Case study 1 - Project Management
Description:
Our client was involved in delivering many concurrent projects, some simple and others very complex. The client was managing some of these themselves and others were being managed for them by contractors but they felt that too many of them were being delivered late and/or over budget.
MCL's Analysis:
The client didn't lack skilled people to deliver the projects and they had invested in training some of them in formal project management methodologies. However, the gap that often exists between the theory and practice of project management was in evidence - and there was no consistency in how the projects were being run or reported on.
In short, the client was working too hard to achieve what it needed to and wasted time and effort in project delivery.
Traditional way of addressing these problems:
This might include the purchase of MS Project software and training. It might also include training on a variety of project management methodologies. And the client might have asked other organsiations how it managed projects - and come away none the wiser.
MCL's solution:
MCL delivered a programme of improvements which comprised:
- Understanding the culture of the organisation and the circumstances in which projects needed to be delivered
- Understanding the range and complexity of projects to be delivered
- Identifying the key players involved in project delivery
- Working with them to develop a Project Management Best Practice for their organisation, ie
-
- the processes to be followed
- the documentation to be used
- accountabilities and ownership
- planning
- execution
- Using the agreed best practice, training them in the use of relevant functions of MS Project, with the intention not of making them into MS Project Black Belts but of making them confident in their use of the software to support their best practice