Business Challenge

The Project Management Office (PMO) was being inundated by requests for project management assistance for projects that were much smaller than they would manage.  The Director of the PMO recognized the need to educate managers and contributors on the basics of project management and how to use the templates designed by their PMO.  The Director of the PMO requested help from a learning and development company in turn contacted Leslie Ciborowski, of TrainSmart.

Both the Director of the PMO and the Manager from Learning and Development realized that project management training and employee communication would relieve the PMO office and the help desk from the number of project management requests received.  It was believed that the design, development, and delivery of solid project management fundamentals, modularized, with case studies by market segment, was the right solution to the PMO’s challenges.

The ultimate goal of this project was to teach people, who are not professional project managers, what they need to know to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close a project effectively.  It was not to develop professional project managers.

The message was to encourage all employees to have the opportunity to grow in their careers and the Client promotes a career self-management philosophy. They are encouraged to manage their own development in a way that will produce sustainable business results.

TrainSmart Solution

The overall project was undertaken in three phases:

Phase I: Project Orientation

Phase II: Development of the Deliverables

Phase III: Implementation.

Phase I and Phase II were focused on intake and reviewing results in the delivery of a high-level training design document.  The design document provided the learning objectives, learning strategies, and expected outcomes.  It was the blueprint for the development of the training.

The deliverables included a self-study eLearning tutorial, simulation, and the materials required to run this workshop as an instructor-led experience.  The instructor-led materials were designed so that the core principles were taught to all audiences, while including participant activities for each market segment such as marketing.

Results

The project was a success!  Smaller projects were being managed by departmental or market segment departments, the use of the company templates became the standard and many employees increased their knowledge of best practices in project management fundamentals.

Client Testimonial:

The project management fundamentals training program was a success!  TrainSmart consultants listened to our request and pulled together a training program that is sustainable, repeatable, and ignited change.

– Manager Project Management Office