Project Management

Case Study: Project Management Practices

Challenge: A major telecommunications company undergoing rapid growth wanted to reduce the delivery cycle time of their projects for new voice and data services. Time to market was critical to the company’s success in a highly competitive industry. As the company’s staff and number of projects expanded, the management team identified the need for better project management to improve project delivery.

Approach: Recognizing that improving project management practices involves a cultural change in a company, the Kaslen Group recommended that all project stakeholders should understand project management and not just the individuals designated as project managers. The fundamentals of project management were defined, incorporated into a basic toolkit, and taught to all project stakeholders. The what, who, when, how, and most importantly the ‘why’ were part of the project management toolkit and training program.

Solution: The Kaslen Group facilitated the client’s management team in defining eight basic project management deliverables for the project management toolkit. These eight deliverables were based on the client’s internal best practices and were consistent with the Project Management Institute’s Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for project initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. The toolkit contained simple instructions and easy to use templates for each deliverable.

A half day training session was designed to explain fundamental project management principles and to teach how to use the eight project management deliverables in the toolkit. The roles and responsibilities of both the project manager and the project stakeholders for each of the eight deliverables were explored in the training session. The training used examples from every day life and from the client’s project portfolio to illustrate the practical application of project management. Kaslen conducted these training sessions for over three hundred of the client’s staff. Follow-up coaching was provided to project teams during first time use of the eight project management deliverables.

The client achieved a common vocabulary and consistent practices for project management across the organization. The eight project management deliverables provided basic project planning and control needed to help reduce project cycle time. With these fundamentals in place, the client was then able to focus on make other project improvements, such as the definition of requirements.