Major energy company – project management project / company project way 

Client company & industry sector

Major energy company, Utility Sector

Scope of the assignment

Business Process:

Our engagement commenced before the Project Management Project (PMP) formally launched with an assessment of the client's [then] current project management maturity, highlighting the areas with the greatest opportunity and benefit for improvement. 

Our role then evolved to provide advice on best practices within and outside the organization, contributing to the development of the company's processes for portfolio and project management.  In particular, Catalise’s approach to structuring projects as investments was the basis for the "Gate" approach used.

Having recommended the Branch-based approach to implementation, and supported the business unit teams as requested in areas such as communications, we have then been the delivery agent for the highly rated introductory training to embed the new approach across the business – Catalise personnel delivering all of the sponsor workshops (over 200 managers) and the vast majority of the one-day and two-day project manager courses across many business units and locations.

Organisation, human performance and change management :

A key aspect of our role was to assist the internal project managers define the desired outcomes of the PMP / company project way, providing a wide variety of communications materials including Connect articles, presentations and FAQs.  As a “value added” extra, we also contributed to the internal appraisal process for the personnel on the project, and Jonathan Harker provided additional coaching to client's Project Manager.

Key deliverables from our work were the organisational design, including role descriptions, for the various governance bodies and support roles required to operate the company project way processes in the line organisation. 

Financial and Performance Management :

A critical objective for the company project way is to improve the client's decision making processes and outcomes – selecting the right projects and applying timely governance decisions through out the lifecycle.  Design of the tools to do this, in a methodical and predictable way across the organization was a major part of our role.

Business and technology transformation :

The PMP/company project way journey has been a major change journey, taking almost 24 months and significant internal and external resources to progress from concept to project closure.  Its impact is enterprise wide, with areas initially regarded as out of scope, such as the generation plants, now starting to embrace the approaches.

Whist still early days, the signs are encouraging that the company project way will bring about a step change in performance; that is now certainly the expectation of the Executive, with project management seen as a vital ingredient in the mix to “raise our game”.

Description of deliverables

Through our roles within the PMP team, we have contributed to many of the company project way deliverables.

In the “pre-PMP” stage of the work, we delivered a series of cross-business unit workshops, with senior managers to determine the case for change.
Within the PMP, our specific accountabilities and deliverables included:

These have been delivered to several hundred members of staff, and have received outstanding reviews in the post-course assessments.

Approach used

The approach used required a wide variety of advisory, consultancy and delivery skills.

Advisory skills

A key tenant of the PMP was that ownership of the company project way needed to be vested within the internal team; this could not be an “off the shelf” external method.  So throughout the journey, Catalise personnel have been advising on how best to combine existing internal good practice with external approaches such as those from PRINCE2 and PMBOK. 

Similarly, in our support for the Project Manager, except when asked to cover between PMs on an interim basis, we were always careful to keep our role positioned as advising not owning.

Facilitation

Throughout the engagement, the ability to quickly and effectively plan, prepare, facilitate and capture workshops and group sessions was key.  Here we were able to introduce new approaches, such as the capture of images of flip charts to supplement the normal minutes – a technique not used before to our knowledge within the client's organisation.

Stakeholder management and engagement

A distinguishing and innovative feature of our approach was the emphasis placed on the identification and management of key stakeholder groups, communicating earlier and more often than typically done in the past.  The results of this were significant; the staff representative committees, for example, who were seen by one business unit as a major barrier to implementation, being won over relatively early in the process.

Technical Design

Much of our efforts were expended in the technical design of the company project way processes and tools – and in the support for the approval processes with the business units.  Here, we were able to field genuine subject matter experts, who were able to work with the internal resources and contractors to develop the resources that comprise the company project way approach.  Similarly, we were able to bring technical expertise in the programme design, organisational design and other areas of the programme.

Transferring skills to the team

All Catalise assignments involve the transfer of skills from the Catalise team to the client team.  This process commenced early in the engagement, continuing throughout our involvement.  Transferring skills involved a number of activities, from overt skills transfer in one-on-one training or workshops and other open-forum environments; to personal coaching; to continuous deep involvement of client staff in the designing and doing from beginning to end. 

Several of the PMP team have commented subsequently about how much they learned from their time on the project, and of how they have added skills and techniques to their personal tool kits.

Transferring skills to the organisation

As mentioned above, we were asked to take on the training delivery following the failure of QA to meet expectations.  Despite inheriting most of the materials, and the short notice, this has been an extremely successful programme.  Nearly all the top 300 managers, including several business unit Executive members have participated in a ½ day workshop, and several hundred more have been through the 1-day and 2-day courses. 

The feedback scores and comments from these sessions have been very high, with some courses averaging over 90%.  Whilst content knowledge was clearly an important factor, our knowledge of the client as an organisation and many of the key people within it was a significant differentiator and value add for many delegates.

Working in true partnership with the client meant that Catalise was always willing to go the extra mile – acting as part of the “core team”.

Outcomes of the assignment

The PMP project has delivered a new approach to portfolio and project management across the client's organisation.  Naturally, there is more to do, in areas such as adjusting the approaches based on experience, automation, and building a project management community of interest.  But the foundations are now in place. 

The mind set is starting to change about successful delivery.  Projects are now checked at regular intervals by interested, but independent, review bodies.  A common tool kit is being used, with a common vocabulary.  And project delivery – and the importance of recognizing project management as a profession -  is now on the agenda of the company Executive as a critical competence for the company to realize its strategies and ambitions.