HP unveils PPM software

HP unveiled a new project and portfolio management software designed to allow enterprises to optimise IT development based on corporate goals and standardise how the health of those projects is measured, reports Computer World.

The Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Centre 7.0 includes an optimisation engine that will automatically rank certain IT projects based on predefined criteria such as budget issues or overarching corporate goals.

Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Centre 7.0 is the first software to result from HP's acquisition of Mercury Interactive.

TargetProcess has announced the release of TargetProcess version2, its next generation project management software product for agile projects, reports Sys-Con.

The software, which is designed to support geographically distributed teams and facilitate agile software development practices like extreme programming and SCRUM, helps software development companies to reduce the complexity of software project management, the company says.

The software also simplifies planning, tracking and quality assurance activities.

A recent survey of 104 federal IT leaders conducted by Price Systems found that inadequate training of federal project managers is the reason why many governments IT projects fail and millions of dollars are wasted, reports ZDNet.

Respondents identified a failure of training on a number of fronts - training on risk identification and management, training on initial baseline development, and training on technical project management.

Sixty-seven percent of the executives surveyed said training in these areas was nonexistent or they weren't even sure if it was provided.

In addition, unrealistic baselines are the cause for almost half of all failed, cancelled or over-budget IT projects.

AtTask has upgraded its latest @task software for project and portfolio management to version 4 release 3, Techrockies.com says.

The upgrade adds new Ajax technology for better usability, and additional collaboration and accountability features.

Among the updates, the firm has added custom charts and graphs, interactive Gantt charts, trend analysis tools, and Ajax support for better performance. AtTask's software is a hosted, software-as-a-service application.