Program/Project Management Office

OVERVIEW

Many companies have turned to Project Management Offices as a way to boost IT efficiency, cut costs and improve on project delivery in terms of  time and budget.

PMOs can help CIOs by providing the structure needed to both standardize project management practices and facilitate IT project portfolio  management, as well as determine methodologies for repeatable processes.

How We Can Help We have considerable experience in all facets of PMO activity: from establishing a brand new PMO, to developing the methodologies, tools, processes, and reporting, to performing assessments of the effectiveness of an existing PMO. And then assisting in making the necessary corrections and improvements.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (USA) and Bill 198 (Canada) require companies to disclose investments, such as large projects, that may affect a  company’s operating performance. These pieces of legislation are therefore also drivers, since they force companies to keep a closer watch on project expenses and progress.

In many cases the PMO is also mandated to ensure that resources (human, financial, and technical) are deployed appropriately across the portfolio of projects that are underway.

The PMO should serve two audiences:

The IT Executive, by providing:

• Preparation and presentation of IT performance reports (Dashboards and Score Cards, for example)
• Risk assessment across the the portfolio of projects and applications
• Reporting on program and project reviews (should be the Source of Truth)
• Overall reporting on the portfolio, as well as consolidated reporting
• Monitoring of adherence to mandated processes, standards and methodology(-ies)

The Project Manager Community, to which it provides services such as:

• Project Manager orientation and ongoing Project Manager consulting and mentoring
• Methodology, processes, and templates to enable the work of project management
• Project Manager software tools
• Portfolio management and consolidated reporting
• Training

As an organization grows, the need to either establish a PMO or to review and upgrade the existing Office becomes very evident (and very important).

Experience has shown that benefits (cost savings or improved success rates) from the establishment of a PMO can usually not be measured with any confidence within the first 3 years of its existence - mainly because it takes this length of time to develop a history of completed projects. However, improved customer satisfaction among internal end users can often be measured within a few months.

Because of the lead time to realize true fiscal benefits from the PMO people, in both IT and the "customer" communities, often start looking for ways to circumvent the discipline(s) that the PMO introduced - all in the name of improving agility and efficiency, of course! - and management develops an interest in looking at projects from a different perspective.

It is crucial at these times to not abandon the core disciplines, but to adapt the tools that are being used and introduce additional tools judiciously. This is where leadership and advice born from experience can make a difference, and the most important element in the process is the human factor: keeping the IT and the "customer" communities on side and motivated.

It has been our observation over many years of consulting, that a poorly run PMO is a HUGE liability to the organization by virtue of the direct and indirect costs incurred.  Over and above the direct staff costs, there is always a noticeable degree of confusion, a lack of trust, and lack of confidence in the work produced by both the PMO itself (e.g. reporting) and the project community.

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