White Paper. Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers. Add PM Skills to Corporate Training & Boost Business Goal Achievement

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1 White Paper Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers Add PM Skills to Corporate Training & Boost Business Goal Achievement pmcollege white paper series p pmcollege.com 2014 Professional Development Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 Once the province of engineers alone, today project management is embraced by organizations across all sectors, and in all departments... 2

3 Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers Project Management as a Skill Set Once the province of engineers alone, today project management is embraced by organizations across all sectors, and in all departments. Companies have set up project management offices (PMOs) to standardize processes and tools, and have trained their project personnel to manage projects better. What about the rest of the organization? Couldn t these same concepts apply to any functional area to make delivering projects easier and results more successful? The answer to this question is a resounding yes! Multiple research studies make a strong case that good project management raises organizational performance overall. For example, The State of the PMO 2014 shows that, when companies have highly-capable PMOS, they are more likely to score high across a range of organizational performance measures, from customer satisfaction to financial success. They also experience measureable improvements in productivity, cost savings, and time to market. Despite this strong evidence of business value, employees can still be reluctant to embrace project management practices. As with anything new, there is a learning curve at the outset and employees tend to revert to what is most familiar. Project management may be perceived as demanding too much rigor, discipline, and effort, especially in creative functions like marketing or product innovation. Yet the reality is that project management practices are scalable to any size project and, through the use of repeatable approaches and templates, can help make delivering projects much easier and manageable for any type of organization. Figure 1 shows the questions that are answered during the project management process, and which are applicable to any type or size of project in any industry. Monitor/ 1 Initiate 2 Plan 3 Execute 4 Control 5 Close Do we have an accurate description of the project? What objective do we want to achieve? Who are the stakeholders? Do I have formal authorization to begin the project? Is there funding? When is the project due? What are the requirements? Which resources do we need to assign? Will we need to contract out all/part of the work? Are there subject matter experts we need to involve? What is the timeline to complete the activities? What approvals do I need along the way? Are we following the plan as it was defined? Are deadlines being met? Are we within budget? If a change is needed how will it be addressed? Are communicating effectively with key stakeholders? How are we measuring success? Did we meet our stated objective? Did the project complete on time and on budget? Do we need to document lessons learned for similar projects in the future? How do we recognize the team s efforts? Figure 1. Project Management Process Groups. As you move through a project, each set of activities adds a new level of detailed information, understanding, and accomplishment. Adapted from: M. Yanocha, Keep It Lean, Don t Slow Us Down! In The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Fourth Edition (AMACOM Books, 2014). 3

4 Measuring the Business Value of Training Perhaps the best proof that project management training improves business outcomes is that forwardlooking companies are already using this strategy. According to The State of the PMO 2014 research study, high-performing organizations do more project management training, on more advanced topics, and are more likely to offer project management mentoring and coaching, than organizations who score lower on a variety of business performance measures, from customer satisfaction to financial success. Previous research (The State of Project Management Training 2011) showed that organizations use project management training to address a variety of needs some focused on improving project managers skills, some on improving project management capability, and some on improving project success. Specifically, these include (figures indicate the percentage of companies reporting that they used training to address that issue): >> Avoiding missed project deadlines (65%) >> Providing basic project management skills (63%) >> Developing professional project managers (61%) >> Improving quality (57%) >> Reducing project failures (57%) >> Minimizing scope creep (55%) >> Minimizing cost overruns (53%) >> Increasing productivity (48%) >> Onboarding new employees (24%) >> Responding to competitive pressures (21%) >> Adhering to executive mandates (21%) Those firms that do measure the effectiveness of their project management training show significant business results. These results make it clear that business needs are indeed being met by project management training initiatives. Organizations saw an average 26% improvement in the eight measures of performance shown in Figure 2. 29% Improved stakeholder satisfaction 27% Improved schedule performance 26% Decrease in project failures 25% Improved budget performance 25% Improved requirements performance 25% Improved quality 25% Improved productivity 24% Improved time to market Figure 2. Business Results Due to PM Training. Source: The State of Project Management Training 2011, PM College. In addition, a recent series of interviews with leaders of training initiatives, discussed in detail below, reveals that, when companies want to meet business challenges and objectives, a key strategy is to provide project management training to a broad spectrum of roles. 4

5 Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers Poised for a Leap Forward For example, at California-based energy company SunEdison, which was recently featured in Kiplinger s Personal Finance as an alternative energy stock to watch in 2014, the corporate PMO has been asked to provide project management training to every salaried person in the company over 2,000 individuals. Says PMO director Susan Rosenthal, The rationale for the program is that SE s growth position is tremendous, and the ability to execute has to keep up. The CEO sees operational excellence as a theme and program management is one of the keys to achieving this. The PMO has created an internal certification program, for which there is a rigorous selection and application process. In order to track the benefits of this corporate-wide initiative, Rosenthal s group has moved beyond the usual training measurements. We did a maturity assessment last year and will compare against that when we assess again. In the short term, a six-month check-in determines whether the new skills are being used on the job. Getting a Handle on Innovation At Pernod Ricard USA, the creation of a new Business Development department spurred the company to create an initiative that would boost the project management skills across the organization. Leadership recognizes that everyone needs project management skills, says Gregg Marchese, Training Manager. In fact, it s assumed that people at the director level have them. But, in seeking to improve the management of innovation corporate-wide, Pernod Ricard began by asking, Who could benefit from this who is not a Project Manager? They reached out to employees far beyond the usual list of project management personnel, bringing in sales, marketing, operations, facilities, HR and finance among others. This top-down approach has quickly brought the organization into line around a shared set of templates and a common language to use when presenting ideas and status to executives. We used to be all over the map, says Marchese, but now when people present to the executives, it s expected that you use the standard PM templates and language. Slashing Time-to-Market Few industries are more focused on time-to-market than medical device manufacturers. At KARL STORZ, leadership recognized that projects were very important because a new device had to meet stringent schedule, budget, and quality parameters to be profitable. An example would be a new endoscope in development; it consists of multiple projects and subprojects, technical, regulatory, marketing. We felt we could do better, says Ken Kottke, Project & Change Manager, and we set a very lofty, though not very clear, goal: make project management a core competency. As they laid plans for the training program, Kottke realized that while it was important for people who manage projects to be skilled up, others also needed attention. Maybe not certification, but some skills in order to work on teams more effectively. Beginning with a competency assessment, they identified the skill gaps, then created learning programs to fill them. The program, called PM Development, consists of four workshops. Three cover soft skills interpersonal skills, time management, and influencing others while the fourth is more tools-related. Significantly, the workshops are taught in this order, making the interpersonal skills the foundation of the program. Kottke notes, Within a company like ours, there are different ways to manage projects; product development is different from IT, for example. But if they have the technical side down, and master the soft skills, project managers are somewhat interchangeable across departments. This gives the company great flexibility. 5

6 KARL STORZ has also focused on measuring the value of their project management training program. Kottke explains, Twice a year, we report to the Executive Board on what they are getting for their investment. We use a 360-type assessment to get data from managers, asking if they see a difference in performance. The answer, according to Kottke, is a resounding yes. The company has also realized that project managers and teams are only as good as their sponsoring organization. Inevitably, if they go back and their managers aren t supportive, it s all for naught. So we do Sponsor Training as well to let managers know what project teams need from them. Incorporating Project Management into an Organizational Training Curriculum These examples show that there are as many ways to implement project management training as there are organizations with learning needs. Naturally, there are varying degrees of project management training required to address different levels and needs of knowledge. At minimum, including a few basic courses that introduce overall project management concepts into a corporate training curriculum allows all organizational groups to benefit from these skills. Incorporating more advanced project management courses that also address leadership topics will benefit those in management roles. Shorter duration sessions that speak to the business value of project management will help senior executives better understand and appreciate how project management practices translate to improved organizational performance. A project management curriculum that imparts appropriate skills at the right levels might resemble Figure 3. Role Executive-level management: Responsible for sponsoring the projects Managers: Staff responsible for overseeing and or executing larger, complex and/or multiple projects within their functional areas Individual contributors and team members: Staff responsible for executing projects as part of their functional responsibilities Administrative and support personnel Sample Curriculum >> Project Management for Executives >> Portfolio Planning & Management >> Benefits Realization >> Project Management Essentials >> How to Lead a Team >> Strategies for Effective Stakeholder Engagement >> Measuring Project Management Performance >> Managing Successful Programs >> Project Management Essentials >> Strategies for Effective Stakeholder Engagement >> PM Basics Focus Provides an understanding of the value project management brings when executing business strategies to demonstrate measurable business impact. Focuses on the technical and leadership attributes needed to successfully prioritize and execute projects. Emphasis is placed on both team and sponsor-level communications, and on using repeatable processes to become more efficient and consistent at project execution. Emphasizes speaking the language of project management and understand and communicating effectively with different levels of the organization. Provides techniques to support deliverables on a project. Introduces project management concepts and processes to better support project execution. Figure 3. Sample Project Management Curriculum for a Variety of Levels within an Organization 6

7 Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers Training Measurement Simplified In addition, making an effort to capture the business improvements of your project management training right from the start is a wise investment of effort. Choose a measure that is important to your organization (some key metrics from various industries and functions are shown in Figure 4). It should be one that the individuals being trained can have an impact on, if their skills improve. One example might be number of projects meeting their print deadlines, in a publishing or marketing setting. Train key individuals in project management; then, after a relevant period, revisit that statistic about deadlines. Seeing the positive business impacts of improved project management can be as simple as that. IT Measures HR Measeures R&D Measures Customer Service Measures Rework cost per project % Employee turnover Development spending by phase Customer retention rate System reliability Average days to fill open positions Promised dates vs. actual dates Revenue per customer Figure 4. Sample business measures that can be impacted by improved project management skills. Source: Measures of Project Management Performance and Value, PM Solutions Research, Making project management an overall part of your corporate training curriculum helps reinforce a common understanding of project management terminology and techniques that will help build collaboration and improve project performance. Employees in every division, department, and functional role can benefit from learning and using some fundamental project management practices. References Project Management Institute A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition. Newtow-Square, PA: PMI. PM College Internal research project. Interviews carried out Dec. 20, 2013 through Jan. 28, 2014 by and telephone. PM College The State of Project Management Training. Glen Mills, PA: PM College. PM Solutions Research The State of the PMO Glen Mills, PA: PM Solutions. Yanocha, M Keep It Lean, Don t Slow Us Down! Chapter 47 in The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Fourth Edition, Dinsmore, P. and Cabanis-Brewin, J., eds. New York, NY: AMACOM Books. 7

8 Project Management: Not Just For Project Managers Where to start? Learning some basic project management principles will help business leaders and staff at any functional level to enhance the chance of consistent project success. A great foundational level course is Project Management Essentials. Available in 2-day, 3-day, and virtual delivery formats, PM Essentials covers basic concepts of fundamental project management processes, including: >> Defining preliminary scope >> Developing a work breakdown structure >> Scheduling >> Identifying stakeholders >> Risk management Participants come away with practical approaches, templates, and techniques they can apply right away to their own project activities. View our extensive selection of courses at including summaries of all recommended courses found on page six of this white paper. PMI and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. Scan this code with your smart phone. Project Management College (PM College) delivers a blend of onsite and online project management training and professional development to corporate clients worldwide. We partner with our clients to identify organizational learning objectives, deliver relevant training content, and achieve measurable behavior changes that lead to improved performance. Course offerings cover all learning needs from basic to advanced including both technical project management skills and business-driven soft skills. Content can be customized to reflect an organization s unique culture and processes, and we align our training measurement with our clients KPIs. PM College s unparalleled customer service, top-rated instructors, modular course content, and blended learning programs make us the provider of choice for many global companies in the finance and insurance, manufacturing, consumer goods, technology services, and government sectors. A division of the project management consultancy PM Solutions, PM College is recognized as a Charter Global Registered Education Provider (REP ) by the Project Management Institute (PMI ). CORPORATE OFFICE 1788 Wilmington Pike Glen Mills, PA 19342, USA Toll-free (USA): International: info@pmcollege.com pmcollege white paper series p pmcollege.com 2014 Professional Development Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.