1. How a Hospital Improved
Project Management to Make a
Difference in the Lives of
Children
The CIO of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
wanted to more effectively manage the Hospital’s substantial
investments in information technology and services, specifically
what work was getting done and by whom. To manage resources
effectively and plan for the future, the CHOP Information
Services (IS) department:
 Implemented a project/portfolio management solution based
on Microsoft Project Server and UMT Project Essentials
 Revised processes and governance to move to a culture of
compliance
 Provided better, more reliable data to improve productivity
and demonstrate value
SITUATION
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is the oldest hospital in the United
States dedicated exclusively to pediatrics. In 2013, for the third year in a row, it
earned the top spot on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of the nation’s
best children’s hospitals. Its nearly 1.2 million annual patient visits generate $2
billion in revenues; the Hospital employs more than 10,000 people. CHOP’s efforts
to provide the best possible patient care include making large investments in
information services and technology.
The Hospital’s mission drives the passion and job satisfaction of its IS employees.
“If you ask anyone around here, they’ll say it’s all about taking care of our sickest
patients,” says Dr. Bryan Wolf, CHOP CIO. Indeed, CHOP has received awards for
its investment in electronic health records, clinical and business systems, analytic
platforms, data centers, and information security. These commitments involve
almost 200 IS projects, including several complex multi-year implementations.
To do all this work efficiently, in 2008 CHOP’s IS Department established a central
Project Management Office (PMO) to collectively manage a number of enterprise
clinical and business projects as well as all IS-sponsored projects. Wolf wanted to
be better positioned to explain to fellow executives whether IS could deliver a
proposed project, or how a current one was doing against its budget. “As our IS
governance committee considered funding decisions, we’d have a list of projects
with estimated hours,” Wolf says. “So a given project might be 10,000 hours—but
plus-or-minus 100 percent. Our data lacked precision, which meant we lacked
confidence.”
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ORGANIZATION PROFILE
Since its start in 1855 as the nation's
first hospital devoted exclusively to
caring for children, The Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia has been the
birthplace for many dramatic firsts in
pediatric medicine. The Hospital has
fostered medical discoveries and
innovations that have improved
pediatric healthcare and saved
countless children’s lives. Over 150
years of innovation and service to our
patients, their families and our
community, reflect an ongoing
commitment to exceptional patient
care.
INDUSTRY
Health Care
COUNTRY / REGION C
Philadelphia, PA
SOFTWARE USED:
 UMT Project Essentials
 Microsoft Project Server

2. The problem was visibility. “We didn’t know what was being done, or by whom,”
says Kevin Killian, PMO Health Systems Director at CHOP. “We had some
oversight, but we didn’t have strong enough methodologies or governance. And
with insufficient understanding of current projects, we didn’t know how much
more we could take on in the future.”
An early initiative of the centralized IS PMO was to install Microsoft Project Server
software. But the software proved complicated to use, especially because it was
dependent on sound processes to create good data. “We soon realized we needed
a partner who understood Project Server and could help us build our capabilities,”
Killian says.
SOLUTION
In 2010 CHOP brought in UMT for the first of what turned out to be three major
engagements. The goal was to upgrade to the 2010 version of Project Server
software, and to develop a roadmap to get the most out of it. “I see five layers to
any solution,” says Tom Malfi, partner at UMT. “The technology is informed by the
data, which comes out of sound processes, which is shaped by good behaviors,
which is enforced by governance.” As CHOP worked with Malfi to develop its
roadmap, it focused on each of these layers to provide the solution.
One of the key steps was effectively tracking everyone’s time. So Wolf tied salary
reviews of all IS employees and contractors to compliance with time entry.
“Having the support of Bryan and the senior leadership was so important to our
success,” says Stephen Schmidt, IS PMO Manager at CHOP. “We needed
everybody to be compliant, and his commitment helped to influence and change
the culture to align with sound project and portfolio management (PPM)
practices.”
Wolf also acted as a change agent by using Project Server to make decisions—and
showing his staff that he was doing so. “When the CIO is using the tool and the
data to determine, for example, the business case for new headcount, it
strengthens and improves commitment to PPM practices and enforces the correct
behavior,” Schmidt says.
The second UMT engagement involved reporting—getting data out of Project
Server and into CHOP’s analytics tools. “CHOP IS did a remarkable job of
absorption,” says Malfi. “With each engagement, they made sure that new
processes and cultures were fully institutionalized and sustainable. Then they
would move the organization to the next set of capabilities.”
In the third engagement, which is currently ongoing, CHOP is installing the UMT
Project Essentials application to provide a better line of sight to financial data and
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The UMT Project
Essentials application
builds on Microsoft
Project Server to
provide financial
management tools for
capital-intensive
enterprises such as
healthcare
organizations.
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Exhibit 1— Resource Capacity Time Tracking Dashboard

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improve budget forecasting. “Our project portfolio is changing, and we need
forecasting to understand those changes at a granular level,” says Schmidt.
“Project Essentials is the best tool on the market for this sort of work. In
implementing the tool, UMT offers great expertise in project portfolio
management, as well as familiarity with our system, which accelerates
implementation.”
BENEFITS
With its PMO initiative in conjunction with UMT, CHOP IS now has useful data and
an understanding of its project portfolio components. It can better manage
resources, improve productivity, do more work, and demonstrate the value it
brings to the organization’s mission of healing sick children.
1. Quality data
“To me the top benefit is that we now have the ability to consume and act on
data,” says Wolf. He now goes into executive meetings with much more precise
information: plus-or-minus 10 percent, say, rather than 100 percent. He also has
more confidence in those numbers. And he can get them when he needs them. “I
get data in time to make better decisions for the coming year,” Wolf says.
2. Understanding of project portfolio
The data provides the IS PMO at CHOP with a better understanding of the many
projects in its portfolio. “We now have the ability to execute on our plans and
track our progress,” Schmidt says. “And we can identify a potential problem
before it occurs.”
These benefits also extend into portfolio selection. “By May we know our capacity
level for the fiscal year that starts in July,” says Killian. “So if we’re being asked to
start 95 projects in July, we can get an early start at resetting the project sponsors’
expectations. We have the information that we need to be proactive and avoid
the risk of not delivering on what we promise. This improves the perception of the
IS department across the organization.”
3. Improved resource management
The PMO uses this understanding of its projects to manage people more
effectively. “We capture all work, operational efforts, and project assignments in
Project Server. Utilizing analytics we have visibility into total demand for all
resources for the complete portfolio. This on-demand information allows
managers to make informed decisions about resource allocation,” Schmidt says.
“Our project portfolio
is changing, and we
need forecasting to
understand those
changes at a granular
level,” says Schmidt.
“Project Essentials is
the best tool on the
market for this sort of
work. In implementing
the tool, UMT offers
great expertise in
project portfolio
management, as well
as familiarity with our
system, which
accelerates
implementation.”
Exhibit 2—Planned Work and Capacity by Time Dashboard

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The information above is being provided by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia without consideration and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia does not make any
representations or warranties in regards to either UMT or its initiatives. The experiences of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have been identified as being
specific to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and there is no assurance that other company’s would experience similar results or achieve comparable benefits;
and the actual results may differ materially from those identified by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and UMT above.
ABOUT UMT CONSULTING
UMT is a recognized provider of
Project Portfolio & Integrated
Portfolio Management solutions and
management consulting best
practices. For over two decades UMT
has helped Global 2000 companies
gain transparency across their
business and technology asset
portfolios, rationalize costs,
collaborate to make smarter
investment decisions and improve
project success rates to maximize
ROI.
UMT is Microsoft's Worldwide PPM
Partner of the Year 2013 and has
been twice named a Gartner Cool
Vendor in PPM and is positioned as a
Visionary in Gartner's Integrated IT
Portfolio Analysis Magic Quadrant.
UMT has offices in New York,
Bellevue, Boston, Chicago, Dallas,
Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, Reston, the United
Kingdom, and Romania.
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Previously, managers did not have clear insight into which staff members were
over-allocated and which were underutilized. Now, Project Server data provides
the necessary visibility to enable IS managers to utilize resources more effectively
to meet demand.
Good decisions result not just from the Project Server software implementation,
but also from the IS organization’s maturing capabilities and governance. “It’s still
a work in progress, we improve every year,” says Schmidt. “But we’re very
fortunate that we did the right things in the beginning, and that we had UMT’s
guidance on what to do and how best to do it. Today we benefit from good data,
aligned practices, and data quality governance: a great foundation.”
4. Improved productivity
Everyone involved in the initiative speaks of how much more work they can do. “I
have not explored the data to demonstrate it, but I would say we can do twice as
many projects now as we could five years ago,” Wolf says. By fully utilizing its staff,
IS gets more done with roughly the same amount of money.
The department expects the data to not only improve performance, but also help
document those improvements. “We have never had a measure of the value IS
brings to the organization,” Wolf says. But the accumulating data is getting the
PMO to the point where it can show the cost and value of a project, and allocate
those costs back to service units. Indeed, in a recent hospital-wide labor
productivity initiative, IS had the most accurate labor utilization data of any
department. “Having the PMO and Project Server was step number 1,” Wolf says.
“This work was absolutely essential to do, and it would have taken us far longer to
do it without UMT’s expertise and guidance.”
Exhibit 3—Dashboards Supporting PMO Decision Making