Since 1999 Pace Micro Technology have used Project Learning for Project Management and Microsoft Project training. In 2003 we helped Pace take Microsoft Project a stage further – and implement Project 2002 Server.

In this case study:
 

►	Background - Pace, projects and Project Learning.
►	Situation - The project portfolio and the need for structure and process.
►	Solution - Deployment and worldwide rollout.

Background

Pace Micro Technology plc develop and manufacture high-tech consumer electronics.  This is a highly customer-focused sector, which makes use of very rapidly changing and innovative technologies, both within their products and in the methods used within their company. 

To ensure that they really do remain the fastest to market, they need staff to have effective multi-project management skills and to make consistent and full use of Microsoft Project - their standard PM software tool.  At any one moment in time Pace have a large portfolio of concurrent live projects (50+ at time of writing) each requiring a share of the highly skilled pool of people.  Project Managers and their Project Coordinators are required to be able to make professional decisions, aware of the impact they may have upon their colleagues, or on their own project success.  Skilled planning, standardization and fully reflecting reality, are the keys to running this side of the business.

Individual projects at Pace typically comprise many hundreds of tasks and up to fifty resources, possibly based across several sites and all linked to a centralized resource pool.  The total load on the system is of the order 30,000 tasks and a total of 800 resources.  Microsoft Project has remained their tool of choice, to help them implement and manage these projects and programmes effectively.

Over the past five years, Paul Boocock and the team at Pace, have developed a bespoke and innovative Process (based on Prince2) that suits their dynamic sector.  This is supported by a Process Guide that outlines a very clearly defined work-flow and the standards required for company-wide planning.  This document is available on-line through the company Intranet and is used by Project Managers and Project Coordinators to control the detailed planning and execution of complex multi-discipline projects.  Included within this guide are links to the common documents and procedures that outline the complex technical requirements for the development of cutting-edge products.  Naturally, this stage-gate process formalizes the methods of control (using a system of electronic signoffs) throughout its lifecycle.  Pace has clearly invested considerable time and effort around its use of Project and Programme Management techniques.

"The total load on the system is of the order 30,000 tasks and a total of 800 resources."

Situation

Pace first implemented their Process guidelines whilst using Microsoft Project 98, having upgraded from the original Project v4.  This new tool provided considerably more control of resources across the programme, however, the sheer volume of data being consolidated by the programme office, highlighted a number of performance issues from these early products.  The issues were primarily caused by a number of technical deficiencies within the Microsoft Project database structure for that particular software release.  The database schema changes within Microsoft Project 2000 provided much-needed performance improvements.  This enabled the Programme Office to take more than one hundred project plans (this now included forecast projects in addition to the live plans) and consolidate them into a master project, to enable resource visibility across all.  This system was used to identify resource bottlenecks and also helped to recognize training and recruitment requirements. Whilst macros were utilised to automate the process, the major drawback to this consolidation method was still the reliance on building periodic (weekly) images, from a significant number of .MPP files. 

The workload for the Programme Office was substantial and could have been reduced by having all projects stored within a central database that could be accessed by all.  Project Central was evaluated, but did not fit with the multi-site IT infrastructure in place at the time and as such, it was not implemented.  With the release of Microsoft Project 2002 Server and Professional, together with infrastructure enhancements, the Programme Office within Pace was able to proceed with a structured software implementation of Enterprise Project Management.

The workload for the Programme Office was substantial and could have been reduced by having all projects stored within a central database that could be accessed by all.

Solution

Project Learning Limited has had a long history of working with Pace.  Several dozen Project Managers and Project Coordinators have attended Microsoft Project training courses.  Most have been specifically focused on the bespoke Pace planning requirements.

It was therefore a natural progression for Pace and Project Learning, to team up and look to implement a Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise solution.  One of the first objectives was to determine just which software components and configuration would be required, both for Microsoft Project itself and also for the server and database environments that provide the back office functionality.  Project Learning Limited aided this process of evaluation, even providing a temporary server installation on a machine loaned to Pace.  After a formal analysis of the benefits, the project was approved, the hardware was obtained and the server and database components were installed and commissioned.  The installation took approximately one day to accomplish.

As Pace already possess considerable experience in managing complex Microsoft Project programmes, a heavyweight consultancy exercise was deemed inappropriate.  Instead, a 1:1 session was undertaken where Andy Jessop (of Project Learning) put Microsoft Project through its paces, before Paul Boocock (of Pace).  This high-impact session has allowed Paul to go back to the business and map existing resource definitions, management codes, skill categories and procedures within the Microsoft Project Server environment.

As of late July 2003 this is the current state of progress: Paul Boocock is currently working with his Programme Office colleagues and undertaking a phased rollout across the three major sites of UK, France and USA. Plans are now being stored in the Project Server database and access via the Web has been rolled out to some of the Executive team.  Andy Jessop is awaiting the results of revisions to the process, prior to the design and implementation of a training strategy for all key system users.

...a natural progression for Pace and Project Learning, to team up and look to implement a Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise solution.

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