SAP-Centric Projects

The second level of enterprise project management is the concern of the project owner, whoever is responsible for the actual project delivery and day to day project controls. Here, project management is much more detail-oriented and concerned with scheduling of activities, constraints, work definition.  

It is on this general contractor level where work is planned in detail, where it is scheduled, the use of resources is being optimized, progress reports allow to revise baseline schedules and provide input for estimates, and where earned value analyses are being performed. Typically project owners prefer tools that are as nimble and easy to use as possible. For many functions this translates into the use of stand-alone project management systems like Primavera or MS Project. Sometimes systems are being used in duplicate. For example, a maintenance or turnaround plan may be created in detail in SAP, just to download all its information into Primavera for scheduling.  

There are different "internal customers" for this level compared to the "enterprise" level. This can and often will lead to issues. Purchasing processes and the charging of actual costs may totally be handled on the enterprise level even though they provide critical input for the project owners.