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In early 2004, Project
Mentor became an integral part of a project
management excellence program within the cargo
division of United Airlines.
In this case study:
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Background |
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One of the giants of
the aviation industry, United Airlines has, like all
its peers, found the need over recent years for
improvements in the way that projects are managed
and precious monies spent. United’s cargo
division is no exception. They have recently
undertaken an innovative program to improve the
expertise and levels of professionalism within the
people that plan and manage their many varied and
challenging projects. This excellence program
begins with attaining Microsoft Project competency
and culminates with successful candidates attaining
formal Project Management Professional (PMP)
certification. The end result of the program
is to have United possessing more competent project
managers, who themselves have attained valuable
professional skills. |
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Situation |
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Since late 2001, United
Cargo has had to undertake several major projects
with a significantly reduced workforce. These
projects range from the outsourcing of warehousing
and call centres to a stringent technical and
procedural contract for the air transport of mail
for the US Postal Service. The combination of
these projects, together with strict financial
constraints due to operating in bankruptcy and a
recognised deficiency in project management skills
is seen by United as a ‘perfect storm’. One of
the key obstacles recognised is the lack of
proficiency in using Microsoft Project, the
division’s standard project management tool.
With the majority of project managers self-taught on
MS Project, this lack of proficiency is seen as a
‘gateway obstacle’. As a result, most projects
become ‘dumbed-down’ to the expertise level of the
project manager. Quite often this results in
little more sophistication than the creation of a
work breakdown structure. This leaves United
with a further problem, in that the perception of
project management in general is coloured by the
less than favourable experiences their project
managers have from using MS Project. |
…lack of Microsoft Project proficiency is seen as a
‘gateway obstacle’. |
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Requirement |
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To overcome the
recognised deficiencies of the current situation and
start an improvement program off on the right track,
United needed to find a way to teach Microsoft
Project that fulfilled best-practice project
management principles yet didn’t require many hours
of classroom tuition. Their chosen option had
to provide comprehensive computer-based training (CBT)
that would also be cost-effective and easy to
deploy. Another key goal was that the chosen
CBT should provide testing and assessment to allow
their project managers to pass a competency
examination, allowing them to progress through the
initial gate of the project management excellence
program. |
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Finding the CBT tool |
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Following a search
across the internet, United purchased online a
single user copy of Project Mentor to evaluate if it
met the needs of the program. At this stage,
Project Learning was unaware of the evaluation and
the overall program itself. During the
evaluation, a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) was
created within Project Mentor to evaluate the
effectiveness of the competency tests that they
required. Project Learning became aware of the
evaluation and the program when a request was
received for a 25-user license purchase. |
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Implementation and use |
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The initial order
received was for a 25-user licence of Project Mentor
– to train the first 25 candidates within the
program. Software was shipped from the UK to
United’s Chicago HQ and user logins were created for
the 25 candidates. The program was starting to
take shape. A key requirement at this stage
was for United to assess candidate progress and
achievements. Regular reports and statistics were
provided by Project Learning from candidate data
within the PLP database. This information
proved that the program was proceeding in the right
direction; pre-learning scores proved the need for
the training and post-learning exams confirmed that
competencies were being attained. |
…the program was proceeding in the right direction;
pre-learning scores proved the need for the training
and post-learning exams confirmed that competencies
were being attained. |
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Candidate success |
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At the time of writing,
several candidates have worked their way through all
of Project Mentor’s 10 modules and have attained
examination pass rates of 75% or higher, thus
allowing them to progress through the program.
One particularly adept candidate has even scored
more than 90%. The current statistics indicate
an average pre-learning score of 44% and an average
post-learning score of 78%. This indicates an
overall knowledge increase of 34% and a relative
knowledge increase of more than 75%. Feedback
from some candidates has indicated that they found
Project Mentor more detailed than initially
expected. However, as they progressed through
the Project Mentor system they have commented that
detail they learned within the initial modules has
provided benefits when they work through the more
difficult aspects of MS Project. To help keep
everyone on track, United has also instigated ‘lunch
and learn’ sessions with work-specific Microsoft
Project coaching. As for United’s candidates
gaining formal PMP certification, that should be
just a matter of time. |
…an
overall knowledge increase of 34% and a relative
knowledge increase of more than 75%. |
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