Path Finder

- A software project management competency development initiative G. Nagaraja General Manager, Talent Transformation, Wipro Technologies

Overview
Need for a S/W project management training initiative

Challenges

The initiative Courses Best practices Results Account interventions and industry publications Current status

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Need for a SPM training initiative

Fixed price projects were running into effort and schedule overruns leading to losses Root cause analysis showed PM Competency as a key concern area PMI initiative was launched to improve the project management capability of project managers

PMI initiative was successful; at one point of time, Wipro had the largest number of certified PMPs in India and was among top 15 globally Feedback from PMPs was that PMBOK provides a general perspective on project management and something more applied was needed to manage software project.

Hence a need for training on software project management was felt

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Challenges
Software engineering and project management courses are generally considered to be boring and monotonous Participants have a We already know this tendency Most of these subjects are perceived to as Good in theory but doesnt work in practice Establishing the relevance of the teaching in the course is a
significant challenge

Project managers time Project managers would find it extremely difficult to spare 8
days for training.

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Desired characteristics of solution

Package of courses should be Interesting

Relevant with insights applicable at work Rolled out in such a manner that PMs find it easy to participate

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Overview of the Path Finder series

Requirement Gathering Estimation Methodologies Requirement Modeling Requirement Change Management Advanced Project Scheduling Effective Project Planning And tracking

Scope Cost Time

Advanced Risk Management

Risk

Integration Management

Human Resources Quality

Procurement Communication

Highlights
International Videos Wipro Case studies and examples Home grown innovative solutions Publication in industry forums
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How the characteristics of solution achieved?

Relevance and applicability at work Many case studies, role plays and live examples were included Applicability was so stressed that while preparing each course,

Creating and maintaining interest We formatted the courses in such a way that

we followed a two-step procedure reviewing the contentreadiness and then reviewing the applicability readiness. We included results of our own research within the organization.

Each course had sufficient visual, auditory and kinesthetic reinforcements. A balance between left-brain inputs and right-brain inputs could be achieved

To make it easy to participate We followed a Rain Model rather than a calendar and batch
model
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Results
Employees in band C1 and above trained in Path Finder

Participant feedback has been overwhelming

Sample qualitative feedback

The Path Finder program has definitely equipped me to become a more effective PM a senior Project Manager I have gained wonderful experience by completing Path Finder series.Onsite Manager

1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

1558

Total 361 334 44 BDC CDC HDC KDC PDC (blank)

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Location

Comparing performance before and after This Practice training

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Nominations were always full Covered than 2500 trainees

Average percentage score

Boxplot of untrained employees Vs trained employees

85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 Untrained employees Trained Employees

Management response
Courses were made mandatory to all practicing PMs Assessments were introduced
Wipro Technologies

Box plot indicating that the scores of those who have undergone training are significantly higher than the ones who have not undergone the training

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Results
Internal consulting following training well received A $ 10 m deal won with the help of our team for estimation Helped in achieving clarity and completeness of requirements in
many instances
Hi <Faculty1> and <Faculty2>, We have delivered the SRS to the customer and obtained the sign off also. Your guidance in the following helped us to prepare the detailed SRS. 1. Requirement Gathering Techniques 2. Documentation with Visual Controls(like Site Map, Domain Classes and Process Flow, ER diagram) 3. Detailed Review of SRS and various suggestions on the presentation Thank you so much for the support and we look forward the same in our next phases .

Regards <<Project Manager name>>

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Results
Correlation between assessment performance and project performance has been established Observed over a sample of 36 projects, those scoring > 60% in

the assessment have an average effort under-run of 10% Observed over a sample of > 100 projects, those scoring < 40% in assessments had an average over run > 3%

Research has been published in industry forums

Nagaraja Gundappa, MVC Points a new estimation methodology for web applications, PML 2005, May 2005. Nagaraja Gundappa, Trends in Estimation methodologies, SPM ICON 2005, May 2005.

The initiative is now institutionalized with the establishment of a project management academy
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Current status and future

A PM Academy has been established that stream lines project management trainings both soft skills as well as process skills Future project managers are identified and go through a series

of soft skill trainings called Future Manager Program (FMP) FMP will be followed by a set of project management trainings The PM trainings consist of two sets with 6-9 months of gap in between; the trainees will be mentored during this period Trainees will be qualified through assessment at the end

Future Only those qualified to manage projects will be assigned to the

role of project manager Focus on creating programs for and training senior project managers enabling them to handle large projects

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Thank you

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