Client needed to provide a more standardized project schedule framework, centralized control and enhanced visibility, standardization and reliability of its 14,000 active construction project. This presentation is a case study of the solution to address this need.

1. Principles of Execution
Using Microsoft Project To Automate A
Workplace Culture That Works!

2. Executive Overview
Developing a culture that works is hard work
and difficult at best.
Many organizations suffer from culture
confusion, they have too many high
priorities, they lack consensus among their
key leaders and are plagued with
misalignment between their mission, vision,
and values.
Understanding and applying the 7 principles
for developing a culture that works can drive
amazing culture change in any organization,
agency or business.

3. 7 Principles Framework
1. Principle of Vision: A great culture starts with a
vision or mission statement.
2. Principle of Values: A set of guidelines on the
behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve your
vision.
3. Principle of Buy-In: Is a Team Sport
4. Principle of Best Practices: Values are of little
importance unless they are enshrined in a
company’s practices.
5. Principle of Stories: All organizations have a
unique history - a unique story.
6. Principle of Environment: Your Physical or Virtual
Workplace shapes culture
7. Principle of Execution: Team members make a
commitment to the team not to the leader, and
they hold each other accountable.

4.  Gerald J. Leonard is the author of
“Culture Is The Bass,” and
the President & CEO of Principles
of Execution, a Strategic Project
Portfolio Management consulting
practice based in the Metro
Washington, DC area.
 20+ years as an IT Project Portfolio
Management consultant and has
earned the PfMP, PMP, MCSE,
MCTS, CQIA, ITILv3 and COBIT
4.1 Certifications
 Acquired certifications in PM and BI
from the University of California,
Berkeley, as well as an Executive
Leadership Certification from
Cornell University.
Gerald’s Background

5. •POC
•Stakeholder
Expectations
15 Days
•Manual Processes
•Poor Visibility
Challenge •Standardized
Templates
•Integration
•Automation
Solution
•Macros
•Event Handlers
•Automated
Baselining
Capabilities •Insight
•Increased efficiency
•Improved Data
Quality
Results

6. Large Government Organization
Create a solution for an older
homegrown system to integrate
with Microsoft Project Server
2013
The Homegrown system
managing over 14,000 projects
We had only 15 days before we
had to demonstrate it to the CIO
We worked as a team to make it
happen and we did it by day 14
15 Days till lift-off

7. Integrated Project Management System
Project Warehouse
External
System
External
System
External
System
External
System
Financial
System
Public
Dashboard
Data
Warehouse
20+ System integrations

8. •POC
•Stakeholder
Expectations
15 Days
•Manual Processes
•Poor Visibility
Challenge •Standardized
Templates
•Integration
•Automation
Solution
•Macros
•Event Handlers
•Automated
Baselining
Capabilities •Insight
•Increased efficiency
•Improved Data
Quality
Results

9. Large Government agency needed to strengthen
management oversight of a portfolio of 14,000 active
projects.
Integrate Project Server 2013 with a Home grown
Application using .Net 1.0 and ASP technology.
Limited visibility by the PMO if Project Managers were
updating their schedules and project information
correctly
Business Problem

10. Manual Processes
No standard project schedule
templates or process to enable
consistent management of the
PMO environment. Schedules
did not contain network logic or
schedule dependencies.
Project Managers schedule
updates were all manually
updated with no scheduling
engine available to understand
the downstream impact on
forecasted tasks.

11. Business Goals
Accelerate project development and delivery
through improved processes
Strengthen planning and programming processes to
maximize the use of available funding
Be an innovative pacesetter in technology

12. •POC
•Stakeholder
Expectations
15 Days
•Manual Processes
•Poor Visibility
Challenge •Standardized
Templates
•Integration
•Automation
Solution
•Macros
•Event Handlers
•Automated
Baselining
Capabilities •Insight
•Increased efficiency
•Improved Data
Quality
Results

13. Best Practices and Environment

14. 40 + Standardized Templates

15. Custom Lookup Table
Data Quality is Like

16. Integration
Component
Web
Service
Web
Service
Event Handlers

17. Automation – Leveraging Powershell
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Forces a Checkin of all projects in Microsoft Project Server 2013
.DESCRIPTION
The list of currently checkedout projects is queried from the Draft database.
After the list of Project UIDs is retrieved the script makes a connection to the PSI Projects WebService to
initiate Force Checkin of all the projects.
The Checkin requests enter the Project Server queue and will be executed there.
.PARAMETER ProjectServerURL
URL of the Project Server instance to be connected to (example: http://pwavm/PWA
.PARAMETER DatabaseServer
Name of the SQL Server (or database instance) containing the Draft database (example:
SQLSRV1INSTANCE1)
.PARAMETER DraftDB
Name of the Draft Database (example: PWA_Draft)
.EXAMPLE
.AutomatedProjectCheckin.ps1 -ProjectServerURL http://pwavm/PWA -DatabaseServer VMSQL -
DraftDB IPMSCH_ProjectWebApp_DB
Force CheckIn all projects currently checked out
.NOTES
You need to have Read permissions to the Draft Database and Project Server Administrative
permissions to run this Script.
#>
# Add PowerShell PSSnapin
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
$SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand #setting object to
use sql commands
#$SqlQuery = "SELECT [Proj_UID], [PROJ_NAME], [proj_checkoutby] FROM
[draft].[MSP_projects] WHERE proj_checkoutby is not null and proj_type in
(0,5,6)" #setting query "get drop paths"
$SqlQuery = "SELECT p.Proj_UID, p.PROJ_NAME, (select r.ResourceName
from [dbo].[MSP_EpmResource_UserView] r where r.ResourceUID =
p.PROJ_CHECKOUTBY) AS CheckedOutName FROM [draft].[MSP_projects] p
WHERE proj_checkoutby IS Not null and proj_type in (0,5,6)"
$SqlCmd.CommandText = $SqlQuery # get query
$SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter #
$SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $SqlCmd
$SqlCmd.Connection = $connection
$DataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)

18. Project Server 2013 Technology Platform

19. •POC
•Stakeholder
Expectations
15 Days
•Manual Processes
•Poor Visibility
Challenge •Standardized
Templates
•Integration
•Automation
Solution
•Macros
•Event Handlers
•Automated
Baselining
Capabilities •Insight
•Increased efficiency
•Improved Data
Quality
Results

20. Macros
Automate the standardization of
data quality

21. Event Handlers

22. Automated Baselining
Schedule Phase Baseline Updates
Initial Schedule Current set to Baseline
If Baseline1 not set then
Copy Baseline to Baseline1
Scoping Schedule Current set to Baseline
Copy Baseline to Baseline2
Design Current set to Baseline3
Final Design Current set to Baseline4
Revision Reset Current Baseline (based on Project Pool revision approvals): copy
previous current schedule (Baseline) to lowest available non-reserved Baseline
(Baselines 5 – 10)

23. •POC
•Stakeholder
Expectations
15 Days
•Manual Processes
•Poor Visibility
Challenge •Standardized
Templates
•Integration
•Automation
Solution
•Macros
•Event Handlers
•Automated
Baselining
Capabilities •Insight
•Increased efficiency
•Improved Data
Quality
Results

24. What was achieved:
 Microsoft Project Server 2013 was
deployed with event handlers and web
service that pass data back and forth
with the homegrown system
 System and schedule standardization
 Increased visibility and improved data
quality
 Microsoft Project macros and PowerShell
Scripts to automate data formatting and
automation of admin routines
 Over 700 + project managers trained
with only 40+ Schedulers using
Microsoft Project Professional.
Insights

25. Increased Efficiency & Improved Data Quality

26. Q&A

27. Principles of Execution, LLC
Gerald J. Leonard
PfMP, PMP, MCTS, CQIA, ITIL,
COBIT
President/CEO
Gerald@Principlesofexecution.com
http://www.principlesofexecution.com
Developing A Culture That Works!