Why do projects fail? Lack of executive sponsorship? Lack of funding? Poor planning or project governance? Lack of buy-in at all levels? The reasons go on and on – but the Centre of Excellence approach doesn’t touch on this. We prefer to ask, “Why do projects succeed? How do ideas become action and how do concepts come to fruition?”

BLTC Group’s Centre of Excellence approach (COE) puts into place an effective framework on which to guide a project from germination to harvest. We plan on success rather than avoiding failure.

A Centre of Excellence is a team of people who work together, using best practices, in a specific focus area, in order to achieve business results. Our COE process encompasses our ideal of delivering service and value to clients by:

• Facilitating the implementation of a sound Project Governance Structure.
• Using personnel, tools, and best practices based on experience to meet the needs of the client situation.
• Helping clients develop governance competencies, such as change and process management and business leadership.
• Incorporating technology, but emphasizing leadership over tools.
• Empowering business units with decision-making authority and project/program ownership.
• Communicating actively, accurately, and in a timely manner.
• Holding team members accountable for their project responsibilities.
• Creating project teams that perform optimally on a project-by-project basis to ensure the right people are put in the right place.
• Allowing executives to articulate project scope, objectives, etc., to key decision-makers.
• Engaging stakeholders and enabling greater transparency.

The Centre of Excellence approach presents a departure for the traditional project management/governance models: we are much more concerned with results, with achieving objectives and goals, than we are with maintaining a rigid, inflexible, ineffective structure.