Project - Revisiting Project Management System

The company had adopted and then abandoned a high-end Project Management application, which was directly integrated into the ERP (NetSuite). This solution was viewed as a failure by the The Board of Directors as it was time intensive to manage and had a low adoption rate. An individual responsible for managing projects had left the company, leaving a huge communications and information gap between the IT Department and the rest of the company. To compensate, the Board of Directors had placed the head of the department that would be most impacted by any changes made during a project in charge of that project, and worked with them directly to manage the projects.

In working to ensure that project leaders were properly scoping projects, I identified the need for the company to use a Business Requirements Document (BRD) to help ensure project needs were correctly identified, and any inter-departmental requirements, or manual and computerized business processes would be fully discussed prior to project execution. I worked with the Process Analyst to re-create the BRD, ensuring that this more simplified version fit company needs.

Noticing a benefit, I gained approvals to re-create the entire Project Management system.

Goals:

• Source a replacement project management software program
• Recreate the Project Management system for the company, sizing it per current company needs
• Reinforce the need for project leaders to follow standard Project Management methodologies
• Recreate any supporting documentation required to ensure the successful delivery of projects
  

I sourced a new cost effective PMBOK compliant project management application, and used it to generate my department and the corporate master project plans.  I reviewed all supporting documents, and worked with the Business Process Analyst to document the new system.  I then deployed it throughout the company, leading the training of all of the team members using it.

The program enjoyed a 100% adoption rate, with every single employee immediately using the solution. It was noticed that issues with projects declined steadily, communications were more positively focused during project scoping and execution, project management overheads were reduced, and projects suffered significantly less unforeseen complications.