Consulting

Some times, all that is needed to take a good project manager and turn them into a great project manager, is a little coaching. WCP consultants have many years of experience spanning a number of industries. Their hands-on knowledge coupled with their experience in both training and project team facilitation make them excellent coaches. Whether one on one, working with a team, face-to-face or in a virtual setting, coaching can be a very effective means of taking you or your team to the next level.

This especially critical for teams who are new to agile. Agile approaches encourage a different mindset than that used with traditional project delivery and coaching is a good way to get comfortable with this new “way of working”

Learning about agile is one thing, but initiating a new project using agile approaches is hard to do without experienced support.

WCP has helped teams who are new to agile define their working agreements, progress through the first steps of product definition and prepare for their first sprints.

This support could include facilitation for building story maps for initial deliverables as well as reviewing the purpose and approach to key agile ceremonies.

Not sure where to begin?

Need help developing a long-term strategy for creating a sound and sustainable project management culture?

WCP consultants can help. We get to know your organization, analyze areas of Project Management strength and weakness, and discuss the results of the analysis with you.

Finally, we put together a plan for how to move forward –  providing as much or as little support as you need to get you where you want to be.

This also applies to agile transformations. How do you know whether a team is being agile or not? We can help you answer that question!

WCP consultants include experts in project management, agile, instructional design and adult learning methods.

This unique combination allows us to work closely with your H.R. team or project management office (PMO) to put together a training curriculum or certification program that meets the specific needs of your organization.

Let us help you deliver the right combination of structured training and practical application.

Whether to help a client achieve project management and schedule compliance as part of an RFP or tender process, or to help create a manageable project plan,  WCP consultants are frequently asked to lead a project team through the definition phase of an actual project.

This may cover the development of the project charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS),  logic diagram, and critical path schedule. It may also involve providing assistance in the development of an appropriate risk management plan, scope management plan, communication management plan, and other documentation for the project.

During these sessions, WCP consultants ask the right questions and provide guidance in applicable delivery practices, while allowing the client’s team members to do what they do best – provide the technical expertise to develop the plan.

This kind of exercise is highly productive and puts the project team on solid ground as they move forward into the implementation phase of a project.

When done as part of the development of a project proposals, it may make the difference between being awarded a contract or not.

If handled poorly, post-project reviews can become highly political. When executed effectively, the post-project review is an excellent source of lessons. It provides closure, and assists in the success of future projects. Using a neutral third party to conduct a post-project review ensures that the review is done in a way that adds value to the organization – without leaving a bad taste in participants’ mouths.

For large projects, a review is recommended at the end of each major phase or performance gate. This helps to ensure that problems are caught and dealt with early and lessons are incorporated into future phases.

Project templates help to reduce the time required for project planning while improving project delivery consistency and incorporating lessons learned from past projects.

WCP consultants are able to work with you to develop templates which will deliver value and fit your project contexts. We can also help to develop meaningful project reports that provide the necessary level of detail to meet stakeholder communication needs and your project control objectives.

In addition to providing Microsoft Project training, WCP consultants help organizations to customize and configure MSP to make it easier and less frustrating to use.

Customization of Microsoft Project can include simplifying the user interface and creating custom objects such as reports, tables, views, filters, calendars, fields and more.

A large multi-year infrastructure project with significant strategic value to the organization was running seriously late. WCP consultants reviewed existing project plans and identified serious problems in the structure of the overall WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), the level of task detail, and the lack of proper project controls.

WCP consultants made specific recommendations for how to improve the project plan, including recommendations on how to deal with project risks with contingency and then facilitated a series of planning sessions in order to create a proper project management plan including a realistic and manageable project schedule.

A municipality was about to embark on a series of mid to large scale infrastructure projects. The projects were part of a larger program to address the growing needs of the city. Although the municipality has many skilled project management professionals and was working with top Engineering firms, WCP consultants were asked to lead the core project team (made up of both municipal and external engineering contractors) through the early high level stages of the project plan development. In a series of one and two-day facilitated sessions, each of the sub-projects were defined at a sufficient level of detail to enable high level synchronization of the projects.

The end result was the development of realistic and manageable project plans that reduced disruption to the surrounding community while shortening the critical path through the optimization of resource utilization and the eliminate of unnecessary bottlenecks. The resulting project plans also incorporated relevant practices, and helped enable better communication and generate greater buy-in among key project stakeholders.

An international engineering firm was under a tight deadline to provide a realistic project management plan as part of a formal RFP (Request for Proposal). During the final stages of the bid process, they were told by the end client, that although their solution and technology was on-target, the project management plan that they submitted did not instill the necessary confidence that (if chosen as the vendor) the project would be completed on time and within budget. The client provided a long list of deficiencies within the existing project plan that needed to be addressed if the engineering company were to be considered for the final stage of the vendor selection. The company was given only a few weeks to address the issues.

WCP consultants were brought in to review the existing project plan together with the end client requirements, and helped the Engineering company address the concerns of the end client within the available time frame and remain a leading contender for the award of the contract.

A mid-sized sub-contractor was struggling to meet their part of the schedule. Their client, a large transportation company, demanded that to get things under control the sub-contractor implement more rigorous project controls and produce a more “manageable” project plan.

WCP consultants reviewed the existing project plans, and worked with the sub-contractor’s project manager and project scheduler to make the necessary changes in order to address areas of concern.

WCP then attended a series of meetings between the sub-contractor and the end client in order to address any outstanding concerns the client had with the schedule, and to demonstrate to the end client that the sub-contractor was serious about getting their project management capabilities where they needed to be. Over subsequent months, WCP consultants were consulted on an on-going basis, providing one-on-one coaching, as well as reviewing subsequent plans.