|
|
 Speakers
 |
Keynote Speaker
Gus PagonisExecutive 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
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
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.
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.
|
|