HENRICO COUNTY, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES (DPU)
	IT Program & Project Management Training
	DPU is the fourth largest utility in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Serving a rapidly growing population of approximately 276,000 DPU supports the water and wastewater needs of 245 square miles of urban, suburban and agricultural areas.

Issue
Implementing an Engineering and Technology Master Plan (ETMP) represented a significant increase in projects for DPU. DPU need these projects to be managed effectively, but funding was not available to add project management staff. Meeting DPU’s objectives with existing staff required consistent project management practices for all IT projects. These practices included improving project planning, execution, management, and reporting.

Solution
Working with DPU management and staff, Westin identified and documented key project management reporting and control requirements. Based on these requirements, Westin developed a project management approach (processes, templates and documentation) that was supported by nonproprietary industry standards. To institutionalize these practices, Westin led highly interactive project management training workshops for DPU managers, project managers and key subject matter experts. The workshops educated DPU staff in basic project management principles and trained them in the use of repeatable processes and reusable tools. DPU staff were introduced to essential measurement concepts including earned-value analysis to determine project status. At the end of the workshops, DPU staff had a common project management approach and a DPU-specific glossary to ensure that vocabulary and measurements were applied consistently across projects.

Outcome
A common, structured approach to managing all projects improved the efficiency and effectiveness of project management. This has enabled DPU to execute more projects more effectively with the same staffing level. By eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel” for each project, all project participants now work from the same playbook so staff can seamlessly transfer between projects.

DPU management is in a position to make better decisions because of the consistency of information from all projects and project types. Definition and implementation of a DPU-wide approach to managing projects have also contributed to DPU’s self-sufficiency and independence from ongoing consulting fees.