The Challenge
A U.S. electrical utility company approached IPA for assistance after it had just completed a major project to upgrade existing meters to new smart meter technology. The project had a predictable cost, but the schedule slipped significantly and had some major construction and installation incidents. The client approached IPA for a detailed evaluation of its project planning and execution process and a review of the governance over that process to apply lessons learned to future projects.
The Solution
IPA worked with the client in evaluating the completed project and collecting all relevant information and data. Once complete, IPA benchmarked the project cost, schedule, and safety performance against similar scoped completed projects in the IPA database. IPA analysts worked directly with the project manager and the senior project team to identify all of the practices used for planning and executing the project. A full review of the organization’s stage-gated system also was conducted. Upon conclusion of these efforts, IPA compared the current system and practices against Best Practices, and presented the areas for improvement to the client together with an action plan for improvement. This plan was then applied to future projects within the organization, helping to significantly reduce risk on those projects.