Background
In the wake of the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis, a government-sponsored enterprise providing mortgage capital to lenders faced a dual challenge: restoring public trust and modernizing its internal operations. With a 200-person IT department managing dozens of concurrent initiatives, the organization lacked a unified system to track project progress, manage vendor accountability, and support executive decision-making. The absence of a centralized project management system left leadership in the dark, with inconsistent reporting and no clear view of project health across the enterprise.
At a Glance
What Mattered Most
Drive integration and adoption of new PMIS and delivery framework to support large scale multi-year modernization and compliance programs
What We Noticed
Project managers had strong domain and cooridnation skills but lacked proficiency in MS Project—despite leading high-visibility strategic initiatives. Traditional training didn’t meet the moment. Instead, targeted coaching, live demos, and deskside support accelerated tool adoption, enabling better scheduling, reporting, and executive visibility across programs.
Key Metrics
onboarding time
supprted
Challenge
Despite launching a new Systems Delivery framework, the company struggled to coordinate across teams, manage resources, and prioritize initiatives. Project status meetings were disjointed, with no consistent data to guide decisions. A centralized Project Management Information System (PMIS) was introduced but faced resistance from PM staff who were used to operating from different playbooks.
Solution
RW King partnered with the IT PMO Team to increase organization adoption of its new PMIS:
- Interviewed Executive Management and leaders of critical programs to understand needs
- Worked with Internal IT to identify user challenges and “shore-up” tool support activities
- Established processes to identify and harvest unused licenses
- Developed strategy to assist/support programs/projects based on priority and criticality
- Worked with internal PMO champion to develop communications, presentations, and support efforts
- Delivered training on scheduling, resourcing, and tool usage
- Mentored project analysts supporting large-scale programs
- Customized tool to meet unique needs of specific programs
- Created an executive dashboard to provide real-time visibility into project status and risks
- Aligned training curriculum with new IT PM Methodology and governance framework
- Integrated training into the organization learning environment
- Transitioned Tier 1 & 2 support, and triage tools to the IT Helpdesk
Outcome
The organization began leveraging a single source of truth, enabling faster decisions, and stronger accountability across IT:
- Accelerated onboarding and training, reducing ramp-up time for new PMs
- Enhanced strategic oversight through unified, real-time project visibility
- Data-driven planning with standardized reporting across the IT portfolio
- Improved accountability and transparency with automated dashboards and vendor tracking
- Organizations gained capacity to provide tool end-user support
- Positioned IT to leverage consultant pool that were comfortable with the tool
Conclusion
By combining training, mentoring, coaching, and technology enablement, the PMO empowered program and project managers to plan and manage more effectively—laying the groundwork for long-term delivery excellence
