PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Treno

The case: The customer is a braking manufacturing systems. A Project Management organizational unit has just been created and needs to improve the Project Managers' competencies and set-up a methodology for managing projects at enterprise wide level. Problems occur in some projects, mainly in the assignment of responsibilities, in the communication among the departments of the company and in the relationship with the clients; the status review meetings with the customer are often chaotic and unproductive.

The project: At start we performed an organizational assessment aimed at understanding the context of the company, the processes and the status of the current project management methodology. The assessment reported some major issues related to the planning and control processes. Then we selected a project pilot to define and implement the corrective actions. Corrective actions were divided into "QuickWins" (redefine the WBS, assign roles and responsibilities and restructure the reporting model together with the client), "structural" (improve the internal and external communication) and "support" (supporting the project manager in the implementation of Project Management Methodology). After the pilot phase, the company decided to extend the methodology to all projects. The company improved the performances of all projects.

Telecomunicazioni

The case: the customer is a Company leader in the Telecommunications industry, and is part of an international group. The company has in place a program to improve efficiency, rationalize and integrate through the reengineering of the "core" processes at corporate level and the replacement of the current information technology solutions. We have been requested to provide expert support to the Program Management activities.

The project: we provided the experience and knowledge to set up the program and to establish and support the Program Management Office. We supported the Program Director, the Program Manager and the Head of the PMO in the definition of the approach and the governance structure of the program.

Given the complexity of the initiative, the large number of stakeholders involved and the request of the Mother company to apply the guidelines of PMI, it was decided to produce the following planning deliverables: the Program Management Plan, the Risk Management Plan, the Communication Management Plan and the Procurement Management Plan.

We coached and trained a large group of users, organizing workshops and working together with the stakeholders of the program to develop the program plan and the program control tools and procedures. We help to set up the Primavera Enterprise tool which supported the development of program key performance indicators. We primarily focused on program planning in the medium and short term level, as well as planning the single projects. We organized workshops with the stakeholders aimed at setting up the operating workplans and the periodic monitoring for the control of milestones, identifying and activating the necessary corrective and preventive actions. The program methodology is currently being used in other programs and corporate projects.

ICT

The case: the customer is a big company in the Information and Communication Technology industry, that carries out ICT projects for several clients. The company currently run at the same time more than 200 projects and several teams are spread in four locations in Italy. Since the company has launched a project to certificate the quality of its processes, it is mandatory to define a unique corporate project management methodology, and a unique information system for collecting and disseminating the information to the project teams.

The project: initially performed an organizational assessment at Enterprise level using a proprietary model, aimed at understanding the context of the company and the characteristics of the projects. Then we designed the Enterprise Project Management methodology by following a continuous improvement approach, starting with implementing some QuickWins identified during the assessment phase. The methodology was first tested on some company project and then rolled out to all company projects.

As for the Knowledge Management and Team Collaboration system, we identified the requirements and assessed the main market applications using a proprietary assessment model. Then we managed the project for the implementation of the new system. The new Knowledge Management and Team Collaboration system is now used by over 2000 employees.