Healthcare provider uses PMO assessment to prioritize improvements

Client background

​​The organization is a not-for-profit integrated healthcare network. With over 80,000 employees, they are one of the largest healthcare providers in the state of New York.​

The business challenge

The healthcare network was struggling with a high volume of resource needs and surges in need for additional staffing as they were being asked to support more projects than they were currently staffed to handle. In their current state, no gating existed to determine whether a project should be started and staffed, with the portfolio team struggling to manage frequent changes in project volume. Success measures and KPIs were used inconsistently, making it difficult to know if portfolio projects were delivering their intended value or needed to be reworked or even stopped.

As a result, the company was seeking assistance in defining and implementing an effective project portfolio governance process for their HR function. The goal was to define a repeatable enterprise level mechanism that allows for visibility, feedback and discussion, flexibility and ultimately a scalable governance model for all their HR initiatives.

Strategy and solution

The Baker Tilly team worked with the healthcare network’s project management office (PMO) leadership to understand their current portfolio governance processes, particularly in respect to their project/request intake, capacity planning/management and prioritization guidelines. The processes were then mapped against Baker Tilly’s xMO capability maturity model. By considering current state process, tools and resourcing, the team was then able to provide the organization with a maturity score, ranging from “Initial” to “Defined” and “Optimized” across seven core portfolio capabilities.

As a result, the organization was then able to use the model findings to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities within their existing portfolio governance function.