Environmental Protection Agency Tool Suite and Processes
Goal
Improve the consistency of project management at EPA in order to positively impact IT project results.
Challenges
- Loose federation of agency units applying project management principles with differing consistency
- Lack of a single set of templates and tools to support established project management processes
- Leadership hesitant to step out to dictate and drive change.
Solution
Cognitive's approach was to:
- Conduct scenario-based requirements gathering, interviewing project management professionals and EPA management to understand the processes and training that existed or were in use, understand the specific project management needs, and gain buy in from agency personnel
- Created a customized collaboration portal in SharePoint for use by all EPA project management personnel
- Created customized training on project management, methodology, and specific business areas (e.g., time reporting, schedule management, etc.) that were identified as areas of need
- Designed and created customized job aids for project-related business processes (e.g., status reporting, time reporting, etc.)
- Created documentation for project management business processes (e.g., risk management and schedule management) that was PMBOK-consistent but tailored for the agency's culture and typical project size.
Cognitive Value Added
- Cognitive Technologies provided experienced, certified professionals and know-how:
- Certified project managers to design processes and act as subject matter experts for all training, documentation, and job aids
- Senior-level staff to facilitate data gathering sessions with agency leaders and project management staff
- Paired project manager and training specialist to design and deliver project management training, job aids, and documentation
- Sr. systems analyst to set up SharePoint collaborative site, which was then designed by certified project managers and business analysts to meet the client's needs.