Project Management

Successful Project Management from CrossUSA begins with the definition process. There are many kinds of Project Management Offices (PMOs). CrossUSA will first go through a process to determine what type of PMO makes most sense for your organization. This process will determine the PMO mission, vision, clients, products, services, etc. and provide the foundation for everything that the PMO subsequently does.

A core service of a CrossUSA PMO is to provide comprehensive reporting on the state of all the projects being executed within your organization. This service might also extend to keeping metrics on historical projects so that you can track how successfully projects are being executed over time. We also may be asked to track the backlog of projects that have not begun, to provide your management stakeholders with a complete, portfolio-wide view of all active, pending and historical projects.

CrossUSA collects metrics that show how effective your organization is at delivering services, as well as how well the organization is adopting the new processes. We also collect metrics that show how the organization is benefiting from the services of the PMO.

CrossUSA Project Management services include:

Methodology Assessment and Management
Methodology refers to the processes, procedures, and policies that are used to perform certain aspects of work. The methodology must also be adaptable to meet the changing needs of your business and it must add value to the projects that utilize it. A CrossUSA PMO can ensure this result.

Methodology Management should be viewed in terms of a product. The processes, procedures, and policies that make up the methodology are the "deliverables" that are produced. These deliverables need to be supported and improved over time. A CrossUSA PMO will provide this focus.

Training and Coaching
Training is one of the premiere services offered by CrossUSA PMOs. For many clients, our primary role is to offer project training to their staff. However, like many of the services offered, training must be considered holistically, along with any other services that the PMO is providing. Our curriculums can include internal classes, vendor classes, computer based training, and much more.

Coaching refers to working with individuals, projects or teams to transfer knowledge and teach new skills. Coaching is different than training, in that training implies a formal teacher-pupil relationship, and the formal instruction of material. Coaching is less structured, and usually involves talking through situations that affect the client, and describing or demonstrating what processes and techniques can assist. In general, a CrossUSA Coach will be a subject matter expert and be able to transfer their knowledge effectively to your staff.

Project Audits
A CrossUSA PMO is frequently asked to perform the difficult job of changing the organizational culture regarding particular projects. The people in the PMO have a lot of contacts with others throughout the organization. They can use these contacts to gather feedback on how well the processes are being integrated. However, this is not going to provide a full picture of what is going on. A CrossUSA PMO will look at the organization on a periodic basis and perform a Project Audit as to how well the processes are becoming integrated into the work routine. These assessments validate that the client teams are utilizing the appropriate processes.