Project Management Practices & Methodology Overview (for employees and third-party consultants)

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Overview

This article provides an understanding of the Office of Information Technology’s (OIT’s) project management practices and methodology.  The intended audience is internal employees and third-party consultants who are engaged as resources for PMO-managed projects. This a high-level, general overview only.  The practices provided here are subject to change, based on the needs of any given project.

Standard Process

Roles & Responsibilities

  • The assigned Valencia College Project Manager (PM) is the single point of contact for PMO-managed projects.  
    • If required for any particular project, co-management responsibilities will be defined at the start of the project and communicated to stakeholders accordingly.
  • Management of a project’s resource availability is the responsibility of:
    • The Valencia College PMO Director for PMO resources
    • Departmental leadership for OIT resources
    • Departmental leadership for Functional Areas
    • Third-party consulting leadership for consultants  
  • All project resources (aka project team members) will be assigned project-related tasks by the Valencia PM
  • Each resource will be accountable for the completion of their tasks – any concerns about the tasks or their on-time completion must be discussed directly with the PM.
  • All project-related issues should be communicated to the Valencia PM as the central point of project-related information.
  • The Valencia College PM will provide weekly project status updates to stakeholders, including identified Functional Area, OIT, and third-party leaders.
  • Third-party consultants, in conjunction with Valencia College's technical subject matter experts and the PM, will collaborate on project-specific work tasks, implementation approach (including phases, if appropriate), and requirements.

Project Methodology

  • A waterfall approach will be followed in general, whereby:
    • The project phases are Initiation/Discovery  Planning  Execution  Closing
    • It will be at the PM’s discretion, in collaboration with the PMO Director, if a hybrid or agile approach is appropriate for a project.  
  • Thorough discovery efforts will be performed with impacted stakeholders at the start of each project, including a re-visit of any pre-assessments that may have been completed by third-party consultants.  This is to:
    • identify any changes since assessments were performed
    • ensure alignment among all team members
  • Valencia College’s project management methodology allows for a project to be ‘paused’ or stopped at the end of each phase, if deemed necessary by the PM.  For example:
    • If, at the end of the Discovery phase, it is determined that the scope of a project is significantly larger than first anticipated, requiring more changes than the functional area can accommodate or perhaps the purchase/install of un-budgeted technology, the PM (after collaboration with project resources) will elevate a desire to ‘pause’ the project to appropriate stakeholders.  The stakeholders will consider the request and take necessary actions according to the circumstances.

Tools

TeamDynamix (TDX)

  • Valencia College uses TDX as its Project Portfolio Management System.  TDX provides functionality that allows PMs to manage projects according to PMO standards, ensure tracking of communications and tasks, and provide audit capability.
  • The PM will create and maintain a formal TDX Project Plan (schedule) for each project.  
    • The Plan will include resource task assignments and will be shared with all project team members.  
    • Tasks will not be assigned to a resource without their knowledge.
  • All project resources will be provided with TDX login credentials and capabilities appropriate to their role in the project.
  • All project team resources are required to utilize TDX to report progress on assigned tasks and report/manage issues as they occur.  
    • Reference PMO SOP – PMO006 Using TDX as a Project Team Member 
    • If a resource cannot be provided with TDX access. The PM will provide a list of assigned tasks to the resource directly; the resource will, in turn, report task progress directly to the PM who will update TDX accordingly.
  • TDX is the main, final repository for all project-related and generated artifacts.

MS Teams

  • At their discretion, a PM may utilize Microsoft Teams to communicate and/or collaborate on a project.  
  • All significant artifacts generated via Teams collaborations must be transitioned to TDX by the PM on a regular basis.  

Email

  • Email should be used sparingly and preferably just for the purpose of sharing Meeting Notes and providing stakeholder updates.  
  • The PM is expected to copy significant emails to TDX as artifacts.
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