Case Studies

Initial Situation:

• Project scope routinely decreased in order to meet project due dates
• Poor product quality
• Significant overtime towards the end of a project
• Non-trivial changes to project requirements during the project without knowledge of the impact
• Overly-aggressive (unrealistic) schedules created
• Frequently miss key promised dates (approximately 10% of projects delivered on time)

Client Objectives:

• Aggressive but realistic schedules
• Ability to communicate the right priorities
• Improved quality of life

The ProChain Solution:

• Implementation design and planning
• Education and training at all levels of organization
• Network building, compression and analysis
• Project updating, status and decision support process

Results Achieved:

• Projects now completed on time in an environment where everything was late
• Schedules are now believable and credible
• Emergency meetings with senior management all but eliminated

Initial Situation:

• Projects typically took longer than expected
• Scope frequently compromised
• Frequent personal heroics to minimize lateness

Client Objectives:

• Reduce time to market
• Improve quality of life
• Repeatable process to implement clear and stable priorities

The ProChain Solution:

• Implement the ProChain System in several business units on top priority projects
• Fusion Desktop software and training
• Implementation planning and assessment
• Schedule building, compression and analysis
• Project status, updating and decision support processes
• Education on concepts, methodology and tools throughout all levels of the organization.

Results Achieved:

• Reduced first project more than 10 months (approx. 50%)
• 25 – 50 % reduction on first 10 projects
• One business unit has calculated the per project impact to be greater than $8 Million
• ROI is off the charts

Initial Situation:

• Development projects take about 25% longer than they should, resulting in major loss of market share
• Project due dates extremely unreliable
• Project quality and scope suffer
• Low quality of life for project workers

Client Objectives:

• Reduce time to complete projects
• Improve quality of life
• Raise on-time performance
• Maintain project quality and scope

The ProChain Solution:

• Senior leadership team education and planning
• Implementation design and planning
• Guided project priority setting
• Network building, schedule analysis and compression
• Management and resource education
• Implement project updating, status and decision support process
• Multiple project synchronization
• Form a Project Management Office and certify PMO members in the delivery of the methodology and tools

Results Achieved:

• Significant increase in predictability of project completion
• Process in place to identify and mitigate early schedule risks and obstacles
• Quality and scope have been maintained
• Managers and workers reported significant improvement in quality of life in hectic environment
• Created ability to prioritize projects and resources, and assess impact of changes
• ROI conservatively 50:1
• Senior leadership knows exactly what is driving current status and has a decision support system to make tradeoffs

Initial Situation:

• Lack of prioritization of projects
• Meeting major milestones only about 20% of the time
• Resources required to work extensive overtime in order to complete projects
• Project schedules too detailed to be managed practically

Client Objectives:

• Meet critical delivery dates
• Improvement in quality of life for employees
• Internalize knowledge and ability to deliver results independently
• Clear project and task priorities

The ProChain Solution:

• Situation analysis and implementation planning
• Facilitated network building, schedule analysis and compression
• Management and worker training and education
• Single project methodology implementation followed by multiple project scheduling
• Creation of Certified Experts

Results Achieved:

• Have scheduled more than 30 top priority projects
• On-time completion of projects increased from 22% to well above 90%
• Completed most important project 4 months early
• ROI conservatively 500:1

Initial Situation:

• Globally very dispersed organization
• Milestone system that inhibited clear priorities
• Met major milestones only about 20% of the time
• Chaotic work environment
• Facing dwindling pipeline and more competitive market

Client Objectives:

• Projects delivered on time
• More efficiency and speed
• Change in culture from “train schedule” to “relay race”
• Ability to use internal people to implement the methodology and tools

The ProChain Solution:

• Highly successful ProChain System pilot implementation across drugs in all phases of development
• Detailed implementation planning with active leadership involvement
• Development of a tailored ProChain System approach to help shift the culture
• Creation of Internal Experts
• Roll-out across programs and clinical trials

Results Achieved:

• The entire portfolio is using ProChain System
• On-time completion of projects reported at 100%
• Dramatic speed improvements for clinical trials
• Billions of dollars of impact

Initial Situation:

• Very seldom meet original due dates
• Scope and quality compromised to minimize lateness to market
• Project starts delayed by late finishes on previous projects
• Project due date set by marketing needs
• Team members stressed by delays
• Lack of valid information about project and task status

Client Objectives:

• Reduce actual time to market
• Maintain scope and premium pricing
• Improve quality of life
• Create and maintain achievable and realistic schedules
• Create and maintain clear and stable priorities
• Establish stable exit criteria for tasks (what is done?)
• Eliminate multitasking
• Identify risks to project completion

The ProChain Solution:

• An integrated solution
• Implementation planning
• Education on the methodology at multiple levels within the organization
• Training on the Fusion software
• Facilitated network building, schedule analysis and compression
• Implemention of a project status and updating process, including senior level metrics and decision support process

Results Achieved:

• Shortened product launches by approximately 25%
• First to market for this type of product
• Identified and eliminated early schedule risks
• Maintained original scope and premium price points
• Created a stable and continuous improvement process
• Return on Investment ratio conservatively 250:1

Initial Situation:

• Projects rarely delivered on time
• Project scope compromised significantly
• Extensive overtime to minimize lateness
• Resources assigned to many tasks on many projects with no clear priorities set
• Lack of solid information on which to base project decisions

Client Objectives:

• Implement first with individual projects, then build to multi-project scheduling
• Create project templates to reduce time spent building networks for repeated projects
• Design an effective, easy-to-read report showing status of all projects for management and project workers
• Establish clear project and task priorities

The ProChain Solution:

• Integrated multiple project effort
• Network design and analysis principles
• Conceptual education at multiple levels of the organization
• Strategy sessions to target problem areas with metrics and to implement solutions
• Software training and report customization
• On-going consulting services to ensure new work practices established and institutionalized

Results Achieved:

• Average project length reduced by more than 50%
• On-time delivery of projects went from 40% to nearly 100%
• More than doubled project throughput
• No increase in personnel
• ROI is off the charts

Initial Situation:

• Frequently delivered projects late
• Schedules and priorities constantly changing
• Losing customers based on poor performance

Client Objectives:

• Reduce project times
• Predictable completion/delivery dates
• Establish and work to clear and stable priorities

The ProChain Solution:

• Multi-project scheduling education and consulting
• ProChain’s Fusion Desktop and Pipeline Software

Results Achieved:

• Reduced average project times by 25%
• On-time delivery increased from 40% to nearly 100%
• Productivity increased by more than 30%
• ROI conservatively 50:1