Establish Project Management Office for the U.S. Forest Service

The Challenge:

The U.S. Forest Service was faced with executing the work plan proposed by their Information Solutions Office after prevailing in a recent A-76 competitive outsourcing competition. This plan created a Most Efficient Organization (MEO) and operations that reduced staffing and the number of data centers housing the agency’s computer servers. Because roughly 80% of the 100 million dollar savings proposed was dependent upon flawless project execution, the U.S. Forest Service needed to improve business project and process performance to effectively accomplish its tasking and demonstrate contract performance. To make the transition more challenging the entire standup of the new organization was to be completed within 6 months of initiation. The requirement for the PMOLink Team included providing Program and Project Management expertise in addition to Subject Matter expertise in areas such as Information Assurance and Information Security as well as Technical expertise in Technical Report Writing, Training, Microsoft Project Server implementation and deployment, Database Architecture and Administration and SQL Reporting Services.

The Forest Service was very interested in leveraging PMOLink’s Project Management Process® tool to quickly integrate standardized project management processes into the establishment of their Project Management Office (PMO) that was a cornerstone of their new MEO. Licensed as a derivative of PMI’s PMBOK® Guide, the reference model tool was invaluable in establishing standardized project management processes for the Forest Service.

Action Taken:

The PMOLink Team was contracted to provide program, project management and process management services to the Forest Service. To manage the performance of work against the plan, the U.S. Forest Service used PMOLink services to act as program management to create a Program and Project Management Organization (PMO). This PMO was a critical success factor in helping the U.S. Forest Service achieve its’ objectives and attain performance goals.

The PMOLink Team has provided the following broad base of services for the Forest Service over its four years of support:

Organizational Performance Assessment
Annual Program of Work Development and Portfolio Prioritization
Strategic resource allocation
Web portal and database design and development for online program/project analysis and status reporting
Process modeling, analysis and improvement
Decision support methodologies
Project and program cost analysis
Formal and informal project management training
Provided senior level program and project managers to mentor and coach Forest Service employees as they established and matured their PMO
Subject matter expertise in Microsoft Project Server systems, SQL reporting services, information security and information assurance

Results:

PMOLink worked closely with the Forest Service to manage over 200 critical projects while simultaneously standing up the PMO. The PMOLink Team provided strategic and tactical guidance for the creation of a high-performance PMO to serve the U.S. Forest Service nationwide. PMOLink Program and Project specialists developed an enterprise architecture, procedures and methodologies that allowed all levels of Forest Service members to manage the programs at their appropriate level. Project managers were able to manage schedules, issues, resources, dependencies, constraints, risks and quality while allowing projects to be understood, monitored and managed all levels up to leadership’s enterprise view. As a licensed PMI Registered Education Provider, PMOLink provided training to over 100 mid and upper level Forest Service managers in “Project Management Principles and Practices” based upon the PMBOK® Guide.

The Forest Service is a geographically dispersed organization where the virtual work place is a fact of life. For that reason the PMOLink Team optimized virtual/on line coaching, mentoring and consulting throughout the organization. Project lifecycle and technical assistance were provided on line using web based knowledge tools and portals including collecting analyzing and displaying all project performance metrics. The PMOLink Team designed, developed and deployed an interactive PMO web portal to communicate all facets of project and program management with all members of the Forest Service.