Project Management

Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. The consulting team will assist you with:

•  Developing a Requirements Management Plan before system integration contract award.
• Developing requirements prior to the issuance of your procurement documents.
• Reviewing contract requirements elaboration during contract negotiations.
• Providing assistance in managing and tracking requirements throughout the acquisition and development life cycle to help ensure that all requirements have been identified, delivered, tested, and accepted and that all requirement changes, which always occur, have been accounted for and are traceable.
• Defining and configuring tools used to trace requirements.

Reviewing and providing recommendations on the actual execution of the requirements management process.

Effective governance (decision-making structure) is an essential foundation for project success. Establishing and sustaining effective governance throughout the project lifecycle will result in effective and timely decision making by focusing on structure, people, and information through the application of core governance principles. The consulting team will assist with:

• Developing a Governance Management Plan.
• Governance planning, design, and implementation from project initiation through implementation.
• Assessing governance effectiveness and efficiency.
• Understanding the relationship between governance, managing risks, and project success.
• Coaching Project Sponsors to effectively carry out their responsibilities.

The purpose of Schedule Management is to know where the project is against the projections and how changes effect the delivery time. It is critically important to develop and update the schedule regularly to determine how the project is progressing. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a Schedule Management Plan.
• Developing an integrated project schedule that includes dependencies (which yields the critical path) along with resource loading which will inform the Project Manager if there are sufficient staff on the project.
• Developing the project baseline schedule.
• Identifying schedule inputs to the level of detail defined in the Master Project Plan.

Whether developing the procurement document or administrating the successful execution of the contract, understanding contract development and vendor management are key elements to ensuring a successful project. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a Contract Management Plan that includes administering the contract.
• Developing procurement documents with appropriate terms and conditions and rights and remedies for the State.
• Developing Corrective Action Plans and Cure notices to remediate deficiencies.
• Ensuring the management of the contract tracks State and System Integrator responsibilities (as well as payable deliverables) so that all contractual obligations are met in a timely fashion.

Quality Assurance ensures a process is developed to review deliverables against expectations before they are submitted so the deliverable meets expectations. Quality Control assesses project deliverables to ensure they map to the defined quality standards and variance thresholds. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a Quality Management Plan that includes quality assurance and control standards and metrics.
• Training staff to perform deliverable reviews from a quality management perspective for contract adherence.

Risk and issue management practices involving deliberate steps in risk planning, identification, analysis, and response must be implemented during all phases of the system development life-cycle. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a Risk and Issue Management Plan.
• Planning, establishing, monitoring, measuring, and sustaining effective risk management practices throughout the project lifecycle.
• Assessing and reviewing risk management process, tools, and documentation. Providing risk management tools, templates, and best practices.

Since data is a critical business asset, it is the lifeblood of every organization. Establishing and maintaining data integrity and quality throughout the project lifecycle is essential. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a Data Conversion/Migration Plan.
• Implementing an effective Data Cleansing Strategy which encompasses the process of examining legacy data and detecting and correcting corrupt or inaccurate data. To ensure legacy data is ready for conversion, it is best to complete data cleansing  prior to the contract award of your system integration vendor.
• Establishing a practical and effective methodology for converting and migrating data from legacy systems to the new system, and validating and certifying that all data needed by the new system is converted accurately and consumable by the new system.

Early detection and removal of defects in the development lifecycle is critical to the success of an IT project and can be accomplished through well-planned testing strategies. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing a comprehensive Test Management Plan that identifies the test scope and testing phases.
• Establishing a systematic approach for developing, managing, and implementing test activities across the development lifecycle.
• Business test preparation such as user acceptance testing and system testing.
• Developing test cases and test scripts.

Best practice indicates that successful management of organizational change depends on a structured approach to planning and managing the effects of an IT project on the people of the organization. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing an Organizational Change Management Plan.
• Assessing the strategy and scope of the organizational change effort.
• Identifying and assessing early planning, strategy, communication, and adoption.

Planning for project success is critical to successful project execution. Determining whether the ‘big bang’ or a phased roll-out works best for the new system is key to the project plan. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing an Implementation Plan.
• Identifying activities that must be included in your project plan to reflect the approach.
• Training staff to understand how the roll-out approach impacts communication, change management, site readiness and other facets of your project.
• Monitoring system rollout and certification.

Early identification of interfaces will help ensure free flow of data and function between the new solution and partner agencies. There are ramifications to all facets of the project without knowing how many interfaces will be developed. The consulting team will assist with:

 

• Developing an Interface Management Plan.
• Ensuring that the interface matrix and plan includes all the parties’ scope definitions and acceptance criteria.

Please contact the CA-PMO at (916) 873-7281 or pmo@state.ca.gov. We offer a free consultation meeting to discuss your project and will let you know whether we have experts who can help.

No, the CA-PMO does not have control agency authority. The CA-PMO’s role is similar to a private sector consultant that serves the best interest of the department that hires them. More broadly, the CA-PMO provides centralized project management of projects and initiatives, so that strategic benefits are realized through standardized frameworks, education, training, tools, and techniques based on proven best practices and lessons learned.

The CA-PMO supports the following service delivery models:

• Project Management Services – Full-time resources dedicated for the duration of the project.
  • Full Engagement – CA–PMO will provide a project team to work in partnership with the department for project sponsorship, subject matter experts, and program knowledge. The dedicated team will consist of experienced and knowledgeable project management staff to fully manage and support a project to completion.

• • Balanced Engagement – CA–PMO will provide key project resources to augment a department’s existing team. Provides experienced and knowledgeable staff with specific skills and expertise needed to augment existing project teams. This may include a single Project Manager and/or other project professionals.
• Consulting Services – Expert consultants are provided on a temporary basis, to assist projects experiencing challenges or resource shortfalls. Consultants are State staff, and are assigned hourly or monthly.

The engagement model selected is a joint decision between the department and the CA-PMO. Specifically, the department chooses the model that seems to best fit their project need and communicates their choice to the CA-PMO in the initial meeting. Then, as part of finalizing the Engagement Plan, the CA-PMO and department collaborate to ensure the most appropriate engagement model is selected. To assist with this decision, the CA-PMO conducts a boots-on-the-ground survey of the project or initiative.

At a high-level, the following criteria is used to select an engagement model:

• Project Criteria
• Scope
• Complexity
• Criticality
• Governance
• Duration
• Cost
• Statewide Impact
• Organizational Readiness
• Organizational Capacity
• Organizational Capability

The CA-PMO provides resources from a range of classifications for project management and project support. The classification selected is based on a number of factors, including size, scope, and complexity of the work to be done. In general, assigned resources are from the following classification series: Data Processing Manager, Project Manager (IT), Information Systems Analyst, and Systems Software Specialist.

The CA-PMO is committed to assist departments in identifying and meeting their project resource needs. For specific, short-term resource requirements, the CA-PMO will work with the department to best meet their specific needs.

Engaged CA-PMO resources report to the department project sponsor. They may also share status information with the CA-PMO executive staff to assist the CA-PMO management in anticipating additional resource needs, and for providing council and strategy direction in complex situations.

Yes, non-technology projects and resources may be a CA-PMO service offering in the long-term (3-5 years). However, in the short-term (1-3 years), the CA-PMO service offerings are in areas related to information technology.

The department can review the performance of assigned CA-PMO resources at any time during the engagement period. At the start of an engagement, the department participates in the selection of the CA-PMO resources. If, during the engagement, the department is unsatisfied with the performance of assigned resources, alternatives can be pursued which may include CA-PMO providing additional training, and/or replacing or augmenting resources.

In most cases, the CA-PMO resources are based at the department site full-time (100%) for the duration of the engagement.

Yes, for every reportable project, PAO engagement is a separate and distinct requirement, unrelated to a decision to engage the CA-PMO. The CA-PMO provides project management as a service without oversight authority. PAO is the State’s information technology oversight body, and to that end monitors state department project activities irrespective to CA-PMO’s engagement on a project.

The CA-PMO has no authority over the actions of the State’s information technology oversight body, PAO. As such, the CA-PMO cannot comment on the likelihood of conditions that PAO may impose.

The CA-PMO’s goal is to improve successful project outcomes by providing exceptional project management services through qualified, competent project resources. The CA-PMO resources work as part of the client department’s team and will report to the project sponsor. Since the CA-PMO does not have any control agency authority, the CA-PMO is subject to all control agency policies and procedures, just like client department staff. Similarly, PAO will oversee the CA-PMO’s performance related to project scope, schedule, and cost, just as it would oversee the performance of the client department staff in executing reportable aspects of a project.