Project Management Consulting

Do you need advice on structuring a PMO?

Are you building your project management standards?

Would a project management expert help you kick off a project or keep a project team on track?

• Building a PMO- Versatile can provide advice or temporary staffing to help address key PMO success factors.
• Coaching for Executives- Versatile consultants can help boost project results by coaching executives and/or teams.
• Virtual Project Planning- Versatile provides planning and control support for your project management plans.
• The EPM Model- Use Versatile's EPM Model to break down and evaluate your project management practices.
• Project Management Methodology- Versatile can show you how to put a common project management methodology into practice for excellent results.

A Project Management Office is critical to integrating project management into the culture and processes of your organization.

To help you build your PMO faster, Versatile can provide advice or temporary staffing to address these key PMO success factors:

• Put the PMO in the right location in the organization. Maximize effectiveness with appropriate authority and scope.
• Clearly identify the PMO's responsibilities. A strong charter keeps early PMO activities focused and establishes consistent expectations for the PMO among the people it will serve.
• Develop a PMO implementation plan. A PMO's duties should evolve with the evolution of project management in your firm.

Critical projects benefit from expert advice.  A Versatile consultant can help your projects start fast and stay directed.

• Project initiation and planning workshops integrate all project stakeholders. Produce clear goals and strong work plans that will be the foundation of project execution and control.
• Executive coaching allows project sponsors to make their best impact given their key leadership role.
• Team coaching keeps the team focused on moving ahead, learning and applying project management principles as they maintain progress.

Consulting engagements range from days to months in duration.  Contact us to discuss how Versatile can boost your project results.

Virtual Planning and Control provides the mechanics of building and maintaining the project management plan. Your Versatile planning and control facilitator will:

• Lead the team in development of the integrated cost, schedule and resource plan.
• Lead risk identification and response planning.
• Facilitate project team meetings.
• Maintain the project plan.

Keep your technical experts focused on building products and solving problems. Versatile will provide the planning and control support so you get the full benefit of robust project management.

Project management is an established discipline with evolving best practices. Versatile’s consulting process breaks your project management practices down to evaluate them and identify areas for improvement.

Process Assessment - Our Enterprise Project Management model forms the basis for evaluation

-Source: Eric Verzuh, Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 3d edition (2008)

Structured deliverables - Based on the assessment of these areas, you’ll receive a report detailing specific gaps and recommendations for making improvements.

Phased implementation - We use a phased implementation model to make rapid, visible changes and minimize the disruption of organizational change. 

Free Organizational Assessment - Begin the journey to improved project delivery.  Contact us to learn more: projects@versatilecompany.com

Consistent use of project management methods builds skills and organizational maturity. A common methodology is the foundation of long term project management excellence.

• Get started quickly using the Fast Foundation in Project Management.
• Over twenty forms and checklists to perform the most common project management activities.
• Your organization will have full rights to use and modify these forms as you see fit.
• FREE when you purchase The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management.

Consulting engagements range from days to months in duration. Contact us to discuss how Versatile's project management consulting can boost your project results.

Project management maturity is a measure of two factors:

1. Consistency of practice. 
2. Complexity of practice.

Project management maturity applies to an organization, such as an IT department or a research lab.  The concept doesn't apply to people.

These two variables are pretty easy understand:

Consistency of practice means that from project to project, people are using the same techniques, following the same guidelines, and applying the same heuristics.  Each project manager produces plans and reports that follow the same format and have the same kind of information.  As a result, the organization develops habits and the organization can evaluate whether the habits are effective or not.  The other benefit is that future project leaders grow up in an environment where good practices are all around them. 

As simple and practical as this sounds, many organizations still haven't picked up on it.  Instead of establishing common standards and teaching people to follow the standards, they prefer to focus only on "getting project managers certified."  This theory holds that if everybody has read the same book they'll all have the skills to apply the theory.  But a bunch of good project managers all doing it their own way is not consistent practice.  And it doesn't build organizational habits.  So the individual project leaders learn and improve, but overall, the organization hasn't learned anything.

Complexity of practice recognizes that project management is a big field with a lot of proven techniques. A firm can get value from doing the basics of project management consistently. For example, every project has a sponsor, a project manager, a statement of goals and scope, and an action plan with tasks, due dates, and responsibilities.   That is a starting point.  Now add that every project generates a risk plan and keeps it up to date.  That is a little more complex.  If all projects are doing the basics, then they all add risk management, the organization has matured.

Increase Project Management Maturity by repeating these steps:

1. Establish standards.
2. Train people to be able to follow the standards.
3. Leverage technology as appropriate.
4. Coach people to improve their ability to meet the standards.
5. Hold leaders and teams accountable to using the standards.

Repeat the process with more complex standards.