A Dual Focus on Mission and Standards Wins Accolades for this Nonprofit Healthcare PMO

November 12, 2012 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

CHI's EPMO interprets "stewardship" as excellent portfolio management

Catholic Health Initiatives is a national, faith-based, non-profit health organization formed in 1996 by bringing together 12 health ministries rooted in traditions of caring for the poor and vulnerable. In 2008, the Enterprise Program Management Office was established by CHI executive leadership with the goal of implementing standard practices and improving project success rates. Over time the EPMO has introduced new services to solve business problems and improve organizational project management maturity by evaluating organizational business needs, readiness, and change adoption capability. As a result, since its implementation the EPMO has grown 600%, from 25 to 175 team members. And in early 2012, the EPMO was re-positioned by CHI leadership to support all types of enterprise-wide projects, not just projects with ITS components.

EPMO activities are aligned with and support CHI’s core strategies: People, Quality, Stewardship and Growth. The PMO of the Year judges particularly noted the “people policies” engaged in by CHI as a best practice. They include a comprehensive EPMO career framework that consists of, among other elements:

  • Cascading Goals — Develop, align and integrate CHI organizational goals with EPMO departmental and team member goals.
  • Job Competency Matrix — By position, detail skills, and experience requirements grouped into job families for use in consistent career planning and recruiting. Online tool allows managers and employees to identify personal strengths and opportunities for improvement.
  • Career Path — Identifies lateral and advancing career opportunities for EPMO job roles into five job families.
  • Professional Development Plan — Allows the employee and manager to establish professional development plan based on employee and organizational development interests, needs, and constraints.

Working with other functional organizations such as Human Resources and Learning, a comprehensive yet flexible modular training program was implemented with required, recommended and optional courses, just-in-time training for project functions and project teams, four progressive levels of courses comprising 16 subject areas including PMP® preparation and an EPMO toolbox of minimum requirements for non-EPMO staff assigned to manage small, simple projects.

In the area of quality, CHI established fundamental project management processes, tools, and techniques. In addition, The EPMO implemented a project quality assurance function to capture feedback; to provide an independent view of the application of standards, customer satisfaction, and project performance; and to provide “any-time” coaching.

The EPMO interpreted the “stewardship” piece of CHI’s mission as a commitment to project portfolio transparency, reliable project information, and overall project portfolio control in an effort to properly steward the organization’s resources. The initial creation of the repository resulted in the identification of over 800 projects, many of which were duplicates or not aligned with organizational goals. Utilizing new PPM practices, the portfolio was reduced to 140 projects.

Never departing from its vision statement, the EPMO is developing FY13 goals and objectives through a collaborative effort with CHI leadership. Growth – the fourth element of the mission – will be maintained despite constrained resources through the discipline instilled by the new standards and PPM processes.

Congratulations to the CHI team, shown here accepting the runner-up trophy at the presentation at their corporate headquarters. (Shown left to right, Michael O’Rourke, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer; John A. Kocon, VP EPMO; and Kevin E. Lofton, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer.)

Read a full description of thier achievements in the 2012 PMO of the Year ebook here.

About the Author

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions Research, and the author, co-author and editor of over twenty books on project management, including the 2007 PMI Literature Award winner, The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Second Edition.

View Posts by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

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