Clarity… It’s not Just for Projects Anymore
By: Doug Kalkowski
Clarity… It’s not Just for Projects Anymore
Organizations that have been using Clarity from Broadcom for some time are likely cognizant of this software’s exceptional capabilities in project management. The project structure and related sub-objects have been relatively stable for years, so most organizations understand how to work within this structure to manage their everyday work. But if you haven’t been following the evolution of Clarity, you may be surprised to see how Clarity can be used to manage so much more!
For years, organizations used the Project object to manage work that really wasn’t a “Project”. Things like Operational work, Help Desk tickets, Paid Time Off, Bench time and so much more were often lumped into “Projects” because quite frankly… there wasn’t a simple place to account for that time. And what about Agile work? That often got lumped into Projects too and you end up running “waterfall in sprints” instead of truly being agile.
This practice of fitting “Square pegs in round holes” has been addressed in a very powerful way, but only if your organization is utilizing the Modern UI in Clarity. (if you are still using Classic Clarity, Winmill PPM can help get you there with our Modern UI Transition package).
Clarity now utilizes Custom Investment Types to allow organizations to structure their work in any way they want. Do you need to track operational work? No problem, you can create a custom investment type to do exactly that. Is your organization practicing Agile methodologies? Perfect, you can create Epics and Features and use those to track your progress. Here you can see an example of an Epic, complete with all the Agile Metrics and board views needed for Agile organizations. (And don’t forget about the Out-of-box integration with Rally for all things Agile)
Perhaps your organization is a Product Centric organization. You can create a Product Custom Investment Type and align all your efforts by Product. In the example below, we have a “Retail Banking” product line, with several Products linked to the product line. Within the “Credit Cards” Product, you can see a series of Epics aligned to this Product. At every level of this structure, you can track things like Financials, Risk, Issues, Status, Tasks, work assignments, conversations, documents and more!
The change to utilizing Custom Investment Types has opened a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to managing your organization’s investments. Broadcom has listened to their customers and updated Clarity so it can be flexible and enable organizations to manage their investments in ways that make sense to them. If you are not utilizing the Modern UI and Custom Investment Types, reach out to us today to see how Custom Investment Types can help streamline your planning and prioritization efforts.
Reach out to us at Winmill PPM to learn more about how Custom Investment Types can take your Clarity experience to the next level at PPMInfo@winmill.com!
