FEDERAL CAPABILITIES

THE PROJECT

This cabinet-level federal agency sought a partner to help them achieve process maturity goals within their Project Management Office. The agency sought an assessment, based on PMI’s PMBOK, OMB, and GAO best practice, accompanied by indicators, as a means to track progress against organizational goals. The outcomes of the assessment included setting a baseline of current conditions within the Department’s core projects so an IT budgeting and tracking system could determine accurate measurement and appraisal of current practices; a process roadmap and matrix tracking tool with actionable items; ability to apply Project Management best practice concepts to projects; and mitigation of project risk as the size and complexity of the organization grew.

OUR APPROACH

Beyond20 conducted a baseline project management assessment for key project team members. The project began with a half-day strategic planning discussion to define requirements and Critical Success Factors for the project. Our PM Consultants conducted in-person interviews, distributed a capability assessment survey, then provided a full review, discussion, and executive presentation of all findings. Beyond20 provided a Process Maturity Assessment Report to summarize overall findings and measurable results of existing processes, common themes, and process maturity recommendations. A PMO Roadmap was also delivered, which contained near- and long-term recommendations for the project team along with a matrix for tracking of progress against process maturity goals.

THE PROJECT

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) transmits and markets power to more than 14 million customers in the Pacific Northwest. BPA’s organically grown IT department was reliant on disordered processes and obsolete technology, causing them to struggle to keep up with the pace of change in the industry. IT support staff were getting burned out, customer satisfaction was low, and costs remained high. BPA wanted to improve customer engagement while also achieving operational efficiencies, but they struggled to enhance one position without sacrificing the other. In addition, BPA’s stringent security requirements as a critical provider of public services further complicated any initiatives to achieve organizational change.

OUR APPROACH

Beyond20 worked with BPA leadership and two distinct IT groups within the organization to manage an IT transformation initiative, working with more than 60 key organizational stakeholders in a full lifecycle engagement that involved an IT Service Management (ITSM) assessment and roadmap, design and implementation of a Service Catalog and a Configuration Management Database (CMDB), process design workshops, software training, Service Desk support, and implementation of a new ITSM platform.

Using our hybrid-agile approach to project management and development, we shortened the ITSM tool implementation schedule by more than 40%. BPA’s new, unified Service Catalog streamlined and automated self-service functionality in their ITSM platform, improving customer satisfaction and reducing calls to the Service Desk by 15%. Finally, our CMDB design and implementation, combined with a more secure and streamlined process for managing assets and inventory, enabled consolidation of 16 redundant assessment management tools, resulting in significant cost savings.

THE PROJECT

The Civil Division of this federal executive department sought out a capable team to provide professional services for asset management, auditing, and process analysis to support their larger initiative of improving IT service management. The organization required an overhaul of their CMDB in Cherwell and a full audit of their trackable IT assets, including all hardware, networking equipment, cloud services, and client devices.

OUR APPROACH

Beyond20 reviewed current asset management processes and practices and compared them to industry best practices to determine the current state, identify opportunities for improvement, and provide recommendations as a path forward.

Beyond20 consultants strategically planned and executed a wall-to-wall audit of all trackable IT assets for the entire division. The Team conducted physical audits of 5 facilities, 5 field offices, and over 50 remote staff, totaling tens-of-thousands of individual assets and nearly 130,000 points of data for 2000 users.

Using freshly collected and processed data, Beyond20 was able to create a new and accurate CMDB for the Civil Division, giving them the ability to maximize value, control costs, manage risks, provide data reporting, support decision-making during procurement, re-use, and retire assets. These processes and procedures were documented, allowing the Civil Division to repeat audits on their own and maintain up-to-date data.

Beyond20 also facilitated process design working sessions for 14 major processes and developed workflows with corresponding RACI matrices and underpinning procedures. In support of the documented processes, Beyond20 consultants provided supplemental Cherwell training to leverage the division’s existing ITSM solution.