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Information Technology& Information Systems
Experience
 Major
IT Project Acceleration: This client's number one project of the year, a
major customer information system application implementation was foundering
during start-up. Catalyst provided a focused project acceleration workshop that
uncovered several planning improvement areas and identified specific recovery
steps for senior management who have since steered this project to an acceptable
level of control. Catalyst continues to be consulted concerning issues during
the progress of this program.
Catalyst
has helped a mid-sized utility develop and deploy a project offi ce to provide
consistent project deployment in its organization. Catalyst's support has
included elements such as position descriptions for project managers, developing
agreement among members of executive steering committee, project initiation
process, project management process, and project prioritization process.
Project
Office Reference Review: For a major publisher of project management guides
and references, Catalyst provided a comprehensive subject matter expert review,
because of our experience, research, and current knowledge of the project
management industry and its trends.
Coaching
and Mentoring: We are in the second year of assisting key players of a newly
formed project management office develop and execute skills and knowledge
necessary for leading a substantial change management program across the
company.
Catalyst assisted a major IT services company with the development and implementation
of a project management process, which called for the integration of three
major lines of business in adherence to a common practice. The process
address practices and procedures across the company's four-phase life cycle.
Program
Development for Process Improvement: Catalyst is helping a utility company
build its business process improvement capability. We are coaching the
establishment of a program approach to building the company's process
improvement capability, linking it to the context of balanced scorecard,
portfolio management, and an adjunct project management improvement program.
Established a program-project office for a major insurance organization that
supported scope, schedule, risk, and communications management processes to
150 projects. Developed other standard tools and reporting methods that
gave project stakeholders an objective information source for decisions.
Project
Manager Success: Having the right mix of talented project managers for a
changing business environment is important. The IT business unit of a global
energy company engaged us to help capture what it takes to be a successful
project manager in the company's environment. Leveraging our research in the
area of project manager competencies, we developed and used an interview
assessment and analysis technique to help this client discern key success
factors unique to its environment. The information we developed clarified the
client's decision-making concerning the overall program to improve project
management capability.
Catalyst has been providing ongoing mentoring
support for a program manager and project teams for development of an Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system using PeopleSoft. Our work has included process
definition and redesign, requirements capture and documentation, project
planning support, procurement (RFP) support, and risk analysis.
Catalyst
provided a project prioritization technique to the IT support consultant of a
major consumer products company. The technique helped to quickly clarify
priorities. We received this note:
"I now have a prioritized list from the Division Executive Management
staff. Next steps are to perform the analysis and prioritize again based on different criteria. We're making progress! The Executive Management group
liked the technique and plan to use it throughout their functional areas.
"
Y2K Program risk assessment was needed by a major
consumer products organization. We provided our risk clinic for the core
program team, who were then able to roll the risk methods out across other Y2K initiatives
within the organization.
Catalyst supported a project
recovery effort involving a comprehensive evaluation and re-planning effort for
an Oracle software deployment. Over a period of several days, we provided
our project acceleration workshop approach, and helped follow up in capturing
and documenting project planning details. Here is an update that our
client provided:
" We successfully went live with the fulfillment piece of our project yesterday according to
our Project Plan. It went phenomenally smooth yesterday with only a few printer glitches. We have 14
[user group] people that also have access to Oracle. I cannot thank you enough for the guidance that you
gave my team on the development of our WBS and Project Plan. As of last Friday, we were 84%
complete. The mood is very positive on this team as well as the other
[client] users. Again, thank you for your help."
For the Information Systems Department of a major
consumer manufacturing company, Catalyst facilitated two project startup workshops improve
specification of its requirements for proposals, to assure the projects were
properly selected, initiated and executed. The benefits to the client
included:
- Better (more accurate and more complete) information for proposals and
project initiation
- Progress in developing each of the current projects
- Knowledge transfer from experienced project managers to client staff
- Initiating work toward developing and demonstrating a defined, common,
repeatable project planning process (with models and templates) that
improves communications and productivity
- Creating a work environment that fosters attention to risk, timely
communication, and improving from lessons learned
For a
systems consolidation project at a major insurance company, we offered a
workshop, "How to Capture Customer
Requirements and Develop Project Scope." This workshop served to
align the project team on an important initial task: capturing business
requirements and system functional requirements.
For a large insurance company, we facilitated the
design and deployment of a project initiation process. We applied the
principles of pipeline management and portfolio management as a conceptual
framework for creating a vision for developing systems capabilities. The
approach resulted in considerably improved internal communications and
decision making. The firm's Chairman recognized the result of this work.
- Better (more accurate and more complete) information for proposals and
project initiation
- Progress in developing each of the current projects
- Knowledge transfer from experienced project managers to client staff
- Initiating work toward developing and demonstrating a defined, common,
repeatable project planning process (with models and templates) that
improves communications and productivity
- Creating a work environment that fosters attention to risk, timely
communication, and improving from lessons learned
Using MS Project, Catalyst assisted a major casualty insurance company to develop and
maintain project schedules, that integrate and report on scope, schedule,
risk, human resource, and communication management project deliverables and
engineering tasks throughout the project life cycle.
Provided process and facilitation for a joint user-developer
risk assessment for a major insurance company. Helped the project team
identify and carefully describe over 40 risk items. Of those, 32 were in the
"high" or "medium high" category. Then identified top 11
risks for further treatment. Most identified risks involved resource issues
and prioritization. Assisted in developing a risk response strategy.
Facilitated the project team to identify owners and action items for the risk
events.
For a large health insurance
company, we trained approximately 100 individuals in practices of writing
business and detail requirements. We counseled the managers of the process
on better ways to adjust their templates to make requirements complete and
concise.
This is not a complete listing of Catalyst Management Consulting's
experience. Please check out the other experience described for Assessment,
New
Product Development and Strategic
Business Initiatives.
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