Page 177 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Fundamentals of Project Management

Notes
programmes which often reach a wide variety of employees and represent a significant
investment for organisations.

The case study example below will follow the Phillips ROI Methodology™ and encompass
the four major phases of the methodology:
1. Evaluation Planning.
2. Data Collection.
3. Data Analysis.

4. Reporting.
Case Study Background: XYZ Law Firm
XYZ Law Firm was interested in developing a project management mindset within the
firm. There was support from the managing partners and funding was expected to be
approved. The goal of the training was to ensure that completing projects at the law firm
was not a severe drain on resources. There was much anxiety behind any project which
needed to be completed and the champions of the training programme, which included a
few of the partners, attorneys and the paralegals, were confident that with some basic
project management training, this anxiety could be controlled and projects done within
the firm would be more easily managed. The whole concept of “project management”
scared individuals.
The managing partners of the law firm specifically wanted to be updated on project status
and they often felt they were unsure what projects were being worked on and how they
were progressing. A significant goal was to ensure implementation of best practices and
standard processes and increase knowledge sharing.
Overall the goals of the training programme included:
1. Increased likelihood of successful projects.
2. Ability to implement strategic plans into action.
3. Improved monitoring and controlling of projects.
4. Proactive risk management.
5. Improved time management and teamwork.
6. Efficient utilisation and tracking of resources.
7. Standards around status reporting.

8. Implementation of best practices and standard processes.
Some of the projects that the law firm worked on included:
1. IT/infrastructure projects.
2. A variety of projects for their corporate clients, such as mergers and acquisitions and
major contract negotiations.

3. Annual recruiting projects, which included recruiting from law schools worldwide.
4. Long range capital strategic projects.
Many such projects took longer than originally planned for, went out of scope and went
over budget and resource commitment. This was certainly a problem for the client projects
the law firm worked on as such projects were under fixed price agreements with the client.
If the project went off track, it would impact the profitability for the law firm for that
particular engagement.
Contd...

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