Project Management
As an Agile Practitioner (Certified Scrum Master – CSM) and Waterfall enthusiast I’ve managed projects that are dedicated to these separate disciplines or a hybrid of both. Most recently I introduced the concept of Agile Scrum to the development team I managed and led them through the transition from Waterfall to Agile Scrum.
Project Pragmatism
I consider myself to be a project pragmatist. As a contractor or consultant I often encounter a mindset where project practitioners are more interested in the process used to manage projects rather than the project results. While the former is an admirable pursuit and may even create the illusion that the practitioner is hard at work I don’t necessarily find it to be a value-add proposition for my employers or clients.
When the goal of a PM is to show off their chops or protect their paycheck you are looking at a person that's realizing half of their potential.
Manager of Projects Rather Than a Project Manager
Gloriously complex and detailed project schedules are fun to look at and indicate when a PM has mastered a software product. However, detailed schedules and the associated paperwork that goes with a typical PMI approach guarantees nothing in terms of project success. Being a "manager" is what gets the job done. Managing people and vendors is always a sure bet and the process used is only a tool to facilitate that endeavor. I do not rely on a tool or a process to make my projects successful. I rely on my management training and experience to be successful and I’m absolutely willing and often do trim project processes until they suit my needs and those of the team for a given activity.
The projects I’ve managed contain most if not all of the following elements to build, track and control the project:
- Sponsor(s)
- Stakeholders
- Product Owners
- Budgeting
- Establishing Core & Non-Core Team Members
- Subject Matter Experts (SME)
- Statements of Work (SoW) or Charters
- Project Deadlines
- Milestones
- User Stories
- Schedules & Sprints
- Risks & Issues Logs
- Architecture⁄Engineering
- Team Meetings and Meeting Minutes
- Communication Plans
- Dashboard Tracking
- Test Cases
- Establishing the Definition of Done
- Retrospectives or Lessons Learned
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
I use the following applications to manage projects:
- ProjectManager.com and similar collaborative online software packages
- Microsoft Project
- Serena OpenProj
- Freedcamp
- G-Suite
- Microsoft Office
- MS Visio
- MS Outlook
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Google Workspace (formerly G-Suite)
Project List – Abridged:
| Employer | Project Name | Project Short Description | Jeff's Responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Red Cross | Wellsky Transfusion Software Implementation | Migrate 45 Reference Laboratories located across the United States to the Wellsky solution | Project Manager |
| American Red Cross | Covid-19 Lessons Learned | Gather Lessons Learned from across the biomedical division and distill the information into actionable data | Project Manager |
| AT&T | Marketing Business Intelligence Reporting | Ideate/Design/Build reports & dashboards for NFL Marketing, International Taxation and Miscellaneous BI | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Agile Scrum Transformation | Implemented Agile as a project management methodology and transformed the approach to successful project kickoff, management and closure | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Project Management | Implemented PMO-like principles and procedures as an organized approached to managing and prioritizing dozens of projects, introduced ProjectManager.com as a collaborative online tool | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Bank of Montreal | A huge US & Canadian account that awarded project management, service desk, asset management, vendor management and other ancillary services to CompuCom – the project goal was to setup the efficient management and billing for these services | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Credit Card Refunds | Developed a systemic Oracle tracking mechanism and retired the legacy Access system | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Credit Limit Management Report | Developed a client credit-limit warning and reporting tool set to reduce CompuCom’s credit risk | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Days to Bill - Root Cause Analysis (Represents 17 sub-projects) | Led SMEs in analyzing billing processes, resolved root causes and lowered the Days-To-Bill metric | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Financial Operations Contract Systems (FOCS) | New application development that standardizes massive amounts of billing data and creates Oracle billing system data loaders | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Google Team Drive Folder Restructure and Template Creation | Established a template-based records-management program for all project documentation | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | HUB International Phase 1 & 2 | Process reengineered the account to acquire monies owed to CompuCom in 1/3 the time | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Innovapost Phase 1 & 2 | Process reengineered the account to acquire monies owed to CompuCom in 1/2 the time | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | New Process-Flow Template Development | Designed and implemented a new Process Flow template used by all company Contract Owners | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Office Depot Billing Estimator | Process reengineering - the solution pulls data warehouse elements to determine billables and allows for review and adjustment | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Pricing Calculator | New web application development - allows Sales to configure an on-the-spot Rough Order of Magnitude pricing structure for potential clients | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Project Prioritization and Reporting | Established Director, and Vice President-level project priority status and tracking | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Robotics - Client Website Portals | Implemented a proof-of-concept using Bots to perform repetitive data transferred between CompuCom and select clients | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Travel - Credit Card Management | Leveraged the ProcessMaker application and implemented new credit card management processes and procedures for all corporate credit card holders | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | University Health Network Phase 1 & 2 | Process reengineered the account to acquire monies owed to CompuCom in 1/4 the time | Project Manager |
| LCI | Migration to a Cloud Based Project Management Solution | Moved all PM related activity to Google Drive and ProjectManager.com, implemented project management principles and procedures where none existed before | Director, Operations & Project Planning |
| LCI | Warehouse reconfiguration | Redesigned and physically moved the contents of a 15,000 sqft warehouse | Director, Operations & Project Planning |
| LCI | War Room Creation | Plan and setup litigation war rooms nationwide, includes decommissioning | Director, Operations & Project Planning |
| LCI | New Website Development | Create a new corporate website | Project Manager and Web Designer / Developer |
| Royse City High School | New Website Development | Create a new website for this large, dynamic High School | Project Manager and Web Designer / Developer |
| McKinney North High School | New Website Development | Create a website that reflects the energy and personality of MNHS | Project Manager and Web Designer / Developer |
| CAE Simuflite | Service Delivery Problem Resolution | Create a project plan beginning with 5 predefined major categories | Project Manager |
| CompuCom | Worldwide Citigroup IT Support Data Analysis | Determine the level of value-add that Intel's remote desktop management product "vPro" would bring to Citigroup global IT operations | Project Contributor |
| Dell | IT Support Transition | Transition 350 hotels to Dell's IT support model | Network and Server Technology Leader |
| Citigroup | Office Relocation | 1200 user desktop departmental move | Leader |
| Ericsson | Digital Content | 100 server geo-diverse lineup installation | Data Center Leader, Project Contributor |
| Ericsson | Data Center Electrical Upgrade | Isolate HVAC from Data Center power infrastructure | Leader |
| Ericsson | New Business Rack and Stack | A continuing project-based provisioning activity | Leader |
| City of Plano | Special Events Risk Mitigation | Mitigate risks to the city associated with special events | Leader |
| Blockbuster Technology | Data Center Controlled Shutdown | Design the process and test Data Center orderly shutown, restart and validation | Leader |
| CSC | Office Relocation #2 Desk Top Services | 1200 user infrastructure and office relocation | Desktop Leader, Project Contributor |
| CSC | Office Relocation #1 Infrastructure | 500 user infrastructure and office relocation | Desktop Leader, Project Contributor |
| CSC | Eastern Data Center Service Delivery | Resolve chronic data center service delivery issues | Leader |
| CSC | Service Delivery Transition | Transition Financial Services from a dedicated model to a cross-functional model | Leader |
| CSC | ATL⁄VTS Installation | Equipment & Service upgrade | Data Center Leader, Project Contributor |
| CSC | Data Center Operational Problem Analysis and Resolution | Resolve chronic data center service delivery issues | Leader |
| Aetna | Data Center Relocation | Data Center cost containment and improved service delivery | IT Utilities Leader, Project Contributor |
| Aetna | Service Desk Relocation | Service Desk cost containment | Service Desk Leader, Project Contributor |
| UTD | Data Center Relocation | Data Center cost containment | Data Center Leader, Project Contributor |