Challenge:
Workers were placed in charge of projects but did not have the necessary skills to successfully complete the projects. Training the entire supervisory staff was phase 1 of this project. However, without assistance from knowledgeable PM’s it quickly became apparent that something more was needed.
Because IT was involved in nearly every cross-functional project, it was decided to provide a higher level of assistance to the analysts to make them PM’s. Then they would act as the PM liaison to the project teams and executive with sponsorship for the initiative. While not called a project management office (PMO) within the company, the concept is not far from the intent of a PMO.
Goal:
To complete more enterprise projects on-time and budget to reduce overhead-costs and increase opportunity cost for new initiatives.
Solution:
- Revisited small project management (SPM) training provided across the company several years prior.
- Conducted PM competent model to determine each programmer analysts PM competencies.
- Conducted Profile International ProfileXT to determine each programmer analysts strengths and weaknesses.
- Design specific coaching plans based on each persons assessments.
- Applied weekly coaching assistance on projects that each team member was currently working to take project through entire project life-cycle.
- Provided assistance as necessary until each PM felt comfortable applying the PM skills on their own.
- Turned team loose on a plant consolidation where a mid-western plant was shipped and integrated within the Clearwater-based operation.
Results:
Nearly 27% more projects completed the following quarter than any of previous 4 quarters.
