StrategyWorks Reviews

If we agree that the success of a strategy is dependent upon the alignment of your activities, spend and focus and thereafter the visibility to manage it with accountability and empowerment then a tool that drives that alignment and provides the visibility simply and effectively has to be a good thing.

The principles above have long been discussed but this is the first time I have seen / used a tool that genuinely and completely enables those principles. Simple, effective and fairly non-invasive to install and use, it is a true enabler.

I would like more detail in the budget and forecasting space, but my personal preference is for an incredibly detailed view of this side of things. Also, I concur with others that a mobile option would be great.

It is simple, intuitive, and easy to use. If the existing corporate taxonomy and governance models are already understood by the user base, the product needs little or no additional training to use. Elegant and effective.

It depends on coherent strategy and governance processes, if they are not robust the software cannot fix that. If your organisation uses a corporate taxonomy that is significantly different to the standard VMOST/VMOSA the product will need customisation.

Ease of viewing organisational status and who is doinfg what.

The product is in a continual inprovemtn ophase so any functionality not currently exhibited can be accommodated easlity.

The clarity with which I can see the projects that are helping us to deliver on our strategy in a meaningful way - and those that aren't (and hence should be stopped).

No major cons, but understandably, it takes a little bit of work to integrate and get the most out of the system. That said, there's a strong professional services team to help.

I instantly liked the principle of being able to start with documenting the companies mission and vison and then mapping our strategies intuitively to the required OKRs and KPIs that our programmes , projects and tasks set out to achieve . This offered our people a clear ` line of sight ' of what was to be achieved and why . This supported bringing our vison to life and for our people it helped them better understand the role they were playing to deliver it. This is unlike typical project software that tends to focus on a specific work package and outcome in isolation. Strategyworks is about organisational strategic delivery, as I said its in the name !. It allowed me to easily consolidate all the required bodies of work, whilst having a on demand view of all deliverables ,milestones ,risks and dependencies through its consolidated dashboard .

Not a biggy , but I think visually it could be stronger especially for the dashboard

This is a tool that gives a rapid way of pulling together all the component parts needed to achieve a vision. A Programme Director would find this a really useful way of being able to control his programme and present key metrics about progress and performance to senior management. Submitting information on portfolio progress and performance into a central portfolio office allows the production of visual and textual information for an executive team to determine whether the portfolio of programmes and projects are contributing effectively to the realisation of a corporate vision. This would replace homegrown portfolio, programme and project reporting tools built and maintained by PMOs with something that is intuitive with good looking output. It also may avoid the need to purchase and manage big, costly portfolio management tools.

Many companies struggle to determine what programmes and projects directly support strategic aims and what don’t. Also, it’s often difficult to demonstrate whether a programme or project still continues to support company strategy, even if it did at initiation. I have run exercises with a number of my clients to rationalise portfolios so that all programmes and projects therein demonstrate clear support for strategy and are not in the portfolio because of someone shouting loud enough. StrategyWorks would have been a really useful tool to have at that time.

A few minor gripes, but I'm sure that the guys at ShapeCast have these covered on the SW product roadmap

Strategy Works provides all the essential tools for managing the execution of strategy on a real time basis. It also includes the ability to track value creation which is an essential element in understanding the effectiveness of a strategy.

There aren't any particular features that I liked least.