Speakers

Executive Vice President of Logistics
Sears Roebuck & Co.

Leadership of the Supply Chain

As Keynote Speaker for the Dekker Project Portfolio Management Forum™ 2004, Lieutenant General Gus Pagonis (Retired) started the General Session by delivering an uplifting speech discussing the value of leadership and innovation in management. As Chief Logistician for the first Gulf War, Pagonis received recognition from General Schwarzkopf for excelling in meeting the demands of the ever changing challenges he faced. It was his quick and innovative approach that made him able to succeed in that mission. After retiring from the Army, Pagonis went on to succeed in his mission of helping in the turnaround effort at Sears Roebuck & Co. as Vice President of Logistics. The focus of his key-note address was on how his military leadership skills can be applied to the contemporary corporate environment.

Pagonis discussed several contributing factors to successful leadership and management. A manager’s top objective is to provide value to the organization through the utilization of assets. To effectively manage these assets, Pagonis identified the value in defining quantifiable measurements that can be easily reported on and used to forecast performance outcomes. Techniques such as the use of a balanced scorecard provide a link between objectives and actual outcomes. When these objectives are directly linked to corporate strategy, they provide the basis for aggregating performance measurement into a total corporate perspective. He stressed the need for managing information in a simple manner, such as with the use of 3x5 cards, to electronically convey key information in a succinct form. A reporting technique such as “3 Ups and 3 Downs” provides the ability to easily identify 3 goals; the Ups, and three interferences in meeting those goals; the downs. With this simple method in place, inhibitors to success can be effectively dealt with in a timely manner to ensure that the most value is derived from all efforts. He showed a brief example of the 3 X 5 score card in Dekker iPursuit®.

Two of the most important factors Pagonis identified in contributing to successful leadership and management are maintaining a focus on the customer and innovative thinking. He described how Sears was faced with a retention problem in a remotely located warehouse because so many employees could not both work and get to their college courses a great distance away. By instituting a college education program on-site, employees were able to get the education they wanted while maintaining their working hours. Additionally, this program added to the retention of college educated employees that went on to management positions in other areas of Sears. It was the connection between people and innovation that made this possible.

Bob Swistak

Director of Enterprise Application Systems
Titan Secure Solutions

Lessons Learned in Implementing Business Performance Measurement Systems

As Director of Enterprise Application Systems at Titan Secure Solutions, Bob Swistak is no stranger to the lessons learned in implementing an enterprise Business Performance Measurement System (BPMS). Mr. Swistak is an experienced implementer of performance based systems and has extensive experience in the public sector. His presentation focused on the successful implementation of Team Center™, Dekker TRAKKER® (TRAKKER), and Dekker iPursuit® (iPursuit) in a civilian government agency operation.

Mr. Swistak’s presentation stressed the need to integrate project, financial, and organizational data from disparate sources throughout an enterprise. From this integrated data, a standard set of business metrics are being used to analyze and report on the full spectrum of operational information. The purpose of this enterprise BPMS is to facilitate the management of OMB Exhibit 300 level programs and standardize Earned Value Management (EVM) reporting. This is achieved by utilizing standardized business processes and tools that support consistent department-wide performance management. TRAKKER’s Oracle configure collects, processes and distributes information integrating all aspects of the BPMS data. iPursuit represents the presentation layer for score carding, digital dashboards, and analysis. Team Center is used as a simple scheduling tool. The financial integration, analysis, and reporting capabilities of BPMS help the civilian agency meet the rigors of OMB Exhibit 300 Reporting and day-to-day management.

The dashboard style reporting provided by iPursuit makes it possible to convey vital information from important project portfolios to every level of the enterprise. This requires extensive security and cross project reporting capabilities that, in turn, require a structuralized business environment throughout the organization. Mr. Swistak identified the definition and communication of standardized performance objectives throughout the enterprise as the primary factors to ensuring success. He was able to achieve this through the promotion of an open, knowledge-sharing environment.

Harvey A. Levine

Principal
The Project Knowledge Group

Analyst’s Briefing and Overview of Project Portfolio Management

Harvey Levine, Principal of the Project Knowledge Group, briefed attendees on the details of the emerging discipline of Project Portfolio Management (PPM). With over 42 years of experience in the project management field, Mr. Levine provided the audience with a seasoned perspective on the methodology and considerations necessary to properly execute PPM in an enterprise environment.

The presentation began by pointing out the differences between PPM and traditional project management. Project management involves a single project while PPM addresses diverse effort, personnel skills, and assets. PPM represents the management of an entire portfolio of projects pertaining to an organization. He further outlined that PPM is not simply Enterprise Project Management, but rather is the way in which numerous projects can be collectively analyzed and managed. The foundation of PPM, Mr. Levine explained, is the conglomeration of Project Management, Operations Management, and Financial Management data. Combining the knowledge of these groups provides the basis for creating a Project Governance Council, which analyzes proposed and in-progress projects to determine whether or not these efforts fulfill organizational objectives.

Buddy Everage

Senior Member of Executive Staff; EVM Focal Point
Computer Sciences Corporation Federal Sector

Earned Value Management System Certification: A Systematic Approach

Buddy Everage is the Earned Value Management (EVM) Focal Point at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Federal Sector. CSC is a top 10 Government Contractor and is ranked #3 in the Federal Information Technology Market. With over 750 global locations and more than 40,000 employees, CSC Federal Sector serves virtually every agency and department of the Federal Government. Mr. Everage presented CSC Federal Sector’s approach to gaining EVM certification to meet the increasing need to satisfy Department of Defense, Civil Agencies and Office of Management and Budget earned value requirements. Mr. Everage is responsible for implementing an EVM system throughout this organization. The system is composed of the Dekker enterprise project management suite of software tools.

Mr. Everage presented the four-phase strategy currently being used at CSC Federal Sector to develop an EVM Program Management Control System that meets ANSI/EIA EVM guidelines. The first phase of the plan consisted of developing a disciplined approach to executing EVM processes and procedures. This discipline was then well documented and utilized as an enhancement of CSC Federal Sector’s prior methodology. A group of test programs were subsequently selected for piloting the new processes. CSC conducted an internal review for certification readiness. Afterwards, the Defense Contract Management Agency, the agency responsible for Federal EVM Certification, was requested to evaluate and certify CSC Federal Sector’s EVM system.

Harry Sparrow

Vice President and Project Manager
Performance Management Associates, Inc.

Project Portfolio Management: Can It Help Answer the Question, "Does Earned Value Matter?"

Mr. Sparrow pointed out the effectiveness of using EVM as a management tool. With the increase in shareholder demands for earning a greater return on corporate investment, more and more executives are identifying the need to better manage all projects in an organization while maintaining focus on the bottom line. Based upon a survey conducted by Gary Christle, Mr. Sparrow pointed that cash flow and profit were the two most important corporate metrics. Project performance must consider these two parameters to proactively mitigate risks that derail the profitability of any project. EVM can help identify cost risks, according to Mr. Sparrow.

The discussion addressed how summarizing EVM information can facilitate visibility into the overall benefit being added to shareholders. He stressed that including financial data with project performance adds valuable summary level information that can be used to monitor and track the benefits being provided to the organization. An Enterprise Project Management (EPM) system must be in place to generate these data. Mr. Sparrow made a suggestion on how profitability and cost performance can help provide visibility into a project’s contribution to the organizations profitability.

Steve Abbott

Management Consultant

Knowledge Management – Getting our organizations to attain real value from all that data on all those servers

Mr. Abbott identified the differences between data, information, and knowledge. Data is raw and needs to be analyzed. Information is the product of process, analysis, and classification of the results. Knowledge is the understanding derived from maintaining information across an entire corporate culture. He described the way in which different types of knowledge are stored, and how they can be accessed. Explicit knowledge can be expressed easily and stored on various media for reference. Implicit or tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is more abstract and not easily communicated. However, implicit knowledge can be shared through observation and experience. With the uniqueness of projects and experts in today’s global economy comes the need to store and share knowledge so that it may become part of the collective corporate understanding. Without doing so, the knowledge of every individual is lost when they are no longer part of the organization.

Mr. Abbott identified that while every project is unique, many processes used to manage those projects are similar. Maintaining process knowledge supports the decision cycle by increasing understanding of all relative factors. The development of a knowledge database that consists of lessons learned and the practical expression of abstract understandings can drive an organization to innovative levels by capitalizing on the collective experience throughout the company.