A local Department of Transportation was struggling to balance their limited professional resources among a nearly overwhelming number of projects. Department engineers were working substantial overtime and projects were competing constantly for resources, yet critical deadlines were being missed. Compounding the situation, project priorities were often subject to change by management. Without centralized information regarding resources, schedules, and funding deadlines, the department lacked the ability to quickly gauge the impacts of changing project priorities, or accurately forecast upcoming needs.

By standardizing the myriad of project data that was collected, and consolidating it in an enterprise project management tool, the department was able to forecast detailed resource requirements, identify potential schedule conflicts, and estimate their budget needs for several future years. Mere months following the tool’s roll-out, the department realized a 50% improvement in time lost to schedule slippage. The practices used and lessons learned are readily transferable, and can be employed to aid many organizations faced with the challenge of balancing too few resources among too many projects.

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Christopher Jasper is a certified Project Management Professional with more than 13 years of experience in project management, business continuity planning, business process improvement, strategic planning, and performance measurement. He has developed project management plans and has actively managed resources for multi-year, multi-million dollar engagements. Mr. Jasper’s experience has provided him with extensive knowledge of a wide variety of state and local government organizations and the challenges they face in managing project data. He has provided all aspects of project management services, from hands-on delivery to coaching and mentoring clients in project management processes, tools, analysis, and “best practices.” He has supported many organizations in their efforts to transform “project data” into useful “project information.”