Does a PMO Help Ensure Project Success?

As I write a related article on Making the Most of a Bad Situation, I note in that article that the percent of projects that fail vary depending on the studies you look at, but most put the number between 62% and 75%.  That is definitely a solid majority, which is disappointing, frustrating, but not entirely surprising.

So the question bears asking …. When an organization implements a Project Management Office, or PMO, does it automatically increase the likelihood of project success?  Some studies show that up to half of the organizations who have implemented a PMO feel that project success has increased as a result.  That also means that 50% or more feel that it has had little to no affect on project success rates.

So, let’s ask the question again – does implementing a project management office help ensure project success?  The quick answer is maybe, maybe not.  That, too, is frustrating considering the up front expense that goes into setting up a project management office.  Putting a PMO Director in place, staffing the office with PMs, creating a project management methodology – it all takes time and costs money.  If you’re creating a methodology from scratch or buying a customizable one off the shelf – either way it’s going to cost a few thousand dollars to put a methodology in place.

PMOs need to have several things in place in order to be effective, long lasting and an asset to the organization.  Otherwise, you’re likely to see it created, dismantled, and created again resulting in even more expenses.  These things that need to be in place include:

• Good leadership at the top
• Experienced PMs on staff
• Repeatable processes and good templates in place
• Executive leadership backing and buy-in

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May 2010 Survey Results: Equipping the Project Manager

The results are in for the May PM survey on equipping the project manager.  The response rate was very good – many thanks to our readers who responded because without you there would be no survey and no fun follow-up analysis.

In terms of surprises, in my opinion there were four key surprises that I will describe in my run down of the results below…

Formal PM Methodology

Here’s the first surprise: only 53% of the survey responders indicated that their organization followed a specific project life cycle or project management methodology.  That means that 47% are basically ‘winging it.’  While that’s ok on occasion, it’s very difficult to realize long term organizational and project success without some sort of consistent, repeatable process in place.  Nearly half of our survey responders don’t have that and that’s concerning.

PM Software

No big surprise here … 58% use Microsoft Project as their primary tool for managing projects.  What was surprising is that a full 26% are not given any specific tool to use when managing projects.  Back to the ‘winging it’ concept… not good.  11% indicated that they utilized a web-based PM tool and 5% indicated that they use some desktop tool other than MS Project to schedule and manage projects.

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April Survey – PMO Effectiveness

In making this unofficially PMO month for many of my articles, at least, here on PM Tips, this month’s survey concerns PMO effectiveness.

The survey is available here, but please read on for more information prior to taking the survey.

Unlike past surveys where everyone was encouraged to respond, I would like to hear only from those of you who are either currently involved in a PMO (managing one or in a PM or other role within one), or have been in the past.  And, if you’ve been involved with more than one PMO, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take the time to complete the survey once for each PMO that you’ve been involved with.  For example, I’ll take the survey three times because I’ve worked with PMOs in three separate organizations.

Again, it’s fairly brief as in past months – just five questions because I STILL have not upgraded my website to allow for more questions.  But I also don’t want to bore you to the point of not participating or make the act of gathering the data for me too cumbersome.

Here are the basic questions so that you can be thinking of them before you head over to take the survey at my site…

• If you had to choose, would you say the PMO Director or leader was more of a Director or Project Manager? What was that person’s primary function, in your opinion?
• Were consistent, repeatable processes and procedures in place to help you manage projects and effectively do your job?
• Concerning available training, please indicate which of the following is/was true? (followed by a list to choose from)
• In terms of PMO visibility with your company’s executive leadership (beyond the PMO director)… (another list to choose from)
• In general, do you feel that your PMO was effective?

Now, to take the survey, please go here…  April PMO Effectiveness Survey

Thanks in advance for participating.  If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here or email me at Brad.Egeland@pmtips.net.

Project Communication Series: Meaningful Meetings

On projects, meetings are usually one of the three primary methods of communication.  The other two are emails and phone calls.  Given that, conducting high-quality and efficient meetings is important not only to continued project success but also to team member productivity.  No one likes to waste time – and often on highly visible, mission-critical projects the project manager can ill afford to waste anyone’s time, let alone their own.

Gary Heerkens book entitled “Project Management” covers the concept of high-quality, effective meeting communications.  Though I don’t fully agree with all of it – specifically when he discusses how you should not have a meeting if you have nothing new to discuss, because I think it’s critical to stay on schedule and at least have a brief weekly status meeting with the team and customer even if there’s little to discuss – I still think the text is interesting and worth noting here.  Please read on for Mr. Heerken’s views on this topic…

Conducting productive meetings

Meetings can be a very effective way to conduct business. They bring people together for a relatively short amount of time so that large amounts of information can be shared. As mentioned several times previously, you should conduct core team meetings regularly to promote a steady flow of information to and from team members. But you’ll find that there are many other times when you may need to call for a meeting. Meetings are a critical form of communication.

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March Survey – Remote Project Management

If you’ve been reading my articles for any length of time you’ll know that I’m somewhat passionate about remote project management and green or sustainable project management practices.  And I believe that one supports the other.

For my March survey – or at least March survey #1 (there may be more) – I’d like to get an indication on where our readership stands on remote project management.  How many of you out there are independent or involved in an organization that supports the management of projects in a primarily remote situation.

And for those of you who are, or have been, involved in the remote management of projects, I’d like to hear what you liked best or least about them.  The capabilities of my website right now still limit my surveying options, but I’ve put up what I think are common pluses and minuses with remote or virtual project management in a team environment.

Please take the survey – it’s completely anonymous and it’s brief … only five questions.  But I think the results could be very interesting.  I’ll close this survey down in 10-15 days and then do a follow-up article on PM Tips analyzing the results.

Please go to this address to complete the survey…

http://www.bradegeland.com/march-survey.html

If any of you survey takers have feedback or something you’d like to add after taking the survey, please feel free to comment on this article or email me at Brad.Egeland@pmtips.net.

Thank you in advance for taking this survey.  Your participation is greatly appreciated by me and everyone at PM Tips and Seavus – the creators of Project Planner and Project Viewer.