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Volpe Center Highlights - January/February 2004

Organizational Excellence

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Global Connectivity
Environmental Stewardship | Security | Organizational Excellence
Highlighting Volpe Experts | Awards | Papers and Presentations

Volpe Center's Project Management Initiatives

Successful project management practice is "mission critical" to the Volpe Center's ability to perform its work. The Center is acknowledged for its excellent technical work, and is now reevaluating and standardizing its project management practices, planning, and implementing improvements across the enterprise. This activity is, in part, a response to a recent Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) assessment. A new framework will enable managers to better organize, plan, control, monitor, and execute project management functions.

The Center is using a variety of approaches to mature its management practices and integrate project management tools into the organization. These include generating project management standards that will establish a basic set of principles for managers while allowing them to tailor information to meet customer needs. The Center is in the process of developing requirements for an automated project management tool, known as Project Management Information System (PROMIS), which will provide project financial and resource data, as well as schedule, milestone, and performance data. PROMIS will not only support project managers, but will also provide upper management and customers with ready access to project information.

A critical component in this endeavor is providing Volpe staff with adequate training. Currently, the Center is developing a curriculum that will include hands-on training and formal courses on such topics as: Basic Project Management, Customer Relationship Skills, Project Cost Estimation and Scheduling, and Writing Performance-Based Statements of Work. In addition, Volpe is encouraging project managers to pursue project management certification that meets national and international standards.

The Center has appointed several teams to work on different aspects of improved project management: producing standards for project management practices, project planning, project staffing, cost and schedule estimation, scope management, and risk management.

The Volpe Center is committed to introducing management practices that are standardized yet flexible enough to accommodate varying degrees of project complexity. The combination of project management standard practices coupled with the project management information system will provide two core elements to begin the transformation of the Volpe Center to a more proactive Project Management-centric organization that will complement our long-standing technical excellence.

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