PrintEnterprise Project Management
Delivering the benefits of an enterprise level approach to project management
Client: UK Ministry of Defence, Defence Equipment & Support
Context
Large organisations increasingly recognise the benefits of strong coordination and standardization between projects and project managers, centralized resource management, and higher-level reporting about projects and resources. The Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution delivers these benefits.
Many of the benefits of an enterprise level approach to project management are however dependent on how closely the configuration of the chosen tool is matched to the organisation's business processes and how consistently this configuration is applied across the portfolio of projects.
What we did
integrate undertook an investigation into the options for standardisation of Work Breakdown Structures (WBSs) across the MoD DE&S organisation, carried out in conjunction with a roll-out programme for Microsoft Project 2003 Enterprise.
Over a four-week period our team worked with client stakeholders from both the user community and the business process organisation. We established how Work Breakdown Structures were being actually being used during project planning and elicited users' requirements for a standardised approach. We synthesised this information with the organisation's aspirations for enterprise project management processes in order to arrive at a pragmatic way forward that matched best practice while being within easy reach of the planning and project management maturity of the user community.
Following its investigation, we recommended a solution which would:
- increase consistency in the structuring of project work plans
- enable consistent consolidation of project information
- allow easier comparison, aggregation and reporting
- reinforce compliance with the organisation's business processes
- develop best practice and learning from experience
- improve training quality and delivery
- improve productivity, effectiveness and performance
Outcome
integrate's recommendations were approved and a standardised approach to Work Breakdown Structuring was incorporated in the Enterprise Project Management roll-out. The roll-out has been completed and has resulted in measurable improvements in planning and project management maturity.