Toowoomba Regional Council
Toowoomba Regional Council
Jeanmar has had a long-term relationship with the Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) commencing in 2015 when Jeanmar was successful in winning a request for tenders for the commissioning of a Council-wide Project Management Framework (PMF) to create consistency in the delivery of projects in Council.
The PMF addressed portfolio, program, and project management, including the establishment of a supporting Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO).
The PMF implementation commenced with the conduct of an organisational Project Management Maturity Review (PMMR) which reflected a maturity of 3.1.
The PMF rollout was achieved in accordance with the PMF Implementation Project – PMFIP developed by Jeanmar and approved by Council.
As a significant organisational change project, the long-term project success depended on:
executive and senior management commitment to evidence of consultation in the PMF design and development of consistent communications through the PMF lead-up and roll-out engagement of business and branch local champions, active listening to genuine issues and concerns throughout training and support to the PMF introduction practical commitment to continuous improvement of the PMF.
The PMF was delivered over a four-month period and included over 20 workshops with key stakeholders. It fulfilled Council’s requirement to establish a common Council-wide project management approach and provided appropriate assurance, efficiency, and commonality for the delivery of Council business, services, etc. through projects.
In 2016 Jeanmar assisted TRC in the adaptation of the PMF to meet the requirements of the Queensland Treasury Corporation’s Project Decision Framework.
In 2017 Jeanmar facilitated lessons-learned workshops for the Flood and Disaster Recovery projects undertaken by TRC and its key contractors.
In 2019 TRC asked Jeanmar to undertake an organisational Project Management Maturity Review (PMMR) of the effectiveness of the PMF.
This review demonstrated a diverse uptake of the PMF from strong compliance in some Council groups, to no application in others and an overall rating of PMMR 3.4. Of concern was that the Simple Project Tier had been removed from the original PMF which resulted in those that did not apply the PMF seeing it as inflexible and imposing a significant additional workload on a project manager.
As a direct result of the PMMR, Jeanmar has undertaken two long-term consultancies with TRC that commenced in 2020 and are ongoing.
The first consultancy involved a complete reset of Enterprise Project Management across the Council which included:
- refresh the PMF, - improve governance, including the harnessing of the capability of the Project Management Working Group (PMWG) - review the purpose, structure, and functionality of the EPMO- support the introduction of a three-year planning cycle for the capital works program improved prioritisation model.- align the performance of the overall governance and project delivery domains- implement a Council-wide benefits management framework
The second consultancy was to enhance project management competence across Council. This involved:
- develop and deliver a continuum of TRC-specific training, including Introduction to PM, Cert IV, Diploma, and Advanced Diploma coursesAIPM certification
In 12 months this consultancy has trained 221 project professionals and is attested as having transformed the management of projects across the Council.
