Consulting Services
Canada's Project & Organizational Performance Specialists™
Applying the appropriate processes and structure to analyze, engineer and manage initiatives more effectively makes smart business sense. Atocrates Associates helps you improve organizational performance with time-tested approaches that have been implemented in hundreds of organizations. Atocrates Consulting Services is led by our Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Bud Lush, (wearing bow-tie at right).
Contact "Dr. Bud Lush" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist you in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT & ADVANCED MEDICAL DEVICES
Advanced Medical Devices, Aerospace, Consumer Electronics
Anthony King is a Program Director with Atocrates Consulting Services where he contributes as a lead consultant in Systems Engineering and Project Management. He helps organizations execute, govern and measure projects to improve business performance.
He specializes in applying project and portfolio management processes to overcome project risk and accelerate time to market. Anthony's specialties are Project Management (Medical Devices, Aerospace, Consumer Electronics) and Quality and Regulatory Systems (Medical Devices, Consumer Electronics).
Contact "Tony King" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist you in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
Pulp & Paper - Mining - Petrochemicals - Oil Sands and Major Nuclear Projects
Ron Gavrin, PEng®, MBA, PMP®, RMP®, CCE®, CMRP®, CQA®, MRICS is a Strategic Consultant and Program Director of Systems Engineering with Atocrates, Canada's Project & Organizational Performance Specialist™, giving leadership to our Risk and Complexity initiatives. Ron has over 30 years technical and business experience, working in large industries across Canada, including Pulp and Paper, Mining, Petrochemicals, Oil Sands and Utilities. 28 years in Ontario Hydro/OPG included positions as the Business Superintendent for Darlington Nuclear Station and Project Controls Manager for Major Nuclear Projects.
Ron currently consults and teaches/trains about business processes (eg project management, plant management, mentoring, infrastructure, etc) and is adjunct faculty at the University of Waterloo. Ron also mentors in project management and provides orientation for new immigrant professionals. He is on the Board for the Hamilton Chapter of the SMRP.
Ron is certified by PMI® in Project Management, and Risk Management and by AACE® in Cost Engineering. He is a Quality Auditor and certified in Maintenance and Reliability practices. He also teaches English as a Second Language to immigrant professionals. He has published and presented several papers: Nuclear Plant Management using Project Management Techniques, Nuclear Estimating Under Great Uncertainty and Mentoring Programs.
Contact "Ron Gavrin" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist you in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
PROJECT PERFORMANCE & MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PPMO)
Installing – Activating – Improving
Organizations continue to be challenged with resource planning and forecasting, the consistent application of defined project management processes, and demand management, to name just a few. A well-managed Project Performance Management Office (PPMO) can address these challenges and focus on much more than just delivering projects. The PPMO can also focus on putting solid governance, portfolio, resource, performance, and demand management practices in place to provide continuous value to your business.
Atocrates Associates brings the expertise and tools needed to help you create and sustain a value-driven PPMO. We can work with you to deploy a new PPMO, operate your PPMO, or optimize and enhance your existing PPMO. Our processes are scalable and fit PPMOs at any level of the organization (enterprise, divisional, departmental, etc.). Atocrates Associates’ highly experienced consultants (12 years on average) have deployed and actively managed PPMOs for both commercial and government organizations. We’ve worked in most industries, including manufacturing, IT, financial services, and healthcare.
- Installing a New PPMO - The first step Atocrates Associates takes in installing a PPMO is to assess the current environment and develop an installation roadmap that takes into account your organization’s culture and operating practices. Installation includes developing the PPMO Charter and communications plan, identifying resource needs and performance measures, incorporating the right amount of repeatable delivery processes to fit your culture, improving the competencies of your staff through training and mentoring, and establishing governance standards. We also provide a variety of specialty PPMO resources (in areas such as project controls, project / program management, portfolio management, resource management, and business analysis) to help staff your PPMO for as long as you require, and will ensure a smooth transition of work responsibilities to your in-house team.
- Activating a PPMO - If project management is not a core competency, consider outsourcing the PPMO. Atocrates Associates works in partnership with you to understand your goals and establish a structure that works to achieve these goals. We come equipped with a customizable toolkit of proven techniques and methodologies to execute, monitor, measure, analyze, and report on your programs and projects within the PPMO’s oversight. Constant communication between the PPMO team and stakeholders is crucial to success and a core tenet of our PPMO operating model. Performance measures are collectively established upfront with you, and progress toward established goals is continually provided via quality reviews, status meetings, and daily interactions. Our PPMO team can work onsite at your location, remotely at one of our facilities, or a combination of the two depending on your specific situation. You can rest assured that your PPMO operations will achieve their stated objectives and run seamlessly without added overhead investment.
- Improving an Existing PPMO - PPMOs are under constant pressure to deliver added value and a broader range of services. Atocrates Associates will first review your existing structure to recommend targeted improvements that will show results quickly. Depending on the findings from our review, Atocrates Associates works with you to hone in on properly aligning PPMO practices with your organizational business strategies, establishing or improving your governance, resource, portfolio, vendor, and demand management practices, and strengthening your performance measurement and reporting. We make sure you have a PPMO framework that’s agile enough to respond to evolving business demands, yet disciplined enough to operate efficiently.
Contact "Sylvie Edwards" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist your Project Managers in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
ADVANCING PROJECT PERFORMANCE & MANAGEMENT MATURITY
Advancing project performance maturity improves your organization’s effectiveness at executing projects. Using Atocrates’ Project Performance & Management Maturity Model (P2MMat), we work with our clients to assess the current level of maturity, develop an achievable improvement plan, and help keep the momentum going by supporting the execution and measurement of the recommended improvements.
Assessing Project Performance Management Maturity
Atocrates Associates begins by assessing your organization's current project delivery capability and project performance & management maturity level. We then apply the (P2MMat), as a guide to determine your current maturity level, your desired future level, and the targeted areas in which your investments should be focused in order to advance. The appropriate target level of maturity varies for each organization based on specific goals, strategies, resource capabilities, scope, and needs.
Improvement Plan
Results from the Assessment are used to develop specific recommendations and a sequenced roadmap that provides realistic milestones for short and long-term process improvement activities. Atocrates Associates’ works with you to ensure that the plan also addresses change enablers that will help overcome cultural barriers.
Ongoing Support to Install the Plan
Atocrates Associates provides you with guidance and implementation support to quickly deploy the improvement recommendations. Working in partnership with you and your team, we leverage our collective assets and experience to expedite your organization’s maturity advancement.
Project Performance & Management Maturity Re-assessment
A key element of our approach is to re-assess maturity once improvements are made in order to highlight advancements that have been achieved. To accomplish this, Atocrates Associates conducts an abbreviated maturity assessment and compares the newer findings with your baseline maturity level. The re-assessment results are reviewed against your original improvement plan. New and/or supplemental recommendations are provided to reflect current business priorities and areas of focus for further progression.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Atocrates Associates has developed a framework for measuring the performance of various organizational practices to evaluate their effectiveness and demonstrate strategic business impact. Evaluation provides you with the information necessary to make intelligent decisions about what you do. For example, you might want to understand the performance of your project management processes, your project office, your training initiatives, or even your overall strategies. Atocrates Associates will work with you to develop an evaluation program customized for your organization to accurately demonstrate performance results to key stakeholders.
Evaluation Readiness Planning
Why Evaluate Performance
- Identify areas for performance improvement
- Benchmark against industry/competitors
- Set targets
- Identify trends for forecasting and planning
- Evaluate the effectiveness of changes
- Determine the impact of initiatives
- Justify investments
Atocrates Associates begins by working with your evaluation initiative team to clearly identify your objectives and goals. This includes a review of your organizational mission and strategies, organizational structure, key business processes, current evaluation systems, data availability, and stakeholder values.
Evaluation Initiative Planning
We help your team align around the evaluation program’s objectives, scope, development approach, timeline, resource needs, deliverables, and implementation strategy.
Evaluation and Scorecard Development
Atocrates Associates works with your team to prioritize and select the critical few evaluations based on agreed-upon criteria that will form the basis of your evaluation scorecard. These evaluations flow from your organizational goals and objectives and are developed collaboratively with the evaluation team and stakeholders. In creating your scorecard of vital evaluations, details such as the what, why, when, who, and how are also addressed. Once developed, the scorecard is reviewed, refined, and validated by the team in preparation for implementation.
Program Implementation Planning
Implementation planning efforts define the framework around performance evaluation processes and data collection that will be used to support ongoing evaluation program implementation. We help guide you through the identification of the data collection team, data sources, and data collection processes, including information systems needed to support the processes.
Program Implementation
Program implementation is an ongoing effort to execute the evaluation program as documented in the implementation plan. This begins with the preparation for the initial collection-analysis-reporting cycle and continues through transition of ongoing program execution responsibilities.
STRATEGIC & PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT (SPPM)
Working on the right projects at the right time is critical to sustain a competitive advantage, yet many organizations struggle with allocating limited resources and assets wisely. Atocrates Associates' Strategic & Project Portfolio Management (SPPM) approach helps you select and manage an optimal portfolio of projects - one that maximizes your organization's responsiveness, revenues, and adaptability while keeping the projects aligned with your strategic business goals and objectives.
Atocrates Associates helps structure your SPPM practices to provide your organization with a consistent way to select, prioritize, and manage projects that deliver maximum business value.
Strategic & Project Portfolio Management Assessment
Atocrates Associates assesses your current Strategic & Project Portfolio Management processes and, in collaboration with you, identifies the appropriate level of SPPM discipline for your organization. We then apply our industry-standard Strategic & Project Portfolio Management Maturity Model (S&PMat), to determine your current SPPM capability and identify process gaps between your organization’s current state and desired future state.
Portfolio Process Improvement
Results from the assessment are used to define an approach to improve your organization's ongoing portfolio management practices. Atocrates Associates partners with you on the development and delivery of the recommended approach and improvement plan, including a cost/benefit analysis for taking the next steps in optimizing your SPPM practices that yields better alignment with your business objectives.
Portfolio Improvement Execution
Atocrates Associates provides you with guidance and implementation support to quickly deploy the SPPM improvement recommendations. Activities typically include:
- Establishment or refinement of portfolio governance policies
- Portfolio and program prioritization and selection facilitation
- Portfolio and project communication management
- Portfolio performance management
- Strategic & Project Portfolio Management software tool selection and implementation
- Facilitation of ongoing workshops and training on portfolio governance and management
- SPPM culture change and adoption
- Base-lining and ongoing review of your project portfolio
Helping You Manage Your Project Portfolio
When you integrate dynamic Strategic & Project Portfolio Management (SPPM) practices into your business cycle, you can be assured your organization is delivering projects most essential to strategy execution and corporate performance.
Contact "Bob Crandlemire" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist you in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGY / PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
Organizations that have adopted a standard project management methodology have realized a 63% improvement* in delivering projects successfully. Atocrates Associates has contributed to project management methodology improvements for clients internationally.
What is the PMCoP?
Atocrates Associates' Project Management Community of Practice (PMCoP) is our proprietary methodology that supports the active use of repeatable processes across all projects. Developed over more than a decade, the PMCoP contains hundreds of easy-to-follow forms, templates, practices, and guidelines that can be applied immediately by our expert consultants to improve project execution and operational efficiency for your organization.
When implementing a project management methodology for your organization, Atocrates Associates factors in your existing management best practices. Implementation is a collaborative process, with final methodology ownership in your hands. Our methodology implementation approaches are designed to foster acceptance and make the adoption of a standard methodology welcomed within your project culture.
Methodology Development Services
Atocrates Associates begins by reviewing the project management and related methodologies you already have in place. We then identify areas where your project management methodology would benefit from enhancement and tighter integration with your other management processes. Leveraging the content of Atocrates Associates' Project Management Community of Practice (PMCoP) methodology, Atocrates Associates' expert consultants come equipped with a toolkit of best practices to draw from, and tailor appropriate content to fit your desired project objectives and cultural threshold.
Methodology Deployment and Ongoing Support
To successfully launch the methodology to your organization, we work in collaboration with you to develop a realistic deployment plan that ranges from conducting pilots to full deployment, depending on the size and complexity. The deployment plan includes the delivery of methodology workshops led by our methodology consulting team. Methodology coaches are also available to work one-on-one with your staff on specific projects to ensure that the methodology is properly put into practice.
Contact us to schedule a walk-through of our methodology development process, where we can share samples of templates, guidelines, and documentation that can be customized specifically for your environment.
*Results from the Value of Project Management research report sponsored by the Project Management Institute.
RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION
Resource shortages and conflicts can plague your ability to deliver. Understanding the resource capacity and skill sets that exist within your organization give you the ability to balance demand and apply the right resources at the right time. Atocrates Associates helps you obtain, structure, and analyze your resource management information and practices to use your talent effectively and streamline resource deployment.
A Cautionary Note
If there’s one thing we’ve learned in all of our years in consulting is that organizations have to get “the basics” in place before realistically succeeding at more complex and interrelated practices such as resource management and portfolio management. Having standard and centralized project management processes, well-trained resources to carry out projects and a culture that embraces project management as essential to the business are the requisites that high-performing organizations use to drive overall performance.
Organizational Skills Identification
Atocrates Associates can help to uncover the skills, roles, and resources that currently reside within the organization. We then work with you to develop a simple categorization structure that will facilitate resource allocation decisions across the organization. The Project Performance & Management Office (PPMO) and departments such as HR are often involved in this process.
Resource Planning & Forecasting
Once you have a handle on the overall resources available within your organization, you need to get a clear picture of the availability of these resources to support the initiatives within your project portfolio. Atocrates Associates can work with you to set up your initial resource management database tied to project priorities. We can help you perform resource estimates (including resource loading and leveling) against your resource limitations. We can also help you run “what if” scenarios that factor in new initiatives relative to resource impact and availability.
Our expert consultants are skilled at analyzing any resource shortages or added capacity uncovered, and recommending the appropriate actions that will bring the most value and cost savings to the organization (contracting, hiring, using resources earlier, etc.). We can work with your existing tools, provide you with the tools, and/or help you procure the right tools to effectively perform resource management functions scaled to your organization’s size and needs.
PPMO Structure & Staffing
Atocrates Associates can help you determine the organizational structure and proper staffing mix for your PPMO. We work with you to determine how many project managers and support staff you need to execute projects effectively, assess the competency of your project managers, build professional development programs, encourage a project management culture, develop job descriptions, and delineate roles and responsibilities.
ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION OF PROJECT TALENT
Generated by a powerful expert computer system, our Insights Discovery Reports chart new waters in the voyage of self-discovery. Personal and Team Evaluator questionnaires form the basis of extensive reports containing information on personal style, communication, value to the team, management style, blind spots and development areas. Insights Discovery reports are written and presented in a practical and easily understood way.
The reports not only provide for individual feedback and personal growth, but when their data is collated they also give an overview of team or organizational strengths and weaknesses. Using that information we can establish strategies for development unique to your organization.
Our Atocrates Knowledge, Applied Skills and Leadership capability assessment reports utilize the Project Management Body of Knowledge developed by the Project Management Institute, the Project Manager Applied Skills & Techniques and Leadership Behavioural competency measurement criteria developed with the National Society for Performance and Instruction (NSPI). A typical full assessment program requires 1 full day with 3 sections to cover Knowledge, Skills and Leadership. Each project manager’s performance is measured against an appropriate level baseline (Fundamental, Advanced or Master), composed of 24 major categories, 8 each for knowledge, skills and leadership, representing 144 specific competencies.
If requested by the customer a Corporate Capability Assessment Summary report outlining not just individual project manager but, group or corporate strengths and weaknesses. As well, a full pre-assessment - curriculum development - education & training, and post-assessment program can be delivered.
We believe personal / team effectiveness evaluation & assessments are the first and best step in the process of allocating your annual project management training and development budget.
Contact "Tena Lush Hofstede" at 705-426-2181 today to discuss how we can assist you in attaining new and higher levels of Project and Organizational Performance.
PROJECT REVIEW & RECOVERY
The consequences of failed projects can be grim. According to findings from Atocrates Associates' research nearly half of an organization's projects are at risk at any given time, no matter the size of the organization. With so much at stake, early detection and action is key to avoiding the substantial losses associated with troubled projects and project failures.
Common Symptoms of Troubled Projects
- Critical issues in meeting milestones or completing deliverables
- High risk of non-delivering anticipated benefits
- Resources are not fully allocated to the project
- The project is consistently behind its planned schedule
- They are critical and/or significantly growing technical issues with the project
Atocrates Associates' addresses project recovery at both the organizational and individual project levels, depending on your specific needs. We provide three distinct service offerings to help your organization turn troubled projects around quickly.
Troubled Project Identification
- For the organization, we help you and your PPMO implement a standard Project Review & Recovery Process to monitor your portfolio of programs and projects and identify candidates for review and possible intervention.
Project Recovery & Turnaround
- At the project level, our project turnaround experts work with you to develop and implement a Project Recovery Plan, to quickly determine how to best proceed with the project. We can then lead and/or coach your project team throughout the entire recovery process.
Performance Improvement: Institutionalizing Lessons Learned
- As a project concludes, valuable lessons learned are only sometimes captured and rarely acted upon. Longer term, these lessons learned could have significant impact on the outcomes of future projects if they are filtered back into the organization's standard processes. Atocrates Associates helps you establish and maintain the processes for capturing, evaluating, and institutionalizing lessons learned that will improve performance across all projects.