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Project Managers: The discipline of Project Management is mission-critical for success today. A project manager must
achieve and maintain consensus on project scope and goals,
develop the project plan, and then manage the project as it both conforms to and
deviates from the original plan. Presumably, your organization already has
a project management function staffed by full-time managers or by people with
split responsibilities who "manage-and" (manage and do analysis, manage and
code, manage and test, manage and support, etc.).
In some cases, the projects developed in your Strategic
Plan are so interrelated, complex, or politically charged that it is better
to find someone from outside the organization to manage the effort. We
have considerable experience in helping our clients with such situations, and
will get the job done.
Key Benefits
 | When a project is very large or complex, the effort in just overseeing the
project is substantial. Hiring an outsider to manage allows your staff
to add value through their business knowledge without the demands and
distractions of having to manage the effort. |
| When your staff is relatively junior, or is inexperienced in running large
or complex projects, they can observe our project manager and learn from the
practices and procedures we use to run such projects. It is always our
goal to train our clients' employees either explicitly or implicitly, to
improve their abilities for the next time. |
| When a project touches a number of areas, there is great value in having a
politically neutral third party who can be equally demanding of all of the
affected groups. |
| A very senior, experienced project manager may be needed to implement a
major project, but it is often true that the person needed to support the
resulting system has a very different profile. Hiring a consultant to
implement the the project and then naming a member of the project team to
manage the ongoing system provides a solution to this problem. |
Our Process
While we have our own preferred templates, methodologies, and tools, we will
of course work within your existing structure as much as possible. If you
would like assistance in developing or enhancing your project management
structure, we can also help you develop a Project
Management Office (PMO) operation.
- Methodology
- Our first step will be to understand your methodology, if one is in
place, to make sure that we operate within it. If you do not have a
formal methodology, we will communicate our standard approach to ensure that
everyone understands the structure we will be working within.
- Plan
- Our next step will be to develop a project plan for the project: Work
Breakdown Structure, Task Dependencies, and Resource Assignments. Of
course, this plan will change and evolve over time, but will provide a
near-term roadmap to get the project under control.
- Schedule of Deliverables
- The project plan will result in a list of deliverables and dates, which
we will use to track the project progress and to provide early warning if
problems arise.
- Status Reporting
- We will work with the stakeholders in IT and, if appropriate, in the
relevant businesses, to determine the sort of status reporting that is
required, and will develop processes to provide the necessary feedback on
project status and progress. As third parties with no political
agenda, we are uniquely able to provide this feedback neutrally and without
appearing accusatory.
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