Nextel

Challenge:
Nextel Communications needed to establish a Project Management Office (PMO) for the oversight of multiple initiatives within the order management and fulfillment divisions. The existing infrastructure lacked an end to end project management process and best practices. Nextel had conducted an initial evaluation of industry standard practices and determined it wanted to implement a PMO leveraging Project Management Institutes (PMI) standards but lacked the expertise and bandwidth in-house.

Solution:
ProLink was engaged to assist in the implementation of Nextel’s PMO. The engagement was aimed at providing Subject Matter Experts (SME) with Project Management Institute (PMI) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certification to assist in maturing the organization and with the advancement of project management knowledge and discipline within the organization.

The engagement was primarily divided into four (4) areas:

• Training & Mentorship - To assist in the introduction of PMI defined Portfolio Project Management through the development and training of the organizations Project Managers in the five PMI/PMBOK defined process groups of project management; Initiation, Planning, Executing, Controlling, and Closing, and the nine PMI/PMBOK defined project management knowledge areas; Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Human Resource Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, and Project Procurement Management.

• Development of Portfolio Project Management - To help to ensure the development of sound project management which will meet the generally accepted PMI/PMBOK guidelines and the integration of those plans into a portfolio master project plan so that Senior Management can review the status of the portfolio’s projects at the portfolio level with a single consolidated view and provide for better portfolio management decision support and consolidated project reporting to upper management.

• Development, Implementation and Migration of a Resource Utilization tool - To develop and implement a resource utilization tool which would allow for accurate reporting and identification of the utilization of resources across the portfolio’s projects within the team. Two central requirements for the tool were that it be developed within one week so as to provide immediate value and assist the organization in meeting commitments to upper management and that the tool must facilitate the migration to a Microsoft Project common resource pool for reporting of resource utilization, identification of over/under-committed resources, and the justification for additional resources based upon organizational tasking and project delivery dates.

• Mentorship through actual Program/Project Management - Provide further guidance and role models through the on site project management of multiple programs and projects designed to enhance the infrastructure, provide better service to their customers and position the organization for the future through the use of newer technologies and new partnerships.

Result:
Through the use of Prolink’s Senior Project Management Consultants as subject matter experts, mentors, and project managers the organization at Nextel was able to rapidly advance their PMO program and knowledge to a level which facilitated the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certification of their own Project Managers. This program is utilized as a model today within other organizations tasked with launching multiple major initiatives.

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