The Suitability of Thinking Portfolio® Software in Project Reporting. Case: Cargotec

Abstract

Cargotec is a large global company working in cargo handling business. In 2010-2011, they implemented ABC Project Model™ to better manage and report their internal development projects. After that new software called Thinking Portfolio® was acquired from a company called Thinking Business in order to provide a platform for reporting development project portfolios. Cargotec’s version of the software was designed specifically for the internal development projects. The recently implemented project model was also considered in the design. The purpose of this final thesis was to evaluate how suitable the Thinking Portfolio software is for project reporting in Cargotec, as well as providing concrete development ideas for the software. The results of the final thesis were also used in the post evaluation of the Thinking Portfolio implementation project.

A user satisfaction survey was conducted among the Thinking Portfolio users of Cargotec to find out how suitable the software is for project reporting. The results of the survey indicated that the users find the Thinking Portfolio easy to use and they collectively felt that it can provide value to their organisation. The results also suggested that the users had not familiarized themselves with the automatically created reports yet, since the majority of the users gave undecided feedback about the usability of the reports. The problem areas of the software identified by the survey respondents were unclear data requirements, lack of integration with project model documents and insufficient user rights of the project managers. The software also includes features that do not provide value for all users.

There were five major recommendations proposed. Firstly, portfolio management team could go through the software and decide which parts are truly relevant for Cargotec. It is recommended that software features that do not provide value could be removed or edited. Secondly, the project documents could be integrated with the software to avoid double reporting. Thirdly, the data requirements for Thinking Portfolio and the rules for project reporting could be communicated better to the users by providing more training and support as well as a detailed reporting plan. Fourthly, the project managers could be granted the same access rights as the project owners in order to enhance the value of the software for them. Fifthly, the reports could be explained better by providing help functions and by communicating the data exporting possibilities.