CGFMS Program and Project Management

Streamlining Systems & Requirements

Download our CGFMS Program and Project Management Case Study

Challenge

MIL is responsible for overseeing the System Development Life Cycle for multiple financial applications at the Department of State’s (DoS) Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Global Financial Management Systems office (CGFS/GFMS). The current ability to effectively measure and analyze projects and programs for multiple financial applications is challenging. The Global Financial Architecture Administration (GFAA) requires CGFS/GFMS projects follow a standardized process to ensure CMMI Level II compliance. GFAA manages and maintains over two dozen financial management systems and multiple projects are in various stages at all times. These projects involve work from multiple contract companies; therefore, project data is stored across various systems. Contract managers gather data from several sources and in several different formats, resulting in numerous coding structures and different output formats making it difficult to ensure GFAA compliance and PMO reporting ease across the organization. The current ability to effectively measure and analyze project progress is taxing; management’s ability to make data-based decisions and take corrective actions onerous.

Solution

MIL has been tasked with developing a single database that supports CGFS/GFMS Initiatives, streamlines GFAA requirements, houses contractor project activity, and reports on all project activity uniformly across CGFS/GFMS and GFSS, while also ensuring GFAA compliance. CGFS Program and Project Management (PPM) is a multi-phased initiative to enhance project management for the CGFS/GFMS organization by improving the storage, collection, and usability of project related data. CGFS PPM is an enterprise project management database that uses GFAA standardized procedures in Project Server 2010, a robust project management tool. This initiative provides the foundation to streamline GFAA requirements and gain better insight, control, collaboration, and strategic alignment of its project work throughout the organization.

CGFS PPM is the first formal initiative that seeks to enhance GFAA project management and PMO reporting across the bureau. Implementation of this solution yields one source for all project data. A single data source greatly simplifies the current process used to gather management reporting data, which differs by contracting company. This solution increases the reliability, predictability, and consistency of the data as all data goes into the same framework that supports CGFS/GFMS Initiatives and GFAA standards. It enables unified project and portfolio management, streamlines GFAA documentation, improves resource utilization and team collaboration, and enhances reporting and informed decision making. Due to the complexity of the project, the approach incorporates multiple phases designed to move the initiative forward with minimal adverse impact to current productivity.

Benefit

CGFS PPM provides a user friendly web portal that each contractor can use to enter their daily activity while maintaining GFAA compliance. All billable time is tracked to an activity, which rolls up to a CGFS/GFMS Initiative. Implementing CGFS PPM leads to improved reporting accuracy and consistency because the data is stored in and reported from the same database. Management is empowered with real-time project data that can be used to make informed decisions immediately and for consideration as related to future projects. GFAA requirements are streamlined and simplified. Future benefits of this initiative include approval workflows which will help to facilitate collaboration between team members, enterprise resources which will be effectively managed and optimized, and resource allocation which will become visible across all programs and projects. Gaps will be identified through resource forecasting and resources will be reallocated as needed to keep project on track, thus maximizing resource utilization overall.