Management Solutions

Project Management Capabilities

Project Planning/Project Planners

Many organizations have determined that due to the size and complexity of their project initiatives, their project managers require additional support in managing day-to-day project activities. Understanding our customers' requirements, Blackwell utilizes certified project management resources that have experience in project management to support project managers in the planning and controlling processes within a project's lifecycle. These resources are our project planners.

Blackwell's project planners have experience working closely with internal or vendor project managers and their team members to ensure the successful completion of the project engagement.

Through the use of a project planner, the time of the project manager is made available to work with project stakeholders to address project organizational issues, communicate project status and manage risks that may hinder the successful completion of the project. In addition, the use of a project planner will free up the time of a project manager, allowing the project manager time to take on additional project assignments while the project planner focuses on the day-to-day project activities related to planning, schedule tracking and project management tool and methodology assistance.

Blackwell project planners provide support in the areas of:

  • Project charter facilitation
  • Project plan facilitation
  • WBS development
  • Schedule development
  • Planning strategy formulation
  • Project variance analysis
  • Project cost budget and resource management
  • Project charter facilitation

    • Project Cost Benefit Analysis and Business Case Development

    To initiate a project, businesses must create a solid business case, ensuring that the initiative is going to reap quantifiable benefits to their bottom-line. By using our proven methodology that we have employed over the years, we work with our clients to layout every aspect of the initiative and define how the project aligns with the overall business and IT strategy. We also perform financial analysis to assess the expected return on investment while also identifying areas of risk. Blackwell CBA deliverables are:

  • Determine the business opportunity / problem, goals, objectives, vision, benefits and risks for initiating a project or a program.
  • Determine the return on investment of the project and the project's alignment with the business's strategy.
  • Determine if the project contributes to the business's bottom line and analyze any other alternatives towards achieving the goals and objectives set for the project.

    • Customers can expect to walk away with a detailed deliverable that outlines the business case justifying the initiation of the project. The deliverable would include a summary of the project (opportunity/problem, goals, objectives & vision), alternatives/options, cost and investment, risks and benefits, and ROI analysis.

    Portfolio Management

    At any given time, organizations typically do not work on just one project / initiative. Typically, organizations have multiple projects / initiatives that are being initiated or executed at the same time. The Blackwell team helps organizations by performing strategic analysis and organizing projects into portfolios of projects that are aligned with the business's strategy and contribute to the business's bottom line. The Blackwell team also provides organizations with procedures and a methodology for the ongoing creation, analysis, evaluation and management of optimal portfolios of projects. Thus, with these procedures and methodology, organizations can determine if their portfolio of projects continue to align with the goals and objectives set during these projects' initiation, continue to align with the strategy and contribute to the bottom line, and determine what projects should remain in the portfolio and what projects should be canceled.

    The Blackwell team will provide clients with the following portfolio management procedures/methodology:

  • Project portfolio inventory creation process/methodology
  • Project evaluation methodology (against strategic objectives and Return on Investment)
  • Project prioritization methodology
  • Project approval methodology
  • Project portfolio management methodology
  • Project portfolio ongoing evaluation (against strategic objectives and Return on Investment)
  • Project risk assessment
  • Project status tracking
  • Project budget tracking
  • Project issue tracking
  • Project resource leveling and tracking

    • Program Management

    At any given time, organizations typically do not work on just one project / initiative. Typically, organizations have multiple projects / initiatives that are being initiated or executed at the same time. The Blackwell team helps organizations by performing strategic analysis and organizing projects into portfolios of projects that are aligned with the business's strategy and contribute to the business's bottom line. The Blackwell team also provides organizations with procedures and a methodology for the ongoing creation, analysis, evaluation and management of optimal portfolios of projects. Thus, with these procedures and methodology, organizations can determine if their portfolio of projects continue to align with the goals and objectives set during these projects' initiation, continue to align with the strategy and contribute to the bottom line, and determine what projects should remain in the portfolio and what projects should be canceled.

    Often, organizations initiate initiatives that are comprised of multiple projects all working towards the same common goals and objectives. In other instances, a business area of an organization may have multiple projects that the area would like to link together under a common umbrella for streamlined and optimized tracking, management and resource leveling. Initiatives comprised of multiple projects are often termed as Programs. Examples of Programs that are comprised of projects working towards common goals and objectives include Programs such as a Disaster Recovery Program or a Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Program. Examples of Programs that are comprised of multiple projects for a business area or for ease of tracking, management or resource leveling can include a Program of projects for Procurement or say Human Resources etc.

    Irrespective of the nature of a Program, Blackwell offers experienced Consultants with a proven track record and experience in successfully managing and executing Programs.

    Our experienced Consultants:

  • Determine program strategy, approach, vision, goals, objectives, scopes and budgets.
  • Obtain consensus from various stakeholders and outline detailed master plans and sub project plans.
  • Identify and assign optimal resources across the projects comprised in the Program and perform resource leveling to ensure resources are optimally utilized.
  • Manage the execution of the Program.
  • Track the Program's progression and identify risks, scope changes and appropriate mitigation strategies in an ongoing manner.

    • Vendor Management

    Organizations often outsource various initiatives and functions to external vendors in order to gain cost savings, benefit from vendors' experience and best practices and in order to enable the organization's staff to focus on the organization's core competencies. Blackwell can help organizations decide if outsourcing an initiative or function is a good decision. Towards this end, Blackwell Consultants can help organizations:

  • Analyze various initiatives and functions and determine ideal candidates for outsourcing.
  • Perform detailed analysis and business cases for justifying the outsourcing.
  • Identify vendor candidates for outsourcing and perform detailed analysis to help identify the vendor to whom the organization's initiative or function should be outsourced.
  • Determine outsourcing strategy, approach, vision, goals, objectives, scopes and budgets.
  • Obtain consensus from various stakeholders and outline detailed transition plans.
  • Participate in vendor negotiations and outline vendor service levels and evaluation criteria.

    • Once an organization decides to outsource initiatives or functions to external vendors that are located offshore, near shore or on shore, Blackwell Consultants can help the organization:

  • Successfully manage the external vendor and outsourced initiatives.
  • Participate and perform ongoing vendor negotiations to enable the successful execution of the initiatives.
  • Manage the vendor contracts, service levels and ensure that the initiatives are successfully tracking per schedule, budget, and performance / service levels set for the vendors.

    • Project Management Office (PMO)

    Since organizations typically have multiple initiatives / projects that are ongoing at any given time, there is a need for organizations to be able to centrally track and monitor these projects. Further, there is a need for an organization's multiple initiatives / projects to be managed using standard methodologies, templates and procedures. A Project Management Office (PMO) is a function that enables organizations to centrally track and monitor the organization's multiple projects / initiatives while also ensuring that an organization's projects / initiatives are being managed using standardized processes, methodologies and deliverable templates.

    However, the challenge that most organizations face is that they do not have a PMO function. Towards this end, Blackwell Consultants can help organizations:

  • Initiate and setup a Project Management Office (PMO).
  • Outline PMO goals, objectives, vision, structure and resources.
  • Outline processes, deliverable templates and methodologies for successful PMO execution.
  • Provide training and mentoring to enable successful execution of the PMO.

    • Project Audit

    In order to ensure that projects are being executed successfully, are using effective processes and methodologies, and that projects continue to align with the business strategy and are tracking to the goals, objectives, scope and budget set during project initiation, it is recommended that projects be audited in an ongoing basis during the project lifecycle. Blackwell Consultants have the experience and a proven methodology for auditing projects in an objective manner. During a Project Audit, Blackwell Consultants:

  • Review the project business case, goals, objectives, scope and budget set during the project initiation in order to gain an understanding of the project and its alignment with the business strategy.
  • Meet with the project manager and relevant team members in order to perform an objective assessment of the current status of the project.
  • Review project documentation in order to evaluate the progress of the project.
  • Identify project risks, issues, successes and failures.
  • Determine if the project continues to align with the business strategy and is tracking to the goals, objectives, scope and budget set during project initiation.
  • Determine if the project is being successfully managed and executed using effective processes and methodology.
  • Provide a detailed audit report containing the results of the audit and recommendations.

    • Project Recovery

    Ever so often, organizations have initiatives / projects that are over budget, not tracking to the timeline, not aligned to the goals, objectives and strategy - i.e., projects / initiatives in trouble. In such instances, organizations may not want to cancel such projects since the projects may be addressing critical business problems that the organization is facing or because the projects have the potential to enhance the organization's strategy and bottom line. Blackwell Consultants can help organizations recover such troubled projects and bring the projects back on track with regards to their budget, timeline, scope and alignment with goals, objectives and business strategy. During a Project Recovery effort, Blackwell Consultants:

  • Review the project business case, goals, objectives, scope and budget set during the project initiation in order to gain an understanding of the project and its alignment with the business strategy.
  • Meet with the project manager and relevant team members in order to perform an objective assessment of the current status of the project.
  • Review project documentation in order to evaluate the progress of the project.
  • Identify project risks, issues, successes and failures.
  • Obtain consensus from various stakeholders and outline a detailed project recovery plan.
  • Identify and assign optimal resources to tasks outlined in the project recovery plan.
  • Manage the recovery of the project back on track with regards to project budget, timeline, scope and alignment with goals, objectives and business strategy.
  • Track the project's recovery progression and identify risks, scope changes and appropriate mitigation strategies in an ongoing manner.

    • Change Management

    Have you heard of the term "scope creep"? Often organizations have projects that are currently being executed with a scope that is very different than the initial scope set for the project. However, there may not be any documentation or consensus among various stakeholders with regards to the current scope of the project. Further, stakeholders may be dissatisfied because the project's timeline and budget is different than the initially agreed upon timeline and budget. These symptoms are characteristic of a project that has undergone scope creep without effective project change management. Blackwell Consultants can help organizations understand the changes in scope for such projects and help implement effective change management that will enable organizations to determine if the changes in scope are beneficial for the project relative to the resulting changes in timeline and budget.

    Towards this end, Blackwell Consultants will:

  • Review the project business case, goals, objectives, scope and budget set during the project initiation in order to gain an understanding of the project.
  • Meet with the project manager and relevant team members in order to perform an objective assessment of the current status and scope of the project.
  • Review project documentation in order to evaluate the project.
  • Identify current scope items that are changes from the initial scope of the project.
  • Document changed scope items along with their impact on timeline and budget.
  • Review changed scope items with project stakeholders to determine if these changes add value or are a detriment to the project thereby determining if the changed scope items should remain within the scope of the project.
  • Update project plan, budget, scope and relevant deliverables with the changed scope items that stakeholders determine should remain in the project.
  • Set change management methodology, processes and deliverable templates for effective future change management in the project.