Overview

The scenario below describes how Serena Mariner answers the following critical questions:

• What work is going on in my organization?
• Who is working on what projects?
• How much is it costing?

We’ll start our scenario with a fictitious business user, Fred, who submits a project idea that will increase the revenue for SerenaCo. Without logging into Mariner, Fred submits the details of his idea in an online Idea Request web form published from Mariner.

Sally the Portfolio Manager sees Fred’s idea come in as a Pending request on her Homepage dashboard. She performs initial analysis to determine whether this request should be qualified or rejected. Sally determines the idea is viable so she qualifies the idea and transitions it into a Project Request.

» Viewing Portfolio Status and Managing Demand (3 minutes)

Sally takes the qualified Project Request and utilizes the Plan dimension* in Mariner to perform additional cost benefit analysis, score the request using her scorecard, and define generic resource role needs. Assuming that the Project Request meets the portfolio approval criteria, Sally approves it and takes a snapshot of the approved Plan by copying the Plan dimension to the Target dimension. Sally then takes the final step of assigning Sarah the Project Manager to manage the project.

» Creating a Project (5 minutes)

Sarah the Project Manager now refers back to the Target dimension while she refines her project plan to make sure she is aligned with the original plan. Sarah begins refining her project plan by creating a task schedule outlining the phases and milestones her project team will accomplish.

» Creating a Task Plan (4 minutes)

» Importing Tasks from Microsoft Project (2 minutes)

Next, Sarah finds available resources and allocates those resources to her project utilizing the Plan dimension. Bill the Resource Manager may get involved at this point to help identify available resources for Sarah to utilize on her project, and to ensure that resources are being effectively utilized

» Viewing Resource Utilization (3 minutes)

Once resource allocations have been made, the Plan dimension accurately reflects Sarah’s planned project costs. After these new planned costs are approved, Sarah takes one final snapshot of the approved Plan by copying the Plan dimension to the Baseline dimension.

Sarah’s project is now ready to begin so she holds her project kickoff meeting and begins tracking issues, risks, and scope changes that are requested. Project team members provide Sarah with their work status updates and track time against the Actual dimension.

» Submitting Timesheets (3 minutes)

Sarah takes the work status updates and provides overall project status updates on a recurring basis around four key metrics: Schedule, Cost, Scope, and Resources. John the Executive and Sally the Portfolio Manager can both review Sarah’s project status and performance information from their Homepage dashboards.

» Viewing Project and Portfolio Status (3.5 minutes)

Once Sarah’s project is complete she closes and archives it so that the knowledge and lessons learned can be shared with others.

*There are four primary dimensions in Mariner: Target, Plan, Baseline, and Actual. These dimensions are used to capture snapshots of a project's financial, resource, and cost benefit data at pre-defined points in the project lifecycle.