Project Management Office Concept

As companies begin to recognize the favorable effect that project management has on profitability, emphasis is placed upon achieving professionalism in project management using the project office concept. The concept of a project office (PO) or project management office (PMO) could very well be the most important project management activity in this decade. With this recognition of importance comes strategic planning for both project management and the project office. Maturity and excellence in project management does not occur simply by using project management over a prolonged period of time. Rather, it comes through strategic planning for both project management and the project office. General strategic planning involves the determination of where you wish to be in the future and then how you plan to get there. For project office strategic planning, it is often easier to decide which activities should be under the control of the project office than determining how or when to do it. For each activity placed under the auspices of the project office, there may appear pockets of resistance that initially view removing this activity from their functional area as a threat to their power and authority. As we entered the twenty-first century, the project office became commonplace in the corporate hierarchy. Although the majority of activities assigned to the project office had not changed, there was now a new mission for the project office: The project office now has the responsibility for maintaining all intellectual property related to project management and to actively support corporate strategic planning

The project office was now servicing the corporation, especially the strategic planning activities, rather than focusing on a specific customer. The project office was transformed into a corporate center for control of project management intellectual property. This was a necessity as the magnitude of project management information grew almost exponentially throughout the organization. Senior managers were now recognizing that project management and the project office had become an invaluable asset for senior management as well as for the working levels. As an example, consider the following comments from some senior management: Through project management, we learned the value of defining specific projects and empowering teams to make them happen. Weve embraced the program management philosophy and now we can use it again and again and again to reach our goals. Retired President and Chief Operating Officer The program management office provides the structure and discipline to complete the work that needs to get done. From launch to completion, each project has a roadmap for meeting the objectives that were set. President and Chief Operating Officer Through project management, weve learned how to make fact-based decisions. Too often in the past we based our decisions on what we thought could happen or what we hoped would happen. Now we can look at the facts, interpret the facts honestly and make sound decisions and set realistic goals based on this information. Chief Executive Officer

During the past 10 years, the benefits for the executive levels of management of using a project office have become apparent. They include: Standardization of operations Company rather than silo decision-making Better capacity planning (i.e., resource allocations) Quicker access to higher-quality information Elimination or reduction of company silos More efficient and effective operations Less need for restructuring Fewer meetings which rob executives of valuable time More realistic prioritization of work Development of future general managers

All of the benefits above are related to project management intellectual property either directly or indirectly. To maintain the project management intellectual property, the project office must maintain the vehicles for capturing the data and then disseminating the data to the various stakeholders. These vehicles include the company project management intranet, project Web sites, project databases, and project management information systems. Since much of this information is necessary for both project management and corporate strategic planning, there must exist strategic planning for the project office.