Is it really possible to automate governance when implementing a PPM system?
“Tools certainly have a place, capturing information on line and making that information available for decision makers as well as future performance measurement.
But should the actual decision be automated ?”

By Martin Vaughan

Martin Vaughan is a Senior Consultant and Director of Core Consulting Group. With 20 years Project Management experience, the first 10 years focused on Planning/Scheduling and EVM, together with extensive industry experience as an employer of Planner/Schedulers and Project Managers, he is well placed to comment.

Martin lectures in IT Project Management at Melbourne University at a Post Graduate level, writes and speaks regularly in various industry forums. He has developed a number of Graduate Programs and has led skills development in and around Planning and Scheduling for years.

Download PDF

Simplot Australia is a food manufacturing company in Australia with some of Australia’s favourite food brand businesses including Edgell, Chiko, Birds Eye, Harvest, Leggo’s, John West, Lean Cuisine and Top Cut. Simplot Australia was carrying out the delivery of the Catalyst Program, which is to implement JDE as a core business application integrating all brands. Core Consulting Group (CCG) was initially asked for the implementation of a Program Management Office (PMO) for Simplot’s Catalyst Program.

Core Consulting Group proposed to provide an initial review and implementation plan as a first step and then the implementation of a suitably functional PMO. The initial review was carried out over two weeks. The review combined interviews, project artefact review, observation, informal discussion and industry best practice review.

After the successful completion of the initial review and creation of implementation plan, Core Consulting Group was asked to guide the implementation of recommendations for the PMO capability establishment and to carry out the PMO Roles. The implementations were: Establish PMO staffing and its structure, develop Program Governance, standards and Program Management plan, such as Program planning, scheduling managing dependencies between projects, tracking and reporting processes and systems and clear accountability. The processes and systems implemented enabled integration with other key controls elements such as risk management, change management, documentation control and cost management functions. All of these were integrated with the BAU PMO.

Core Consulting handed over a documented scheduling standard as well as updated templates and standards documentation. The outcome was a planning and control framework that provided more visibility and control for the Project Board and Steering Committee. More importantly, the program governance improved dramatically as a result of our work with a functioning Program Board and clear accountabilities defined. The standards, processes, template and toolset implemented are also being used by the BAU PMO.

What is Governance?  Ask around and you will get many and varied opinions.  Most people you ask will re-iterate how important Governance is however.  So, if the lack of Governance is considered a common problem, shouldn’t we all share a common view on what Governance is?

By Martin Vaughan

Martin Vaughan is a Senior Consultant and Director of Core Consulting Group. With 20 years Project Management experience, the first 10 years focused on Planning/Scheduling and EVM, together with extensive industry experience as an employer of Planner/Schedulers and Project Managers, he is well placed to comment.

Martin lectures in IT Project Management at Melbourne University at a Post Graduate level, writes and speaks regularly in various industry forums. He has developed a number of Graduate Programs and has led skills development in and around Planning and Scheduling for years.

Download PDF

This whitepaper explores the impact some newer technologies and social media are having or going to have on the nature of project information. It also looks at how we, as users of project information, can adapt to meet the changing environment.

by Chris Dwyer

Chris is a Senior Consultant and Director of Core Consulting Group. He is an active member of both AIPM and PMI PMO Special Interest Groups and has provided guidance to a range of organisations around PMO implementation.

This whitepaper explores some of the challenges in dependency management. Readers will take away recommendations as to how they can go about improving dependency management within their projects and programs.

by James Torrington

James Torrington is a Planner / Scheduler at Core Consulting Group. he is certified with PMI’s Scheduling Professional accreditation (PMI-SP) and is a PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Dependency Management Are We There Yet?

Core Consulting Group was engaged to assist the PMO in developing capability to provide weekly cost estimation and forecasting. The main objective of this was to provide visibility and traceability of the program’s costs and to be able to forecast the estimate to completion in line with time (schedule) based modelling.  Core Consulting Group also implemented a simple and pragmatic Earned Value Management System to provide improved indicators of project performance. 

Core Consulting Group’s provided tracking and forecasting capability for labour and fixed cost elements. The system allowed for project managers to view actual costs and report future estimates at a granular level quickly and easily. Core Consulting Group’s systematic approach and attention to detail was a major enabler for successful Program delivery.

DPCD was standardising and improving its delivery process and was keen for affected stakeholders to be trained in not only the new “Project Plan” template but the key aspects of planning.  What resulted was a tailored training course which combined generic content with DPCD specific content, aimed at producing a quality planning document artefact.

Core Consulting Group structured the course around the following key components:

• Scoping the project (incl governance and objectives)
• Scheduling
• Estimating cost
• Assessing Risk
• Finalising the document   

Participants provided positive feedback and DPCD was extremely happy with the outcome, so much so they extended the engagement to provide additional courses to other stakeholders.

What are the implications, if any, for the future of Project Management given that Generation Y is going to be the source for future Project Managers. Project Management in the hands of Gen Y paper, presented at the AIPM 2010 Conference in Darwin.

Presented by Joanne Hurley

Jo Hurley is a Senior Consultant at Core Consulting Group. She has over ten years Project Management, Consulting, Training and Assessment experience.

PMgt in the hands of the Gen Y PM