CREATING A PROJECT MANAGEMENT CENTER OF EXCELLENCE TO ENABLE PROJECT SUCCESS

1. CREATING A PROJECT
WhitePaper
MANAGEMENT CENTER OF
EXCELLENCE TO ENABLE
PROJECT SUCCESS
The federal government needs a centralized mandated methods, or project certification will be
location, both physical and virtual, where agen- enough on its own to create a cadre of top-flight
cies can capitalize on the expertise of current project managers who can produce consistent
and future government project managers. The results for a variety of projects. A PM Center of
fact that the Office of Personnel Management Excellence at the federal government enterprise
(OPM) has developed a draft document outlin- level can provide the necessary integration and
ing a new project management job classifica- coordination to unify these otherwise disparate
tion represents a tremendous stride for the gov- initiatives.
ernment. It acknowledges that project manage-
ment is a real and important career discipline. Developing project management competencies
With an estimated 50 percent of the federal takes a combination of training, cultural rein-
workforce eligible for retirement in 2005, an ini- forcement of skills learned in the training pro-
tiative to develop and retain qualified project gram, and an open environment that offers sup-
managers is crucial. A solution to this impend- port, collaboration, and mentoring. While project
ing crisis is to establish a Project Management management training is critical to teaching gov-
(PM) Center of Excellence at the federal govern- ernment managers how to better plan and man-
ment enterprise level. The specific charter of age key initiatives, training alone isn’t enough to
this organization would be to support the devel- ensure a workforce with a high level of PM com-
opment and institutionalization of consistent petency. Forty years of educational research has
project management competencies across all shown that the best training in the world will be
federal government agencies. unsuccessful if it is not reinforced once the
learners get back to their jobs. Too often, the
Based on Robbins-Gioia’s 25 years of experi-
ence in project management, we feel the most
successful way to accomplish this is by estab- A PM Center of Excellence
lishing a PM Center of Excellence that:
at the federal government
Minimizes duplication and redundancies enterprise level can provide
Reverses brain drain the necessary integration
Promotes collaboration
Provides mentoring and thought leadership
and coordination to unify
Offers best practices and proven templates these otherwise disparate
Creates “the place to go”
initiatives.
Breaks down government silos
The theme of this white paper is that despite Solutions used:
the best intentions, no activity, PM training,

3. kind of dynamic “knowing” that makes a difference to help and support the largest number of project
in practice by ensuring the participation of people managers across the entire federal government.
who are fully engaged in creating, refining, commu-
nicating, and using knowledge. A PM Center of The PM Center of Excellence will facilitate access to
Excellence can very successfully augment commu- knowledgeable people anywhere in an organiza-
The PM Center of
nities of practice while allowing for the active tion. This will increase the rate of knowledge trans-
Excellence would provide movement of tacit knowledge into explicit knowl- fer, reduce the learning curve, and enable govern-
an organic infrastructure— edge. A government-wide PM Center of Excellence ment project managers to be more confident know-
can successfully bridge the gap between tacit and ing that they can get support from a knowledgeable
both physical and virtual— explicit knowledge by recording and formalizing source. The “who knows what where” principle
for project managers in the those lessons that have stood the test of time. applies here. For instance, a new project manager
at Agency X can go to the PM Center of Excellence
government. The PM Center of Excellence would provide an and quickly identify that Joe Smith at Agency Z has
organic infrastructure—both physical and virtual— experience in earned value management on a sim-
for project managers in the government. Physically, ilar initiative. Within minutes, the new project man-
there should be an actual office with knowledge- ager can obtain answers from an experienced col-
able project managers. Experience has shown that league. Fostering access to PM experts will stream-
creating a virtual community with the notion of “if line and expedite knowledge transfer, providing
techniques and the practices taught in class we build it, they will come” is ineffective because government project managers the opportunity to
are out of sync with the actual culture or true people like to know the experts they are communi- more quickly grasp PM concepts and skills.
requirements of the work. Because a PM Center cating with and value personal interaction. From a
of Excellence is by its very nature founded on virtual perspective, leveraging technology to create In conclusion, while single, non-unified PM initia-
providing expert, practical solutions to the real a web-based, interactive means of sharing knowl- tives will all provide some value, only an enterprise-
problems a working government project manag- edge and collaborating on projects across agen- level PM Center of Excellence can provide a place
er faces, it can facilitate the design and selec- cies is critical to the success of the PM Center of (both real and virtual) in which government project
tion of training programs that are in sync with Excellence. Another possibility is to offer an “Ask managers can confidently access high-quality infor-
the real requirements of the job and culture. the Expert” service, project health checks, and mation that is essential to their success. In the
additional support by experts during particularly end, an enterprise-level PM Center of Excellence
A world-class PM Center of Excellence can cre- sensitive phases of the project life cycle. can be the force that creates a highly qualified,
ate a collaborative workspace that enables proj- skilled and connected cadre of government project
ect managers to be successful by providing The next several years will create an imperative to managers for the future.
ongoing support, mentoring, best practices, and shorten the traditional learning curve associated
training. The creation of this collaborative work- with “learning by doing.” While in some areas this
space is based on several key elements: knowl- might be an impossible goal, the very nature of
edge management, organic infrastructure, and project management offers some unique possibili-
experienced experts. ties that might not be available in other profes-
sions. By creating a variety of methods for experts
As we move to an economy of knowledge work- to provide hands-on guidance (either formally or
ers, knowledge management has become informally) under a PM Center of Excellence, it
increasingly recognized as a key source of com- ensures that the best PM resources are available
petitive advantage in business and government.
Unfortunately, many efforts to create and lever-
age knowledge management have failed. Our
view is that most traditional knowledge manage-
ment approaches attempt to capture existing
knowledge within formal systems, such as data-
bases, and therefore end up focused primarily By creating a variety of methods for experts to provide hands-on
on knowledge capture, which is only half of the
knowledge management equation. The other
guidance (either formally or informally) under a PM Center of
half of the equation is to engender a culture that
Excellence, it ensures that the best PM resources are available to
makes accessing and using PM best practices,
accessible through the PM Center of Excellence, help and support the largest number of project managers across the
a normal and comfortable part of managing a
project. entire federal government.
Centralizing the knowledge management strate-
gy within the PM Center of Excellence provides
the opportunity to systematically address the

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