The Art and Science of Getting Things Done: Project Management in
the OPS

by Diana Jonas

For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars.
– William Blake

Project managers who regularly crunch task variances [(P-O)/6]2 or make Earned Value analyses may not have read Blake, but they know intuitively that project management methodology is a sophisticated blend of art and science – minutely organized particulars.

According to the recent report of Ontario’s Special Task Force Review of the Management of Large-Scale I&IT Projects, the Ontario Public Service (OPS) should make project management a core competency.

Since projects are the key drivers of transformational change, building project management capacity and skills across the OPS is critical to achieving results and the government’s priorities.

Project Management Centre of Excellence
The creation of the Project Management Centre of Excellence in the newly created Modernization Division of the Ministry of Government Services, headed by ADM Angela Coke, is a significant milestone for the OPS. Led by director Nick Stea, the centre is focused on both the art – people and processes – and the science – tools and technology – of project management.

To increase the project management maturity level in the OPS, the centre and its partners created the OPS Integrated Project Management Framework and Methodology (IPMFM). This tool steers projects away from entering the project management ‘Twilight Zone’ – an unreal world that exists between the actual time and resources available for projects and the unrealistic demands of sponsors.

The Centre's tools and training are tailored to the needs of the OPS. “We were one of the first public sector organizations in Canada to negotiate with the Project Management Institute (PMI) so that the entire process could be closely aligned with industry standards reflected in PMI’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge,” said manager Daniel Martyniuk, PMP.

The Centre hosted a Project Management Professional (PMP) exam orientation session as part of its community of practice meetings. Educating staff about qualifying to write and then studying for this four-hour exam through the Project Management Institute (PMI) is one way to foster the acquisition of project management skills.

A new Project Management Internship stream was recently developed as part of the Ontario Internship Program. “The project management internship will be a paid, two-year employment offering career development in the project management field,” said Morag McLean, ADM of the Centre for Leadership and Learning. “This program will attract, develop and retain qualified new professionals. This initiative clearly supports the OPS’ continued recognition that having the 'right people at the right place at the right time' is key."

An estimated 10% of OPS staff and 30% of senior managers are engaged in projects at any one time. The scope of the province’s projects run the gamut of essential services, from keeping people alive and safe (integrating public health records for reportable and communicable diseases, such as SARS) to keeping people, vehicles and merchandise safely moving into and around Ontario (licensing and registering provincial and international drivers and vehicles, including trucks and buses).

In such a complex environment, the ministry champions of project management located across Ontario are the real drivers of change and enablers of organizational capacity building.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation
Ontario’s economy is very dependent on the efficient and safe movement of people and goods on its highways. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) Road User Safety Division and its technology partner handle more than 100 projects annually of varying scope and complexity.

Working in strong partnership with the Project Management Centre of Excellence, the Road User Safety (RUS) Division Project Management Office established a service model with a primary focus on learning and development, coaching and mentoring, and strategic project performance reporting to support executive decision making. They also developed a Project Executive Reporting and Tracking System using an award-winning access database.

“We improved the ministry’s ability to group and align project investment decisions with corporate objectives,” said Janice Orlando-Sottile, manager of the RUS PMO.

The Road User Safety Application Solutions Branch (RUSAS) spends $43 to $70 million annually on IT projects. The Program/Project Management office for RUSAS at MTO has implemented an Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution that has been integrated with the branch’s web-based knowledge management portal.

“Senior management can see what deliverables are on track and where the schedule is at. What is really exceptional is that we have integrated the budget and expenditures from a different access database,” said Bari McFarland, manager of the PMO for RUSAS.

“Simply offering project management tools and templates by themselves is only part of the solution,” Frank D’Onofrio, ADM of RUS division, explained. “Continuously nurturing a culture of project management excellence from project sponsor to project team members and everyone in between is a critical piece of achieving project objectives – on time, within budget and scope, using a common and consistent approach across the enterprise.”

“Overall, we believe that moving the project management culture forward through small successes and learning from past experiences goes a long way to making project management meaningful to everyone in the RUS division, ministry and cluster,” said David Nicholl, chief information officer of the Transportation Cluster.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
In Ontario, the health budget currently represents 46% of the government’s total program spending. Given that health care expenditures are going up at about 8% annually, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) is keenly interested in maximizing the value it gets for health care dollars in order to fulfil the transformation of the health care system.

To that end, MOHLTC is considering the implementation of a portfolio management approach to support resource allocation decisions. The approach will link funding decisions to strategic goals for the health system by drawing on innovative strategic management tools. “The idea is that each portfolio will have clearly articulated strategies and a scorecard to monitor and manage progress,” explains Adalsteinn Brown, ADM, Health System Strategy for MOHLTC.

“The strategy map identifies key strategic goals for the health system and provides the big picture framework for evaluating health system performance by way of a scorecard. This system scorecard is a tool for monitoring and reporting on the state of the provincial health care system.”

MOHLTC currently uses a portfolio management approach to guide some of its IT investment decisions.

Chris Renaud is the chief information officer for the Health Services I&IT Cluster. He says that, “project management, reporting and portfolio management can help us support the implementation and delivery of on-time and on-budget IT projects that meet business objectives.”

“When faced with two projects that are good, we will be able to drill down and determine that maybe one could potentially detract from another great project that might be a higher priority for the ministry and may be already underway. This kind of qualitative and quantitative analysis can result if you use consistent standards and mature project management methodologies such as risk/value matrices,” explains Peter Chow, PMP, the Project Management Office's manager.

The Project Management Centre of Excellence will continue to support project management capacity building across the OPS, and with its partners remain focused on the art and science of getting things done – the right things done right, the first time around.


Diana Jonas, PMP, is the director of Canadian operations for the Project Management Institute Government Specific Interest Group (PMI Gov-SIG). She works for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. Visit www.PMI-GovSIG.org or email CanadianOper@pmi.govsig.org.