1. Educational resource
Plan and schedule upcom-
ing trainings, Suggestions
for future project manage-
ment educational opportu-
nities and access to learning
tools such as copies of the
PMBOK (Project Manage-
ment Book of Knowledge).
PM support
General questions on pro-
ject management, guidance
on what is needed for
starting, maintaining and
completing a project and
issues that have occurred
within a project that could
use some assistance.
The PMO has been estab-
lished to run multi-product
projects, maintain project
management processes,
provide reporting and
serve as a resource. Any-
one can reach out with
any project management
needs and/or questions.
These can include (but are
not limited to):
Reporting
Assist with the review of
reporting of project status-
es, plans, charts, timelines,
etc. and provide tem-
plates, samples of existing
projects and other PM
related documentation.
You can also find guides,
templates and samples of
project plans on the E
drive under:
E:PMO Warehouse
We look forward to work-
ing with all of you and
your teams as we continue
to grow and develop.
Introducing the PMO (Project Management Office)
Upcoming Trainings
Project Management Level I—Thursday, October 22nd from 9am-3:30pm
Enrollment is outside of the LMS. Please email your supervisor to enroll
This course provides a fundamental understanding of the project management
process. It offers practical hands-on experience with Granite specific templates
and tools. This course is the starting place for all who desire to build their pro-
ject management knowledge and skill
Project Management Info Sessions—Tuesdays at 2:30pm in Sam Walton
Upcoming topics and dates they are offered:
Risk Management—Tuesday, October 20th
Lessons Learned and Completion—Tuesday, October 27th
Inside this Issue:
The
PMO Monitor
Q4 2015
Introducing the PMO 1
Upcoming Trainings 1
Case Study 2
Spotlight 3
Scope Statements 4
Did You Know? 4
pmo@granitenet.com
Volume 1 Issue 1

2. Nations Foodservice, Inc is a
hamburger restaurant chain in
California that wanted high
speed broadband services at
each of its 31 locations for the
purpose of upgrading their
existing service, which was too
slow for their needs. The pro-
ject was assigned to Data Pro-
ject Manager Shannon Burke.
From the start, Shannon and
the Premier rep, Chelsie Martin,
worked closely together. They
defined responsibilities and
Chelsie helped Shannon estab-
lish a relationship with the cus-
tomer.
The internal stakeholder
meeting was held the day after
receiving the project with all
the internal stakeholders in-
cluding Sales, the Premier Rep
and Provisioning, where Shan-
non reviewed the scope of the
project and determined what
needed to be verified with the
customer. After meeting inter-
nally, the kickoff call was sched-
uled.
Prior to the call, Shannon pre-
pared an agenda that included
three major points. An intro-
duction, which reviewed Shan-
non’s contact information and
the process she follows with the
installs. Special instructions,
where the customer could let
her know any important items
for the project, which included
modem specifications and a
priority list of restaurants. And
lastly, a review, where she veri-
fied the contact schedule and
went over the status of the pro-
ject. After the call, Shannon
updated the agenda with a re-
cap of the talking points and the
Page 2
The
Case Study—Nation’s Foodservice, Inc.
“We were very happy
with Shannon’s
project
management. She is
always prepared for
the phone calls. The
calls are brief
because we have a
comprehensive,
updated tracker
beforehand.”
Nation’s Foodservice
Page 2
actions and issues.
These minutes, along with
the most recent tracker and
the data introduction docu-
ment, were sent to the cus-
tomer.
For the first few weeks,
things were moving along
smoothly, as Shannon was
using the tracker that she
created which had priori-
tized the hot sites. Because
she had done this at the
start, Shannon was able to
stay focused and check on
the most pressing orders
daily. Then the customer
changed their mind on the
type of broadband service
they preferred, which had
been Comcast, but now they
wanted it to be AT&T Fiber.
Shannon reset the expecta-
tion with the customer re-
garding the scope and
timeframe of the project due
to the change, making sure
to verify that for locations
where AT&T Fiber was not
available, Comcast could still
be used. The customer
agreed with the proposed
changes. Shannon then re-
viewed the orders that were
in process and worked with
Provisioning to update the
carriers wherever possible.
This did change some instal-
lation dates for the custom-
er, which she notified them
of immediately.
With email updates going
out 3 to 4 times a week and
weekly calls, keeping con-
stant communication with
the customer allowed this
project to be as seamless as
possible. Shannon applied
many of the different skills
and lessons she has learned
through shadowing other
PMs, attending stakeholder
meetings and taking Granite
University trainings to man-
age this project successfully
and get high praise from the
other stakeholders as well
as the customer.
“She was very organized,
precise, and quick to
respond to any questions
to both myself and the
customer. In fact, once
the project is over I would
like to go over everything
that was sold to the
customer and to take
some notes on project
management from her”
Chelsie Martin, Premier Rep

3. Patrick Foley, one of the
two Granite Grid Mall Pro-
ject Managers recently gave
a presentation on MS Pro-
ject and how it has proven
to be a helpful tool. In addi-
tion to his Project Manage-
ment experience in the mili-
tary, Pat also comes with 3
years of project manage-
ment on the civilian side.
For the past year, Pat has
been working closely with 2
of our mall REIT partners,
Taubman and General
Growth Properties (GGP) on
installing Granite infrastruc-
ture and circuits into their
malls nationwide. As you
can imagine, there were a
lot of moving parts with
many different groups.
“GGP was very relaxed with
timeframes and we pretty
much dictated the
timeframes throughout.”
Pat explains on his relation-
ships with each of the
REITs. “The standard GRID
Project Plan was a great fit
for [GGP] properties and
also met all time require-
ments. As far as detail went,
GGP just wanted to know
the summary (big picture)
tasks.”
Taubman had a very differ-
ent approach. “They have
an extensive team and they
micromanaged down to the
mall managers. While I was
working on the project plan
we routinely had to cut
down timeframes and
would have to explain to
Taubman that their
timeframes were unreason-
able.” It was definitely a
learning experience for Pat.
“Overall I think Taubman
opened up my eyes about
how to deal with microman-
agers and how to think
ahead on what was need-
ed.”
These experiences taught
him the value that using MS
Project can bring in his eve-
ryday tasks as a Project
Manager. “MS Project is
necessary at the start of
each major project. The
main problem project man-
agers face is meeting time-
lines. If the project manager
establishes a realistic time-
line with the customer then
both sides of the fence will
be happy.”
An important feature of MS
Project is the ability to as-
sign tasks to specific groups
or people, which holds them
accountable for the work
they need to do on the pro-
ject. As far as his favorite
feature, Pat says “My favor-
ite feature is the ability to
add a column next to each
summary task and subtask
which would calculate what
percentage of the task was
done.”
For those who are interest-
ed in, or just starting to use,
MS Project, Pat has some
advice. “Use Google and
YouTube tutorials. Just like
Excel, MS Project has an
endless amount of features
so research how to use
these features as you need
them.”
As the next mall REIT part-
ner is getting ready to start
their relationship with Gran-
ite, Pat is confident that,
with the help of MS Project,
his project will be a success.
If you are interested in viewing
Pat’s presentation, would like
more information on MS Project
or have any questions, please
email pmo@granitenet.com
Page 3
Page 3
Spotlight
Pat Foley talks about MS Project
“Just like Excel,
MS Project has an
endless amount
of features so
research how to
use these features
as you need
them.”

4. Scope statements are the part of the project
that defines the boundaries. It outlines the key
successes, deliverables, scope work and as-
sumptions.
Project objectives and goal
This part of the scope statement defines the
purpose of the project. The message here be-
ing, if your plan is followed, the goal will be
attainable.
To truly understand the objective of the project,
it is important to know what your customers do
and what they stand for. Another helpful piece
of information is to find out what they using the
solution for.
Always remember, your goal should be SMART:
Did You Know?
pmo@granitenet.com
Scope Statements — A vital tool in any project
In and out of scope
When creating the scope of your pro-
ject, identifying what is out of scope
is just as important as what is in
scope. Be thorough. Get input from
all your stakeholders. Once you de-
fine the scope, review it with your
customer to ensure the project ex-
pectations are set correctly. Just be-
ware of scope creep (additions/major
changes to a project)!
Assumptions
These are based on truth, but do not
always end up being true. Use your
experiences, knowledge and any in-
formation you have already to create
the assumptions. For example, you
assume that the customer is going to
let the carrier have access to their
site.
Completion activity
This will convey the message that
the project will be 100% success-
ful if you reach this objective/
goal. Defining and publicizing the
completion activity is essential
because everyone’s idea of when
a project has completed can vary.
 We have a folder on the E drive
called PMO Warehouse. It in-
cludes project plan templates,
stakeholder meeting templates,
samples of existing project plans,
timelines and presentations that
have been given by various de-
partments on their roles. Check it
out!
 If you ever need to create a plan
in MS Project and do not have it,
just email pmo@granitenet.com
for assistance. All the computers
in Thomas Edison have it as well
as the computer in Winston
Churchill.
 The PMO has a small library of
project management resources,
including copies of MS Project for
Dummies and a few copies of the
PMBOK (The Project Manage-
ment Body of Knowledge), which
is the standard put forward by
the Project Management Institute
(PMI) and what Granite aligns
with. Want to borrow a copy or
looking for other resources? Just
email pmo@granitenet.com!
 Almost every other department
has given a presentation to some
of the Premier project managers
in the past year. Their presenta-
tions have been saved into the
PMO Warehouse. Take a look!
 In addition to Project Management
Level I training, we also offer Level
II. In that class, we explore leader-
ship, techniques to build high per-
forming teams as well as hands-on
MS Project work. You must take
Level I prior to this course. Please
email pmo@granitenet.com with
any questions.