PMO — Project Management Office. . . . Why does everybody think they need one, and what should a PMO really do?
Henry, an experienced project manager, was asked to set up a PMO when the IT department took on a huge, politically visible, enterprisewide project. He was well qualified, with both PMI certification and a track record of successes.
The CIO also wanted Henry to establish common project reporting, a dashboard that tracked how everybody's projects were going.
The need for good project management wasn't limited to the one big enterprisewide project. Henry soon found his tiny staff swamped with additional work, which he took as a sign of the value of his group. But trouble wasn't far behind. It seemed there were never enough project managers in the PMO to go around. While Henry's staff handled a few big projects, many other projects ran adrift. The proposition of growing the PMO to manage all projects was neither affordable nor politically acceptable.
Meanwhile, relations between Henry and his peers became strained. The other senior managers in IT resented Henry when hot strategic projects were taken away from them and given to him. They resented his control over their resources. They resented his looking over their shoulder, judging their progress and reporting on them to their boss. And they were offended by the implication that Henry was somehow more competent than them.
On a technical side, this PMO didn't work well either. Henry's projects didn't fit the technical directions established by the other senior managers. And when his solutions went into production, the other groups were not prepared to support them.
Excellence in project management is essential, but PMOs can do as much harm as good. Let's examine the fundamentals and scope a proper role for a PMO.
Capgemini to offer cloud help ...
"The technical services group of Capgemini has traditionally helped companies with system integr ..."
Infor's Flex upgrade program t ...
"ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Infor says its customers are warming up to Flex, a ne ..."
SOA Grows Up -- and Out
"Not too long ago, IT organizations turned to service-oriented architecture primarily as a way t ..."
RightNow tries to change SaaS ...
"CRM vendor RightNow announced a new SaaS (software as a service) pricing and licensing model on ..."
Cloud Computing's Three Revolu ...
"I've gotten a lot of feedback on parts one and two of this three-part series on "The Three Revo ..."
"How about roundup?"
Oscar
"This article on Palm Pre is quite informative.Thanks for posting it."
Blackberry curve 8900
"I was really interested to learn exactly how he got caught, but the story n ..."
Martha
"Cloud computing is an emerging computing technology that uses the internet ..."
Tablet PC games
"CIO Today has become one of the leading publications read each day by top t ..."
Tablet PC games
Definitions
First, we need to define a few terms:Project management is a task people do in order to deliver projects (results). It involves a discipline and a set of methods and tools for planning and controlling project resources. It's a means, not an end in itself.
A project manager is the person accountable for results. Project managers are responsible for delivering products to customers; and to do so, they manage projects.
A project-management expert is a person trained in the techniques and tools of project management. Generally, people cannot be world-class at two different professions at once. A project-management expert is someone who has chosen to study a discipline that applies to any and all projects — to any and all technologies — rather than someone who has spent his/her career studying a particular domain of technology.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Enterprise Management | A Computerworld Strategy Guide
File Integrity Monitoring: Compliance and Security for Virtual and Physical Environments
Database Management | A Computerworld Strategy Guide
Computerworld Strategy Guide: Business Intelligence
Overtaken by Events? The Quest for Operational Responsiveness | A Survey of Global Energy, Telecoms, and Logistics Businesses
Business Continuity: A Guide to Choosing the Right Technology Solution
Green IT | Saving Money while Saving Energy: Moving Beyond the Hype to Build a Powerful Business Case for Power Management
Enhancing Worker Productivity in a Business 2.0 World
Zones provide focussed content from CIO and leading technology partners.


























Comments
Post new comment