James Franklin Consulting, LLC
What We Do
James Franklin Consulting (or “JFC” for short) is a veteran owned and operated project management consulting firm that exists to help clients plan and manage their most important projects and change initiatives. Our most requested services include Tactical & Operational Project Planning, Integrated Project Scheduling, Project Rescue, and full-suite Project & Program Management.
Tactical & Operational Project Planning
Many common project challenges result from inadequate planning. Planning is the most critical phase of every project... and yes, this holds true for Agile projects, too.
Critical steps during planning include:
Building your team and assigning roles
Formally approving your governance structure
Establishing your communications cadence
Building your stakeholder engagement plan
Baselining your formal scope, schedule, and budget management plans
Proper planning improves your ability to stay on track - we help you get it right, so you don't spend your entire project playing catch up
Integrated Project Scheduling
If you cannot answer each of these questions, your project may be in serious trouble:
How many days (yes, days) ahead or behind schedule are you?
Which activities are on your critical path?
When will you need to bring on your next group of resources?
What are the key inputs you need from other teams?
A good project schedule can answer every one of those questions. This living, breathing document will require constant attention, and it is the most important tool you have to keep your project on track. We can help you build a project schedule that will get you over the finish line.
Project Rescue
Projects rarely go as planned. Despite well-intentioned people and incredibly hard work, risks and issues pile up. Clinging to a failing plan is expensive, time consuming and loses the trust of your leadership.
Here's how we help clients regain control:
Supplement your team with one or more expert project managers
Restructure communications and streamline status reporting
Build catch-up plan to get you back on track
Negotiate scope changes
Coach team leads to be improve their performance
Full-Suite Project & Portfolio Management
The Project Management Office (PMO) is the "all of the above" option for full-suite project & portfolio management. In order to ensure success for your most important projects, we can install a team to provide end-to-end support, from initiation to closure. A JFC Project Management Office will embed in your organization in order to:
Create and oversee standard processes and document management
Standardize communications to ensure common understanding of your projects
Create and manage project status updates at a common level of understanding
Support your internal resources and coach them to be outstanding project managers
Expertly manage the scope, schedule and budget for your enterprise implementations and project portfolios