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Senior Director of Project and Process Management,
Idea Integration
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VP of IT,
Private Oil & Gas Services Firm

Porfolio Management Strategy - Case Study #4

Harris County Flood Control District – Project Mgmt Center of Excellence

The Business Challenge

The Harris County Flood Control District is in the process of implementing a Project Management Center of Excellence to facilitate the successful management of engineering projects and programs. The Project Management Center of Excellence (“PMCoE”) will apply a framework for managing the projects and portfolio. The PMCoE will also employ process manuals, templates and provide the necessary training and support to facilitate the adoption of the management framework. Manuals set forth by PMCoE are to include the Portfolio Management Manual, a Process Manual and a Project Management Methodology Manual.

HCFCD contacted Idea to participate in the definition and development of these key artifacts for the PMCoE. The Portfolio Management Manual is to encompass a detailed Portfolio Management strategy for the Operations Division of HCFCD including budget and funding particulars and project status communication via Dashboard and SharePoint Portal capabilities. The Process Manual is to include a step-by-step instructional for constructing artifacts. This manual needs to be complete with hyperlinks to templates and checklists. The Project Management Manual will outline the customer’s strategy/philosophy per PMI best practices. This manual will discuss the “why’s” of the processes, the Life Cycles of the Projects and Studies as they are implemented within HCFCD and a list of HCFCD processes.

Challenges

Organizational indifference due to past attempts
Strong personalities on the client project team
Large number of stakeholders spread across the Project and Engineering groups
Lack of vision for the end state of this group
Lack of feedback loop to the Engineering group on to-be process designs

Solution

Idea Activities & Deliverables

Conduct facilitated sessions with client management and staff to document existing project processes, procedures, workflows and associated calculations for business case and project operations.
Utilize PMI’s IPECC process framework and best practices to drive the overall project & portfolio governance model.
Use our business and project management expertise to drive the analysis of customer input and develop high-caliber deliverables for the training and operations of the PMCoE.
Provide technical writing expertise to design and format the final deliverables of the PMCoE for enterprise training, reference and distribution.

Return on Investment

Idea is able to provide the Flood Control District with an external, unbiased perspective on the vision and objectives of an initiative such as the PMCoE project. Through the use of an external entity, the project sponsors at HCFCD can manage the organizational conflict surrounding the initiative while acquiring qualified manpower to assist in the development, deployment and training on the new processes and procedures.

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