Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marvin Goldstein
+1 (703) 558-3043
Project Management Survey Lists Executive Sponsorship, Resources as Top Challenges Facing California State IT Leaders
(ARLINGTON, VA - April 2, 2002) -- ESI International, a leading provider of project management training and consulting, released findings of a survey conducted at the California Executive Leadership Forum. The state of California invited ESI to sponsor its 10th Executive Leadership Forum. This quarterly forum, produced by the Governor's Office for Innovation in Government and the Department of Information Technology, keeps hundreds of California government executives abreast of the latest tools and techniques in business improvement.
More than 300 respondents listed the top three challenges they face when implementing a project management culture within their organization. The respondents also shared project management best practices they considered important.
The results indicate that the top challenges facing executives are: acquiring the support or commitment of management, stakeholders or the team; capturing lessons learned; creating a positive culture; having a common project management methodology; finding adequate resources; promoting change management and receiving project management training.
Interestingly enough, the top responses for best practices closely matched the answers given for challenges. Top responses to this category included: executive support; lessons learned; methods and training for project management staff. Other top responses included: good communication; good planning or clear objectives; project charters; team dynamics and using a Work Breakdown Structure.
"We were proud to sponsor the Executive Leadership Forum on 'Project Management in the "Real World".' It's clear California understands the value of project management, and they recognize ESI as a proven leader in providing them with help for their project management improvement initiatives," says ESI President Larry Seeley. "The forum also gave us an excellent opportunity to discover some of the unique challenges that government executives face when trying to implement a project management office."
ESI International is listed on the California Multiple Awards Schedule (CMAS) Contract #3-00-70-1247A. Through this contract, California state and local government employees can choose on-site or public training from eight IT project management courses including: Software Project Management; Managing IT Projects; Software Testing and Managing Software Quality. ESI's Professional Development Program culminates in a Master's Certificate in IT Project Management awarded by The George Washington University.
Since its inception in 1999, the forum has emerged as an enormously popular way for IT executives and managers to network, share best practices and access information on the latest cutting-edge tools and techniques in a user-friendly format. "The impact of technology in government is changing almost daily, and we needed an innovative and flexible way to make sure thousands of people involved in information technology issues stay current with where the state and private industry are heading," said Russell Snyder, Project Manager, Governor's Office for Innovation in Government. "We also needed to communicate Governor Davis' goals of saving tax dollars and improving service for all Californians. The Executive Leadership Forums provide that kind of topical information in an easy-to-digest format that has proved to be enormously popular."
For more information on the Executive Leadership Forums, please visit the forum Web site, e-mail info@innovation.ca.gov or contact project manager Russell Snyder at (916) 445-1176.
About ESI International
ESI, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LSE:INF), helps people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. In addition to ESI’s more than 100 courses delivered in 18 languages at more than 75 locations worldwide, ESI offers eight certificate programs through our educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington. Founded in 1981, ESI’s worldwide headquarters are in Arlington, Va, USA. To date, ESI’s programs have benefited more than 950,000 professionals worldwide.
For more information visit www.esi-intl.com