The Ask:
A global pharmaceutical company was looking to setup a Project Management Office (PMO) to support their external manufacturing business.
Scale:
- 100+ live projects
- 102 products/3000+SKUs
- 183 external network sites
Results and Benefits
- Dashboard developed for live, up to date clarity on project status
- Portfolio metrics, clarity on project status & reduced project report meetings
- Standardised project tool kit developed for each phase of the project lifecycle
- Budget management and reporting process developed
- Portfolio governance board & Business Unit forums setup
- Roles and responsibilities developed across the project lifecycle
- PMO governance policies developed
- Project managers trained to the same standard and ongoing PM support installed
- Project portfolio reporting capability – Quarterly reports submitted to the executive team
- Guideline documents and templates developed for each phase of the project lifecycle
- Clarity for internal management on resource utilisation and approval
Challenges:
- Extremely large and growing project portfolio
- No definitive source of transparency on the capital investment & resource demands
- No executive view for portfolio status
- Highly diverse range of projects:
- Extremely large and growing
- Complex technical transfers
- New market introductions
- Equipment and facility upgrades
- Business continuity projects
- Project managers experience and training varied greatly
- No effective budget tracking/reporting against projects
- Key internal processes such as technical transfers not mapped to the project lifecycle
Implication
- Significant company revenue tied to the project portfolio, not visible
- Repeated questions & confusion surrounding project finances
- Business risk: Lack of clarity surrounding business continuity projects
- Over reporting, frustration, lost time and risk due to lack of transparency
Objective
- Develop a standardised tool kit to support the project requirements
- Develop a reporting structure to facilitate clear project status reporting
- Roll out project management training to the internal team and across the divisions
- Setup portfolio governance – Decision making and prioritisation forums
- Minimise the amount of direct reporting required
- Establish appropriate project portfolio metrics to support management
- Develop resource management capability
The Approach:
Toolkit
- Voice of the Customer
- PMO User Requirements Specification
- Project Approval & Communications Plan
- Process Mapping
- Project Charter
- Project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Project Budget Template
- Project Dashboard
- Project Risk Register
- Project Management Training
- Business Unit Programme Reports
- Resource Management Template
- Resource Management Tracker
