PLA introduces comprehensive 'Principled Project Leadership' offering to help companies improve project and program execution and to design and optimize enterprise Project Management Offices (PMO)

Online, August 26, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Chicago - Project Leadership Associates, Inc. (PLA), addresses the growing need to find, train and develop high caliber project managers with a comprehensive solution called Principled Project Leadership (PPL). This uniquely branded approach provides a wide range of support and consultative services for any type of internal corporate Project Management Office (PMO).

Leading the development and delivery of PPL is Mark E. Calabrese, PMP, Managing Consultant in the Business Strategy Execution Practice Group with PLA. Mark recently joined PLA and has more than 20 years of experience in roles building and aligning organizations to achieve operational excellence, world-class customer service and maximum benefit from their IT investment.

Mark served in several executive management capacities with Aon Corporation to lead departments of project managers, IT Directors and application teams. He also has implemented PMOs and project management best practices to enhance the strategic value of project management to the delivery organization.

The PPL concept is highly flexible so PLA can work with clients to build, strengthen or maintain a company's PMO. In many cases, PLA provides highly qualified and experienced project leaders who take direct responsibility for the successful execution of a client's project. The project leaders become embedded in the client's organization for the duration of the project and function seamlessly with internal staff and outside resources.

Other services provided by PLA include leadership training that might include half-day workshops on many possible topics, such as "Effective Project Communication" and "Collaborative Project Planning." PLA also offers less structured training for post-project evaluation sessions and ongoing mentoring.

While new technologies and sophisticated processes have become essential in today's high-speed business environment, Mark points out that some old-school practices remain as important as ever. "That's why the successful completion of any major project is less reliant on project management software or extensive allocation of resources," Mark says. "Instead, it most often hinges on perhaps the most basic concept learned in business school - the experience, skill set, dedication and decision-making abilities of the individual project manager."

The PPL approach from PLA focuses on the five key areas in which projects tend to fail: communication, accountability, planning, relationships, and advising and partnering. "Through my experience, I've found that almost every problem falls into one of those five buckets in one way or another - and most often into the first three," adds Mark.

The project manager remains the linchpin to the success of any project, he emphasizes. That person needs the kind of people skills and core values that often are overlooked when corporations emphasize systems and methodologies. Project managers cannot expect to execute sophisticated projects simply by checking off items on a software generated list.

According to Mark, "all of that's fine as long as a project doesn't run into problems, but that's not the real world. Anytime a project has been derailed, no one's ever said to me, 'If only we'd broken tasks down one more level of granularity, my project would've come through.' Or, 'If only I'd just used another template or another form.' The fact is that when you manage a project, it's almost always by influence and not by a piece of paper."

Mark will be a featured speaker at CAMP IT's "Project and Portfolio Management" Conference on September 30, 2010, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. Conference information is available through the CAMP IT Website.

For more information on Project Leadership Associates (PLA) and its PPL solutions for comprehensive project management, please visit www.projectleadership.net or contact Mark Calabrese at (312) 258-5349 or email [email protected].

About Project Leadership Associates, Inc.
PLA is a business and technology consulting firm that empowers small, middle market and enterprise organizations with services across four core solution groups: 1) Strategy & Execution; 2) Business Operations; 3) Applications; and 4) Infrastructure. PLA has been consistently ranked among Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America, Crain's Chicago Business's Fast 50 and Everything Channel's CRN Fast Growth 100 List as an annual recognition of growth, performance, and maintaining profitability since its founding in 1998. In 2010, PLA earned Microsoft Corporation's Central Region FY10 Small Business Excellence Partner Award. With headquarters in Chicago and branch offices in Houston and Dallas, PLA is uniquely poised to offer a broad array of solutions that work collaboratively with clients to help them realize substantial results.