NASCIO Awards

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

2007 Awards: IT Project and Portfolio Management

RECIPIENT:
North Dakota
Building Project Manager Competencies Via the Mentor/Apprentice Relationship

In 1999, the North Dakota legislature enacted law that required oversight of any information technology projects in excess of $250,000. For approximately five years, the oversight function was primarily audit-based. The Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) for the state of North Dakota was formally chartered in April 2004 to improve the success of IT projects and the present Enterprise Project Manager (EPM) was appointed effective June 1, 2004. In addition to the EPM, there is one additional staff member that is also assigned to the large project oversight function. “North Dakota’s project management processes have shown continuous improvement over the past several years. The mentor/apprentice model has increased the state’s project management competency which has built a trust between those entities who manage large information technology projects and the legislative oversight committee. This has subsequently reduced the need to pursue any legislatively mandated project controls.”
Senator Larry Robinson, Chairman, Legislative Information Technology Committee

The EPMO was charted with six main functions:

Project Management Best Practices
Project Management Training, Mentoring, and Certification
Large Project Oversight
Project Management Consulting
Outreach and Coordination of PM Issues and Topics
Coordination of Projects Across the Enterprise

This project highlights the efforts of the EPMO and the EPM Advisory Group to increase the competencies of project managers across all entities of state government via training, mentoring, and certification efforts. A key innovation impacting success rates of this initiative was the validation of competencies through the apprentice/mentor relationship. The state of North Dakota had previously provided an eclectic array of classroom training opportunities, certification programs, and on-the-job learning opportunities. However, the EPM Advisory group agreed that while those components of learning were all critical, information about whether the activities had a direct impact on the employee’s competency or effectiveness was not being captured.

In May 2005, the state of North Dakota began a pilot project based on a training model being constructed by CompTIA on behalf of the Federal Department of Labor. This model intended to combine the existing apprenticeship model utilized for professions ranging from electricians to pharmacists with a wide range of professions within the information technology field, including project management.

This program has been marketed within the state of North Dakota to Executive Branch agencies, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, K-12 Schools, ND University System, and elected officials.

Subjective and objective data was collected relating to both project performance and participant involvement. That data was analyzed by Dr. John Aaron, Milestone Planning, Inc. who indicated the program had a practical and statistically significant impact in reducing project cost variances as well as improving project manager effectiveness. Of key importance to the initiative’s return on investment was Dr. Aaron’s finding that, “classroom training plus mentoring (i.e. apprenticeship) is the most powerful predictor of percent cost variance reduction”.

NOMINATIONS:
Click on the link to download program submission.

Indiana
IN.gov: Funding Projects that Lower the Cost of Doing Business With and Within Indiana's State Government

Michigan
Enterprise IT Portfolio Governance and Management Model

Missouri
Missouri IT Consolidation

North Carolina
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction NCWISE Phase 2

New York
New York State’s Project Management Mentoring Program (PMMP)

Pennsylvania
IT Project and Portfolio Management in Pennsylvania

South Carolina
South Carolina Information Technology Project Management Office

Texas
State of Texas - Project Delivery Framework

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