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Cross-Company Projects Shape the Pharma Industry

Posted on by Christian Schneider

Captivating presentations, intense discussions, and plenty of new insights – that’s how the two days at the “Pharma PPM Toolbox 2024” event in Basel can be summarized. 

The pharmaceutical industry is characterized by high innovation pressure, ambitious scheduling, and cross-company collaboration in research and development. The response to these challenges is efficient and flexible project and portfolio management. At the same time, project management, project managers and PMOs need to constantly develop their skills – they need to master agile and traditional approaches, have excellent communication skills and think and act entrepreneurially in their projects. 

Tailored to meet these requirements, the PPM Toolbox 2024, which took place in Basel from April 17th to 18th, offered exciting keynote presentations, informative discussions, and insightful best practice presentations. This year, the event was themed “PPM Voyage – Navigation Success in Pharma Projects” and featured talks such as “Turning Vision into Action: Aligning Long Range Planning and Today’s Decisions,” “Innovations in Pharmaceutical Pipeline Development,” and “The Evolution of Project Managers – Where Are We Heading.” Together with our partner QuinScape Dataciders, we supported the event as sponsors and exhibitors on site.  

A recurring question during the presentations and discussions was: How can external service providers such as CROs (Contract Research Organizations) be effectively integrated into project planning without causing conflicts? cplace and QuinScape Dataciders were able to provide a meaningful answer on the spot: Collaborative project management. 

With cplace, not only an innovative PPM platform but also a new way of working is making its way into Roche – agile, lean, collaborative, and fast. cplace is a software for all users, not just PPM experts. Various modules support different working methods and methodologies within the company.

Dr. Manfred Schwaiger
Head of Business Enabling, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Collaborative Project Management Simplifies Cross-Functional Project Work

The collaborative project management method is always used when cross-company and complex projects need to be implemented efficiently. 

The overall planning is divided into several meaningful phases, and responsibilities for each part are accordingly assigned. This decentralizes complex projects typical in research and development, making them more manageable and easier to control. Additionally, external organizations can be easily integrated without compromising security, data privacy, confidentiality requirements, or documentation obligations. Furthermore, individual project teams remain autonomous, allowing them to choose their approach, whether agile, hybrid, or traditional, for their project phase. Provided that all teams work on the same solution platform, they have access to an identical database (single source of truth), which makes project planning and control reliable and significantly facilitates the exchange of information. 

Agile portfolio management with minimal control effort is high on the wish list of numerous pharmaceutical companies. They expect that an appropriate software solution ensures a consistent, up-to-date database and consolidates all relevant data into valuable information. Additionally, customizable solutions for resource, cost, and risk management should be able to be modularly integrated. Only in this way is efficient and flexible portfolio management possible. Another emerging trend is the gradual replacement of traditional reporting with dashboards featuring live data. Dashboards also facilitate stakeholder communication by providing the required information up-to-date at all times.

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Individualization as Standard

“The event was characterized not only by the high quality of the professional contributions,” reflected Stephan Schibalsky, Account Executive at cplace. “The almost familial atmosphere at the Pharma PPM Toolbox in Basel fostered lively exchanges among the participants.” It was hardly surprising to him that the participants had sometimes very different requirements for a software solution. “With our PPM platform cplace, we offer all companies the unique opportunity to tailor their solutions themselves, without sacrificing the advantages of standard software.” This was something that numerous interested parties could see for themselves at the cplace booth on-site. 

The sometimes very different requirements within companies for an enterprise platform in project and portfolio management are a major challenge for solution providers: Departments work in agile, hybrid, or traditional methods, they plan at different levels of granularity, and they require different information and dashboards for their projects. Only when a platform solution meets all these diverse requirements will it be used by users and be able to fully benefit the entire organization. 

With an understanding of these various demands and user groups, cplace is designed as a PPM platform with maximum customization options. Specifically, companies receive proven PPM solutions that can be completely tailored to their needs by individual departments. At the same time, the individual solution components can be modified and combined with each other to create new applications. All applications are based on a central data foundation, acting as a single source of truth. This architecture enables companies to achieve the greatest possible individualization.

Event Recording

Building Collaboration in Pharma R&D

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cplace Day 2023 Building Collaboration in Pharma R&D

At the end of the two-day industry meeting, Stefan Schibalsky was very satisfied with the positive feedback from visitors to the stand: cplace is perceived as a powerful PPM solution that delivers significant value to pharmaceutical companies, particularly in project, program, and portfolio planning and control. 

About the Author

Christian Schneider, Content Marketing, cplace

With its Next-Generation Project and Portfolio Management technology, cplace is revolutionizing and transforming the way people and organizations collaborate on complex projects. The flexible software platform enables leading companies to create customized solutions for digital transformation and developing complex products.

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Christian Schneider

Empowerment in the Workplace: Guidelines for Building a Successful Citizen Development Framework 

Posted on by Julia Gerstner

Have you ever heard of Citizen Development or Low-Code and would like to find out how you can become successful as an organization? Do you want to avoid “shadow IT” and duplication of work and take the right steps from the outset? In this blog post, our partner Tiba Managementberatung provides tips on how to set up a successful Citizen Development framework. 

Tiba Technologieberatung

First, we would like to give a brief overview of what Citizen Development is and who can benefit from it. Basically, Citizen Development is intended to enable employees who do not have in-depth programming skills to develop their own digital solutions using Low-Code/No-Code apps. By integrating Citizen Development into the business strategy, companies can make their processes more efficient and react more quickly to changing market requirements. 

Does this mean that every employee should become a “Citizen Developer”? The answer is no. Citizen Development is an option for people who are interested in developing their own solutions and want to use the necessary tools and resources to do so.

Challenges without a Framework or Underlying Governance

Citizen Development offers efficient and innovative solutions to respond to the multitude of challenges in modern business areas. Nevertheless, a certain degree of control is essential from a corporate perspective, even if Citizen Development thrives on innovation and a certain degree of freedom for individual employees. If the organization does not create sufficient framework conditions that allow for effective management, this can have consequences. They are to be understood in detail as a form of shadow IT and are particularly questionable in the case of business-critical solutions: 

  • Security risks: If employees use Low-Code tools that are not monitored by the IT department, the applications developed could have security vulnerabilities. This can lead to data loss, data breaches and other security problems, possibly with legal consequences.

  • Lack of quality control: If Low-Code solutions are used for critical business processes that are not monitored and controlled, this can lead to a lack of control over the company’s data and processes. This can lead to errors, inconsistencies, and other problems.

  • Personal knowledge: If the knowledge is only anchored in individual employees and, for example, there is no documentation of the application (processes, data sources, responsibilities, etc.), this leads to devastating consequences, especially for business-critical solutions. If the person responsible is not available, the entire process can come to a standstill.

  • “Duplication of work” and lack of synergies: There is a lack of transparency due to a lack of control and non-existent central requirements for documentation and approval processes. Divisions and departments do not coordinate, which promotes data silos. In practice, it can often be observed that similar topics are processed separately in different areas and no synergies can be achieved. This can lead to different data statuses and consequently to gaps in reporting. 

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Tiba Citizen Development Framework: The Right Balance between Governance and Freedom

Tiba’s Citizen Development Framework offers an innovative approach to the challenges described above. Many companies do not have the time and resources to initiate a full-scale adoption project. With our framework, we try to find a practical and pragmatic balance between the interests of the company and those of the citizen developers. The key elements of our framework are described in detail below.

Governance

Establishment of a Center of Excellence (CoE):

A CoE serves as a central point for innovation and improvement and plays a crucial role in maintaining IT sovereignty and avoiding shadow IT. It breaks geographical and organizational barriers and unites like-minded people with similar business goals. This encourages the sharing of knowledge and successes while ensuring standards and consistency through governance. By establishing clear guidelines and processes, a consistent approach to developing solutions is ensured. This not only ensures quality assurance, but also facilitates the scaling and reproducibility of successful projects. The CoE can also provide support with technical issues, adherence to compliance guidelines or project implementation.

Documentation:

Careful project documentation is essential for tracking progress, success, knowledge transfer and the improvement of future projects. Standardized documentation serves as a guide for teams, stakeholders, and future Citizen Developers. It ensures the availability of important findings and supports the evaluation of project success and the effectiveness of Citizen Development by taking both qualitative and quantitative factors into account.

Maturity level and strategy:

Development of a maturity model to assess the status of Citizen Development and to define an individual growth and improvement strategy.

Security:

Introduction of governance that covers security policies, data protection regulations and compliance requirements. This includes setting up processes to review and approve apps to minimize security risks.

Roles and responsibilities:

Clear definition of roles and responsibilities within the Citizen Development process, including the role of the Power Platform Coach, the IT department, and the Citizen Developers.

Monitoring and controlling:

Use of monitoring tools to monitor the use and performance of solutions to ensure compliance with standards and enable continuous improvements.

Training, Community and Support

Central knowledge hub:

 It serves as a central source of information for guidelines, resources, training materials and exchanges within the community. An introductory area offers new Citizen Developers an initial orientation. There is also an overview of available tools as well as basic concepts and techniques that are possible or necessary for the successful implementation of Citizen Development projects. This includes an introduction to Low-Code and No-Code platforms, an explanation of best practices and knowledge of how to integrate these new tools into existing business processes.

FAQs:

Typical questions from beginners are answered there, e.g. “What requirements should I have?”; “Is Citizen Development also something for professional developers?” etc.

First steps:

These are tutorials, crash courses on data sources, data quality, databases, terms, and principles as well as self-learning opportunities (selected learning paths and modules, YouTube channels, etc.). A practical “hands-on” approach is preferred, which should accelerate the learning curve and enable the direct application of the skills learned. 

Implementation and best practices:

For advanced learners, there is content on learning resources and best practices. We also provide guidelines for implementation. In addition, we provide an application process for apps – it helps to determine whether official approval of the project is necessary. This section also repeats content learned, consolidates knowledge and initiates implementation. The starter kits are structured in such a way that even interested employees without in-depth technical knowledge can quickly find their way around and start developing their own solutions.

Citizen Developer Community:

A network of Citizen Developers from different specialist areas and levels of experience provides a platform for sharing experiences, success stories and best practices. Multipliers and champions within the community share their knowledge, inspire and promote a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Regular meetings, workshops and projects support the learning and continuous development of the members, who are supported technically and organizationally by the resources provided.

Coaching:

Offer of specialized coaching sessions by experts who directly support and advise citizen developers in specific use cases.

Open consultation hours:

Establish regular consultation hours where employees have direct access to expert knowledge and practical support.

Developing solutions without programming 

cplace – the platform for Citizen Developers

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Development, Processes and Innovation

Sharing templates:

Access to a central platform that provides tools and ready-made templates to simplify the development process. This includes, for example, design templates that specify a certain standardized structure.

Innovation and idea management:

Implementation of an idea management system that enables the collection and evaluation of innovation proposals and encourages Citizen Developers to develop new solutions in collaboration with IT.

Application app:

Setting up an app for applying for business-critical solutions and citizen developer projects. Important information can be recorded and approvals by the CoE/IT can be facilitated and standardized, taking into account guidelines and governance policies.

App showcases, hackathons, lighthouse projects, success stories and use cases:

Presentation of inspiring success stories and practical application examples as a guide and motivation for other teams. They offer teams and creators the opportunity to present their creations, learn from each other and actively drive digital transformation forward. 

Culture and Change Management

Identify an executive sponsor:

Choosing a dedicated executive sponsor is critical as adoption goes far beyond a pure technology project. An executive sponsor should communicate the strategic vision and priorities and lead by example by utilizing the platform in line with adoption goals.

Build up “champions”:

Identify and promote key people within your organization who act as role models and multipliers for Citizen Development.

Expect resistance:

Resistance to change is normal and should be addressed proactively. By uncovering resistance, you can show empathy, address objections and break down barriers. Open dialog and involving employees in the change process can help overcome resistance and ensure a successful introduction of Citizen Development.

Conclusion

Citizen Development will play a central role in the digitalization of companies in the future, as it offers new opportunities for productivity and competitiveness. The Tiba Citizen Development Framework supports companies by enabling employees to develop their own solutions. The framework is a flexible basis for current and future transformation in Citizen Development, combined with advanced technologies. We encourage dialog about the potential of Citizen Development and the Tiba Framework to explore individual solutions and implementation strategies. 

About the Author

Iven Timmermann, Senior Digital Consultant, Tiba Managementberatung   

Tiba Managementberatung specializes in transformation, agility, project, process and change management. With over 30 years of experience, we provide holistic consulting and training based on the success factors of people & mindset, organization & culture, processes & methods and technology & tools. 

Homepage of Tiba Managementberatung
Iven Timmermann

Resource Management: Still Excelling or Already Planning?

Posted on by Christian Schneider

Auch wenn Excel die wohl am häufigsten verwendete Applikation bei der Konzeption von Initiativen und Vorhaben ist, spätestens beim Thema Ressourcenplanung setzen erfolgreiche Projektleiterinnen und Projektleiter auf eine Spezialsoftware. Warum dies so ist, an welche Grenzen die Ressourcenplanung mit herkömmlichen Mitteln stößt und auf was Projektverantwortliche beim Umstieg auf eine professionelle Ressourcenmanagement-Lösung achten sollten, das verrät dieser Artikel. 

Resource Planning

Ressourcenplanung zählt zu den Königsdisziplinen im Projektmanagement: Ein effizienter Ressourceneinsatz, insbesondere der ökonomische Einsatz des Fachpersonals, ist entscheidend für den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg von Projekten und ist damit für das gesamte Unternehmen relevant. Nicht erst mit dem Fachkräftemangel liegt ein besonderes Augenmerk auf einer sinnvollen Planung und Steuerung der im Unternehmen vorhandenen Ressourcen. Wie im Projektmanagement üblich verstehen wir im weiteren Artikel unter Ressourcenplanung in erster Linie die Planung des Projekteinsatzes von Menschen. 

Excel hilft bei der Ressourcenplanung nicht mehr weiter

Excel und ähnliche Tabellenkalkulationsprogramme sind in Unternehmen beliebt, wenn es darum geht, mal schnell eine Übersicht über Aufgaben und kleinere Vorhaben zu erstellen. Dafür gibt es auch gute Gründe: Sie sind zunächst einfach zu bedienen, bieten vielfältige grafische Auswertungen, es fallen in der Regel keine Kosten für die Anschaffung an und die IT-Abteilung muss für die Bereitstellung des Tools keine Kapazitäten bereitstellen. Ein Team oder eine kleinere Abteilung kann so mit Excel & Co. recht schnell und einfach ihre Linientätigkeiten planen, also die üblicherweise anfallenden Aufgaben auf die einzelnen Personen verteilen.  

Aber wie aussagekräftig ist diese Planung tatsächlich? Sind Urlaube, Sabbaticals, Krankheitstage und Fortbildungen bei der Verteilung der Arbeiten bereits berücksichtigt? Wie wird mit den unterschiedlichen Arbeitszeitmodellen der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter umgegangen? Ist darin auch abgebildet, dass manche von ihnen an bestimmten Wochentagen frei haben oder bspw. nur vormittags verfügbar sind? Für eine verlässliche Ressourcenplanung sind diese Angaben unverzichtbar.  

Hohe Fehleranfälligkeit und Versionsfalle

All diese Informationen sowie Änderungen, Neuerungen und Abweichungen in den Planungen müssen manuell gepflegt werden. Je nach Team- oder Abteilungsgröße nimmt der Aufwand dafür bedenkliche Dimensionen an. Je größer die Abteilung ist und je mehr Vorhaben und Aufgaben anfallen, desto mehr Zeit muss in deren Planung und Steuerung fließen. Zeit, die definitiv sinnvoller verwendet werden kann. 

Doch nicht nur der übermäßig hohe Pflegeaufwand für das Ressourcenmanagement via Excel & Co. ist problematisch. Es ist darüber hinaus sehr fehleranfällig: Wird die Planung z.B. in einer Datei lokal gespeichert und im schlimmsten Fall per E-Mail an die einzelnen Teammitglieder versandt, tappt die Abteilung, das Team, schnell in die Versionsfalle: Welches ist die gültige Version der Planung? Wird dieses Dilemma dadurch gelöst, dass die einzelnen Teammitglieder Zugriff auf die Planungsdatei haben, dann steigt die Fehleranfälligkeit nochmals.  

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Ressourcenplanung mit Excel – Kein Nutzen für das Unternehmen

Der wahrscheinlich größte Schaden durch eine Ressourcenplanung via Excel & Co. entsteht dadurch, dass sie nur eine Insellösung darstellt und so dem Konzern bzw. dem Unternehmen als Ganzes keinen Nutzen bringt. Die Planungsdaten sind in Excel außerhalb des Teams kaum nutzbar. Schließlich sind meist in den unterschiedlichen Abteilungen unterschiedliche Planungs-Templates im Einsatz. So kann die Organisation keine Datenabfragen quer über die unterschiedlichen Ressourcenplanungen laufen lassen. Es ist keine ganzheitliche Kapazitätsplanung möglich. 

Dies behindert insbesondere das team- und abteilungsübergreifende Ressourcenmanagement signifikant. Gerade in einer Matrix-Organisation, wo die Projektmitarbeitenden aus den einzelnen Fachabteilungen stammen und sie neben ihren Projektaufgaben auch mit Linientätigkeiten beschäftigt sind, ist die Ressourcenplanung eine echte Herausforderung. Und ein häufiger Konfliktpunkt: Die Projektleitung muss geeignetes Personal für die unterschiedlichen Vorgänge in ihren Initiativen finden, während die Abteilungsleiterinnen und Abteilungsleiter den operativen Betrieb ihrer Bereiche sicherstellen müssen. Hier liefert eine übergreifende Kapazitätsübersicht, die die Auslastung der einzelnen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter und die der Abteilungen anzeigt, eine belastbare Datenbasis für die Einsatzplanung des Personals (Staffing). 

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Ressourcenmanagement von cplace: Wer macht wann was?

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Ressourcenplanung auch über Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg 

Eine ganzheitliche Kapazitätsplanung bildet die Grundlage für einen optimalen Ressourceneinsatz und dafür, dass alle Projekte mit geeigneten Mitarbeitenden ausgestattet sind. Je vollständiger die Informationen über die Kapazitätsauslastung der einzelnen Mitarbeitenden und der Abteilungen sind, desto präziser wird die Planung. Dies gilt auch für Projekte, an denen externe Mitarbeitende mitwirken oder gar mehrere Organisationen beteiligt sind.

In der Projektrealisierung hat sich eine effiziente und möglichst vollständige Ressourcenplanung als ein wichtiger Erfolgsfaktor fest etabliert. Ebenfalls darf der Nutzenbeitrag eines effizienten Ressourcenmanagements für das Portfoliomanagement nicht unterschätzt werden. Grundlage ist eine möglichst vollständige Kapazitätsplanung, die die jetzige und künftige Auslastung von Mitarbeitenden und Abteilungen beinhaltet. Diese Informationen fließen entsprechend in ein Portfolio, das alle laufenden Projekte und freigegebenen Initiativen enthält. Werden nun neue Initiativen beantragt und auf ihre Machbarkeit hin überprüft, werden Ressourcenengpässe schnell sichtbar. Beispielsweise kann ein Ressourcenbericht dann Klarheit geben, ob lediglich ein anderer Termin für das geplante Vorhaben gefunden werden muss, ob der Einsatz externer Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter eine Lösung darstellt oder ob ein anderes geplantes oder laufendes Projekt von geringerer Priorität pausiert werden muss.  

Ein übergreifendes, effizientes Ressourcenmanagement bietet schließlich auch rollenabhängige Sichtweisen:  

  • Die Projektmitarbeiterinnen und -mitarbeiter erhalten eine Übersicht über ihre aktuellen und künftigen Aufgaben. Sie sehen die einzelnen Vorgänge, für die sie eingeplant sind, und wie viel Zeit ihnen zur Verfügung steht, um die Tasks zu erledigen. 
  • Die Projektleitung kann einfach und verlässlich Ressourcenengpässe im Projekt ausmachen. Sie sieht, in welchen Teilprojekten, Projektphasen oder Vorgängen zu wenig Personal zur Verfügung steht und kann entsprechend gegensteuern. 
  • Das Management erhält eine verlässliche Darstellung der Gesamtauslastung der Belegschaft. Das versetzt sie in die Lage, das Portfolio der laufenden und künftigen Projekte effizient strategisch zu steuern.  
  • Die HR-Abteilung kann anhand der aktuellen Auslastungssituation und der künftig beabsichtigen Initiativen ableiten, wo Personalbedarf besteht, und welche Fortbildungsmaßnahmen notwendig sind, um ggf. künftig benötigte 

About the Author

Christian Schneider, Content Marketing, cplace

With its Next-Generation Project and Portfolio Management technology, cplace is revolutionizing and transforming the way people and organizations collaborate on complex projects. The flexible software platform enables leading companies to create customized solutions for digital transformation and developing complex products.

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Christian Schneider