ProjectManagement.com - Programs - Initiating

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!).

The Proactive PMO

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT

As a PMO leader, are you driving change, or is it driving you? In all too many cases, PMOs are reactive--implementing a solution in response to a problem. In this article, we argue for a more proactive approach.

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?

Olympic-Sized Project Stakeholders & Your Workforce

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Olympic-sized projects mean more potential communication problems with stakeholders who control workers in your project. Adopting a combination of routine and targeted tactics can keep the project humming.

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

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.

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.

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.

The 21st Century PMO

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

We seem to be moving from the "every PMO is different" model to the "PMOs fit into one of several types" model. However, since the heady days of Y2K the world has changed a lot--and created a lot of opportunities for PMOs to reinvent themselves and create a new model. This writer may be a power-crazed egomaniac, but he thinks PMOs can run the organization (if not the world).

OPM for Business

Mon, 23 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

You may have brilliant marketing and branding methodologies, but it is through the projects you pick, how you deliver them and the strategies you use to deploy them that you are defined.

Organizational PM: Dream or Reality?

Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Organizations do a lot to implement what is viewed as project management. But do organizations have an organizational project management capability? To understand whether we do or not, we have to understand what this actually means, explore where organizations are today and evaluate how close we actually are to the attainment of this goal.

OPM: Turn It Up to 11

Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Organizations are expected to deliver more and more with less and less, and that has in part led to the growth of organizational project management. But in this writer's experience, organizations have not been able to define what a successful OPM model looks like. How do you maximize the return on Organizational PM?

Achieving Organizational Alignment

Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The elusive achievement of organizational alignment in corporate America is striking. What is needed is the development of an organizational structure and culture that dynamically self-adjusts and recalibrates to an ever-changing environment.

OPM: Getting from 'Here' to 'There'

Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The key challenge to organizational PM is that companies tend to view projects in isolation by ignoring the obvious (and sometimes not-so-obvious) linkages. Here we present a list of essential factors to ensure the organization can begin to not just benefit from the discipline of project management, but be able to maximize the benefits that organizational PM can provide.

Business Intelligence IQ

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Project managers can often forget what's at the core of business intelligence--giving senior management the tools to make more focused, confident decisions. A look at one PM's experience provides some valuable lessons to take away.

High Standard PMO

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Establishing strategies with a sponsored project management office dedicated to overseeing their implementation within an organization can generate a stronger, more refined and professional business environment that is reliable and dependable--and thus more attractive to customers.

Project Financials: What Does Your CEO Expect from the PMO?

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Successful business execution is dependent upon having timely and accurate financial information. But too often, little thought is put into how to present the data in a meaningful way. From a project or portfolio perspective, what does a C-Level executive expect to see from the PMO for actionable decision-making?

Ready, Set, Activate!

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Effective project activation is more than just hard work and good luck. It's an important focus on the work required to bring the project up to speed, and this article explores some ways to get from zero to 60 as quickly as possible.