Cover to Cover

The Power of Enterprise PMOs and Enterprise-Wide

Project Management
by Dennis L. Bolles and Darrel G. Hubbard

T
he Power of Enterprise PMOs and the EPMO the authors’ promote strives hard
Enterprise-Wide Project Management to be aligned with standard corporate busi-
(PEPEPM) is a re-issue of Dennis L. ness functions, from finance to operations
Bolles and Darrel G. Hubbard’s well- to marketing to HR. It does so both at the
regarded 2007 book, The Power of Enterprise- strategic level, where project efforts need
Wide Project Management. While the basic to reflect the enterprise’s strategic goals, as
text in the 2014 work is fundamentally well as at the operational level, where proj-
the same as in the original work, the new ects draw upon enterprise resources as well
edition includes a new Preface that revisits as contribute to the strengthening of the
the state of project management offices organization’s business capabilities.
today, and adds two new appendices at the PEPEPM is a prescriptive “how-to” book
end of the book. The book’s message and that lays out the steps that large organizations
tips are as useful today as they were in 2007. should follow to establish enterprise-wide
PEPEPM is directed at large organiza- project management policies and practices.
tions that have committed themselves to It is filled with bulleted checklists of things
fully employing project management prac- that should be taken into account when
PBMconcepts, 2014, ISBN:
tices in their operations and the desire to 9780985848415, paperback, 344 pp., implementing mature project management
develop an organizational infrastructure $33.20 Member, $34.95 Nonmember. practices in organizations. It contains page
that uses their project management capa- after page of tables that show how to imple-
bilities effectively. The solution it offers is ment enterprise-wide project management,
enterprise-wide project management carried out by means of built around the Project Management Institute’s five project
an enterprise project management office (EPMO). A goal of management Process Groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing,
the EPMO is to tie together and support the assorted project Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing. Managers charged
management efforts carried out throughout the organiza- with implementing good project management practice in large
tion, from small initiatives at the department level to major organizations should study this book carefully. Its prescription
programs encompassing a large portion of the enterprise’s is realistic and accurately reflects conditions faced by large,
operations. bureaucratic business enterprises. Even if they do not adopt
Because the focus is on large enterprises, Bolles and Hub- the full-blown EPMO outlined in the book, they will surely
bard propose a model that employs multiple levels of project borrow segments laid out in the book’s five sections that deal
offices; at the pinnacle stands the EPMO, which oversees all comprehensively with governance, standardization, capability,
project management policies within the organization. At the planning and execution, and sustainability and maturation.
next level, there is the Divisional Project Management Office Does this book provide useful insights for smaller organiza-
(DPMO), which focuses on project management efforts at the tions? Certainly, someone running a classic PMO in a smaller
divisional level. Next there is the Business Unit Project Man- organization can pick up interesting insights on such topics as
agement Office (BUPMO) and then the basic Project Manage- project management competence, training, and employment of
ment Office (PMO) that addresses the actual execution of real the WBS to guide project efforts, but the book is clearly geared
projects. toward running projects in large enterprises. Its chief value is
The authors emphasize that their approach is fundamen- in the insights it offers on managing the complexity inherent in
tally geared toward meeting the business needs of enterprises. large, bureaucratic organizations, where business goals identi-
When organizations commit themselves to pursuing project fied at the top need somehow to be realized by the people work-
management as a basic corporate competency, they do so with ing on projects several levels down the hierarchy. It offers a good
the view of improving business performance. They want proj- roadmap that helps negotiate the twists and turns of complex
ect management to strengthen the bottom line. Consequently, projects in complex organizations.

Project Management Journal, Vol. 46, No. 5, e4

© 2015 by the Project Management Institute
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)
Reviewed by J. Davidson Frame, PhD, PMP, PMI Fellow, Academic
DOI: 10.1002/pmj.21529 Dean, University of Management and Technology, Arlington, VA, USA.

e4 October/November 2015 ■ Project Management Journal ■ DOI: 10.1002/pmj