Creation of Project Management Guidelines Captures Knowledge Assets and Enhances Performance

As a large municipal agency responsible for routine operation and maintenance of wastewater and solid waste collection, treatment and disposal, we face drivers for change that well known in our industry. We are challenged to:

improve business efficiencies

do more at less cost, and

address the impacts of an aging workforce.

In 2005, our agency embarked on a plan to improve our business efficiency by improving our project management capabilities. This initial endeavor involved project management training for 120 employees. This educational program proved to be the first step toward production of our agency's first set of Project Management Guidelines (Guidelines). These Guidelines are now recognized as an elegant and innovative solution to all three of the challenges listed above, and was selected by the Bureau's Directors as one of the top 10 objectives in the Fiscal Year 2006–2007 Strategic Plan.

This paper describes the steps we took to enhance our project management culture and create documentation of our own project delivery procedures. By applying the concept of a project lifecycle and leveraging in-house resources, we were able to successfully complete the development of the Guidelines. A rollout plan for the Guidelines is described, which will support the Bureau's need to have a project management resource that is up to date, regularly improved, and used to support daily activities by Bureau staff. In addition to now having detailed documentation of the Bureau's Project Management procedures, this paper also describes the synergistic benefits that have been realized along the way. These benefits fall in the categories of Knowledge Retention, Communication, Customized Education, Networking, and Cost.