PMO and Microsoft Project Support for EDUCATE Program
Goal
- Develop detailed team schedules with cross-project inter-dependencies in order to create an integrated and predictive Master Program Schedule that accurately reflected the work teams were executing
- Implement status tracking and reporting using MS Project Server 2007 and SharePoint.
- Provide procedures, templates, and reports to meet project management requirements for our client and Dept of Education program management.
- Supply expertise in organizing and managing the program into smaller team based schedules utilizing the full power of Microsoft Project Server.
- Configure parts of SharePoint to support team collaboration.
Challenges
- Federal Government client lacked confidence in schedules and schedule reporting that was being produced
- Processes for "master schedule" status updating and reporting were not accurate and did not reflect the actual work being performed. Schedules were also not predictive of true status.
- Teams were working activities not reflected in detailed project schedules
- Schedules did not pass Federal Government's PMO basic construction and reporting requirements which include milestones and client tasks.
- Status and schedule update processes did not support timely changes to project schedules and was lacking key inputs to schedule status
- Processes were not established or enforced to re-forecast start/finish dates as work progressed during execution
- No schedule versioning controls were in place. Schedules had not been base-lined.
Solution
Cognitive's approach was to start with our client's existing Microsoft Project plans and build in Cognitive schedule construction standards, templates, processes and reports to create integrated management and reporting that met Federal requirements. The next step was to implement processes for reflecting status utilizing MS Project Server and SharePoint tools. The result is dramatically increased customer confidence in program reporting. In addition, Cognitive and Perot worked together to develop a schedule change management strategy for the program. Cognitive also improved the Risk and Issues management processes by utilizing the list features of SharePoint.
Cognitive Value Added
Cognitive Technologies provided expert project and program management staff to perform services that resulted in improved management of a large, multi-year program: project management, Microsoft ProjectServer implementation, business process consulting, IT strategy consulting.