Does your company have a quality project management system? Prove it!
In today's business world, that's what global firms expect from service providers. With high-speed projects and rapid development, it's not easy to devote time and effort to certifying internal processes, even if customers demand it. By focusing on internal certification, Genuity Inc., a Woburn, Mass., USA-based Internet infrastructure services provider, positioned itself as a change agent focused on customer satisfaction—and that sort of public relations goes a long way.
Genuity's PMO guided the certification preparation, approaching the work as a project. Members of the PMO's core team include (from left) Christa Martin, project coordinator, Georgia Papadakis-Litterick, program manager, Edward Farkas, project manager, Matthew Beaumont, PMO Web site manager, and Deborah Seeger, program manager.
In the burgeoning internetworking industry, Genuity's eServices Delivery (ESD) group found time to create, deploy—and obtain ISO 9001:2000 certification. “As more and more businesses outsource critical functions, they need assurances of the quality of the services they purchase,” says David E. Scott, Genuity's vice president, hosting sales and service. “Companies need to know that they can rely on their service provider. This ISO certification confirms that Genuity is setting and achieving high standards for service delivery and that our customers can trust the quality of the services we offer.”
ESD contains a technical consulting arm, a project management practice and a program management office (PMO), which led the certification effort. For the quality certification work, the PMO's guiding principles were:
- The project management methodology should be based on A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and should be aligned with the company's strategic objectives
- The quality management system must be measurably responsive to customers and to the experience of the project and program managers in the field
- The stakeholders should be encouraged to achieve professional certification
- Both the project management methodology and associated quality management system should yield measurable operational efficiencies
- The effort must be managed like any other project employing the same methodology, tools, processes and techniques.
This last requirement was meant to demonstrate that the PMO practices what it preaches and concurrently validates the very system seeking certification.
Define the project life cycle.
Delineating the project life cycle required complex process mapping with all key stakeholders. Genuity used standard total quality management (TQM) techniques, beginning with a macro (entire project life cycle) map and drilling down into discrete phases. The process maps had swim lanes and a timeline to better identify who did what and when.
While mapping the process, as expected, gaps and white spaces became apparent. Knowing that the firm eventually would seek formal ISO 9001:2000 certification, the project manager paid special attention to the process inputs and outputs. Additionally, internal and external measurement points were identified for future use.
Translate the project life cycle into a formal methodology.
Having identified the project phases in the macro process mapping workshops, the PMO drilled down to the next level to determine:
- Activities or milestones that established the beginning and end of each phase within the project life cycle
- Roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders for each phase of the project life cycle (to effectively create a roles-and-responsibilities matrix)
- Corporate policies or standards that could be viewed as methodology constraints
- Solutions for process gaps and white spaces.
These inputs were translated into a methodology document, which defined how projects were managed in accordance with existing processes. The methodology document served as a baseline for the mapping of the “to be” macro process. The output of the preferred process map was documented as the official methodology, which served as the initial step toward refining the plan.
Develop standards to provide a consistent methodology.
The PMO had to determine how the work should be performed and needed to define the minimum standards that would provide both quality and consistency. When developing the standards, called “management bulletins,” the team balanced the minimum amount of direction with over-standardization. The design criteria stipulated that the standards should:
- Create a model of empowerment. The project managers should have latitude and real decision-making authority
- Facilitate the capturing of key performance indicators
- Provide for roll-up management reports
- Ease enterprisewide reporting and information sharing
- Foster quality in a measurable way
- Address the multiple ISO elements
- Enable the team to verify and analyze the results of conformance.
Twenty-five standards covering activities within each phase of the life cycle were developed. The PMO, in concert with the organization's management team, developed the associated management bulletins.
The resulting methodology standards were posted on the PMO intranet site to make them available to project managers throughout the United States. Standards such as the quality assurance reviews and post-project reviews also had the additional benefit of extracting best practices and lessons learned.
The project managers at Genuity were familiar with time-compressed implementations and were initially resistant to standardization. However, after the standards reduced their individual level of effort, the resistance diminished. As the percentage of projects completed ahead of schedule increased, the comments also began to change dramatically. “The eServices management team anticipated resistance to change,” says Keith Drum, director of Genuity's professional services. “At the same time we were confident that as the project managers worked with the new tools and processes they would see how ISO was a vehicle for further empowerment.”
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Develop tools to support standards.
The PMO defined the methodology based on the preferred macro process representing the project life cycle. The gaps were assessed and managed at this stage. Next, the PMO developed standards consistent with a project management-empowered “roles and responsibilities” matrix. Mechanisms for internal and external feedback loops were established. Drill downs were needed to the activity level, and tools were developed to:
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- Synchronize work performed with the standards defining the methodology
- Seem intuitive and user friendly
- Leverage the PMO intranet site to facilitate Web access
- Incorporate automated features such as e-mail triggers
- Display a “professional feel” so they can be used with different customers
- Exhibit, when appropriate, mechanisms for roll-up reporting
- Facilitate documentation and follow-up of issues identified in the project plan.
With input from both management and staff, the PMO created approximately 60 tools to cover key activities within each phase of the project life cycle.
The tools that were developed, many Web-based, covered the spectrum from request for proposal templates to post-project surveys. The suite facilitated scope analysis, risk management, issue-monitoring, planning, scheduling, progress reporting and acceptance-testing.
Staff input was critical to this effort. To promote participation from program and project managers in all the sales regions within the United States, the PMO created a tools review committee (TRC) to examine, test and comment on the effort prior to full field deployment.
Provide standards and tools training.
From a quality management system (QMS) perspective within an ISO 9000 series context, staff must be qualified, and training is essential. The PMO must possess a clear definition of the organization's structure and clarity around roles, responsibilities and job descriptions. The QMS addressed:
- Creation of a training and certification database
- Project management interview guides
- Staff competency assessment tools
- Documented job descriptions
- New hire checklists
- Introductory, intermediate and advanced training paths
- Training seminars scheduled to coincide with project reviews across the country
- Mechanisms to confirm that staff has been properly trained before new standards, policies, procedures or tools are issued.
The PMO training included the project management methodology, tools, the PMBOK® Guide, corporate procedures and policies and the company's technology products and services. Basic PMBOK® Guide training was outsourced to PMI-registered education providers.
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A training schedule for the year was published, and the PMO made copies of the training material available on its intranet site.
Control promulgation, document and version standards and tools.
The PMO was charged with confirming that staff was trained on ISO and QMS requirements. Training material defined ISO, the quality management system, the organization's business objectives and how the project management methodology synchronizes with elements within the ISO standard.
The training program confirmed that all U.S. offices were included. In addition, the training intentionally overlapped scheduled project reviews and planned “mock ISO” registration audits. The PMO secured staff input through the TRC, which included a management review committee (MRC) to capture input and analysis from the executive team.
Last, an ISO focus group, which had management and staff representation, provided a holistic perspective of the project management methodology and how well it integrated with the QMS.
Measure effectiveness with an internal audit program.
An ISO 9000 series QMS typically includes an internal audit program to foster standards conformance. Genuity's program strove to:
- Evaluate projects in real time to determine the effectiveness of the methodology
- Observe tool use in action to identify areas for improvement
- Validate the accuracy of the key performance indicators rolled up from individual projects and programs
- Determine conformance with QMS standards
- Proactively gauge the health of active company projects
- Monitor performance trends that may point to root cause issues in how work was performed nationwide
- Develop an objective, verifiable audit protocol and check list.
To maintain objectivity, the PMO internal auditors had substantial experience managing projects and were trained to obtain ISO lead auditor certification. With time, the PMO found that the project management community was, in fact, in conformance with the standards. Better yet, the program and project managers, though initially resistant to the effort, were personally experiencing the value of the system and became corporate advocates.
Improve effectiveness with preventive and corrective actions
The PMO quickly realized that the sheer number of feedback loops required the development of a formal process that would output preventive and corrective actions.
Feedback, observations and findings were tracked in a database structured to facilitate data analysis and trending. For example, the PMO tracked issues by specific standard.
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Review by staff and management.
The management team convened regularly to assess the proposed standards, project management methodology, analysis of the key performance indicators and the results of the preventive and corrective actions process. In some cases, the management team also saw proposed complex tools based on the estimated level of effort required for use.
The process was designed so that prior to MRC meetings, staff feedback was solicited from either the ISO focus group or the TRC. In this way, the PMO was alerted to staff concerns and issues prior to management intervention.
Implement a quality manual and quality management system.
The PMO Web site contained version-controlled copies of the project management methodology standards, tools, best practices and lessons learned.
The site also included enterprisewide mechanisms for project and time tracking and recording. The PMO still needed to document how the specific elements of the methodology and management system correlated to the ISO elements required for certification, so it created a quality manual.
The quality manual defined the project management organization and its quality policy and objectives and methodically correlated virtually every standard, process and tool to specific ISO elements. In addition, the quality manual explained the relationship between ISO elements and methodology standards.
At Genuity, the integration of the PMBOK® Guide with ISO was virtually seamless. “This ISO certification validates Genuity's ongoing commitment to provide customers with optimal service,” says David Dougherty, business development manager, TUV Management Service, a registrar based in Munich, Germany. “We are particularly impressed with the dedication of Genuity's field staff and managers, the maturity of the company's project management methodology and the comprehensive tool suite employed by Genuity.” PM
Edward B. Farkas manages Genuity Inc.'s eServices Delivery program management office, New York, N.Y., USA. He has worked as a program and project manager since 1987 in both the public and private sectors. Over his career, Farkas, a certified ISO lead auditor, has managed over $5 billion of aviation, construction, IT and Internet projects.