How Chesterfield County Public Schools uses Portfolio Manager to manage 3,400 projects

About Chesterfield County Public Schools

Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) oversees approximately 58,000 students enrolled at 63 schools in Virginia. Its Career and Technical Education system provides support to teachers who are preparing students for their careers.

Challenge

"Too much institutional knowledge is in the heads of our staff," said David Eshelman, Director of Career and Technical Education at CCPS. "Now more than ever there's an increased focus on the importance of college and career awareness."

Tracking projects is a challenge for any organization. The career and technical education system uses Portfolio Manager to maintain 218 division projects, including organizing, prioritizing, and estimating resources for over 3,400 tasks.

"In public education, there’s a need to wear many hats and manage many different initiatives," Eshelman added. "At Chesterfield County Public Schools, we need to manage a lot of data across a small team. In the past, we approached projects in a somewhat haphazard manner, using email, spreadsheets and ad hoc tools. The system we had in place was inefficient and prone to errors and problems."

With 216 courses in 11 different program areas and more than 200 teachers spanning 63 schools, that wasn’t good enough. They needed a system that could provide better visibility and oversight. They needed to pull analytical data and present it in a clear way, rather than having people view and update information manually.

Solution

CCPS needed a system that would support their requirements and collect knowledge and processes in one place. For instance, the district holds a professional development day every year. To make the event a success, the school reaches out to more than 40 businesses for input and participation.

"Previously, a lot of the information and expertise was in people’s heads rather than in a database. We needed to have a system for recording all the different activities in a systematic way," said Eshelman.

"Many of our events, like a professional development day that we use to open the school year, are repetitive. Other areas of focus include succession planning, budgeting, performance reports, curriculum development and idea generation. One of the key benefits of the cloud-based approach is the ability to access data from anywhere and through virtually any device. Staff members use everything from Apple iPads to Microsoft Surface devices, as well as laptops, Chromebooks and PCs to access the system."

Results

Using Portfolio Manager, staff members are able to classify tasks and assign them to activities or categories, such as high schools, middle schools, Governor Schools, and a career and technical center at two locations. This made it much easier to understand resource allocation for different groups and clients.

"I wish I knew how extremely easy it is to pull analytical data and understand how people are using the project management tools," Eshelman noted. "We’re able to adjust staffing and manage other resources more effectively. Overall our team uses Portfolio Manager to maintain 218 division projects, and organize, prioritize and accurately estimate resources for 3,400-plus tasks. And those numbers continue to grow."

"The mind is best used for processing information and generating ideas rather than simply remembering things. We are now able to keep everyone in sync, manage personal and professional growth, and take planning and project management to a new and better level."

"Portfolio Manager has reduced work-related stress and enhanced our sense of “Getting Things Done.”"