­jects are in line with the institution’s stra­te­gic objec­ti­ves. Fle­xi­bi­li­ty and dyna­mic reac­tions to chan­ges — espe­ci­al­ly in resour­ce plan­ning — were defi­ned as key requi­re­ments for the solu­ti­on. The imple­men­ta­ti­on of the soft­ware should also ensu­re stan­dar­di­zed and trans­pa­rent report­ing so that the pro­gress and per­for­mance of the pro­jects can be con­ti­nuous­ly moni­to­red and communicated.

Uni Konstanz

Using PLANTA sin­ce 2023

Accom­pany­ing Struc­tu­ral Changes

In the cour­se of the soft­ware intro­duc­tion, new stee­ring com­mit­tees were also set up, inclu­ding the pro­ject coun­cil, working groups and stee­ring com­mit­tees, in order to impro­ve the coor­di­na­ti­on of the various pro­jects in the cen­tral sci­ence-sup­port­ing insti­tu­ti­ons. Ano­ther important approach was the estab­lish­ment of stan­dards for report­ing, for exam­p­le for pro­ject out­lines, sta­tus reports, chan­ge reports and pro­ject final reports. Par­ti­cu­lar atten­ti­on was also paid to trai­ning employees, who were ins­truc­ted in various pro­ject manage­ment methods. The trai­ning cour­ses were sup­ple­men­ted by key­note spee­ches on topics such as Kan­ban and retrospectives.

More Effi­ci­ent Pro­ject Work

In addi­ti­on to the­se important struc­tu­ral chan­ges, the intro­duc­tion of the PLANTA Pro­ject and PLANTA pul­se soft­ware solu­ti­ons at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz brought about signi­fi­cant tech­ni­cal sup­port. The soft­ware enables a clear visua­liza­ti­on of the pro­ject port­fo­lio, wher­eby pro­gress and delays are dis­play­ed trans­par­ent­ly. Struc­tu­red task pro­ces­sing takes place via Kan­ban boards, which pro­mo­tes effi­ci­ent col­la­bo­ra­ti­on in the pro­ject groups. The pre­sen­ta­ti­on of mile­sto­nes and depen­den­ci­es is par­ti­cu­lar­ly hel­pful and enables pre­cise pro­ject plan­ning. Thanks to the stan­dar­di­zed pro­ces­ses, pro­gress can be tra­cked in quar­ter­ly and final reports, which impro­ves pro­ject manage­ment. Danie­la Kari­pi­dis, con­sul­tant for pro­ject and pro­ject port­fo­lio manage­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz, empha­si­zes that the intro­duc­tion of the soft­ware has signi­fi­cant­ly increased the trans­pa­ren­cy, effi­ci­en­cy and qua­li­ty of pro­ject work. The uni­ver­si­ty can now plan and mana­ge pro­jects bet­ter and imple­ment its stra­te­gic objec­ti­ves more effectively.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Kon­stanz has imple­men­ted pro­ject manage­ment and intro­du­ced pro­ject and port­fo­lio manage­ment soft­ware PLANTA to bet­ter ali­gn pro­jects with their stra­tegy. (Image source: Uni­ver­si­ty of Konstanz)