Issue and Risk Management: Dynamics 365 Project Operations vs. PlanAutomate

When it comes to managing project risk, early detection is key. Unfortunately, many project businesses lack real-time project insight leaving executives and senior managers in the dark about the status of their projects. The fact of the matter is, they rarely have a way to recognize any changing conditions easily and instantly, resulting in a potentially bigger problem down the road.

Whether it’s a slight budget overrun or early erosion of scheduled slack, many of these changes can be resolved by timely detection and intervention. But project businesses do not have a solution that flags warning signs immediately and well before they deteriorate and significantly impact project performance. Why? They continue to operate in a disconnected application landscape that doesn’t accommodate for effective data integration and automation.

[This is the sixth blog in a series that provides a comprehensive high-level overview of the project business functionality found in Dynamics 365 Project Operations and PlanAutomate. See the fifth blog here.]

When looking for a solution to this problem, many companies look to ERPs for the solution. This blog discusses the issue and risk management functionality in Dynamics 365 Project Operations (D365PO) as part of the Dynamics 365 Finance ERP and PlanAutomate.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

As much as we love Dynamics, after all our product is built on it, issue and risk management are entirely not supported in D365PO. Therefore, if you are using D365PO and keeping a risk registry and managing issues, chances are it’s entirely outside of Dynamics.

PlanAutomate

PlanAutomate includes full RAIDO management capabilities (Risk, Assumption, Issue, Dependency, Opportunity). Additionally, you can conduct periodic risk reviews supported by formal process controls.

Gateway Review: The gateway review is tied into milestones in the work breakdown structure (WBS).

Period Close Risk Review: The period close risk review is an integrated component of the month-end process.

In both instances, the project is evaluated against weighted risk categories and a weighted risk assessment is generated.

All issues are tracked against tasks in the WBS and can be raised from the timesheet by project team members or in the planning form by the project manager. Logged risks are tagged with severity, status and group identification for reporting purposes. Additionally, all logged RAIDO items have an associated expected monetary value (EMV) so you always know your risk exposure at any point in the project.

As projects pass through schedule milestones, formal risk reviews can be configured. The resulting risk assessment is published in various project dashboards. The same goes for formal risk reviews that can be enforced during the month-end process along with mandatory checklists to enforce project business governance.

Above and beyond D365PO, PlanAutomate adds the following capabilities (and more) to issue and risk management:

• Full RAIDO log
• Expected monetary value and exposure
• Period close risk review
• Issue management
• Issue severity statistics
• Issue group statistic
• Raise issues from timesheet
• Issue management workspace

Identify, Analyze and Respond to Project Risk Faster with Project Automation

In project management, early detection is key. If you’re able to identify a problem while it’s small and manageable, then you can mitigate and prevent it from becoming worse. But if you’re only paying attention to the problem when it’s already a major issue, it might be too late to do anything at all. In a best-case scenario, it’ll cost much more to mitigate the problem at that point. Detecting potential issues and risks early means the faster and more cost effectively you can respond.

Keep in mind, the only way to mitigate project risk is through proactive project business management.

Download this Quick Guide: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations vs PlanAutomate to gain a detailed understanding of the capabilities of both systems and when to use each.

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