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The Project Management Office
 CBP PMO 2008 Survey Findings
The Emergence of Enterprise Project Management in AU and NZ
The Project Management Office
FOR YEARS, service delivery departments like IT have struggled to deliver projects on time and within budget. But with today's environment of more with less, the focus is on improvement of operational performance to enable the requisite flexibility to meet customer expectations. As ever leaner service delivery processes are demanded, projects are increasingly monitored to identify opportunities for process improvement. This challenge has led many companies to turn to project management offices (PMOs) as a way to boost project efficiency, cut costs, and improve on service delivery in terms of quality, time and budget.
While not a new solution, the trend toward implementing PMOs to instil much-needed project management discipline in service delivery departments (IT included) is spreading fast. "More people lately have been talking to me about PMOs than they have in the last 10 years," says Don Christian, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. 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. The Sarbanes-Oxley Actwhich requires companies to disclose investments, such as large projects, that may affect a company's operating performanceis also a driver, since it forces companies to keep closer watch on project expenses and progress.
As task uncertainty increases, there is a strong statistical correlation between project management office support and project delivery capability which equates to increased competitiveness and profits.
So what is PMO?
The PMO is the office or department responsible for establishing, maintaining and enforcing project management processes, procedures, and standards. It provides services, support, and certification for project managers.
Specifically, there are four major areas of project activity the PMO supports:-
| 1. | Project Management Standards and Processes. Owns, stewards and ensures continuous improvement of PM standards and processes. |
| 2. | Project Management Support Services to Projects and Stakeholders. Provides project management support services and expertise to project teams and decision makers. |
| 3. | Project Management Quality Assurance and Control. Provide and manage external and internal project management quality, business objective alignment, risk management and benefit realisation audits. |
| 4. | Project Management Competence and Capacity. Owns and stewards the enhancing and continuous improvement of PM competence and capacity. |
(Source: Mark E. Schaaf, PMP)
This selection of papers explores ways in which to implement a Project Management Office and provides some statistics to support the trend to setting up a PMO to provide over-arching project visibility and control.
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