PMO Survival — Can Charters Help?

Credit: PMI 

PMI’s Pulse of the ProfessionTM report showed that the number of project management offices (PMOs) is increasing, but it also found that simply having a PMO does little to improve project success rates.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that many PMOs have a short “shelf life.”

How do you resurrect a failing PMO? What can prevent it from failing? Should a PMO ever close?

We posed these questions to discussion participants on the PMI Career Central LinkedIn Group, as well as the PgMP Credentialed Networking Group on LinkedIn. The discussions centered on what can be done at the start, long before the PMO gets in trouble. Gaining executive buy-in, chartering the PMO and mandating a review after a set period of time were popular ideas.





Key Success Factor
Kimberly Field, a 14-year project management veteran in the health care industry, from Rhode Island, USA, says she is working in a PMO that has never gotten off the ground (it is a department that has only project managers working in it). “The new leadership in my company has committed to establishing a true PMO and integrating standards and controls to help deliver quality projects on time and within budget,” said Ms. Field. “The key success factor is having leadership with enough authority to influence the organizational change that must take place to implement a PMO.”

Craig Letavac, MSP, PMP, PgMP, of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, who has managed IT projects for 15 years, led a seminar at the 2012 PMO Symposium. During the seminar he suggested a “renewable charter” model that defines a clear scope for the PMO and set a review for 18 to 36 months. “The charter would be tied to some organizationally relevant value that the PMO would be expected to deliver and the PMO would work toward driving value against this charter,” Mr. Letavec said.

Then the PMO charter could be renewed, changed or potentially cancelled, if appropriate.

Definitive End Date
A charter with a definitive end date appeals to Jeff Siegman, a 10-year project and program management veteran from Connecticut, USA. “I have seen a PMO outlast its useful life and persist purely because no one considered an end to the life cycle,” he said. “Setting up a charter that has a renewal cycle would allow the major stakeholders a chance to review the process, its goals and progress [and] define new goals and changes, gaining buy-in from all stakeholders, some of whom might be new.”

Stephen E. Harris, of Trinidad and Tobago, who has been leading projects in several sectors for 15 years, agrees that a charter might help prevent PMO failures due to “unclear or inconsistent objectives and associated timelines, and changes in leadership focus.” He advises those involved with PMOs to track their successes, as “when budgets get lean, the PMO is often one of the first casualties, unless you can ‘validate’ your benefits.”

Take it Up as a Program
Prasad Kamath, PMI-ACP, PMP, PgMP, a 19-year IT project management veteran from Mumbai, India, has headed up program management offices and has consulted for organizations setting up PMOs. “One thing that I have seen missing is a sound understanding of what exactly a PMO is,” he says. He has rarely seen a charter for a PMO signed off by executive management.

“The implementation of a program or project management office must be taken up as a program,” said Mr. Kamath. “Just like any other program, it is essential to detail out the expected benefits and how they would be realized. This must be proactively reviewed at stage gates.”

A PMO can be a tool for executing organizational strategy, but our discussion participants believe it should be created with executive buy-in, clear documentation of purpose and a set date for formal review.

If you have further PMO insights, please add to the discussion on either the PMI Career Central Group or the PgMP Credentialed Networking Group.

Source: PMI