Portfolio-Engineering's ServicesPortfolio-Engineering offers a complete and tightly integrated range of services designed to assist your organization through an appropriate maturity curve as it addresses project, program and portfolio management. Closely associated with these management domains, Portfolio-Engineering assists organizations with their resource management requirements and can work with you to structure and launch a program management office (PMO). Applying skillful change management, we will work closely with your group to define processes, select tools, provide training, mentor on the new processes and establish a system of governance that will ensure that the new culture will continue to thrive and will be continually improving. 
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Project and Product Lifecycle and Process Definition ServicesThe definition of the roles, responsibilities, life cycle and processes that will enable your organization to consistently complete projects, programs and business strategies successfully will form the foundation for management maturity. A defined life cycle integrates management discipline with the unique methodology and tools required by each application area such as technology, construction or drug development. The life cycle will drive the determination and use of tools and will become the framework for training, mentoring and governance programs. Our approach emphasizes quality assurance through an emphasis on gateway management (inspection). We minimize total cost and time through an emphasis on quality and the associated reduction of waste and rework.  [ Top of Page ]
Resource Management ConsultingRequiring process definition, tools and governance, resource management is a consulting hybrid that could be said to apply to project, program or portfolio management depending on the organizational structure, culture and objectives. Resource management is about managing project staffing, resource allocation and utilization, working with ever-changing priorities and staff turnover, and identifying organizational resource bottlenecks. An emerging discipline that has a natural connection to other management disciplines, resource management brings with its domain a significant ability to improve productivity, efficiency and otherwise effect the organization's bottom line. [ Top of Page ]
Management Tools ServicesManagement tools include: - Document management systems
- Workflow systems
- Quality control / quality assurance systems
- Issue and communication management systems
- Project scheduling software
- Risk management tools
- Resource management software
- Portfolio investment decision systems
- Portfolio management systems (dashboards)
Some vendors are addressing the aggregate needs of management through Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solutions such as Microsoft's Project Server 2003. With all tools under consideration, the selection of appropriate tools and feature sets within the tools should be driven from the process which was in turn determined to meet appropriate organizational objectives and requirements. [ Top of Page ]
Microsoft Project Suite ServicesThe Microsoft Project 2003 Suite includes a family of products and features that can be used to target: - Improved project scheduling
- Time-phased project budgeting
- Earned value management (EVM)
- Resource management
- Project communications
- Project control
- Enterprise project portfolio management (EPM)
- Document management
- Issues management
- Risk management
- Status reporting
To get the maximum benefit from the suite, you will need to define your objectives and processes which will in turn assist you in designing: - System architecture
- Appropriate feature set
- Security setup
- Schedule templates
- Software configuration and administration
Software features should not be deployed simply because they are available or you run the risk of causing the organization to reject the tool outright due to its complexity. Process, tools, training and mentoring should be carefully designed to leverage the tool to the maximum organizational benefit. [ Top of Page ]
Training ServicesPortfolio-Engineering offers an extensive collection of training programs. 
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Mentoring, Facilitation and Intervention ServicesTraining alone is never enough to change a culture. Training introduces vocabulary, tools and techniques but mentoring assists individuals through the learning curve as they apply new skills into day to day activities. Mentoring is an individualized extension of training that meets the dynamic needs that arise in real world situations. Without mentoring, organizations rarely shift in their practices as the demands of the workplace usually supersedes the priority of independently learning less familiar but more efficient ways of doing things. Facilitation is often used as a compromise for organizations that do not have the time to pause for training. With facilitation, new tools and techniques are demonstrated by experts where the goal is to teach the technique while advancing the actual project work. As project planning is an involved process, facilitation is often used to assist project managers to learn new planning techniques while creating the detailed plan. Facilitation is used as a catalyst for the project and project management discipline. While there is inherent draw-backs to such "surrogacy", it can be an effective way to introduce best-practice project management into a busy organization. [ Top of Page ]
Governance ServicesOnce standards have been defined and the organization has been trained and mentored on the use of new techniques, tools and processes, governance is an important last step in assuring that the corporate culture changes and the benefits are realized. Governance includes inspecting required management products to see that the required and necessary components have been completed and adhere to published standards. Governance allows for consolidated enterprise management reporting on key metrics as it assures that all applicable baselines and measurements are being recorded for all projects within the portfolio. As a result of governance, the organization will be alerted to the need for additional training or the need to alter a process in the spirit of continuous improvement. [ Top of Page ]
Project Management, Program Management and PMO ConsultingProject management is the fusion of several management disciplines, each appropriately adapted to the culture of the performing organization and applied to the unique characteristics of an individual project to see that it is successfully planned, executed, controlled and closed. Project management is a complex discipline that includes diverse skills such as work breakdown structure, estimating, scheduling, budgeting, earned value management, risk management, quality assurance and so on. The Project Management Institute (PMI) have created an ANSI-standard framework for project management that can be used as the basis for organizational standardization around the discipline. Program management can be seen as either the management of the integration of a complex and interrelated group of projects that together have a unified charter or the management of the integrated elements of all projects inside the organization. Program management can address such domains as program chartering, resource management or integrated scheduling. There are literally dozens of types of project or program management offices (PMOs). PMOs may have the mandate of establishing organizational management methodology, tools and enterprise portfolio management systems. Some PMOs are formed to direct the project managers and provide them with coordinated training and support. PMOs may conduct project audits or be responsible for methodology governance. Operational PMOs may take on the execution of a complex program or be responsible for enterprise resource management and project staffing. While an emerging organizational tool that has yet to be well defined and standardized, many organizations are establishing project and program management offices to assist in establishing a culture of best-practice project management. [ Top of Page ]
Portfolio Management ConsultingPortfolio management deals with the defining of business strategy and the effective deployment of the organization's limited resources in the fulfillment of the strategy through project work. Portfolio management includes the work of turning a mission statement into strategy, strategy into objectives and objectives into project initiatives with a well defined approach, requirements and a clear charter. Portfolio management is about justifying each project and initiating only those that have a profile of success. Portfolio management assures that the current project portfolio includes the right projects that will sustain the vitality of the organization. [ Top of Page ] | 
