📚 Best Practice for Organizational Projects

Organizational projects help improve internal workflows, structures, and processes. Examples include optimizing existing business processes, introducing digital solutions, or improving collaboration across departments.

In smenso, these initiatives can be structured consistently, categorized by department and project phase, and reviewed together in the project portfolio.

Structure organizational projects with master data

To maintain a clear overview, organizational projects should be recorded using consistent criteria. In addition to the existing project master data, custom fields (Flavors) can be used to capture further information.

The following information can be useful for organizational projects:

• Project Type – to distinguish between different types of initiatives, such as process improvement, digitalization, or organizational development. The existing project field can be used for this purpose.
• Bereich – to assign a project to one or more departments, such as HR, IT, Finance, or Organization.
• Projektphase – to indicate the current project stage, such as Idea, Rough Planning, Detailed Planning, Implementation, or Closing.

The additional Flavors Bereich and Projektphase can be maintained directly in a project's master data. A multi-select Flavor, for example, makes it possible to assign several participating departments to the same organizational project.

Overview of organizational projects in the portfolio

The portfolio view allows multiple organizational projects to be displayed together. Additional master data, such as department and project phase, can be shown as columns to compare projects.

Grouping projects by Project Type provides a structured overview of different types of organizational initiatives. For example, process improvement, digitalization, and organizational projects can be viewed separately.

Filters can also be used to narrow down the view to specific departments or project phases. This makes it possible, for example, to display only projects that are currently in the implementation phase.

Analyze organizational projects

In addition to the tabular portfolio view, the analysis section allows project data to be visualized.

A pie chart can be used to illustrate the distribution of projects by Project Type. This shows the proportion of different project types within the overall portfolio being analyzed.

The following example shows the distribution of projects by Project Type within a larger project portfolio.

Best Practice

A consistent structure makes it easier to monitor, compare, and manage internal improvement initiatives.

• Use existing project master data, such as Project Type, before creating additional Flavors.
• Use meaningful Flavors to capture information relevant to categorizing and managing your organizational projects.
• Maintain project phases consistently so that the current status of different initiatives remains comparable.
• Use multi-select Flavors when several departments are involved in an organizational project.
• Use the portfolio view to organize and filter projects, and the analysis section to visualize the overall project portfolio.