23 October 2009

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Sustaining the Value of your Project Management Office

Even after a project management office has achieved the purpose for which it was founded, it can continue to thrive and provide value by adapting and refocusing its operations through good leadership and organizational practices.

The project management office, or PMO, has been around since the 1990s. Its purpose is to help organizations develop and maintain competency in project management and to achieve their strategic objectives. Some researchers point out, however, that PMOs often succeed, then struggle, restructure or fail, and that it can be hard to determine the value a PMO contributes to an organization.

An article in the March 2009 issue of the Project Management Journal^®, entitled “Building Value Through Sustainable Project Management Offices”—by Mimi Hurt, PhD, MI2 Consulting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Janice L. Thomas, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada—explores how and why PMOs sometimes create sustainable value and other times do not. Using case studies from three different organizations, the authors recommend ways for organizations to develop and sustain project management competency through their PMOs.

Value and Sustainability in PMOs
The researchers examine the successes and problems in the three case histories they studied. Then, they identify five practices that can help a PMO create and sustain value:

• Build a core ideology for the long term;
• Pick the right PMO leadership;
• Staff the PMO carefully;
• Create a culture of discipline;
• Confront the brutal facts, but keep the faith.

Build a core ideology for the long term. A PMO’s core ideology should include three ideas: First, that no one else in the organization is more passionate or knowledgeable about how to manage projects effectively; second, that flexibility and standard methodology are compatible concepts; and third, that the PMO is better than anyone else at managing and developing project managers.

Pick the right PMO leadership. Project managers want their leaders to be genuine, credible and inspiring. The founders of the PMOs being studied illustrated these kinds of qualities: they were passionate, focused and determined about effective project management; they had low-key, patient personalities, which were effective in dealing with stakeholder groups; and they proved what they believed in through quick, simple wins, such as implementing cost savings and regular, consistent status reports.

Staff the PMO carefully. Put people in positions they will succeed in; understand the competencies within the organization; develop role descriptions and effective evaluation processes; and provide clear career development paths for those wishing to advance to leadership roles.

Create a culture of discipline.  Success and sustainability require disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action. Successful managers clearly delineate roles and responsibilities and monitor, coach and mentor their project managers in fulfilling these responsibilities.

Confront the brutal facts, but keep the faith. It’s important to face the challenging realities of a project environment. This involves having difficult conversations early on and recognizing and responding quickly to brutal facts and warning signs. One tool for doing this is standardized status reports across all projects and project managers. It’s equally important never to lose faith in the organization’s ability to achieve the project’s objectives over time.

Conclusions
While many PMOs have a short life span before being restructured, this is not a reason to doubt that they can contribute sustained value. On the contrary, the authors believe effective PMOs add value specifically by reinventing themselves, as long as they remain focused on improving project management in the organization. PMOs are often formed to address a specific problem. Once the problem has been addressed, the PMO can identify new objectives, which may require changes in structure or process. If the PMO remains consistent with its core ideology and purpose, it will continue to add value to the organization.

For more on the value of project management identified in this study, see the full article in the Project Management Journal.

PMI’s Project Management Journal is a peer-reviewed journal “dedicated to advancing the understanding of project, program, and portfolio management through empirical investigation and theoretical research.”

PMI members may access the full text of the article when they logon as members to the PMI.org and go to Resources > Publications.

To submit a manuscript, please refer to PMJ Submission Guidelines and send to PMJournal@pmi.org.