The field of Enterprise Project Management (EPM) and Earned Value Management (EVM) is littered with failed, underperforming, or non-sustainable implementations.
There are many reasons why these system implementations fail to satisfy Executive Management’s expectations. The ones cited most often are:
- Lack of management sponsorship
- Purchasing the wrong tool(s) or failing to integrate them
- Lack of buy-in from the users of the tools and the new processes necessary to implement them
- Poor training
Pinnacle has been able to prevent or head off all of these roadblocks, and one of the most effective techniques is through integrated Contextual Training and Structured Coaching. This combination has been proven to increase productivity and effectiveness by nearly 90%. (Olivero 1997)
These gains come from having a plan for Training and Coaching that brings your team up to speed and produces measurable Adoption. To do this, you need to have training materials built around your real EPM or EVM operating procedures and a coaching curriculum for all roles involved.
Our top recommendations for successful implementation are:
- Integrate EPM / EVM tools training with process training. Teaching concepts for PM and then separately teaching a PM tool leaves it up to individuals to determine what the organizations needs are.
- Focus your tool training on your actual EVM or EPM processes. For example; take project managers through the monthly or weekly project reporting cycle step-by-step using your adopted toolset and in-house processes (not an example about building a house!). Read more about Pinnacles ready-to-go integrated process and tools training.
- Identify each significant role and develop an integrated training strategy that covers them all. – Keeping it consistent from training messages to worked examples and training data. Make it as real as possible.
- Have a communications plan that complements the training approach to really explain the benefits of the new tools and processes; and how the organization will use the information for managing the business.
- Ensure that there is an ecosystem for support for your EPM and EVM system. This can come in many different shapes; Online help systems (linked to process asset libraries), PMOs, Help Desks, Structured Coaching – see below.
- Measure adoption performance metrics. Examples can be; Number of people trained and tested, Number of projects scheduled and baselined, Number of project schedules updated, Availability of resource deployment across the portfolio, etc.
Pinnacle has been delivering Contextual Training coupled with Structured Coaching for a number of years. We have developed training that combines tools, processes and is focused on the most valuable Project Management functions, and deliverables. Our training content is role-based and highly configurable. We team with our clients to ensure that the materials are configured to support your specific way of doing business. Read about our Ready-to-go Integrated Process and Tool training materials.
Learn more about our training services.
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