building talent, driving results

An ESI Case Study

achieve enterprise-wide objectives, its
imperative that others recognise we
have business projects that may require
people, process, cultural and/or technol-
ogy components.
Tree months following the depart-
ments inception, the group transitioned
from Information Services to Planning
& Project Management, which reports
to Piedmonts CFO. Poole credits much
of the initial success to the support
of her direct team and the companys
Leadership. Poole was also vested with
the necessary governance authority to
step in on projects where necessary.
On another front, was the continuing
challenge of pursuing the strategic
goals set forth in parallel. Poole worked
to develop a CoE Charter and began
executing its charge.
Toward Maturity
To accelerate success, Piedmont pursued
a learning partner.
ESI Internationals experience helping
organisations around the world build
similar programmes allowed them to
quickly build a results-oriented learning
programme. ESI is providing so much
more than our original requirements
and expectations. We have had access to
valuable resources throughout our
journey, said Poole.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North
Carolina, in the Southeastern U.S.,
Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy serv-
ices company, primarily engaged in the
distribution of natural gas to more than
one million residential, commercial and
industrial utility customers. Piedmonts
subsidiaries are joint-venture, energy-re-
lated businesses including unregulated
retail invested in natural gas marketing,
interstate natural gas storage and
intrastate natural gas transportation.
In recent years, Piedmont has evolved
a healthy, high-performance corporate
culture that focuses on empowering all
employees to deliver:
High-quality customer services
Safe, reliable natural gas services
Positive shareholder value
Greater operational efciencies
Tis healthy, high-performance culture
has brought with it new opportunities to
mature Piedmonts project management
structure. As total project requests
increased, so have the demands,
interdependencies and complexities of
the projects. Tis evolution surround-
ing projects led Piedmonts executive
management team to support the
formation of a Project Management
Centre of Excellence (CoE) with a vision
of: Leading the company in transforming
business strategy into business results.
With direct input from the executive
management team, a set of strategic
goals was developed:
Establish process ownership
and centralised accountability
for project management and
business analysis.

1.
Piedmont Natural Gas
Implement a project selection
model that ensures project
investments align with company
strategy while maximising
limited resources.
Build a project management
platform that is sustainable,
standardised and transparent
within the enterprise.
Boost energy, team-orientation
and systemic thinking through-
out the enterprise.
Lisa T. Poole, PMP, Manager, Enterprise
Project Delivery Services (EPDS), formed
a centralised project management de-
partment initially focused on fnding the
right people with the right skills, within
functional lines of business and IT, and
providing career path opportunities.
The Challenge
With the goals set, Poole focused
on accomplishing them along
tracks, meanwhile managing the
cultural change.
Te largest cultural challenge has been
moving beyond the legacy IT defnition
of projects.
Prior to the departments existence, a
project implied a signifcant technol-
ogy efort, said Poole. In order to
2.
3.
4.
Building Project Intelligence
Across the Enterprise
ESI is providing so much more
than our original requirements
and expectations. We have had
access to valuable resources
throughout our journey
Lisa T. Poole, PMP, Manager, Enterprise
Project Delivery Services (EPDS)
building talent, driving results
ESIs online assessment tools helped
Piedmont identify the critical focus
areas for the initial learning programme
as well as to chart a longer-term course.
Tese on-going assessments track
progress and allow Piedmont to make
mid-course corrections with real-
time information.
ESI also:
Conducted executive seminars
on project selection
Provided external validation and
refnement of the CoE Charter
Held a BA exhibit to help recruit
internal candidates
Provided a PM/BA framework
gap analysis
Continues to assist Piedmont
in tracking its progress online
with MyESI
To help grow the value of the CoE and
its individual team members, Poole,
with counsel from ESI, charted a career
progression path. Te path includes
achievement of learning objectives and
active participation in IIBA and PMI.
Piedmont has made solid progress in
refning its portfolio management
decision model to choose strategic
enterprise project investments. A
cross-functional Strategic Advisory
Board is now in place to apply an
improved model and assist with cultural
change. ESI provided support by deliver-
ing an executive seminar that provided
direction in governance and process
development. Tese new methods were
embraced by senior management. We
are integrating the methods into our
planning cycle, said Poole.

The Results
Less than a year since the founding of
the CoE, Piedmont is realising success
on all fronts. One of its earliest successes
helped deliver signifcant reductions
in operational expenses to the bottom
line a year early. Using a combined
enterprise/business analysis approach,
Piedmont developed a comprehensive
decision package that allowed executive
management to make an informed,
quick decision while enabling the project
team to develop business requirements
in parallel which accelerated the
execution timeline. Further driving
expense reductions, Piedmont has seen
a decrease in non-budgeted projects
and increased efciencies in project
resource allocation.
Te cultural changes are gaining a
foothold as well. Tere is increased
acceptance of BA and PM methods
as evidenced by the use of common
language, tools and methodologies.
Tis is particularly true around risk
assessments in that project manage-
ment, internal audit and enterprise risk
management departments now share
a common framework and language
associated with risk management.
PM and BA methodologies are
continually gaining acceptance.
Other departments, including Facilities
Management, Internal Auditing,
Enterprise Risk Management and IS,
are jointly attending ESI courses. Team
leaders responsible for other initiatives
are requesting consulting assistance,
said Poole.
What is Next
While strengthening the CoEs founda-
tion, Poole is now pursuing methods
to manage, measure, and report on
project performance:
Identifying project performance
improvement metrics to en-
able consistent comparisons of
project outcomes, including prior
projects to be used as a baseline.
Developing standards associated
with reporting project perform-
ance, forecasting resource
utilisation and coordinating
project interdependencies.
Providing continuous develop-
ment opportunities to staf.
Ensuring ongoing evaluation of
project management interest
from other departments to serve
in a mentoring role.
In building our centre of excellence,
we have benefted from the knowledge
and experience brought by ESI to the
process. ESI has listened and remains
in-tune with our strategic development
goals, said Poole.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Piedmont Natural Gas
For more information about ESI International, visit us at
www.esi-intl.in or e-mail Info@esi-intl.in today.
IIBA is a registered trademark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. This trademark is used with the express permission of International
Institute of Business Analysis.
MyESI is a trademark owned by ESI International, Inc.
PMI is a service mark and trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc., and is registered in the United States and other nations.
In building our centre of excellence,
we have benefted from the
knowledge and experience brought
by ESI to the process. ESI has
listened and remains in-tune with
our strategic development goals.
Lisa T. Poole, PMP, Manager, Enterprise
Project Delivery Services (EPDS)