Businesses are increasingly utilising the discipline of project management in recognition that it is a key enabler of corporate strategy delivery. Project management provides the potential to increase projects’ success, minimise the likelihood of failure and ultimately contribute to the overall organisational performance.

There are many ways an organisation can choose to embed project management as a practice, depending on the unique characteristics of the organisation itself. However, certain basic elements need to be in place in any organisation for project management to take root and flourish.

 

About the Client

Certa, one of Ireland’s largest energy companies, was undergoing transformational change through the confluence of numerous successful energy brands into a single brand and diversifying their product range to connect people and businesses to the most progressive energy solutions available.

This transformation resulted in several large projects key to strategic success as well as numerous operational improvement initiatives to realign organisational processes, people and technology.

Through the rebranding project, the leadership team recognised the need to establish project management as a practice to enable a more structured approach to managing multiple projects simultaneously as the organisation integrates and grows.

 

Key Challenges

With the increased number of strategic and operational projects, several key challenges were identified, this included visibility of total capacity versus demand of key resources, consistency in project execution processes, alignment of projects to strategic priorities, effective project planning, control and reporting, and levels of project management knowledge / skills within the business.

Saros Consulting was engaged to assist address these challenges and embed project management as a practice through developing a project delivery capability that aligns projects with corporate strategy through an effective execution lifecycle.

 

Building a Project Management Foundation

With the discipline of Project Management being relatively new to the organisation, we focused on implementing the basic elements of a sound project management practice, which included:

• Determining the maturity of existing project management practices within the business and the unique characteristics of the organisation in relation to managing change.
• Creating a project management framework based on the organisation’s project management maturity, to act as a guide to project decisions and enable a consistent approach to project prioritisation, planning and execution.
• Introducing a fit-for-purpose project governance structure to provide direction, make decisions and ensure projects are visible and routinely reviewed.
• Establishing a Project Office to manage the PM processes, tools and templates, and provide support to the project governance structures.
• Working collaboratively with the leadership team in reviewing, aligning and prioritising projects to strategic objectives to ensure teams work on projects that move the organisation forward.
• Continuously engaging the leadership team to ensure active and visible sponsorship of the project management practices.
• Reviewing, aligning and prioritising projects to strategic objectives to ensure teams work on projects that move the organisation forward.
• Identifying and implementing an appropriate project management tool to enable effective tracking and reporting of the organisation’s project portfolio.
• Implementing various initiatives to develop individual skills to improve project management competence within the organisation.
• Establishing mechanisms for continuous performance monitoring and reporting to improve project execution, business success and adoption of project management.

 

Success Through Visibility and Alignment

This was a key strategic initiative that required extensive collaboration with business stakeholders in creating awareness, understanding and acceptance of project management in the organisation, resulting in:

• Enhanced visibility of capacity and demand, enabling improved prioritisation of projects.
• Successful implementation of a fit-for-purpose project management framework and project management tool.
• Establishment of a Project Management Office.
• Successful delivery of several post-merger integration projects.
• Increased Project Management knowledge and skills across the business.
• Improved planning, execution and control of projects.
• Significant increase in the utilisation of the project management framework and project management tool among management teams.

 

This case study illustrates the transformative impact of tailored project management practices in an evolving corporate environment. Our collaboration with one of Ireland’s largest energy companies highlights the importance of aligning project management with strategic objectives, demonstrating the substantial benefits of methodical planning and execution. This experience reaffirms our belief in the power of project management as a critical tool for achieving organisational excellence and strategic success.