EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ABSTRACT)
El Salvador is a country of light and darkness. The Democracy Transparency Justice Foundation (DTJ Foundation) tries to shed light on opportunities and unveil the negative aspects that need addressing. The DTJ Foundation is a Salvadoran non-profit organization, in which people with different perspectives participate, coinciding in the values of democracy, transparency and justice. It was founded in 2011 as a joint effort between the Salvadoran members of the Central American Leadership Initiative (CALI) to promote a better society in El Salvador. Due to the different backgrounds, professions and political views of its founding members, they considered that DTJ could serve as a platform to dialogue in a respectful manner but at the same time, in very open and passionate discussions in order to promote good public policies. Its founders saw the need to work with different approaches and be creative in the way DTJ Foundation interacts with youth and vulnerable groups through workshops to make them more knowledgeable, alert and attentive to what was going on in the political agenda. In order to achieve this goal, alliances were established with universities, community leaders, and political activists throughout the country. Most of these activities and initiatives have been developed through different projects with external funding.
DTJ Foundation has three (3) main areas of work: Democratic institutions, transparency and justice. Based on these subjects, the organization focuses its work on two (2) major actions: generating public policy proposals with the purpose of strengthening public institutions and promoting citizen participation and empowerment through informative and participatory workshops on subjects related to the right to access public information, transparency, accountability, freedom of expression, effective leadership and activism. In this sense, past and current projects have been majorly focused on citizen empowerment, working mostly with youth, journalists and vulnerable groups.
Although a great effort has been done to ensure an effective project execution, DTJ Foundation currently does not have a Project Management Office (PMO) to ensure an effective execution of the projects it manages. Due to a low budget, DTJ Foundation has only been able to afford junior unexperienced Project Coordinators to manage specific projects. Being a small NGO in El Salvador, around 30% of its annual budget comes from project grants, mainly from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international cooperation agencies. These sponsors are demanding excellence from their grantees and in order to fulfill their requirements, grantees, such as DTJ Foundation, finds itself constantly struggling to complete the mandatory documentation and reports, as well as the project activities due to the lack of a proper PMO, with experienced professionals, that focuses on the maximization and optimization of all projects’ results.
With the establishment of a PMO, DTJ Foundation will be better prepared to excel at project execution by optimizing and maximizing the results of any project. Additionally, strengthening its organizational development, would open up a new sea of project opportunities and would make the Foundation more attractive to other donors or cooperation agencies.
The Final Graduation Project general objective was to develop a Project Management Office proposal for DTJ Foundation to maximize and optimize the results of the projects executed by the NGO. The specific objectives were: to assess the maturity level of DTJ Foundation, in order to determine the project management weaknesses, strengths, improvement areas and needs, to analyze the different PMO types in order to recommend the most suitable for DTJ Foundation, to propose the roles and responsibilities to be assigned to the PMO in order to evaluate its efficiency, to determine the appropriate location of the proposed PMO within the existing management structure of DTJ Foundation, in order to prioritize its functions on the management structure, and to propose a PMO implementation plan for DTJ Foundation including the sequence of main steps required to fulfill it, in order to measure its performance and improve it.
For conducting this research, the analytical research method was used, which helped in the process of examining and analyzing the information from various sources that were used. In this sense, tools such as interviews, meetings, expert judgement and online research were the basis for the conducted analysis. Furthermore, a key research tool was the Lean Six Sigma maturity assessment in order to identify the maturity level of DTJ Foundation.
Conclusion to the main objective of this research was that, a PMO was necessary and indeed should be developed to maximize DTJ Foundation’s project management capabilities. The maturity assessment results concluded that DTJ has a maturity level of two (2) on a scale from one (1) to five (5). The organization’s most evident weaknesses were identified in the parameters related to the standardization of work and Value Stream Mapping (VSM). On the other hand, a strong leadership was considered to be one of its most relevant attributes and strengths. Upon the analysis of the three (3) basic types of PMOs structures, it was determined that a supportive PMO was most suitable. It was further concluded that its main initial responsibilities will be related to developing project templates; identifying and developing project management methodology and standards; and providing updated best practices and training. One important result, was the decision to restructure some of the current job positions in order to diminish work overload and promote a most effective project execution by dividing the project management duties from other non-related responsibilities such as providing legal advice.
It was recommended to conduct a yearly organizational maturity assessment, plus evaluating and reviewing the work and results of the proposed PMO structure in order to do any necessary adjustments to ensure its effectiveness. Additionally, the job descriptions of the new proposed positions must be developed. Finally, it was strongly recommended that the support and leadership of the Board of Directors must be consistent, focusing on assuring the financial sustainability of this project.
DTJ Foundation has three (3) main areas of work: Democratic institutions, transparency and justice. Based on these subjects, the organization focuses its work on two (2) major actions: generating public policy proposals with the purpose of strengthening public institutions and promoting citizen participation and empowerment through informative and participatory workshops on subjects related to the right to access public information, transparency, accountability, freedom of expression, effective leadership and activism. In this sense, past and current projects have been majorly focused on citizen empowerment, working mostly with youth, journalists and vulnerable groups.
Although a great effort has been done to ensure an effective project execution, DTJ Foundation currently does not have a Project Management Office (PMO) to ensure an effective execution of the projects it manages. Due to a low budget, DTJ Foundation has only been able to afford junior unexperienced Project Coordinators to manage specific projects. Being a small NGO in El Salvador, around 30% of its annual budget comes from project grants, mainly from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international cooperation agencies. These sponsors are demanding excellence from their grantees and in order to fulfill their requirements, grantees, such as DTJ Foundation, finds itself constantly struggling to complete the mandatory documentation and reports, as well as the project activities due to the lack of a proper PMO, with experienced professionals, that focuses on the maximization and optimization of all projects’ results.
With the establishment of a PMO, DTJ Foundation will be better prepared to excel at project execution by optimizing and maximizing the results of any project. Additionally, strengthening its organizational development, would open up a new sea of project opportunities and would make the Foundation more attractive to other donors or cooperation agencies.
The Final Graduation Project general objective was to develop a Project Management Office proposal for DTJ Foundation to maximize and optimize the results of the projects executed by the NGO. The specific objectives were: to assess the maturity level of DTJ Foundation, in order to determine the project management weaknesses, strengths, improvement areas and needs, to analyze the different PMO types in order to recommend the most suitable for DTJ Foundation, to propose the roles and responsibilities to be assigned to the PMO in order to evaluate its efficiency, to determine the appropriate location of the proposed PMO within the existing management structure of DTJ Foundation, in order to prioritize its functions on the management structure, and to propose a PMO implementation plan for DTJ Foundation including the sequence of main steps required to fulfill it, in order to measure its performance and improve it.
For conducting this research, the analytical research method was used, which helped in the process of examining and analyzing the information from various sources that were used. In this sense, tools such as interviews, meetings, expert judgement and online research were the basis for the conducted analysis. Furthermore, a key research tool was the Lean Six Sigma maturity assessment in order to identify the maturity level of DTJ Foundation.
Conclusion to the main objective of this research was that, a PMO was necessary and indeed should be developed to maximize DTJ Foundation’s project management capabilities. The maturity assessment results concluded that DTJ has a maturity level of two (2) on a scale from one (1) to five (5). The organization’s most evident weaknesses were identified in the parameters related to the standardization of work and Value Stream Mapping (VSM). On the other hand, a strong leadership was considered to be one of its most relevant attributes and strengths. Upon the analysis of the three (3) basic types of PMOs structures, it was determined that a supportive PMO was most suitable. It was further concluded that its main initial responsibilities will be related to developing project templates; identifying and developing project management methodology and standards; and providing updated best practices and training. One important result, was the decision to restructure some of the current job positions in order to diminish work overload and promote a most effective project execution by dividing the project management duties from other non-related responsibilities such as providing legal advice.
It was recommended to conduct a yearly organizational maturity assessment, plus evaluating and reviewing the work and results of the proposed PMO structure in order to do any necessary adjustments to ensure its effectiveness. Additionally, the job descriptions of the new proposed positions must be developed. Finally, it was strongly recommended that the support and leadership of the Board of Directors must be consistent, focusing on assuring the financial sustainability of this project.
Descargar aquí
http://www.uci.ac.cr/Biblioteca/Tesis/PFGMAP1814.pdf
http://www.uci.ac.cr/Biblioteca/Tesis/PFGMAP1814.pdf
