Archive for September, 2010

In my previous posting we looked at the why and the what of the PMO.  In this section I will focus on how a PMO comes into being and why sometimes it seems to come up against barriers to its effectiveness.  A newly-created PMO will typically be closely monitored from within the business.  Supportive senior...
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Have you ever wondered how a Project Management Office (PMO) comes into being?  Perhaps you thought that it simply springs into being fully formed and functioning?  Sometimes it might seem so to those who aren’t actively engaged in its creation or who are remote from the business area in which it finds its genesis. ...
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I was, for once, not in my car. Yes a bit of a shocker I know but I was attempting to be a little bit ‘green’ and I hadn’t been on the city’s ‘Park and Ride’ service for some time. So last Saturday there I was waiting with the family, at the car park outside...
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OK, what’s your take on this whole idea of one size fitting all? Is it realistic that one set of Project Management procedures are appropriate for ALL projects? Let’s not even take this at a global level, let’s just say within the same organisation or even within the same department. Is it realistic? Let’s consider...
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In my previous posting I was examining my own understanding of PMO “Value for money” after being challenged by a delegate on one of my training courses.  I set about drafting a basic PMO services menu that I thought that I could review with my customers to determine whether the dishes were appetising and...
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One of my training classes had ended for the day and the room was emptying.  I sensed that, given the level of debate throughout the day about PMO services, that some of the delegates were wanting to talk further about their organisation’s PMOs. Jane started, “Would you pay for a bad meal and poor service...
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Unless a PMO can stay one step ahead of the PM organisation it supports, its value and usefulness will eventually be called into question. How does your PMO stay “one step ahead?”
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1.    Background For quite a number of years, organisations have seen a need to prove their “excellence” in an objective way to their current and potential clients. This has led to a proliferation of standards, such as TQM, Six Sigma and, of course, the focus on the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for high-tech companies....
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1. Introduction I know that the previous entry said that we had reached the end of the set of articles. However, that is no reason to stop! There is always more to learn or understand. This document provides a recipe for implementing the Earned Benefit approach explained previously. 2. Cooking steps – from a to z 1 First, definition and planning...
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