Project Management Business Analyst (PMBA) Working Group Charter

PMBA Working Group Charter FY2011

Definition

The Project Management Business Analysis Working Group (PMBA Working Group) is established to provide guidance and resources for project management improvement efforts in IS&T.  This group will also serve as the custodian of best practices and promote and support the effective use of those practices across the organization.  The Working Group has the responsibility to ensure that any IS&T project management processes that are developed remain useful, accessible, and easy to use.

In addition, the PMBA Working Group advises IS&T Senior Leadership on related work and issues within the department and submits recommendations when appropriate.

Purpose

• Provide leadership in the area of project execution, service delivery and customer engagement
• Developing and nurture a community of practice where project workers can share and grow professionally and provide support to each other and their work
• Implement project management and process improvement tasks and deliverables
• Develop and maintain project management best practices that are practical and actionable
• Adopt and disseminate standard processes (best practices) for each phase of the project lifecycle
• Ensure open communication between functional units across areas in IS&T in regards to project management best practices and process improvements
• Encourage a collaborative, responsive work environment and foster trust across the organization
• Mentor and coach staff in the application of project management and business analysis practices that improve execution and delivery

Role of a Working Group Member

The PMBA Working Group expects to leverage the experience, expertise, and insight of individual staff in the department committed to improving IS&T project execution, delivery and the experience of the community we serve.  Working Group members are directly responsible for managing various project activities in their respective areas, as well as provide support and guidance for others in the organization with similar roles and responsibilities.

PMBA Working Group members should:

• Understand the impact and desired outcomes of project management and business analysis improvement initiatives
• Be genuinely interested in project work and be an advocate for broad support for the outcomes being pursued
• Have a broad understanding of project management and business analysis issues and approach being adopted
• Encourage staff to participate and contribute to the Community of Practice
• Provide guidance to project managers, business analysts and other project workers on useful
• Consider ideas and issues raised by users and incorporate feedback (continuous improvement cycle)
• Foster positive communication outside of the Working Group regarding progress and outcomes

Working Group Members

The PMBA Working Group will be composed of volunteer members, and augmented by staff appointed by IS&T Senior Leadership.

Meeting Schedule and Process

The PMBA Working Group will meet every other week for the first 3 months, in order to establish the priority objectives, plan the work in order to meet those objectives, and assign resources (from within the Working Group) to accomplish goals.  The meetings will then transition to monthly or as required to keep track of issues and progress.

The Working Group requires an investment of time up front.  The estimated time commitment for each member is approximately 10-15 hours from October through December, and 6-8 hours/month going forward.

Reporting

The facilitator of the PMBA Working Group will report to senior staff on a monthly basis relevant activities, issues, and recommendations.  In addition, meeting agendas, minutes and supporting documents will be made available to staff across the department so that they can be aware of the work and recommendations of the Working Group.

Deliverables

The PMBA Working Group will focus on the requirements gathering and design phases of the project life cycle for the next twelve months (November 2011 through October 2012).  Below is a list of potential deliverables for the Working Group to consider:

Proposed Activities

• Revisit charter and membership and communicate out
• Implement Community of Practice
• Work with IS&T HR on training curriculum for PMs and BAs
• Incorporate business analysis focus
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Requirements Gathering
  • Solution Assessment
  • Link to other internal improvement initiatives (e.g. resource planning)
  • Collaboration with Lincoln Labs PMO
  • Improve integration of common support groups into project management process
    • Data Management
    • Usability & Accessibility
    • User Experience
    • QA processes
    • Web Services
    • Application Administration
    • Network Operations
    • Training
    • Communications
    • Help Desk

Future Products

• Definition of team member roles and matrix of responsibilities (including sponsors and stakeholders)
• Improved requirements gathering (including reporting requirements)
  • Templates
  • Approaches for execution
  • Business process modeling process and templates
  • Use case and test case development templates
  • Conceptual model as part of design (where applicable)
  • Community of Practice wiki
  • Help sessions and targeted workshops as part of the Community of Practice

Membership FY2011