"I can now say that we have a PM community which has a greater level of capability as well as a strong sense of identity"
Prudential, with over £500bn under management on behalf of 24 million customers has significant ongoing change requirements. To meet their business goals, Prudential's IT Division needed to enhance the capability of their project managers, to support the increasing business pressure for consistent project delivery, at a faster pace. So they called in CITI.
The first step for our client was to understand the development needs of the project manager community. Using CITI's unique project manager profiling tool, we were able to assess their competence, attitude and behaviours, skills and experience. Using this data we were able to provide Prudential with their key development areas, focusing on:
- Stakeholder management
- Benefits management
- Quality management
- Risk management
We created bespoke, highly targeted, masterclasses to introduce practical techniques to the whole community, developing a consistent message. The project management community also delivered a number of initiatives through its own project management focus groups. These included an active mentoring programme, regular project management forums for encouraging networking and guest speakers.
The final step, which Prudential felt was critical to the IT project managers' sense of professionalism, was to gain accreditation. CITI provided the skills and resources needed to put all the project managers through APMP exams. The result was that 95% of the project managers passed the exams, compared with a national average of 73%. In addition to the value of the accreditation, projects are now delivered faster, at higher quality and at reduced risk.