AtekPC

1.       What is the purpose and mission of a PMO?  The mission statement defines achievable and measurable objectives and identifies the responsibilities, and hence services, of the PMO.

The immediate goal of the PMO was to establish the office and to prove its value. The general consensus was that the purpose of the PMO was to realize the benefits derived from consistent project practices. The benefits were expressed in a variety of terms ranging from IT improvements in project performance, efficiency, and resource utilization to enterprise improvements in cost management and corporate capability to launch products.  The responsibilities were not so clear and it was limited to IT projects. The PMO were divided into two categories: project-focused and enterprise-oriented.

2.       What are the main challenges and obstacles in implementing a PMO?  The governance model establishes the domain of control, its organizational level of accountability, and its authority.

AtekPC is an organization that was unaccustomed to consistent, disciplined processes, and standardization. Also implementing a PMO in a non-PMO environment went against the grain of the culture and many felt it was just administrative overhead.  Also, many people in the organization were against moving towards changing their process as they enjoyed their formal-free work environment and that is what attracted people to their jobs. Another issue was the lack of understanding at all levels about the value of formal project management.

3.       What structural and governance mechanisms are critical to effective PMO implementation?  The structural model determines its degree of centralization, staff allocations, and level of direct project management.

For effective PMO implementation AtekPC needed a way to measure success. Currently AtekPC went off of subjective opinions of those involved to measure success. Those involved viewed the current governance model as only temporary and AtekPC needed to have the Planning Office, IT,  and the PMO to have close interaction with each other.

4.       How much PM is enough PM?  How much PMO support is enough PMO support?  The cultural impact of the PMO on the organization is assessed by the receptivity to PM and the amount of organizational flux.

AtekPC needs to find the right mix of project management in order to move forward. It appears that the organization has a large amount of associates who are resistant to change and also there appears to be a disconnect in between departments. The organization is trying to navigate through some interesting industry changes and they need to make sure they protect themselves through these difficult times. The opinions of the staff seemed to be mixed with them leaning towards disapproving the implementation of the PMO because of more administrative overhead. AtekPC needs to find a way to provide measurable success to its associates and also be able to explain to them why change is necessary and to implement this change. In order to prevent such overbearing administration, the company should provide 1 project manager for each group so that they can report directly to them and it does not create the sense of overbearing administration.