ProjectManagement.com - Programs - Defining

PMO Trends

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Many PMOs do not fully understand their role within the larger enterprise. What can PMOs do to improve lackluster performance and increase the return on investment? Let's look at a few of the emerging trends for PMOs to help answer that question...

Evaluating Organizational Readiness for a PMO

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Adoption of a Program Management Office is not a decision that should be made quickly or taken lightly. Careful preparation, clear alignment with organization objectives and stakeholder feedback are critical to a PMO's success.

You Wanna Be Starting Something?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Determining the nature and scope of a project is essential to refining how the resulting effort will accomplish business needs. A crucial component of this is having the knowledge of the business environment and the demands it must meet.

Project Governance: Overcoming Obstacles

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

One of the primary roles of the PMO is to provide a framework for ensuring proper governance over projects. Here we look at some of the obstacles and challenges facing the PMO governance function--and some tips for overcoming them.

PMO Lite: Nightmare or Opportunity?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Can you start a PMO without being sure whether you will keep it, or do you have to commit up front? Can you treat the PMO itself as a project, and only commit to ongoing funding once the results of an initial set of tasks are known? The answers aren't so easy...

PMO Team, Assemble!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In the movie The Avengers, a team of super heroes joins forces to combat a threat that human forces cannot defeat. The PMO can learn valuable lessons from this story about how to assemble a powerful team (but please, no smashed buildings!).

Lean Agile PMO: An Oxymoron?

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

How can PMOs--which are renowned for their classic command-and-control structures and often maligned for their lack of flexibility and strangling bureaucracy--even begin to share headspace with terms such as "lean" and "agile"?

The 'Shifty' Role of the Project Manager

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Is the role of the project manager evolving, or is it just revolving? Large organizations dealing with challenging economic conditions for the past decade or trying to keep up with the rapid change invoked by technology progression have had to re-think the way support infrastructure sustains the business. Turning to various flavors of shared services models, the role of the project manager has had to take on several different faces within the organization.

Business PM vs. Technology PM: The Battle Continues

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

It's one of the oldest debates in project management, and now there are a whole new set of arguments. What type of project manager should an organization have?

The Professional Services PMO

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

One manager's clients asked him to assist with improving the effectiveness of their PMO. They made it clear that the office was only responsible for the professional services arm of the business--and they weren't prepared to discuss extending the scope of the PMO to include the product development team. Read on for more on this unique situation...

PMO as Project Support

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Have you considered an administrative support role for your PMO? Administrative functions within a PMO can work well and deliver tremendous efficiencies, but to work properly they require a very distinct environment.

Cross-PMO Communication

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Enterprise PMOs are going to continue to grow and evolve--and over time the vast majority of organizations will evolve their PMO models to an EPMO model. However, as we look at the way that companies manage their PMOs today, we can't help thinking that there is a lot of work ahead.

Sustainability and Whole Lifecycle Thinking

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:00:00 GMT

As environmental concerns and sustainability become bigger issues across all aspects of society, there is an argument for taking a rather longer-term view of product development--the concept of whole lifecycle thinking, ensuring that the costs of the product are considered from birth to retirement. What can project managers do to help develop and implement the concept?

PMO and PMs: Partnership or Opposition?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:00:00 GMT

How is the relationship between your PMO and PMs--as good as it can be? The PMO has responsibility to ensure that projects are managed in accordance with policies and process, but they shouldn't be perceived as opposition to the PMs.

Achieving Olympian Goals: Five Rings of Project Success

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The Olympic rings are five intertwined circles that represent the elaborate and complex Games. Similarly, project managers can bring five rings of discipline together to manage very complex projects. Each of these rings builds upon the other--and they give the project manager a taxonomy by which to manage Olympian efforts

PMO Agility, Independent of Agile

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Whether you call them DANCE, VUCA, agile or just plain challenging, the need for outdated PMOs to catch up is clear. PMOs are changing--and it looks like they are becoming more agile. This article examines the pressures for PMO change and where they could be heading.

The PMO in Operations

Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The project management office has a different role in the operational team than in project teams. In general, there are two major reasons for having a PMO as part of the operational team--and it's up to the PMO to ensure that it is supporting operations instead of hindering them.

The PMO Integration Problem (Part 2)

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

While working for a small firm, a new PM was asked to go to a major company to help them integrate their IT PMOs...leading to the worst three months of his career. As his two-part article concludes, we find out if if there was truly a light at the end of the tunnel--or just a train coming the other way.

Rebuilding Your PMO

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

How can you ensure that your PMO is as strong as it can be as the economy recovers? In this article, we look at how you can use this opportunity to improve your PMO--making it a more significant contributor to your organization than it was before the downturn.

All Aboard?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the PMO! Does your Program Management Office have a plan for helping new project managers? More than any other function, the PMO varies hugely from one organization to the next--and even from one division to the next. That means that there will always be a ramp-up period for anyone entering as a project manager--and yet many PMOs make no allowance for this.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's Your PM Future!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

What will project management look like in the future? One writer summons his smarts as he comes up with some dramatic predictions about governance, PMOs and the accountable PM. Is he a genius or a goofball? You be the judge...

Key Responsibilities of the PMO

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

A project management office can operate on a continuum, from providing project management support functions in the form of training, software, standardized policies and procedures to actual direct management and responsibility for achieving the project objectives. Here, we look at some of the key responsibilities and features of a typical PMO.

Changing the Enterprise: The Right Way

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Anyone who has been a project manager for a while will have run into an organizational change management project--and has likely experienced some of the unique challenges that they present. We all know that there is no such thing as an easy project, but making fundamental changes to the company or department in which we work presents a whole new set of potential pitfalls. Successful organizational change management needs careful planning and execution--and here we help you prepare for this tricky time.

Project Management: Lingua Franca or Tower of Babel?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Project management is becoming recognized on an international scale. In support of this, there are a number of efforts underway to promote a global view of how we think about, discuss and practice project management. But to what extent is project management a universal language? To what extent can it be? Or are we all simply sowing confusion as we use the same words to mean very different things?

Blurry Vision?

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Is a project "vision statement" necessary? Let's look at some of the perceived advantages of having a documented vision statement in place at the beginning of the project engagement to find out.

Smile! You're in Organizational PM!

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The number of articles that explain why something doesn't work--or is wrong, or isn't working the way it should--is staggering. It's time to take a different approach by focusing on what actually does work. Join us for a look at consciously seeking the positive, a rare but perhaps necessary practice.

Facing Reality: A Few Fundamental Truths

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

It's time that we face up to a fundamental reality: organizations grapple with making project management work successfully on a consistent basis. Yes, there are exceptions--and some notable ones--but on the whole they simply prove the rule. It's time for a different approach.