April 23, 2008
7th Annual Spring Symposium

Chander M Malhotra

To help the program and project managers understand the challenges of managing teams spread across several counntries. This presentation describes the results of a consulting assignment to determine the project delivery capabilities of globaly diverse teams of a major manufacturing company.

Chander M Malhotra works in the Enterprise Portfolio Services group at Ford Motor Company. He is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) and Certified 6-Sigma Black Belt. His objective is to help Ford IT transform into a world-class IT organization through best-in-class practices, processes and tools. Previously he was a Managing Consultant with James Martin & Co., focusing on management & information technology consulting. Prior to that, he was a Senior Consultant with EDS Management Consulting Services and A.T. Kearney.

Chander has several years of experience in information technology and management, and has an MBA degree from Michigan State University. He is experienced in IT consulting, project management, process improvement, business and technology alignment, and the execution of technology initiatives. Chander has worked with senior executives from several companies around the world.

1. Project issues discovered through personal interviews of 35 project stakeholders in Australia, Thailand and India:
   
   a. Skills, knowledge & experience
   
   b. Process discipline
   
   c. Communication and relationship management
   
   d. User involvement & executive suoport
   
   e. Clarity of business requirements
   
   f. Standard processes & infrastructure
   
   g. Effective governance
   
   h. Effective organization structure
   
   
2. Comparison with industry success factors
   
   
3. Determination of causal relationships & high leverage interventions

This 2 month study concluded that for the geographically and culturally diverse teams to successfully deliver project results the following are the key success factors: (a) Project Management Skills, (b) Effective standards & processes, (c) Customer involvement & ownership, and (d) Clear roles & responsibilities.