July 9, 2009

Conclusive Proof That a Centralized PMO Is Good for Your Health

Posted by Arjun Thomas

Another great article I came across at IT Business Edge that should make for some interesting reading.

They know who they are, but they probably prefer to remain anonymous. They’re the dispossessed organizations still out there relying on fragmented and siloed project management processes, like spreadsheets or other home-grown systems. You have to feel sorry for them: struggling to juggle multiple systems to track costs, trying to align IT spend with business priorities ? when they can’t tell what the costs are and what the business priorities need to be. They might not want to publicize their misdeeds, but they know they have problems, because their unhinged IT financials and internal customer dissatisfaction tell them so.

Their IT projects are more likely to fail too. Research by the Standish Group tells us that 24 percent of all projects still fail and 55 percent are somehow ‘challenged’ because of a lack of visibility into long-term project needs. Without proper visibility, organizations are unable to see what is needed six months, three months or even two months down the road, which results in poorly constructed project plans that do not capture critical dependencies, including assigning key project resources and key milestones.

One day these organizations will see the light. There will come a time what they climb out of the darkened hole they’ve buried themselves in and wake up to the fact that a centralized Project Management Office (PMO) can make a world of difference to the delivery of projects for their organization and their business performance.

Many companies have begun the journey already. They’ve adopted a PMO to help define and maintain the standards of process ? generally related to project management ? within the organization. Their PMO is striving to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. It is also the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of project management and execution.

But it is that word “centralized” that makes all the difference. A recent independent survey commissioned by CA in 14 countries, with data from 249 respondents, indicates that the centralized approach is key to the successful implementation of process improvements. It also ensures development teams finish projects on time and on budget through the use of established best practices.

Read the entire article here..

Share this post: