Case #3: Designing and implementing a centralized project tracking and reporting process to reduce project team fragmentation.

An internet start-up company hired Cheryl to assist with project management standardization and process improvement in their newly established Project Services Office (PSO). The challenges we faced included:

• Lack of project definition on the large number of cross-functional efforts.
• Unclear process for prioritizing developers’ time on multiple projects in a weak matrix organization, with the result that developers did not necessarily work on the most business related tasks.
• Difficulties in collecting data and tracking planned versus actual duration of tasks. The actual time spent on tasks was collected manually by project managers who were responsible for several projects.

Cheryl worked with the PSO manager to define an automated project tracking and reporting process using MS Project Central. She ran a pilot prototype of the process, and delivered a short tutorial on its use to the project team members. Her responsibilities and accomplishments included:

• Presenting the process to executive management and gaining their approval and buy-in.
• Working with technical staff to install and implement the pilot software.
• Defining the process, developing and delivering training to the project team members to enable them to automatically report their time.

As a result, the PSO implemented an automated project tracking process which was used successfully until the local office was closed. The process received enthusiastic recommendation from executives, project team members and developers who were able to utilize the process in other locations as well.