Implementing an Enterprise Project Management Methodology Based on PMI and Best Practices

Description of Client s Business
This company is a large telecom operator in Europe, with more than 4 million clients.

The Client s Challenge
Annually, approximately 900 company employees –– with no common management procedures in place –– were involved in 70 strategic cross-departmental projects. Typically these are large size projects and encompassed several departments simultaneously, such as the implementation of a new accounting system or the set-up of the UMTS network.

As in many other companies, an important percentage of these projects were delivered late and over budget. The client s main objectives were:
• To deliver projects on time, on budget and on scope, and
• To reduce time-to-market by 50%, from 18 to 9 months.
"Each department was managing projects according to its own approach," says Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, Senior Manager, Project Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Belgium. "There were no clear roles, no responsibility, and no accountability for managing any overall project: scope, time, budget, risk and resources."

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"This was a complex challenge," adds Nieto-Rodriguez. "Revenues were slipping and rapid company growth was compounding the problem. So the clients finally realised they could achieve improvements with a proper company-wide project management methodology. We knew we could help them accomplish their goals. But we saw this challenge as being principally strategic. It would take a major cultural shift to benefit them with ROI and a shorter payback period."
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The PricewaterhouseCoopers Solution
"First, we had to teach these employee managers the methodology," continues Nieto-Rodriguez. "Second, we had to work on the corporate culture change to shift the paradigm, so the Project Managers could change their mentality along with the methodology to match it. They had to be educated on how to work with the procedures, how to behave, and how to think as a project-based organization. This was a critical juncture."

PwC recommended that the engagement consist of seven major steps:
1. Selecting a project management framework: The Project Management Institute s Project Management Body of Knowledge?(PMBOK) was chosen as the foundation of the client s proven methodology for a company-wide plan. This had to be aligned with the organisation s existing best practices in terms of tools, systems and procedures.

"There were several reasons why we choose the PMBOK as the foundation of the methodology, such as: PMI is the leading organisation in development of project management principles and certification standards; it is recognised worldwide as a significant standard for project management knowledge and best practices; it is process oriented and clearly defines the inputs, tools, techniques and outputs for each process," he adds.

2. Conducting two dozen interviews over two weeks to identify major weaknesses between the client s current project management practices and PMI framework. "We found there was no consistency and a severe lack of planning and controlling processes," says Nieto-Rodriguez.

3. Definition of company s project life cycle and customizing of PMI best practices into the client s own project management methodology, consisting of 24 processes and multiple templates.

4. Developing an Intranet-based project management toolkit. "If we wanted people to use the methodology," he adds, "their managers had to have a positive experience with a user-friendly tool. It had to be easy to use, well formatted, and efficient. If not, we knew they d never use it again."

5. Piloting the methodology. "We had to decide which projects we wanted to pilot among the 70 active at that time. We chose a variety of three projects –– a large challenging one, a medium sized one, and a small one. We had a system in place with a coach and a support team for each of the three pilot projects over a two-and-a-half month period."

6. Defining the rollout plan for the implementation of the methodology throughout the first year. PwC inventoried all projects, project managers, teams and departments to train all 900 people in 12 months. "We decided it would be a phased approach. The Project Managers were working on several projects simultaneously. With this approach, we were able to plan the projects and use a coach for each one."

7. Designing and delivering high-level training materials for all company project managers. Over a six- to eight-week period, PwC developed the enterprise-wide training materials. This culminated in a 3-day training program on the new project management methodology.

"We didn t want to train only the project managers, so we spent a half-day with about 650 key project team members, then dedicated another half-day session training the project team s senior managers. This enabled the management to take ownership and responsibility for each project. While we met some reluctance at this senior level, we had obtained full buy-in from the CEO and Senior VP, thus we felt strongly that everybody should know what the methodology was and how to use it."

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Nieto-Rodriguez continues: "During the project, we realised that having the methodology was not enough to achieve the objectives because the team leaders were not ready to support the proposed changes in the project management activities. This is a usual problem: a functional vs. a project-oriented organisation. Therefore, we assisted in the organisational alignment of the company, which consisted in the creation of a project management division, empowerment of project managers, and increased transparency across the lines."
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