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Increasing Utilization of Primavera through Change Management

Prepared by:

Nicole Alonzo, PMP

Highway Project Delivery Program Manager

Wyoming Department of Transportation

A case study on improving communication and productivity with Oracle Primavera P6

Session ID#:

@NicoleAlonzo83

Presentation Overview

■ Purpose & Goals of the Presentation

■ Brief Introduction to the Wyoming Department of Transportation

■ Primavera Status Quo as of March 2013

■ Planning to Change

■ Implementing the Plan

■ Results and Outcomes

■ Looking Toward the Future

Introductions

Nicole Alonzo, PMP (Presenter) Highway Project Delivery Program Manager 9 years Project Management experience in IT, Software Development, Healthcare, and Public Sector. B.S. in Business Administration nicole.alonzo@wyo.gov

Robin Grandpre, MBA Program Monitor

3 years Project Management experience in Healthcare and Public Sector M.B.A. with emphasis in Project Management

robin.grandpre@wyo.gov

Sue Hopkins Project Coordinator 2 years Project Coordinator experience in Public Sector B.S. Management Information Systems & Accounting sue.hopkins@wyo.gov

Purpose and Goals

This presentation will provide a case study for how Primavera is being used at the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and how that use has evolved over the last 2 years.

Our use case is unique but we hope you will walk out with an idea or two to increase utilization at your organization

The Wyoming Department of Transportation: A Brief Introduction

Where we started.

Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT)

■ Largest Agency in the State of Wyoming

■ Roughly 2000 employees

▪ Engineering

▪ Maintenance

▪ Highway Patrol

▪ Aeronautics

▪ Driver’s Services

▪ Support Services

▪ Between $250m and $300m spent annually on highway projects

▪ 17 different functional teams work on the design of these projects

▪ Projects take 1-4 years from approval to design completion

▪ All are let to the lowest bidder for construction

Primavera at WYDOT Status Quo as of March 2013

■ Used and managed by the Engineering section

■ Used for schedule oversight only, no budget, resource, risk info

■ 200+ users with permissions on all 300+ active projects

■ Old projects not archived to another system or deleted

■ Just transitioned from client-based to web-based

■ Minimal training provided, nothing custom to our deployment or setup

■ BI Publisher not utilized, all reporting functionality lost to user group.

Most projects were behind schedule - 20% were at -100d or worse. The worst was -529d

Project Management at WYDOT Status Quo as of March 2013

■ Had been attempted on several occasions without success

▪ One “Project Monitor” for all projects

▪ Only invited in on projects that were in total failure

■ Failure in the past decreased buy-in for current attempt

■ Highly inaccurate project schedules meant there was little trust in the system

■ Only formal project review occurred at quarterly reviews

▪ No schedule review or discussion on milestones, only a “gut

check” by the engineering section on whether or not it would

make it

■ All projects overseen by 20 person committee made up of 19 Engineers and the Project Monitor

Planning to Change

Where to go and how to get there?

Seeking Feedback

■ Survey sent to all 200+ users

■ Provided opportunity for anonymous feedback

▪ How often do you log into

Primavera?

▪ When you log in, what do you

use it for?

▪ What changes would encourage

more use?

■ Also sought feedback on our reporting tool

■ Feedback meeting held with all in the same room

■ Executive Staff support was key

■ Asked for key areas that needed changed- what was wrong AND how to fix it

■ Assigned follow-ups to several members of committee, not just the project management team

From the User Group

From the Project Committee

Action Planning- Major Concerns Identified

■ Software is Difficult to Use ■ Lack of Utilization

■ Unrealistic Schedules

■ No Accountability to Deadlines

Issue: Software is Difficult to Use

■ Transition from Client to Web was hard on the user group

■ No Universal User Views were created, but all users got training on creating their own (and they did)

■ Multiple clicks to do things that used to only require one.

Solution: Training & System Setup

■ Custom training developed in-house

▪ Setting views based on our project codes

▪ Fastest ways to access information - reduce clicks

▪ Training done in-house on live system so views would be saved

▪ On-site training offered around the state

■ Custom Universal Views

▪ Only 3 Universal Views

▪ Many “universal” views created by users were cleaned up

■ Unnecessary tabs removed from views

■ Implemented “User Interface Views” to streamline further

Issue: Lack of Utilization

■ Half of users only checked their schedules once a month

■ 10% of “users” had never even logged in

■ 63% had never logged in to the reporting tool

■ Slow response to requests for help, password resets, etc.

■ Java was not managed at an enterprise level, leading to many errors for each user depending on their version

■ No utilization means schedules were out of date, often showed negative float where there was none

Solution: Follow-Up and More System Setup

■ Custom training was first major improvement for all of these issues

■ A centralized email address was set up to expedite “help desk” requests for password reset, java issues, etc.

■ Enlisted IT support to manage Java from an enterprise level, including pushing upgrades out to users

■ Continuous follow-up with user base to ensure coding is up-to-date on projects

Issue: Unrealistic Schedules

■ All project schedules are based on project templates that had not been reviewed in 5+ years

■ Not enough schedule templates to match all project types

■ No review done to customize schedule templates to each individual project

■ Schedule templates resided in a restricted WBS band, users could not access or view

■ Lack of utilization compounded this issue - schedules were unrealistic to start, not updating them made them worse, which made people use them less…

Solution: Template Committee

■ Full review done of all existing templates

■ New templates were created - now have 29 instead of 5

■ Major changes in project templates require review by this 6 person team (instead of 20 person committee)

■ All templates are published in PDF and available for users to access…

▪ …along with written descriptions of each activity in every

template.

■ Permissions on active projects were locked down to prevent changes without communication

■ A Data Integrity Policy was implemented that covered

▪ Template Revision

▪ Schedule Revision

▪ Opening and Closing Projects

Issue: No Accountability to Deadlines

■ High amount of confusion on “early” and “late” dates - especially because most “late” dates were in the past

■ No accountability when duration exceeded or deadline missed

■ Projects were scheduled with no buffer time - and then rescheduled to remove any buffer when actual deadlines were known

▪ Everyone knew they would get more time if they needed it

▪ Some projects were designated “Early” to be done in case

additional funding was granted or other projects fell through

▪ Functional Team would often prioritize work internally without

communicating, resulting in unanticipated delays while other

teams waited on work that was delayed/deprioritized

Solution: Increased Communication

■ “Early” project scheduling was eliminated. All projects now have deadlines 6-18 months ahead of contract date (buffer time)

■ Project Review Meetings implemented on specific projects that were above a designated Risk Threshold

■ Project Status Reports implemented on High Risk and High Priority projects

■ Schedule Review implemented at Quarterly Project meetings to provide follow-up on activity deadlines

■ Escalation Policy implemented for additional accountability

■ Action items from project meetings tracked in addition to activities in the project schedules

Results and Outcomes

Measuring our performance

Utilization Increase

■ 75% of users now logging in 2x monthly or more

▪ Compared to only 50% logging in at least 1x monthly

■ 50% of users logging into reporting system monthly

▪ Compared to 63% had never logged in

Objections Overcome

■ Increased buy-in to deadlines

■ Participation in the process - attendance at meetings, prep for meetings has increased dramatically

■ Grudging acceptance of meetings and increased follow-up, based on the outcomes achieved after these changes were implemented

Outcomes

■ September 2013: 65 Projects with -100d float or worse

■ December 2014: 5 Projects with -100d float or worse

■ WYDOT had biggest year ever in terms of productivity, putting $200m worth of future work “on the shelf” in FY 2014, while staffing and funding levels were at historic lows.

Looking to the Future

The only constant is change…

Next Round of Changes

■ Utilize Additional System Functionality

▪ Risk Reporting

▪ Resource Loading

■ Custom Dashboards

▪ Within Primavera

▪ Executive Dashboards in our Reporting Tool

■ Formal Project Close-Out Process with Lessons Learned

■ Focus on Further Streamlining User Experience

▪ Team Member Application

▪ Or- Integrate with PeopleSoft for Actuals

Opportunity for Q&A

Please complete the session evaluation We appreciate your feedback and insight

You may complete the session evaluation either

on paper or online via the mobile app

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