Project Management

PMO Services & Project Management Consulting for Technology and IT Based Projects

As a leader in technology project management consulting, nibraas IT is the niche provider clients seek out when they are looking to implement business-enhancing, agile PMO services that improve project and portfolio performance.

nibraas IT helps you improve PMO performance with proven project management consulting and time-tested approaches that have been implemented in hundreds of organizations.

PMO Deployment, Operation, and Enhancement

Since 2013, nibraas IT has been known as a leader in PMO design and practice, bringing its clients the expertise and tools needed to help create and sustain a value-driven PMO.

PMOs are increasingly being entrusted with more strategic responsibilities.

Organizations continue to be challenged with the consistent application of defined project management processes, resource planning, forecasting, and other business demands. A well-managed Project Management Office (PMO) can address these challenges in order to ensure successful project delivery. We work with clients when they need to deploy a new PMO, operate a PMO, or optimize and enhance an existing PMO to meet a set of evolving challenges, functions, and services.

Deploying a New PMO

The first step PM Solutions takes in deploying a PMO is to assess the current environment and develop a deployment roadmap incorporating your organization’s culture and operating practices. We will work with you to identify, prioritize, and establish a set of fundamental PMO functions and services. Deployment includes establishing governance standards, developing the PMO Charter and communications plan, identifying resource needs and performance measures, incorporating the right amount of repeatable delivery processes to fit your culture, and improving the competencies of your staff through training and mentoring. Emphasis is on the PMO providing an organizational entity focused on improving the management of your portfolio.

Operating a PMO

If project management is not a core competency, consider outsourcing the PMO. PM Solutions works in partnership with you to understand your goals and establish a structure that will achieve them. We will evaluate what you currently have in place and will subsidize as required. Or, if preferred, can utilize our customizable toolkit of proven techniques and methodologies. Constant communication, incorporating organizational change management, is crucial to the success and is a core tenet of our PMO operating model. Performance measures are collectively established upfront with you, and progress toward established goals is continually evaluated via quality and performance reviews.

Enhancing an Existing PMO

PMOs are consistently being challenged to provide additional value to their organizations. To meet business demands, projects must be completed faster and cheaper. The business wants more transparency and they look to the PMO to optimize project resources. We can help your organization rise to the challenge.

To take your PMO to the next level, PM Solutions will first review and evaluate your existing PMO structure, and provide recommendations targeted to enhance it. We will develop a transformational roadmap, identifying areas of opportunity, and will collaboratively with you create an implementation plan for deployment. Common areas of focus for this type of transformation may include enhanced visibility, level of PM competency evaluation, portfolio resource optimization, demand management of both project and operations work, and facilitating organizational change. PMOs offering this level of service govern with a senior management focus on strategic issues and facilitate change across the organization.

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Project Review & Recovery

With so much at stake, fast action is the key to avoiding losses associated with project failures. nibraas IT brings you experts who can address common areas of concern including scope, resource availability, and project controls to turn around a troubled project quickly.

Our project recovery experts begin by reviewing of the project's current state to identify the areas in jeopardy. Common areas of concern often include issues with scope, resource availability and/or capability, roles and responsibilities, and project monitoring and control. We will present our assessment to the senior leadership team recognizing the project's accomplishments to date, while calling out the major issues that caused it to veer off track. A corrective plan is provided as part of this presentation.

Once the plan is accepted by the organization, our recovery experts will lead the turnaround initiative, or you may choose to have us mentor your project team through the recovery process.

Common Symptoms of Troubled Projects

Critical issues in meeting milestones or completing deliverables
High risk of non-delivering anticipated benefits
Resources are not fully allocated to the project
The project is consistently behind its planned schedule
They are critical and/or significantly growing technical issues with the project

Top 5 Actions Taken to Recover Projects

Improving communication, stakeholder management
Redefining the project—reducing the scope, re-justifying the project fi nancially
Adding and/or removing resources
Resolving problematic technical issues
Replacing the project manager or bringing in a consultant to manage recovery

Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

Our project portfolio management (PPM) approach helps you select and manage an optimal portfolio of projects - one that maximizes your organization's responsiveness, revenues, and adaptability while keeping the projects aligned with your strategic business goals.

Project Portfolio Management Assessment

PM Solutions assesses your current project portfolio management processes and, in collaboration with you, identifies the appropriate level of PPM discipline for your organization. We then apply our best-in-class Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model to determine your current PPM capability and identify process gaps between your organization’s current state and desired future state. We provide the roadmap for improvements and work with you to develop the implementation plan.

Portfolio Process Improvement

Results from the assessment are used to define an approach to improve your organization's ongoing portfolio management practices. PM Solutions partners with you on the development and delivery of the recommended approach and improvement plan, including a cost/benefit analysis for taking the next steps in optimizing your PPM practices that yields better alignment with your business objectives.

We help you integrate your PM and PPM processes to enable you to select the best project portfolio aligned to your strategic plan. Forecasting and optimizing the use of available resources is an integral part of PPM. Monitoring project and portfolio performance ensures investment decisions remain the best choices in your changing world. Portfolios are continually evaluated. Prioritization is an iterative process and your portfolio must be reprioritized as business conditions, resources, and budgets change.

Portfolio Reporting & Analysis

Without a well-defined information gathering and analysis structure for project portfolio reporting, the execution of PPM will produce disappointing results. PM Solutions will work with you to customize and implement our five-level portfolio reporting model. We establish value and performance measures at the project, program, and portfolio levels, and then create analysis mechanisms to provide outcome visibility at the department and corporate levels. Analysis includes productivity, resource management, customer satisfaction, financial evaluations, macro-categorization comparisons, ROI, and more; all customized to assist you in managing the demands of your unique business. Plan your success, measure it, and manage it.

Portfolio Improvement Execution

PM Solutions provides you with guidance and implementation support to quickly deploy the PPM improvement recommendations. Activities typically include:

Establishment or refinement of portfolio governance policies
Alignment of portfolio decisions to strategic business goals
Portfolio and program prioritization and selection facilitation
Portfolio Review Board session facilitation
Portfolio and project communication management
Optimized resource planning including “what if” scenarios
Portfolio performance management
PPM software tool selection and process implementation
PPM workshops, training, and mentoring for executives, management, and staff
PPM adoption and change management

Project Management Maturity Advancement

We work with our clients to assess the current level of maturity, develop an achievable improvement plan, and help keep the momentum going by supporting the execution and measurement of the recommended improvements.

Using our highly acclaimed Maturity Model, we work with our clients to assess the current level of maturity, develop an achievable improvement plan, and help keep the momentum going by supporting the execution and measurement of the recommended improvements.

Project Management Maturity Assessment

By assessing your organization's current project delivery capability and project management maturity level. We then apply the our model as a guide to determine your current maturity level, your desired future level, and the targeted areas in which your investments should be focused in order to advance. The appropriate target level of maturity varies for each organization based on specific goals, strategies, resource capabilities, scope, and needs.

Improvement Plan

Results from the Assessment are used to develop specific recommendations and a sequenced roadmap that provides realistic milestones for short and long-term process improvement activities. We work with you to ensure that the plan also addresses change enablers that will help overcome cultural barriers.

Ongoing Support to Deploy The Plan

We provide you with guidance and implementation support to quickly deploy the improvement recommendations. Working in partnership with you and your team, we leverage our collective assets and experience to expedite your organization’s maturity advancement.

PM Maturity Re-assessment

A key element of our approach is to re-assess maturity once improvements are made in order to highlight advancements that have been achieved. To accomplish this, we conduct an abbreviated maturity assessment and compares the newer findings with your baseline maturity level. The re-assessment results are reviewed against your original improvement plan. New and/or supplemental recommendations are provided to reflect current business priorities and areas of focus for further progression.

Organizational Change Management

Culture influences how organizational strategy is executed. As strategies evolve in response to market conditions, organizational cultures must also shift to stay competitive and profitable.

Shifting a culture requires a delicate, systematic, and well-planned approach to avoid failure and affect positive change.

We can help guide your organization through the necessary transition, ensuring you are ready for change, are prepared to lead the change, and are able to validate that change has occurred.

Change Readiness Assessment

A Change Readiness Assessment documents your organizational climate in terms of its culture, its history with change/transformation initiatives, and its resistance to change. PM Solutions uses a series of diagnostic tools to determine your organization’s readiness for a successful transformation effort. Information on attitudes and behaviors gathered during stakeholder interviews and surveys allows us to collectively identify areas of concern and barriers you are likely to encounter during your change efforts.

Change Management Action Plan

A Change Management Action Plan defines the transition path from the old way of doing business to the new. For each area of concern identified in the Change Readiness Assessment, PM Solutions works collaboratively with your organization’s change agents to develop specific action steps to help mitigate the impact of the change management issues. These actions are designed to help overcome resistance, reduce the impact of past history, and convey a shared vision for acceptance into the business culture. Documented communication strategies are essential to ensure that stakeholders are receiving critical pieces of information at the right intervals.

Change Monitoring & Reinforcement

Change Monitoring & Reinforcement activities are essential to validate the change has been accepted and put into practice. To monitor change progress, PM Solutions can help you perform periodic reviews of the change initiatives identified in the Change Management Action Plan to confirm the transition is moving along as planned. If these reviews indicate something is going awry, it serves as a trigger to immediately initiate actions required to address the issues so change efforts do not falter. Our change reinforcement services support cultural acceptance and include mentoring, coaching, workshops, and training.

Project Management Methodology Implementation

Implementation is a collaborative process, with final methodology ownership in your hands. Our methodology implementation approaches are designed to foster acceptance and make the adoption of a standard methodology welcomed within your project culture.

Is your methodology agile enough to meet business demands?

Methodology Development

PM Solutions can develop methodology and process to meet your organizations needs by taking into account the size of your project portfolio, complexity and duration of projects/programs, and your current operational model (are you growing or are you contracting). It's important to have the right level of process, associated with the appropriate artifacts and tools, to enable your project teams to deliver. There's no need to start from scratch. We will evaluate the current state of your processes and utilization across your organization. Our expert consultants come equipped with a toolkit of processes, forms, and templates to draw from that can be used to subsidize what you already have. The key is to have the right level of process to maintain control and deliver projects in an expedient manner.

Methodology Deployment

The deployment of methodology is not a one-time effort. Once you have a process and artifacts developed, they must be deployed. Different methods can be used to deploy new process and standards within an organization. Some examples are classroom training, workshops, and lunch and learns. Coaches are highly recommended to work alongside Project and Program Managers in a group setting or on a one-on-one basis to ensure that the methodology is properly put into practice. To support natural attrition within an organization, we can provide a new hire orientation process to make transitions smoother.

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Project Management Mentors

nibraas IT work closely with your project managers and project personnel to build project management competency while ensuring successful execution of projects.

Mentors provide a fast way to encourage consistent practices on-the-job.

Our Mentors work closely with your project managers and project personnel to build project management competency while ensuring the successful execution of projects.

Our mentors actively participate in projects to ensure standards are being adopted and help provide a comfortable transition when deploying new processes, practices, and templates. This type of personalized knowledge transfer from experienced resources encourages the development of competencies more easily gained through example, guided learning, and hands-on practice.

Ways Mentors Can Help

Coach your staff in project management processes, methods, and best practices to accelerate the effectiveness of major change initiatives that impact the entire organization.
Pilot a new initiative working side-by-side with one or more of your project managers to apply standard project management practices in a consistent manner.
Review the status of projects in the portfolio and make recommendations for improved execution through the coaching and mentoring of project managers.
Identify risks early that could potentially negative impact on the project, and develop mitigation plans.
Conduct project health checks to identify issues in a timely manner and assist team members in taking appropriate corrective actions when necessary.
Foster collaborative working relationships and develop a community of project management practitioners.
Reinforce recent training to ensure concepts from the classroom are put into practice.
Fill in for an extended period of time during an unexpected absence of the project or program manager.

Resource Management

We help you obtain, structure, and analyze your resource management information and practices to use your talent effectively and streamline resource deployment.

Resource shortages and conflicts can plague your ability to deliver.

Understanding the resource capacity and skill sets that exist within your organization gives you the ability to balance demand and apply the right resources at the right time. PM Solutions helps you obtain, structure, and analyze your resource management information and practices to use your talent effectively and streamline resource deployment.

Organizational Skills Identification

The first step is to uncover the skills, roles, and resources that currently reside within the organization. From this data, a simple categorization structure can be developed. This will facilitate resource allocation decisions across the organization. The Project Management Office (PMO) and departments such as HR are often involved in this process.

Resource Planning & Forecasting

Once you have a handle on the overall resources available within your organization, you need to get a clear picture of the availability of these resources to support the initiatives within your project portfolio. We recommend a resource management database be created and tied to project priorities. We can help you perform resource estimates (including resource loading and leveling) against your resource limitations, and also run “what if” scenarios to factor in new initiatives relative to resource impact and availability.

Our expert consultants are skilled at analyzing any resource shortages or added capacity uncovered, and recommending the appropriate actions that will bring the most value and cost savings to the organization (contracting, hiring, using resources earlier, etc.). We can work with your existing tools, provide you with the tools, and/or help you procure the right tools to effectively perform resource management functions scaled to your organization’s size and needs.

PMO Structure & Staffing

PM Solutions will help you right-size your PMO based on the size of your portfolio and level of project management maturity within your organization. This will determine how many project managers and support staff you need to execute projects effectively, assess the competency of your project managers, build professional development programs, encourage a project management culture, develop job descriptions, and delineate roles and responsibilities.

Vendor Management

nibraas IT has the experience to manage and work on your behalf with vendors to ensure terms and conditions are met.

Vendor management is a necessity in business today.

It is more common than not for vendors to be responsible for deliverables within a project. Whether you are implementing a new COTS application or outsourcing a piece of your business, vendor management is a necessity in business today. PM Solutions has the experience to manage and work on your behalf with vendors to ensure terms and conditions are met. If you already have a PMO in place, PM Solutions can help you add the proper governance necessary to manage your vendors effectively.

Your vendors have an agreement with you; not with other suppliers. During the planning process, you may discover vendor deliverables have dependencies on each other. We can help you identify those integration points and manage the handoffs between multiple parties.

As the experts, we know the pitfalls and act on your behalf as ‘the owner’s rep” to ensure all parties associated with projects meet their commitments. Managing scope and the contract while applying change management to the process provides the transparency required to achieve success.

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