Challenges in Implementation of a Project Management Office (original) (raw)

Successful Implementation of Project Management Office in Industry

2016

This Project Management Office (PMO) is a rather young and unknown phenomenon within the industry. Its purpose, role and benefit remains questioned in many organizations. Regardless of that, PMO exists in many larger international organizations as the department that manages the largest projects and has the project overview of the entire organization. Why is this questionable entity implemented into organizations? What are the challenges of implementing PMO? And how can this entity overcome the factors that diminish it or completely shut it down? To begin with, an intensive theoretical research was performed in hope to find answers to these questions. Following that, a case study was performed and four international organizations were interviewed. This provided improved understanding of how PMO works in real life. By combining the data gathered it was possible to give views on the posed research questions from both theoretical and practical point of view. This provided a good demons...

KEY DETERMINANTS OF THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF A PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE

This paper seeks to establish the critical success factors when instituting a project management office (PMO) within an organization. The introduction section reviews the place of the PMO within the organization including PMOs functions and their benefits to the organization. It also delves into the challenges that PMOs face in the changing context of the organization, establishing the rationale for investigating the determinants of success. Examination is made of organizational context and PMO structural characteristics that are success factors for PMO performance. Two approaches emerge that management can adopt to create and sustain PMO value. In conclusion, it was found that management has within its control a set of design factors that can be used to influence the setup and operation of a PMO to stir success.

Identifying and overcoming the challenges of implementing a project management office

European Journal of Information Systems, 2009

With the ongoing challenge of successfully managing information technology (IT) projects, organizations are recognizing the need for greater project management discipline. For many organizations, this has meant ratcheting up project management skills, processes, and governance structures by implementing a project management office (PMO). While anecdotal evidence suggests that implementing a PMO can be quite difficult, few studies discuss the specific challenges involved, and how organizations can overcome them. To address this gap in existing knowledge, we conducted a Delphi study to (1) identify the challenges of implementing a PMO for managing IT projects, (2) rank these challenges in order of importance, (3) discover ways in which some organizations have overcome the top-ranked challenges, and (4) understand the role of PMO structure, metrics, and tools in the implementation of a PMO.We identified 34 unique challenges to implementing a PMO and refined this list to 13 challenges that our Delphi panelists considered most important. The top-three challenges were (1) rigid corporate culture and failure to manage organizational resistance to change, (2) lack of experienced project managers (PMs) and PMO leadership, and (3) lack of appropriate change management strategy. Through follow-up interviews with selected panelists, we identified a series of actions that can be taken to overcome these challenges including having a strong PMO champion, starting small and demonstrating the value of the PMO, obtaining support from opinion leaders, hiring an experienced program manager who understands the organization, bringing the most talented PMs into the PMO implementation team, adopting a flexible change management strategy, and standardizing processes prior to PMO implementation. The interviews were also used to better understand the role of PMO structure, metrics, and tools. In terms of PMO structure, we found that ‘light’ PMOs were more likely to be implemented successfully. Most organizations eschew formal metrics, instead relying on subjective indicators of PMO success. Lastly, it appears that PMO tools are difficult to implement unless a project management culture has been established.

A Framework to Establish a Project Management Office

This research presents a framework of the needed steps and process to establish a successful Project Management Office (PMO). This framework is driven by the different functions and roles that may be performed by a Project Management Office (PMO) as well as the type of PMO that would best serve organizations. Significant gains can be achieved by using the proposed framework. This framework is driven by the implementation of PMOs best practices that drives PMO success as well as the prevention of all pitfalls that lead to most PMOs failure.

REVIEWING APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

PMOs can help project managers by providing the structure needed to both standardize project management practices and facilitate construction project portfolio management, as well as determine methodologies for repeatable processes. The aim of this research is to Examining and analyzing the previous studies related to the types of the PMO, its (roles and functions) and Project Management (PM) to find potential areas for a deeper research. One of the most important results of this study are PMO adds value to an organization. Each organization, according to its mission and vision, chooses the different PMO type and assigns it different roles and responsibilities. Thus, now the PMO is considered as the focal point of project and PM related practices.

Implementation of a Project Management Office in a Public Sector Oranization

This paper proposes recommendations for improving the implementation of a Project Management Office (PMO) in a government organization. Such organizations can face uncertainties due to unpredicted and unexpected environmental events. The methodology used here was based on review of the literature, experience of the authors, and analysis of the process to be employed to create a PMO in the Department of Municipal Water and Sewage Systems (SEMAE), Brazil. This study aims to show how implementing a PMO can ensure proper management of strategic projects related to conservation of water resources. The PMO plays an important role in the implementation of strategic projects for public sanitation. This study also shows that the effectiveness of actions taken by the PMO is strongly influenced by how this process is implemented.

Project Management Office Models – a review

Organizations are facing competitive and globalized markets, as well as constant environmental changes that often require an organizational restructuring of the business models in order to boost performance. Project management practices can help to achieve strategic goals and increase value of projects in organizations. The Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational structure created in order to promote and improve project management practice, by adopting appropriate methodologies to achieve high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. In recent years several models and functions of PMO have been proposed by many authors, varying from the PMO with a sole function of reporting project execution, to the one who participates in the definition of organizational strategies. The main purpose of this article is to present a review of the typologies of PMO. Since the importance of PMO is increasing in organizations, the results of this work are useful to provide guidance to organizations on implementing or restructuring their own PMO.

Implementation of a Project Management Office (PMO)--experiences from year 1

Journal of healthcare information management : JHIM, 2006

Recognized as an early leader in clinical information systems, the University of Illinois Medical Center was challenged to meet the ever-increasing demand for information systems. Interviews with key stakeholders revealed unfavorable attitudes toward the Information Services department. Reasons given were that projects often are not aligned with business strategy, projects are delayed, IS itself is a barrier to progress, and a lack of proactive planning precipitates crises. Under the leadership of a new CIO, IS began developing a Project Management Office, or PMO, to better meet medical center business objectives and to more effectively manage technology projects. Successes during the first year included comprehensive IT strategic planning. Collaborative relationships were established with departmental leaders for planning, prioritizing, budgeting, and executing projects. A formal Web-based process for requesting IS projects was implemented, project management training was provided,...

Challenges in Establishing, Managing, and Operating a Project Management Office

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenging factors leading to the success or failure of the PMO establishment along with recommendation on how to address and overcome those challenges. Lack of a defined project management methodology, project resource contentions, not tracking resources utilization and project managers not being empowered to make needed decisions were found to be the top challenges in establishing a new Project Management Office.

Analysis of the Possibility for Establishing Project Management Office (Pmo) in Companies in Serbia

Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational unit established to help project managers, project teams and the various levels of management in carrying out the principles of project management. The research was carried out in Serbia, in 2011, with the aim to establish which methodologies and techniques are used for project management, and which of them are used the most frequently. Furthermore, the need for establishment of PMOs in Serbia is discussed. These offices should help in establishing a standardized methodology (at the organization level) and thus overcome the obvious poor use of any project management methodology at all.