Business Challenge
In 2017, Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by Information Technology Services at a southern flagship university to help establish a Portfolio Management Office (PMO). This office was intended to support a variety of projects from across the University system. The University engaged TSI to help establish the PMO with training, structure, management strategies, and development of critical PMO foundations through the development of a charter, mission, and vision. Extensive in-depth training was also provided on topics such as project management, Lean Principles, and Business Process Improvement. TSI provided this training and ongoing support to the PMO staff and worked collaboratively to foster a culture of innovation and improvement throughout IT Services and the campus community.
TSI’s Approach and Role
Approach
To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged the following approach:
PMO Development
In order to launch a new Portfolio Management Office, TSI was brought in to collaborate and provide ongoing support and development to newly appointed or hired PMO staff. Working closely with the PMO Director, a series of high level and detailed trainings were provided surrounding project management, office setup and maintenance activities, and mentoring for PMO growth and stability. Overall, TSI provided training to approximately 40 individuals including Project Managers, Business Analysts, Business Process Analysts, and administrative staff. Additionally, TSI collaboratively presented to groups throughout IT Services to foster cultural change towards improvement and level set language used across the unit. Part of the PMO development was a Business Process Improvement Training and Mentoring program which included an in-depth dive to BPI for PMO staff and a Train-the-Trainer component for Business Process Analysts.
BPI Training and Mentoring
To support PMO growth and development, the University asked TSI to provide in-depth training in TSI’s BPI methodology. With varied experience levels of PMO staff, TSI chose to implement its’ I DO, WE DO, YOU DO approach to training and mentoring. This approach provides a deep dive exploration of the 6 steps of the methodology followed by hands-on implementation of the concepts learned. It also allowed each individual in training to progress at their own pace. With the I DO phase, the TSI facilitation team led the facilitation and documentation of the current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions and developed the deliverables for each session. The facilitators-in-training observed the methodology in action during the I DO sessions and reviewed the process of creating and finalizing the deliverables.
In the WE DO phase, facilitators-in-training were actively part of the facilitation team for current state, analysis of current state, and future state sessions as well as for the development of deliverables for each process area. Collaborating with the TSI facilitation team, the facilitators-in-training took the lead with mentoring, guidance, and feedback as needed. Once a desired level of competencies were achieved and communicated, the individual continued to the YOU DO phase. In the YOU DO phase, each mentee took the lead for the facilitation team for all stages of the process improvement and developed the deliverables independently with review and feedback from the TSI team. For each session, pre-session planning and post-session debriefing meetings were held to share best practices for preparing for process improvement and gathering feedback about implementation of the methodology and engagement with stakeholders. This training was intended to empower PMO staff to be able to implement BPI across the University as needed for its projects.
Train-the-Trainer
Once each PMO staff member evidenced mastery of each competency for the various training components (BPI, Project Management), they were engaged to serve in a collaborative role with other mentees, observing, co-facilitating, and providing constructive feedback. Additionally, they were engaged to facilitate the training presentations for different topics to staff within the PMO, IT Services, or other stakeholders across the University. To modify and evolve the training content, PMO staff collaborated with TSI to add relevant examples, develop case study content, and track delivery. Each mentee received feedback, suggestions, and coaching throughout their trainer development.
Role
TSI worked closely with the PMO Director to develop training curriculum, materials, and tools that would result in sustainable PMO Operations. TSI serves as a project manager in collaboration with the PMO Director and other Business Analysts to reinforce training and project management best practices. TSI served as a facilitator, lead trainer, mentor, and evaluator.
Results
Throughout the engagement both the University and TSI gathered data to support progress toward goals, effective implementation of methods, measure outcomes, and evidence a return on investment. Some of this data included:
- 40 individuals received general project management training for the PMO development
- 20 individuals received deep dive training and mentoring in TSI’s Business Process Improvement methodology
- 20 Portfolio Management Office staff completed team training in Lean principles, Project Management, and Organizational Change Management
- 6 individuals completed all competencies for the train-the-trainer developmental coaching and now serve in the training role for the PMO
- Detailed feedback and coaching was provided and tracked for 20 PMO BPI mentees and train-the-trainers to ensure visibility and transparency of competency development
- Metric tracking was established to monitor project timelines, progress, success, and other defined measures
- Methods for tracking business processes and desired metrics were developed for the PMO which continue to be used for PMO internal work