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© 2011 cordin8 technologies, llc. All Rights Reserved.

Transform the Management of Knowledge Work Series

The PMO Start-up and Evolution at EMC

Insurance Companies:

Implementation of cordin8 with TenStep®

Project Management Processes

The PMO Start-up and Evolution at EMC Insurance Companies: Implementation of cordin8 with TenStep® Project Management Processes

© 2011 cordin8 technologies, llc. All Rights Reserved. 2

“A 100-year-old company,” mused Ken Fitzgerald, Assistant VP of EMC Insurance Companies, “but

formal project management for only four years out of that century.” He sat back in his chair, reviewing

responses to a fourth-quarter 2010 survey on the strengths and weaknesses of the Program

Management Office (PMO) launched only a few years before (see Exhibit 1 for a timeline). As he did so,

he mentally ticked off three key drivers of their progress to date.

EMC’s executive team had been primed and ready to drive change in the processes used to manage the

company’s hundreds of projects. They had embraced the opportunity to address the weakness they all

recognized, and they communicated a consistent message of, “We need to do this.” Ron Jean, Executive

VP for Corporate Development, had been an early advocate because “we were missing windows of

opportunity and not getting the results we expected.”i This executive commitment has not wavered in

four years, thought Fitzgerald; “they are still our champions, vocally supporting the PMO. And no one

wants to disappoint that group.”

Second was the TenStep® project management methodology his team had adopted at the beginning of

their PMO journey. Fitzgerald remembered how he had once described TenStep, which provides

templates, forms, and workflows in line with the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide

(PMBOK® Guide) from the Project Management Institute (PMI):

TenStep is the backbone of our approach. When we started, we didn’t have to slow down our

momentum to think through or build project management tools. We knew their tools were tried,

true, and proven. Change often triggers criticism from those who want to maintain the status quo.

By adopting TenStep, we were able to confidently deflect the criticism of “the PMO developed this

and they don’t know what they are doing.” There is far more rigor and depth to TenStep than we

were able to use at the beginning. But we used what we needed, as we were ready for it. And we

were able to customize the process to make it right for EMC.ii

The third driver was cordin8, a web-based collaborative platform for building solutions—and one of

those solutions, Portfolio/Program Management Office (PPMO), incorporates the TenStep® Project

Management process. Fitzgerald had often explained cordin8’s role in this way:

With the PMO, we introduced an entirely new language of managing projects. In cordin8, our team

members and leaders could put their hands on this new process. They could see it in the templates,

project notebooks, and reports. We hung much of what we needed to do on this platform, bringing

the company’s 25 largest projects into cordin8 in the early stages of the PMO. cordin8 is scalable

and quickly customizable and, like TenStep, we can use additional functionality as we are ready for

it. Without our partnerships with both cordin8 and TenStep, we would not be half as far along as we

are today.iii

“We must keep momentum high,” thought Fitzgerald, as he perused the opportunities for improvement

identified in that recent survey. EMC Insurance, with assets of more than $3 billion and ranked among

the top 60 insurance organizations in the U.S., had nearly doubled in size since 2000. That growth meant

more projects, but it also meant many new employees who needed to be brought on board with the

PMO approach to running projects.

Furthermore, given the short time span since launch, PMO processes were still rapidly evolving; the

Office had not yet achieved a mature steady state. In the last year, for example, the PMO had

implemented stage gating for its projects — and the survey results showed that many project leaders

and members were still confused about this added requirement. Prioritization tiering was also in need of

additional clarification; and in the last couple of months, the PMO had begun looking at how to tie each



project to its most relevant corporate objective of EMC Insurance (combined trade ratio, premium

growth, employee effectiveness, and service).

The PMO hoped these process maturations would help shorten project schedules. Completion speed

continues to be a common topic of conversation for Fitzgerald.

Today, we have a significant number of projects that simply take far too long to complete. I see

teams and project sponsors who are willing to complete a project in three years, even though other

companies would most likely push for two years. Why is that OK? Don’t we need the value sooner

rather than later? Over long periods, technology may change so much that we may not even need a

project’s deliverable when it is finally ready. The PMO has helped the company start projects

quicker, and we don’t seem to stumble around quite as much from beginning to end. But ultimately,

speed comes down to management of resources. Unfortunately, it’s quite common around here for

managers to say, for example, “You can only have Sally on that project for one hour per week.”

What can a project team effectively do in that short amount of time? When faster is better for a

particular project, we need to have the ability and the structure that helps us better direct resources

in a way that truly benefits the company as a whole. Maybe we do fewer projects, but we do them

20% faster. We are just starting to have these kinds of conversations with executives and

departmental heads.iv

Fitzgerald stood up, heading to talk to his PMO project managers about results of the recent PMO

survey. As he walked, he continued to think through approaches to addressing weaknesses in the PMO

processes as well as to using the PMO to foster collaboration across the company.

Before the PMO – Departmental Silos had Much Stronger Walls

The genesis of the EMC PMO lay in a 2006 engagement with an external consulting firm. This firm,

tasked with improving corporate processes and driving higher sales effectiveness and marketing focus,

proposed an additional project to build a PMO. That recommendation crystallized a pervasive

dissatisfaction with the management of projects at EMC into a commitment for action.

Prior to the PMO launch, “the environment was fairly chaotic in terms of managing active projects,” said

Tom Mochal, President of TenStep, Inc. “There were too many projects without rigorous structure. This

quandary is typical of many companies, and most don’t have a sense that they can do anything about

it.”v

“We seemed to be more reactive than proactive,” recalled Jim Fontanini, Resident VP and Branch

Manager, “and it could take us two years to react to something that we needed to respond to in a

couple of months. So we always seemed to be behind our competition in terms of technology and

product development. Here in the branches, we’d recommend a change and then not be sure if it was

getting the attention that it might need."vi

Other EMC executives echoed the same sentiments as Fontanini and Fitzgerald. Bill Murray, recently

retired Executive VP and COO, said: “After we looked at requests from our regional offices and decided

what to do, it would take us too long to get to market and the market conditions would often have

changed. And often we did not scrutinize the requests enough to accurately identify cost benefit

ratios.”vii Ron Jean added, “Without high-level oversight, it was nearly impossible to track how many

projects we were running or which resources were committed. We weren’t getting the results we



expected and, when we finally finished projects, we often missed the windows of opportunity. Even

some of our most-successful projects over the years took far too long to complete.”viii

The lack of a standardized process placed cross-departmental projects at particularly high risk, for a

broad spectrum of reasons. First, according to Fitzgerald, EMC’s departments were siloed, “pillars with

fairly thick walls and their own ways of doing things.” There was “no common software, no common

process, no common documentation, very few logs, and even fewer schedules. Some teams created

minutes, perhaps because that’s what the team leader’s manager wanted. Some teams created agendas

for meetings, but most did not.”ix

Team members pursued individual or departmental goals, leading to many dysfunctional meetings. Rich

Schulz, Senior VP, Claims, explained:

People would arrive at meetings and announce flatly, “I didn’t do my assignment. I had other things

to do. My performance objectives pointed me in another direction.” At that point, things would tend

to come unglued. Team members didn’t ask for help from other people on the team, and they had

no sense of allegiance to the work they were doing together.x

Without strong team leaders, teams were often left to meander and falter. According to Rick Gass,

Senior VP, Productivity and Technology:

Back then, we often had trouble determining who was the one who had final say on certain issues.

Often there was no clear-cut leader on cross-departmental projects. We’d run into issues that were

more critical to one department than to others involved in the project. We’d end up with

roadblocks.xi

During the engagement with the external consulting firm that proposed a PMO, said Fontanini:

During that engagement, for nearly 10 months, we had people from all over the world here. In

terms of the PMO, we decided we could do it ourselves. Ken Fitzgerald worked in the metrics and

methods area and he had handled several mission-critical projects in the past. He came up with a

model based on his expertise, talking with other people in the area, his reading, and our assessment

of the projects run by the external consultants while they were here.xii

PMO Launch

In launching the PMO, the EMC executives made several key decisions that, in hindsight, they still

unanimously support. First, the PMO was not placed under the IT department; instead Ken Fitzgerald, as

PMO Director, reports directly to Ron Jean, Executive VP for Corporate Development, who described his

thoughts about where the PMO should report:

From the start, I felt it was important that the PMO be positioned in a neutral part of the

organization in order to serve all areas equally. Since I have oversight responsibilities for Corporate

Development, I felt the PMO should report directly to me. This tie-in, along with regular involvement

with the Corporate Planning Team, has shown to be extremely beneficial in connecting our strategic

planning with our project execution.xiii

Rick Gass strongly advocated for this separation — even though, because so many projects involved IT

and the PMO itself was adopting new technology, such a placement might have seemed the obvious

choice. As he said, “I didn’t think the PMO would succeed if it were IT-started and IT-run. We didn’t want

the Office to be perceived as ‘just another IT project.’”xiv



Gass also advocated for a relatively small PMO organization: “Instead of a large PMO, I thought it was

best to keep the Office small and assign people from different areas of the company who are good at

project management, but leading PMO projects is not their only job. They can be called on when

needed, which gives these talented project leaders other developmental opportunities as well.”xv

Fitzgerald hired two PMO project managers at the beginning and added another one about a year later,

each of whom would directly manage several projects at a time. For the rest of the projects that fell

under the PMO banner, the Office would provide coaching services in the use of cordin8 and adoption of

appropriate processes.

Out of the 15 senior executives at EMC Insurance, four were tapped to participate on the PMO’s

Oversight Committee (POC), including the top three executives (of which all functional areas at EMC

report to) and the head of IT. In addition, one branch manager (Fontanini) was also included to

represent the company's 16 different profit centers. (See Exhibit 2 for POC membership and bios.) “The

POC meets every other month,” Fitzgerald explained. “They work with me to plot out the pace of

change.”

Another key decision involved which projects to place under the PMO. Ultimately, scope was picked as

the criterion in order to ensure that the PMO focused on cross-departmental projects. “We simply

started by pulling a 500-hour threshold out of the air for consideration,” said Fitzgerald. “We figured

that projects requiring less than 500 hours would not need corporate oversight and would mostly

involve a single department. Even projects up to 400 hours primarily involved one department. So we

drew a line in the sand, and any project over 500 hours became a PMO project. Others were still solely

run by the departments.”

The first task of the PMO was to identify which projects fit that simple criterion. There was no inventory

of cross-departmental projects. Further, some larger efforts were fragmented across different

departments, with no collaboration until the very end. “We combed through the departmental silos,”

Fitzgerald recalled, “and we created a list of nearly 500 different pieces of work that people called

projects. Often we found that one department had a project called “x” and another department had a

project called “y,” and they were actually the same project though named differently. It took a while to

whittle the list down to 25 projects, which we then imported into cordin8.”xvi

Each PMO project was assigned a sponsor. These sponsors, said Gass, “had the level of authority

required to get projects done. It was important to assign sponsors who could ensure commitment on

the part of all stakeholders and shepherd projects through impasses.”xvii

With that list in hand, Fitzgerald and the PMO launched a campaign to sell the value of standardized

project management across the organization:

We listed the 25 PMO projects on a company website, and we continuously updated this list and the

project descriptions. We opened the door for the company to see what we were doing. This was an

eye-opener because nobody had any real idea, project-wise, of what was going on across the

company before. We also identified whether critical stakeholders were PMO champions, resistors,

or neutral to our work, and we developed plans targeted to each of those groups. We knew we had

reached some level of success when employees began to talk about the value the PMO provided.

We knew we couldn’t rely simply on push-down from the executive team. You can ride that for only

so long; but for real success with change, people have to understand the value you bring and share

that commitment. Then you have a winning situation that you can sustain over time.xviii



Process Adoption and Change Management

“Improving project execution,” explained Mochal, “requires far more than templates, tools, and training,

though you need all those things.” He continued:

You have to change the culture, the way in which people think about, manage, and participate in

projects. EMC is one of the few companies I’ve seen that realized right away the importance of

approaching the PMO from a holistic point of view with a long-term vision. We coached them about

the importance of being more diligent about starting projects, for example. To be agile, you have to

understand the capacity of your project staff and to quantify how everyone is allocated. Then, when

requests come in for projects, it’s possible to say, ‘We can’t do that now, because adding that new

project will impact these ongoing projects in these quantifiable ways.’ That is one of many portfolio

management concepts that need to spread into the culture.xix

Implementation of Project Management Processes

Applying a project management methodology (TenStep) and implementing a software platform

(cordin8) tailored to support that methodology’s processes resulted in noticeable improvements,

particularly in standardization across projects. Joan Ross, an IT project manager, explained:

When I started, we had no tools, so if you needed a schedule or minutes, you had to find one to copy

or create one yourself. Also, we are now far more consistent in project management processes.

For example, today we aren’t going to skip the step of performing a cost benefit analysis because

that effort is now an important requirement in the PMO process and one clearly identified in

TenStep. Our CBA usage is an evolving step, but just the fact that we've started to measure our

forecasted costs against the perceived benefits of the project is a step in the right direction. It has

opened a few eyes — you just don't realize the total costs involved until you start discussing

everyone's involvement.

Minutes are also a big thing. A lot of people did not complete these before we had cordin8. They

may have verbally confirmed what went on, or sent an email, but they did not complete meeting

minutes. These serve as a sort of confirmation on a regular basis that we are all on the same page. I

like to document what I think I heard in meetings and then see if everyone else heard the same

thing. The ultimate goal is to help with communication and understanding amongst the team

members. It is a simple thing, but not easily done.xx

Post-PMO, minutes were completed as part of the online cordin8 project notebooks (for examples of

project meeting minutes, logs, and cordin8 notebooks, see Exhibit 3). These notebooks provide access

to the TenStep project management standards adopted and customized by EMC; this allows Ross and

every other PMO project leader at EMC to plan and execute their projects in very consistent ways.

Meeting minutes are e-mailed to all team members automatically, making it easy to check action items

before the next meeting.

April Sparks, one of the initial two PMO project managers who started the PMO along with Fitzgerald,

confirmed the importance of standardized milestones: “TenStep provides a project charter template. If

you don’t take the time to complete that step, and get team agreement, people will be confused about

the purpose of the project and what you want to achieve. In cordin8, this is a living document that keeps

projects on track.”xxi



Sparks cautioned that some components of the TenStep methodology were not yet fully embraced

among teams. Project metrics and quality assurance are two examples.

We aren’t strong in these things yet. Executives are looking to us to provide education on project

management. It is up to our Office to embrace this role and to educate the teams on the importance

of metrics.xxii

She also described some of the ongoing push-back within the organization: “There are resistors who

perceive project management as additional overhead. People like to continue doing things their own

way. We need to let people hear from us regarding the value of what we are doing. We need to sell the

value consistently and regularly.”xxiii

Addressing Issues in Team Dynamics

PMO processes, particularly the role of project sponsor, provide avenues for addressing cases of

dysfunctional team dynamics. Schulz, a frequent project sponsor, provided an example:

I was in a project team meeting with a Vice President and people from a number of other

departments. There were a lot of disagreements. One of the team members said to me, ‘We don’t

work for you.’ I said, ‘You don’t get the concept of the PMO and how we are managing projects now.

You do work for me in this situation. It took a while for people to realize that, when they are on a

team, they have a responsibility to get things done in a timely fashion. And we still have to work on

this issue. Now, on my teams, I start things out with, “Here is how this team is going to work. If you

haven’t done this before, here is what you can expect and here are the mentors you can talk to.”xxiv

PMO project manager, Jean Johnson, provided an example of how the PMO improved communication

for a cross-functional team:

One of our cross-functional projects was associated with the 1099 ruling. Some of the delays in that project were because we did not have the answers we needed from the government. We moved forward where we could. The PMO helped ensure that team members communicated and understood the dilemma. No one pointed fingers at other departments.

Lisa Simonetta, Vice President, Claims-Legal, and another frequent project sponsor, believes so strongly

in the value of sponsor presence at team meetings that she goes to all of them — though many sponsors

do not. She explained that sponsor attendance provides a mechanism to address personnel issues if

initial expectation-setting does not work and to see firsthand what issues are preventing a project from

moving forward. Plus, solutions are more readily available if the sponsor is present and most decisions

can be made on the spot rather than having a separate meeting to track down approval or to identify

what else might be required.

Role of PMO Project Manager

As planned, PMO project managers run some projects and serve as coaches on all of the others that are

run by project leaders from the other departments. Having a neutral project manager has distinct

advantages, explained Simonetta: “Jason Bahr, our PMO project manager, facilitates meetings. He

makes changes in the cordin8 project notebook while we are together. He is not politically involved; he

doesn’t have a dog in the hunt. He holds us accountable and he keeps us moving forward, finding

compromises that work for all of us.”xxv

Bahr noted the advantages each set of project leaders brings to a project:



The PMO project managers have expertise in running projects — applying our project management

process and use of cordin8. The PMO is an independent organization and therefore we offer a

neutral point of view and focus on finding solutions. The non-PMO project leaders bring a different

advantage with department-specific knowledge. This can be beneficial when the project is highly

specialized within one particular area. xxvi

Each PMO project manager coaches at least two to four teams at a time. To do so, they review the

project’s cordin8 notebook, and they coach the project leaders on processes such as monthly status

reporting and using cordin8 as a repository for all project documentation. Sparks added, “depending on

the complexity of the project and the experience of the project leader, I may need to provide more

coaching.xxvii

Johnson agreed with Sparks on the importance of coaching project leaders from the core businesses:

I've coached team leads side by side, one on one, through a project or two. Now they are running projects on their own and they call if they have questions or on an as-needed basis. Coaching was important because these leads did not know what was expected of them in their new roles. Also, we were able to show them features of cordin8 that they would have missed on their own, such as the ability to expand an issues log into a chart.xxviii

Executive Visibility

Every other month, Fitzgerald meets with the POC to discuss the pace of change, based on successes

and challenges. cordin8 simplifies the process of preparing the presentation materials and reports for

this meeting. Because the project teams capture status and store project information in their cordin8

project notebooks, Fitzgerald can easily roll up the status and health of the PMO projects to discuss with

the POC (see Exhibit 3 for an example of a monthly status rollup in cordin8).

Upper management, said Murray, now has the visibility needed to review projects and to allocate

resources appropriately. During the POC meetings, he explained, “we identify projects that are having

difficulty; we offer comments and look for ways to help. We also review new projects and determine

their priority so that there is a common understanding regarding how they fit in. We are always

considering human capital —if we do this project, what will happen to other initiatives.”xxix

Every-other-month Corporate Planning Team meetings represent another point of executive visibility for

the PMO, continued Murray. These meetings include all the functional Vice Presidents and a few of the

other department heads. “We don’t just look at a list of projects at these meetings,” explained Murray,

“we look for ways to help with any difficulties identified through the cordin8 rollups.”

Bruce Kelley, EMC Insurance President and CEO, added his confirmation of the value he sees in the

visibility the PMO has provided into high-priority corporate initiatives:

Before the PMO, we on the executive team knew that certain systems were being worked on, but

we never had consistent insight into the status of those projects. Our project selection process has

also improved. We are able to address biases head-on, such as when a department insists that it

needs functionality that is actually too expensive for the value to be gained. We have a single

platform and a single language; the PMO and its aggregated dashboard serve, in a sense, as an

umpire in these cost and benefit discussions.

Furthermore, Kelley continued, the PMO provides a mechanism for involving stakeholders outside IT in

prioritizing projects.



In the past, this whittling down of project requests and educating people on the costs of different

options all fell on the IT Department. Now the IT Department has help in structuring conversations

with the departments to determine which improvements in technology and functionality will be

supported. As a result, the company is better off because project expenses are kept at a reasonable

level and fewer projects fail — it is very expensive to have projects fail. And we need fewer outside

consultants….Having one language and one platform supports our ability to adapt to change. We

have always been an innovative company; the problem was that we didn’t know how to market and

capitalize on our ideas…. As a mutual insurance company, our customers are policyholders and

agents….The PMO helps us satisfy the needs of these consumers and drive the internal decisions to

ensure we maintain our competitive advantage.xxx

As Kevin Hovick, Executive VP and COO, pointed out, the PMO has helped the company adapt to its

growth as well as the changing business environment:

In my earlier days in the company, we addressed projects on a somewhat informal basis. There were

fewer employees then, and our project process was often just to gather the necessary staff together

and move the process along. With the growth of the company and the significantly more

complicated business environment, the PMO process has allowed EMC to continue its mission of

delivering quality insurance protection, improved service, and continued growth. Our “old” process

would have distracted from our basic business purpose and we would have fallen behind the

competition.xxxi

IT Involvement in PMO Projects

Gass elaborated on the role of IT outlined by Kelley: “Even with the PMO, we still have to educate

people about system structure and what can be done. People see something somewhere and they want

it, even though it may not fit our objectives or can’t be cost-justified. IT coaches the departments on

what is reasonable and achievable.”xxxii

IT is involved in the majority of PMO projects, but the dynamic with the business has changed, as Gass

described:

The real advantage of the TenStep methodology is that it is very easy to teach to people outside of

IT. Before, projects were often just handed off to IT. Getting stakeholders’ time was often a struggle.

Now, with the PMO, and TenStep processes embedded in cordin8, we have moved to being partners

with the departments in the development of projects.xxxiii

Successes Breed Success

Every project success builds momentum for the PMO and starts to change the opinions of people who

are neutral or resistant to the PMO. Schulz provided an example of one of those success stories:

Most insurance companies manage their litigation by using outside vendors to collect bills. People

pay their bills to a third-party vendor, and that vendor charges a substantial yearly fee for that

service. We decided a year ago to build a custom system. Our vendor didn’t think we could build it

on the schedule we laid out — they didn’t know anyone who had done it. Well, we pulled in some of

our most experienced people on PMO projects, we designed it, and now Phase II is rolling out mid-

year 2011 to add reporting. All our adjusters and law firms are using this tool, which was delivered

on time with relatively few hitches. I find that amazing, given that five years ago this company had

no real project experience.



PMO vs. Non-PMO Projects

Recently, discussions have started on the possibility of applying the “one language, one platform”

project management methodology (in a scalable manner) to all projects, not just cross-departmental

initiatives requiring more than 500 hours. Simonetta is one of the advocates for that evolution:

Using cordin8 for departmental projects would help them keep track of people, assignments, and

progress. Then, when people are assigned to a big, cross-departmental project, they would know

how to work within this structure. We wouldn’t have to start from scratch with educating them.

Now, departments are building their own tools for projects, which often are not used after they are

created. It’s like buying a treadmill for your New Year’s resolution and then hanging laundry on

it.xxxiv

Many of these smaller projects are in the IT department. Gass described them as follows:

The IT department has hundreds of projects, often with just one or two people working on them.

There is overhead in the PMO involvement from beginning to end. That is justified when it will add

value to the project and help get it completed faster. For smaller projects, we can get them done

faster without the PMO. There are so many maintenance projects, for example when all we have to

do is update insurance rates in the system.xxxv

Fitzgerald and the POC are considering whether the 500-hour criterion established at PMO initiation

should be changed. At the same time, Gass’s team and the PMO are working with Simonetta’s

department to enable the use of cordin8 and the TenStep methodology for smaller projects in that area.

This solution centers on a dashboard (or portal) for small efforts involving one or two people and the

appropriate scaling of administrative “overhead.”

Brad Jackson, CEO of cordin8, explained how the methodology embedded in the software platform

scales to different-sized projects:

Small projects do not require a project charter, project sponsor, a complex schedule, a rigorous risk

analysis, and so on. The TenStep methodology supports these small projects as well as the big ones.

It allows teams to determine the size of the effort required and then to select how much project

management process is required for successful completion of the project. As a result, both small and

large projects can be tracked and managed with cordin8.xxxvi

Evolving the PMO

Last year, the PMO evolved the company’s methodology with one major new requirement - stage gating

and one enhanced process – prioritization (tiering) with a new cost benefit analysis component. A third

major evolution in process was the uptick in departmental adoption of cordin8 dashboards (portals). All

three of these are areas that Fitzgerald regularly discussed with his PMO project managers, the POC, and

the Corporate Planning Team.

Stage Gates

Fitzgerald described the EMC implementation of stage gating for PMO projects as follows:

The first stage gate is at the end of project initiation, when the project manager gets together with

the project sponsor to discuss scope, priorities, timeframe, and so on. The two finish with an

agreement on what to do. The sponsor’s role is to ensure that we are getting business value — and,



if not, to stop the project right away. Then the PMO’s role is to help facilitate the implementation of

that agreement. Every four months after that, the project manager continues to go back to the

sponsor for additional gate reviews. The final gate is after the deliverable is implemented, when the

project manager wants an OK from the project sponsor to close down the project.xxxvii

He acknowledged that many project leaders from the departments were still getting comfortable with

this process, an opinion echoed by Jean Johnson, “We recently provided a cheat sheet for sponsors to

reference during the stage gating process. We had heard feedback that many were finding it difficult to

remember exactly what to do during a stage gate review." Fitzgerald continued:

Continuing a project is not the PMO’s call; it is the sponsor’s call. The stage gates are an opportunity

for a project leader to explain the value in continuing the project and to obtain official direction.

We’ve continued too many projects because we figured that, since we started them, we should

complete them. Those days need to be behind us. If the environment has changed out there, or the

scope of the project no longer adds value, we need to stop. It does not make sense to blindly keep

going simply because we started.

Ross, the IT project manager, agreed, adding, “If you aren't regularly visiting with your sponsor, there's a

problem! The stage gate provides a specific opportunity for the project sponsor and the project leader

to meet face-to-face, ensure both are on the same page, and have the report complement that

discussion. It only takes a few minutes to do so.”

A unique aspect of stage gating at EMC is the frequency of the stage gates. The sponsor and project

manager meet at relatively short intervals (every four months), regardless of whether a set of agreed-

upon milestones have been achieved.

Prioritization (Tiering)

From the beginning, the PMO instituted a formal two-tier prioritization system for projects. One of the

first decisions associated with this PMO evolution was the number of tiers to include. Gass advocated

for just a few tiers: “More than three tiers would be confusing, so we just have two named tiers — Tier I,

Tier II — and then ‘other,’ which is everything else non-PMO.”xxxviii

The value of tiering was quickly and widely recognized in the company. As Simonetta explained:

Tier I projects are ones that the company wants to get done quickly. If you need more resources to

complete a project quickly, having this designation will bump you up and give you more weight to

throw around to get what you need. If a Tier I project needs something, that will quickly get

executive-level attention.xxxix

Mick Lovell, VP of Business Development, explained further:

Before the PMO and before the tiering, we operated on a “come one, come all” basis. The evolution

of the PMO will most likely center on an improved ability to prioritize company resources. That will

be a challenge for the business side of our company, but the PMO will bring visibility to that

challenge. As we do improved cost benefit analyses (and thus improve the priority process), we can

begin to focus on those things that help us sell and service insurance, which is the key to what we

do. In turn, the PMO will help align resources to expedite improvements that will support our sales

and service abilities.xl



“We need to ensure,” Fitzgerald summarized, “that we are doing the right projects for the company, the

right projects to add value to the bottom line. And, we must start doing those ‘right’ projects in shorter

time frames. Our company needs to change along this line in order to be more competitive.”xli

Dashboards

Several EMC departments utilize independent cordin8 dashboards for purposes such as collecting

project ideas, gaining visibility into workload, and managing the status of projects not under the PMO's

oversight. Here are two departmental dashboards: P&T Claims and Risk Improvement.

P&T Claims requests initially receive a status of Proposed and are captured on the Pending Review tab.

After they have been determined feasible, requests then transition to Not Prioritized for further

discussion and prioritization; from there they may be Prioritized, remain Not Prioritized, or Declined (the

first screenshot above shows the Prioritized view of P&T work for Claims).

Risk Improvement follows a similar workflow for P&T projects. Here projects are contained in a single

view, P&T List (second screenshot), and status is conveyed numerically: 400 - proposed projects, 300 -

feasible projects pending a final decision, 200 - projects that will likely proceed, but do not have enough

detail, and 100 - projects that are ready for when time allows. The highest priority projects are

individually ranked 1-10 and often align to department objectives.

Looking Forward

At a recent meeting among PMO staff, discussion focused on the strengths identified by the cross-

company survey on the PMO. These included, among other things, the coaching of departmental project



leaders on the value and usage of project management tools as well as maintaining a high level of

sponsor awareness and engagement in PMO processes.

Then came the four weaknesses identified by the survey — all areas in which the PMO expects to make

strides in 2011.

1. Stage gating — Assessment of the effectiveness of the process, improvements, as necessary;

education and coaching.

2. Improving the company-wide understanding of the distinction between PMO Tier II (not high

priority) projects and non-PMO high-level projects.

3. Determining why projects are not being completed on or ahead of schedule and developing a

plan to address this issue (e.g., by more oversight and/or coaching by the PMO).

4. Determining how to strengthen project team decision-making processes and, when necessary

or requested, using the PMO’s politically neutral and project-focused role to assist in making

challenging decisions.

Then, recently, Fitzgerald provided the Corporate Planning Team with insight on how the company could

integrate the processes around the PMO and departmental dashboards into a seamless flow. That flow

would cover the entire lifespan of projects — from early idea generation, evaluation, and alignment to

department and company objectives, through to project planning and execution, and finally to the

transference into operations and the accompanying realization of bottom-line value.

This, explained Jackson, “is what cordin8 refers to as the collaborative project enterprise, which is a

transparent organization from all perspectives — top to front-line, sideways, and diagonally — across

the project lifespan. It’s a natural fit for EMC, a company that Forbes identified as one of ‘the most

transparent and trustworthy businesses that trade on American exchanges.’”xlii



Exhibit 1: Case Timeline

June 2006 – Executive team approves setting up the new PMO Department and appoints Ken Fitzgerald as Director. The determination is further made that the PMO will report to Ron Jean, Executive VP for Corporate Development. July 2006 – Jean Johnson and April Sparks join the PMO endeavor as project managers August 2006 – PMO roadmap is developed November 2006 – New PMO Department officially starts December 2006 – PMO Oversight Committee (POC) conducts first meeting January 2007 – PMO selects cordin8 and TenStep as the software platform and methodology to enable the PMO; POC approves January – May 2007 – PMO conducts pilot of cordin8 and TenStep to ensure alignment with EMC and develops competency to support them March 2007 – PMO adds a project manager to the team; this employee leaves EMC in December 2008 June 2007 – PMO launches cordin8 and TenStep with training. Projects (25) move into cordin8. October 2007 – Departments start creating cordin8 ‘dashboards’ (portals) to manage small projects within their departments February 2009 – Jason Bahr joins PMO team as project manager January 2010 – PMO launches new requirements for cost benefit analysis and stage gating; POC approves November 2010 – PMO Assessment

Exhibit 2: PMO Oversight Committee (POC) Members

Name Title Credentials Education Started EMC

Bruce G. Kelley President & CEO J.D., CPCU, CLU A.B., Dartmouth College; J.D., University of Iowa

1985

Kevin J. Hovick Executive VP & COO CPCU B.B.A., University of Iowa 1979

William A. Murray Executive VP & COO - now retired

CIC B.A. English, Upper Iowa University 1985

Ronald W. Jean Executive VP for Corporate Development

FCAS, MAAA B.S. Mathematics and Physics, University of Wisconsin; M.S. Applied Mathematics, Michigan State University

1979

Richard L. Gass Senior VP - Productivity & Technology

B.A. Mathematics, Drake University 1974

James C. Fontanini Resident VP - Des Moines Branch Manager

CPCU B.A. Business Administration, Simpson College 1987

Kenneth J. Fitzgerald Assistant VP - Director, Program Management Office (PMO)

CPCU, PMP B.A. Management-Business Administration, University of Northern Iowa

1990



Exhibit 3

Project meeting minutes:

Meeting log:



Project notebook cover:

PMO Oversight Projects (Portfolio):



New Project Proposal form:



Stage Gate Report:

i Ron Jean, case interviews, 2010-2011. ii Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. iii Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. iv Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. v Tom Mochal, case interview, 2010. vi Jim Fontanini, case interviews, 2011. vii Bill Murray, case interviews, 2010. viii Ron Jean, case interviews, 2010-2011. ix Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. x Rich Schulz, case interviews, 2010-2011. xi Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xii Jim Fontanini, case interviews, 2011. xiii Ron Jean, case interviews, 2011. xiv Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xv Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xvi Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. xvii Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xviii Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. xix Tom Mochal, case interview, 2010. xx Joan Ross, case interview, 2011. xxi April Sparks, case interview, 2011.



xxii April Sparks, case interview, 2011. xxiii April Sparks, case interview, 2011. xxiv Rich Schulz, case interviews, 2010-2011. xxv Lisa Simonetta, case interviews, 2011. xxvi Jason Bahr, case interviews, 2011. xxvii April Sparks, case interview, 2011. xxviii Jean Johnson, case interview, 2010. xxix Bill Murray, case interviews, 2010. xxx Bruce Kelley, case interviews, 2010. xxxi Kevin Hovick, case interviews, 2011. xxxii Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xxxiii Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xxxiv Lisa Simonetta, case interviews, 2011. xxxv Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xxxvi Brad Jackson, case interviews, 2011. xxxvii Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. xxxviii

Rick Gass, case interviews, 2011. xxxix Lisa Simonetta, case interviews, 2011. xl Mick Lovell, case interview, 2011. xli Ken Fitzgerald, case interviews, 2010-2011. xlii Brad Jackson, case interview, 2011.

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