From Chaos to Competency

You’d think Chris Morris would be frazzled. As senior manager in charge of IT project management for Agere Systems Inc., he has up to 2,000 projects in his portfolio. But while Morris is certainly busy, he seems relatively calm. It wasn't always the case.

A few years ago, major initiatives had stalled. Project plans were more historical record than future projection. And there was no ability to clearly see interdependencies among projects. "Everybody had Microsoft Project on their desktop and a Gantt chart on their wall," Morris says. "The problem was, we weren’t making project decisions based on what was affordable or good for the company."

The solution for Agere was straightforward: Start taking full advantage of the Primavera project management software that was already installed but underutilized; establish a dedicated program management office; and apply hard-won lessons and methodologies to every IT project in the portfolio.

As a result, IT can now better meet the needs of the business units – while operating under a drastically reduced budget. Project time frames and cost estimates are predictable and accurate. And the entire portfolio of IT …