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| The Value of a PMO |
There should be no question that your organization will find value in good, sound project management practices. In fact, the larger the project is, the more project management becomes a requirement for success, not just a value-adding proposition.
In general, the value of a common project management process includes:
1. Reduced cycle time
2. Reduced delivery costs
3. Improved quality of project deliverables
4. Early identification and proactive management of project issues and risks
5. Better containment and management of project scope
6. More opportunities to leverage and reuse knowledge
7. Improved accuracy of estimates
8. Better communication with clients and stakeholders
9. Improved perceptions of your organization by your clients
10. Improved people and resource management 11.Reduced time to get up to speed on new projects
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Project management processes are applied at a project level. Since we assume that the project itself has some business value, you should be able to show that project management processes have value if they help you to complete the project within expectations. Taking this one step further, you might think that if project management is good (since it helps to deliver projects within expectations), then there should be value associated with a group that will help implement project management processes.
However, not all companies view it this way, and a PMO does not mean the same thing in every company. For one thing, the PMO does not always manage projects, and so in many organizations, the PMO does not have a direct project connection. It is indirect. So, the value proposition for a PMO can be less tangible and more subjective. A PMO costs money to staff and to run. The hope is that the money and time invested in the PMO will be more than saved by delivering projects better, faster and cheaper across the entire organization. However, if you find that the cost savings on projects are offset by the cost of the PMO and this is not acceptable, it may point out a need to reduce the costs associated with the PMO to make this value proposition work.
An organization typically needs to be of a certain size before the costs associated with a PMO becomes beneficial. At one extreme, if you only have one small project per year, you do not need a PMO since it is much less expensive to provide dedicated project management training and support to the one project manager. If you have a handful of projects every year, you may still be able to get by with the few project managers collaborating and agreeing to a certain set of common processes and templates.
Now, let's go to the other extreme. Let's say you have a large, diverse organization that delivers dozens, hundreds (or thousands) of projects per year. In this environment, there may be dozens or hundreds of project managers, each with varying levels of skill and experience. A lack of common processes results in project managers and team members having to learn new processes as they move from project to project. In addition, no one has any idea whether the company is successfully delivering projects in general, and no one knows what anyone else is doing.
In this environment, a centralized PMO makes great sense to ensure that all project managers have a core set of project management skills, common processes, and templates.
The PMO also acts as the owner of the project management methodology and a support organization that project managers can utilize for project management assistance. In addition, the PMO can serve as a place for providing an organization-wide view of the status of all projects and can report on the improvements being made to project delivery capabilities over time.
Of course, most organizations are somewhere in the middle. They have more than a couple projects per year, but not hundreds. Each organization needs to look at their own environment to see if they need a PMO. At a high-level, this starts with understanding the projects executed in a year and whether the projects were completed successfully. In a broader sense, the analysis starts with gaining an understanding of your project environment today and what you think your project environment should look like in the future.
If your future state vision is close to your current state, there may not be a reason to make any changes. However, if you are not where you want to be, a PMO may be the organizational mechanism to get to this desired state.
There are many options to look at for implementing a PMO. The major organizational models will be explored later. In addition, one obvious motivating factor for implementing a PMO is the amount of pain that the organization feels over failed projects. If most projects end successfully without a PMO, there may not be a strong motivating factor to build one. However, if there is a lot of pain associated with project delivery, the organization will be much more motivated to invest resources in a PMO to turn the situation around.
At a high level, a PMO is increasingly being viewed as an essential component that enables the success of projects, and hence, the future success of the entire organization. At a more tactical level, the value provided by a PMO is summarized below. Although PMOs can be established to provide a narrow or broad set of services, this list includes many of the common responsibilities a full PMO would perform.
The PMO builds or licenses a common set of project management processes and templates, which saves each project manager or organization from having to create these on their own. These reusable project management components help projects start-up more quickly and with much less effort.
After the project management processes are deployed the PMO enhances and supports them over time. As new or revised processes and templates are made available, the PMO deploys them consistently to the organization.
The PMO facilitates project communication by defining a common terminology. There is less misunderstanding and confusion within the organization if everyone uses the same language and terminology for project related work.
The PMO sets up and supports a common repository so that prior project management deliverables can be candidates for reuse by similar projects, further reducing project start-up time.
The PMO provides training (internal or through vendors) to build core project management competencies and a common set of experiences. If the training is delivered by the PMO, there is a further reduction in overall training costs paid to outside vendors.
The PMO delivers project management coaching services to help apply good practices on specific projects. Coaching services can help project managers understand and apply the practices more quickly. Projects at risk can also be coached to help them complete successfully or at least ensure that they do not get any worse. ·
The PMO tracks basic information on the current status of all projects in the organization and provides project visibility to management in a common and consistent manner. ·
The PMO tracks organization-wide metrics on the state of project management, project delivery, and the value being provided to the business by project management in general, and the PMO specifically. ·
The PMO acts as the overall advocate for project management to the organization. This includes educating and selling management and team members on the value gained through the use of consistent project management processes. The process of setting up a PMO will help determine which products and services make sense for a specific organization. PMOs can do some or all of those listed above, and they may do many others as well.
PMO Principles
The following represents the set of guiding principles of the PMO Step Framework and is reflected in all the subsequent content.
1. The GlobeTechconsult model will result in the creation of a value-add PMO. It is important to recognize what this means. The PMO is not an organization that just implements processes and creates bottlenecks. The PMO must constantly validate that it is providing real value to the organization. If the PMO is doing work that does not provide value, the work should be questioned and discarded.
2. The content of GlobeTechconsult must be balanced against the roles and responsibilities of your PMO.
3. PMO should be implemented in a flexible and scalable manner based on the size and complexity of your organization and your projects. It does not make sense to put a large PMO in place for organizations that don't execute many projects in a year.
4. However, the larger the organization base and the more projects your organization executes, the more aspects of PMO will apply.
5. PMO sees the deployment and support of project management processes and discipline within an organization as a culture change initiative.
That is, you are asking people to change how they do their jobs. The PMO will help people in the organization be more productive and help project managers complete projects within expectations. The overall success of the PMO will hinge on how well the use of the consistent project management methodology is integrated into the culture.
In other words, if the PMO rolls out a project management initiative, but the staff members do not internalize project management into their normal routine, the PMO will not be successful. Likewise, if the central PMO is disbanded (for whatever reasons) without the project management processes being integrated into part of the culture, the PMO will not be successful.
6. Because implementing project management is a process and not an event, the PMO should be established with a long-term horizon in mind. Of course, business conditions change, and PMOs are not immune to cutbacks. However, if the PMO is established with a short-term deployment mindset, and not a long-term culture change mindset, it will ultimately be unsuccessful.
The PMO can be the major instigator of culture change associated with deploying good project management processes and practices. As part of this effort, the PMO may take responsibility for consolidating status, performing quality audits, improving project management competency, etc. However, it needs to be clear that the responsibility of successfully completing the project still rests with the project manager. The PMO can help the project manager be successful, but the PMO is not managing projects. Individual project managers are still managing the projects.
PMO Now ! The Quick PMO Start-up Service
Organizations around the world are implementing formal project management processes and disciplines to deliver their work initiatives on time, within budget and to an agreed upon level of quality. Part of the ability to execute better, faster and cheaper comes from your ability to implement common project management processes and practices. Many organizations have attempted to deploy common processes and build competencies by creating a Project Management Office (PMO). People often wonder what it will take to implement a PMO. The answer is “it depends”.
It depends on the specific needs of each organizationand the vision for how each PMO will help meet the needs. There are many potential products and services that a PMO can be responsible for depending on the needs of the organization. The PMO is typically responsible for acquiring and deploying a common project management process to the rest of the organization. However, they can also do much more, including training and coaching, project audits, consolidated project status reporting, project management certification, portfolio management, etc. Many PMOs focus too much on internal activities and not enough on providing value to the rest of the organization.
These PMOs think their job is to design new processes and templates. At Globetechconsult , we focus on making sure the PMO provides value to the organization. We call this the “Value Add PMO”. We can help you understand how to best define and utilize a PMO within your organization. We have the expertise to help you define a PMO Roadmap that results in a Value-Add PMO.
We will use our predefined PMO model to guide you through:
Discussing the current and future state of your Organization
Uncovering the gaps to move toward the future state
Identifying the PMO services to close the gaps
Understanding priorities and resource requirements to implement the services
Mapping out the timeline to deploy the services, concentrating on the most critical aspects first
Validating the resource requirements to complete the work
Creating a PMO Roadmap that guides the PMO work over the next 12-18 months A Project Management Office can add significant value to your projects and to your entire organization. Deploying your methodology is not a trivial affair. If you are really serious about your organization adopting the new methodology, you must structure and implement Deployment Project(s), taking a long-term, holistic view.
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The Author: Ala'a Elbeheri
About:
A versatile and highly accomplished senior certified IT risk management Advisor and Senior IT Lead Auditor with over 20 years of progressive experience in all domains of ICT.
• Program and portfolio management, complex project management, and service delivery, and client relationship management.
• Capable of providing invaluable information while making key strategic decisions and spearheading customer-centric projects in IT/ICT in diverse sectors.
• Displays strong business and commercial acumen and delivers cost-effective solutions contributing to financial and operational business growth in international working environments.
• Fluent in oral and written English, German, and Arabic with an Professional knowledge of French.
• Energetic and dynamic relishes challenges and demonstrates in-depth analytical and strategic ability to facilitate operational and procedural planning.
• Fully conversant with industry standards, with a consistent track record in delivering cost-effective strategic solutions.
• Strong people skills, with proven ability to build successful, cohesive teams and interact well with individuals across all levels of the business. Committed to promoting the ongoing development of IT skills throughout an organization
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