Experience

Barbara Schrage, is a results-oriented and highly enthusiastic certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 30 years of experience. She has earned her Master's Certificate in Project Management (MCPM) from UW-Madison’s School of Business. Through her business, Practical Project Management, LLC, she has acted as a consultant, coach, and trainer in project, program, and portfolio management. She has also managed large, complex strategic projects and led a successful corporate project management office at a Fortune 500 financial services organization. Besides her experience in the financial services industry, her clients have spanned various industries, such as education , health care, energy/utility, engineering, manufacturing, research, government, retail, accounting, consulting, dairy, medical supply distributor and consumer goods.

Training Examples

I teach a 3-day Project Management Planning, Scheduling and Control class, as well as a 2-day Project Portfolio Management class in the Project Management Master's Certificate program at the Wisconsin School of Business Center for Professional and Executive Development. I also teach project management classes on-site within organizations. I consistently receive the highest ratings for my classes which result in long-term relationships with my clients where they continue to schedule multiple on-site classes on an annual basis.
For Example:
  • Wisconsin School of Business Center for Professional and Executive Development (CPED): Over 90 classes held, including over 2100 business leaders working at various organizations across a wide variety of industries, nationwide as well as other countries. Click to watch a video of my interview on the benefits of attending my CPED class at the Fluno Center.
  • Utility company: Over 300 employees trained in the basics of project management, customized to include their standard framework, templates and processes.
  • Two Utility companies: Over 50 on-site classes held, on-site, resulting in over 800 employees understanding how to plan, schedule and control a project.
  • Two Health Care companies: Over 400 employees trained, on-site, in the basics of project management, customized to include their standard framework, templates and processes.
  • Consumer Products company: Over 150 employees trained, on-site, in the basics of project management.

Consulting Examples

At a Utility organization, Barbara led a departmental initiative to design, document and implement a standarized project management framework including templates, tools and processes. She integrated those tools and processes within a project management class that she taught for them for the following four years. At a Health Care Company, Barbara mentored and coached a business leader working in a program manager role for two multi-million dollar, multi-year programs to design and implement the services of two new hospitals. As part of those two programs, she coached and mentored staff members in new project management roles and implemented key project management processes, tools and techniques tailored to their culture and environment. This department-level program management office was later integrated into a newly established corporate project management office focused on achieving strategic initiatives. At a Utility company, Barbara led a cross-functional initiative to design and implement project portfolio management at the enterprise-level as well as within business units. The end result was a tailored prioritization and portfolio monitoring solution that was integrated within the project life cycle and planning/budgeting processes. It enabled early and effective decision-making on the investments of projects in aggregate. She was also instrumental in the formation of a corporate project support office. She mentored the newly appointed director through a variety of initiatives to mature project management capability across the organization. At a company that develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products and services, Barbara worked with an engineer to develop five key project management areas. These new processes were designed to fit into their culture and thus were quickly adopted within their organization globally.

Project Management Leadership Examples

Barbara was the Assistant Vice President of a successful corporate project management office (PMO) at Thrivent Financial in Appleton, Wisconsin. She was responsible for: the project portfolio management process and governance; resource management across the projects within the portfolio; and project management methodology, process, tools, templates and metrics. She was also accountable for the results of projects led by the project and program managers within the PMO, with a specific focus on projects tied to the corporate scorecard. She mentored and developed leadership skills in project and program managers. Prior to her leadership of the corporate PMO, Barbara led many large and complex strategic programs and projects.
Barbara was a co-founder of the Project Management Institute (PMI) Northeast Wisconsin chapter and served as its first president. She also served as ex-officio and a board of directors member. The new local PMI chapter was chartered in record time: 6 months. She led a team of volunteers to create articles of incorporation, bylaws, operating procedures and board of directors' duties. Barbara accepted the Chapter of the Year award (honorable mention) at the 2004 PMI National Leadership Conference, based on the chapter's accomplishments during her presidency.