A Primer for EPPM Tool Implementations: Part Four

This blog was updated June 2025.

While organizational change issues are, in my opinion, the most significant component of an EPPM tool implementation, the process issues are a close second. By process, I mean at two levels:

First level process

The overall project and portfolio management discipline level, which the organization has adopted for itself. This includes:

• Project management methodology, which typically is the umbrella over other product-based methodologies such as waterfall, agile, iterative, RUP, Six Sigma, and so forth
• Foundational project management processes covering time management (including creating and maintaining a project schedule), cost management (budgets and cost tracking, and how the project level interweaves with the departmental level), scope management (including scope change control), and so forth—essentially all 10 knowledge areas of PMI’s PMBOK® Guide.
• Foundational portfolio management processes, such as project intake, project prioritization scheme, portfolio steering committees, etc.
• The PMO and all governance processes associated with it.
• Organizational change management practices.

Closely coupled with all of this, of course, is the organization’s overall project and portfolio management maturity. All too often, companies jump headfirst into the EPPM tool swimming pool before these processes are in place and are being followed. In an ideal world, companies would hold off on purchasing and implementing an EPPM tool until they were at least a solid level 3 (Organizational Standards and Institutionalized Process, in PM Solutions terms) out of 5 (Optimized Process) on the maturity scale.  You wouldn’t knowingly build your new house on top of quicksand, but companies that are still at level 1 (Initial Process, or Ad Hoc) are essentially trying to do that—and then amazingly are surprised when the house quickly sinks—which is about when the tool is typically abandoned and blamed for the failure. Level 2 (Structured Process and Standards) is better, though what separates level 2 from level 3 is that EVERYONE is consistently following them at level 3—and recall from part 2 of this blog series that data consistency is the name of the game with EPPM tool success.

Second level process

These include the specific standards, processes and procedures that govern exactly how the EPPM tool should be utilized for the company. Ideally, these should work in concert with the first level processes, and provide greater detail. For example, a first level process concerning time management would include building and creating a project schedule, though it would not be tool-specific. It would include things such as working with the project team to create a WBS, the number of levels the WBS should have, granularity of the tasks underneath the WBS, recommended task duration limits, guidelines on assigning resources to tasks, when to set a baseline, how and when to include scope changes, applying actuals to the schedule and computing variance, and so forth. A detailed procedure at the second level would cover things specific to the EPPM tool, including but not limited to who adds the initial schedule shell to the system, access permissions, when to use certain activity types, when to use certain duration types, guidelines on using data constraints, baseline types, frequency of applying actuals and recalculating the schedule, user-defined fields, adding dependencies between projects, etc. Another example of a second level process would be for timesheets: how they are generated, when they are due, who approves/rejects them and when, how to add tasks to the timesheet that are missing, what to do when the timesheet is rejected, etc.

Read the whole series, A Primer for EPPM Tool Implementations:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 5

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• PMO size, scope, and structure
• Strategic priorities for the next 24 months
• Use of AI and PMO-as-a-Service models
• How organizations are training and staffing their PMOs

Use it to benchmark your performance and strengthen your business case. Read the full State of the PMO 2025 report.

FAQs

What does “first level process” mean in the context of EPPM tools?

First level processes refer to the broader project and portfolio management practices adopted by an organization. These include methodologies like Agile or Waterfall, time and cost management procedures, governance structures, and the organization’s overall maturity in managing projects and portfolios.

Why is organizational maturity important before implementing an EPPM tool?

Without consistent, institutionalized processes in place, an EPPM tool often becomes a high-tech shell with unreliable data. Organizations below level 3 maturity often lack the discipline and consistency required to make the tool effective, leading to poor adoption and failed implementations.

What is a “second level process”?

Second level processes are detailed, tool-specific procedures that guide exactly how the EPPM system should be used—covering scheduling standards, permission settings, timesheet rules, baseline procedures, and more. These processes ensure users interact with the tool consistently and correctly.

What’s the biggest reason EPPM tools fail?

A lack of process maturity and inconsistent use. Most tools are abandoned not because of technical flaws, but because users apply them inconsistently—or not at all—due to unclear or nonexistent process guidelines.