CASE STUDY
THE 134-YEAR-OLD CHURCHILL DOWNS
racetrack is world-famous for its annual Kentucky
Derby, a thoroughbred horse race dubbed “the most
exciting two minutes in sports.”
Throughout its storied history, the track and its four
other racing facilities have handled projects in the same
grand old tradition. Deals were sealed with a handshake
and a promise—without much oversight or benchmarking
of project results.
As a result, project success was far from a sure bet.
To improve its odds, Churchill Downs Inc. brought in
Chuck Millhollan, PMP, PgMP, in 2007 to serve as
director of a new project management office (PMO) for
the IT department.
“Before the PMO, most projects were managed
through Excel spreadsheets,” says Ray Pait, senior
program manager at Churchill Downs. “The downside
was that each project was a specialized effort. There
was no leverage of information or learning across the
organization.”
AND THEY’RE OFF
Mr. Millhollan’s goal was to develop a lean but comprehensive
process for managing the approval, prioritization,
oversight and measurement of results for major IT
department projects.
It seemed simple enough, but Mr. Millhollan knew he
couldn’t just rush in.
“Churchill Downs is a smaller organization with a
unique culture, and I wanted to be sure not to overwhelm
people with added processes and administration,”
he says. “So I approached it by implementing the minimal
amount of process necessary. I knew that later on we’d
look for opportunities to enhance it.”
To ease project managers into the new format, Mr.
Millhollan and Mr. Pait devised the Project Race Track,
a life cycle diagram superimposed onto a racetrack
image with accompanying metaphors to explain the
entire project process.
A CLOSER LOOK: CHURCHILL
This project
40 spot in the wi PM NETWORK JULY 2009 WWW.PMI.ORG
(from left) Ray Pait and
Chuck Millhollan, PMP, PgMP,
Churchill Downs Inc.,
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
DOWNS INC., LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, USA
management office is out to prove it deserves a
nner’s circle.
PHOTOS BY O’NEIL ARNOLD
“A race is similar to a project in that it has
clearly defined start points, milestones and
finish lines,” says Mr. Millhollan. “It was a
model that our people could embrace.”
In the Race Track, the paddock houses
the project business case, where the current
and future states are defined; the start
gate is the stakeholder approval process;
the first turn is the development of the work
breakdown structure; and the winner’s circle
is where results and benefits of finished
projects are measured.
“The racetrack image worked very well,”
says Mr. Pait. “The team here understood
what we were trying to do, and instead of
feeling like we were being heavy-handed,
they worked with us to identify ways that
we could improve project processes.”
ROUNDING THE FIRST CORNER
Early success with critical IT projects won the
PMO attention from across the enterprise, and
business leaders quickly began asking for the
PMO’s help on projects outside the tech realm.
By July 2008, the department was restructured
to become an enterprise PMO.
Today, projects at all Churchill Downs
facilities must follow the structure established
by Mr. Millhollan’s team. The
assigned project manager works with the
stakeholders to develop a business case
and get it approved by the executive team
before moving forward. And no project is
considered complete until the business
results that were defined during the
approval process are measured.
That wasn’t an easy sell.
“When we first started the PMO, the
concept of project documentation or measuring
results was foreign,” Mr. Millhollan
says. “Getting the company to embrace it
was part of the enculturation process.”
The first hurdle involved communicating
the value that additional processes and
42 PM NETWORK JULY 2009 WWW.PMI.ORG
“A race is similar to a project in that it has clearly defined
and finish lines. It was a model that our people could embr
1 Investment Request Worksheet
2 Approval & Prioritization
3 Charter
4 Work Breakdown Structure
5 Risk & Issues Logs
6 Scope Change Control (Requests/Logs)
7 Testing/Defect Tracking
8 IT Approval (as applicable)
9 Production Turn/Implementation
10 Sponsor Approval
11 Lessons Learned
12 Benefit Measurement
1/2 mile 3/4 mile
1/4 mile Winner’s Finish
Circle
Paddock
Starting Gate
P R O J E C T R A C E T R A C K
results measurement would bring to
the project teams.
“We had to explain that we weren’t
doing this to create repercussions for
people or to add administrative work,”
Mr. Millhollan says. “We were doing it so
we could help the enterprise meet and manage
project expectations.”
And if a project’s scope changed, Mr.
Millhollan wanted everyone to understand
that the PMO was there to help the project
team evaluate the impact those shifts would
have on the budget, timeline and results.
“Our goal is not to prevent change, it’s to
help manage change so teams can decide if
they are making the right choice,” he says.
Once Mr. Millhollan’s associates got a
few initiatives under their belts using the
new approach, they realized that spelling
out business benefits at the beginning of
the project allowed them to better quantify
end results. They could see how the project
worked not only in terms of their own
budget or timeline goals, but also in terms
of actual cash and hours saved for the
enterprise.
AND THE WINNER IS?
The results measurement process has two
benefits. It helps project teams prove their
worth and allows senior management to
quantify the benefits each project brings to
the organization.
“Benefits realization is not something
we were great at in the past,” admits Mr.
Pait. “But now, being able to identify what
we’ve saved or the cost and value of a project
is something the financial folks can really
appreciate, and it helps them understand
what we’ve accomplished.”
The IT team, for example, launched a
project to implement a VoIP (voice over
JULY 2009 PM NETWORK43
ADAYAT
THE RACES
Along with its legendary
Louisville racetrack,
Churchill Downs Inc.
also owns:
> Arlington Park, Arlington
Heights, Illinois, USA
> Calder Race Course,
Miami, Florida, USA
> Fair Grounds Race
Course & Slots, New
Orleans, Louisiana, USA
> Kentucky Downs,
Franklin, Kentucky, USA
start points, milestones
ace.” —Chuck Millhollan, PMP, PgMP
Internet protocol) system to support
Churchill Downs’ two Kentucky locations.
In the end, the team could demonstrate
that the project translated to lower
operational, maintenance and equipment
costs, while also improving productivity
and capability due to reduced system
downtime.
Not all projects can deliver such easily
measured results, so you should define
what you’re trying to achieve before you
begin, Mr. Millhollan says.
“Whether it’s a tactical benefit or one that
is less tangible, to measure the benefit of a
project, you have to define where it’s going
up front,” he says.
THE FINISH LINE
Along with acknowledging individual project
results, the PMO helps Churchill Downs
more accurately assess and prioritize
future projects.
“We use the lessons learned on every project
for future decision-making,” says Mr.
Pait. “It helps us recognize that we may not
want to do certain kinds of projects in the
future and identify the ones that will have
the most value.”
It also helps keep project teams focused
and prevents resources from getting diverted
to other tasks.
“I’ve heard many comments from stakeholders
that, if the PMO weren’t involved,
projects wouldn’t get done,” says Mr. Pait.
Despite all the glowing reviews, the PMO
isn’t complacent about its own status. Mr.
Millhollan applies the same criteria for
benefits realization to his own department
that he does to all the projects it oversees.
“We are acutely aware of our status, and
we are constantly evolving and scanning
our environment to see where the PMO can
offer better support,” he says. “We would
not be good stewards if we weren’t always
considering risks.”
That process includes biweekly reporting
to update the executive team on the status
of ongoing projects as well as annual
meetings to evaluate the PMO’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats. Last year, for example, the
team identified a need for formal training
44 PM NETWORK JULY 2009 WWW.PMI.ORG
in the financial aspects of project management.
“Finance and project processes are
intertwined, and in this economy, we want
to have that skill set in our project development
team,” Mr. Millhollan says.
Armed with financial savvy, the PMO
team can drive home its message of
accountability and business results,
cementing its value—and its future—at
Churchill Downs.
“The key value of our PMO is that we
focus on completion and we built our
method to manage projects through benefit
realization,” he says. “That’s how a PMO
ensures long-term viability.” PM
“We are acutely aware of our
status, and we are constantly
evolving and scanning our
environment to see where the
PMO can offer better support.” —Chuck Millhollan, PMP, PgMP