Case Study- Citi, one of the world’s largest

financial services organizations

Citi is the world’s largest financial services corporation with 16,000 offices and operations in
more than 160 countries. It offers a comprehensive array of financial products and services for
consumers, business, governments, and institutions.

To address issues with consistency and provide sufficient guidance on how key program
management activities should be performed, program managers at Citi sought to upskill their
employees into professional project managers via PMP® certification training, based on the
principles outlined in PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®
Guide).

Results of implementing a Project Management Office and PMP training:

On implementing a Project Management Office with approximately 100 project and program
managers in the Chief Technology Office, Citi observed noticeable improvements across the
board:
 Improvements were observed in delivering its program goals and objectives on time
and on budget.
 Governance and escalation models improved communication and resulted in less
surprises to senior management.
 Project managers used techniques like work breakdown structures and project plans
containing realistic estimates more frequently and consistently.
 Program managers formally documented changes to program scope along with impacts
to schedule and budget prior to implementation.
 Citi reported that it plans to train all the program and project managers within its
organization on it soon.

Further details on this case study can be found at:

https://www.pmi.org/business-solutions/case-studies/citis-pmo-consistent-efficient

Inferences from the Case Study.

Project Management best practices followed in Citi include:
 Used effective techniques to identify stakeholders and identified stakeholders
classified into defined categories; relevant stakeholder management
approaches followed for each category of stakeholders.
 When there is a challenge to define the scope and requirements upfront in the
beginning for medium to large-size projects, Citi had adopted the approach of
progressive elaboration with an iterative and incremental approach.
 Planning approach started with end product in mind, breaking down the end
product into individual products, then develop project plans based on
assessments of project objectives in the form of individual products and also
identifying potential interdependencies with other projects
 Identification of opportunities even during the implementation phase of the
project, so that benefits to Citi can be maximized.
 Coaching tools and techniques adopted to improve the team motivation.
 Constant communication with project team members and negotiating if
needed to ensure that project is completed within agreed timelines.
 Project Manager effectively used the team leads to identify potential conflicts
and resolve dependencies between the teams, if any to drive the project
towards successful completion
 In case of issues and exceptions, Project Manager worked with all related