The Project Management Office

For years, IT departments have struggled to deliver projects on time and within budget.  Technology is not always the most critical factor.  Inadequate project management implementation constitutes a third of project failures, while a lack of communication and an unfamiliarity with scope & complexity constitutes another 40%.  Accordingly, 70% of project failures are due to lack and/or improper implementation of project management methodologies.  As the discipline of project management has become more recognized as a unique and valuable skill set in industry, and as companies seek more efficiency and tighter monitoring of IT projects, most companies end up opening project management offices (PMO). 

A project management office (PMO) is an organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of the projects under its domain.  The responsibilities of a PMO can range from providing project management support functions to actually being responsible for the direct management of a project.

The projects supported or administered by the PMO may or may not be related, and the specific form, function and structure of the PMO is dependent upon the needs of the organization.  A PMO may be delegated to act as an integral stakeholder and key decision maker during the beginning of each project, to make recommendations, and to terminate projects or take other actions required to keep business objectives consistent. 

A primary function of a PMO is to support project managers in a variety of ways, which may include:

• Managing shared resources across all projects administered by the PMO
• Identifying and developing project management methodologies and best practices
• Coaching, mentoring and training of project management resources
• Monitoring compliance with project management standards, policies and procedures
• Developing and managing project policies, procedures and other shared organizational process assets
• Coordinating communication across projects

All these efforts are aligned with the strategic needs of the organization. Coming up with a PMO that works for any given organization is an exercise in both customization and patience. When it comes to establishing a PMO, there are no road maps to follow, benchmarks to shoot for or metrics against which to measure. The most effective PMOs are those that reap improvements over time and continuously push the IT department to improve on its performance