Key Results Summary

Conversion of Paper-based Project Management Best Practices to Online Resources

Situation:

The Program Management Office of the international division of a major insurance company had developed a series of best practices for the management of information systems projects. Each best practice was comprised of an overview description, one or more templates for implementing the best practice, and instructions for each template. The entire series was packaged as a paper document.

The documents were distributed in briefing sessions to project managers and management. As the best practices were implemented the templates and instructions were also e-mailed to project managers as they needed them.

Version control became a problem within a matter of months as the templates and instructions were updated and improved. Also, follow-up training that was focused on specific best practices was supplemented with presentation materials that were not part of the initial paper-based distribution.

Action Plan:

• All current versions of best practice templates, instructions, overviews, and training materials were gathered and stored on one central web server.
• An intranet site was developed to consolidate access to the best practices and all supplemental materials and make them centrally available to all users. The intranet site allowed users to find information on specific best practices, download training materials, download specific templates or batches of templates, and also contained access links to additional support materials and resources that were identified.
• The best practices intranet site was linked to the divisional and corporate intranet sites and shared links with other divisional program management offices.

Results:

All existing materials and new resources were consolidated in the project management best practices intranet site. All version control problems were eliminated. E-mailing templates and other materials were replaced with links to the best practices intranet site. Users benefited from access to current resource materials and links to additional best practices materials within the corporation. Maintenance of the materials was simplified. New internal and external resources were added to the site more readily and users were notified of those new resources via automated updates.